May Peace Grace Us

Chapter 39: Mutant Snake

Judith quickly took a liking to the child and decided to adopt him to the family. Holding the child in her arms invokes the longing she has deep within her heart. For so long she had wanted to add another child to their family.

However, her womb simply cannot regenerate another child after Aila. For so long, she has longingly looked at other families with large numbers with them. Thus, she easily takes on the child's presence in her life.

Aila had no opinion on her mother adopting the child should she want to. As far as she could understand the child’s situation, he is more or less an orphan, regardless if he was intentionally left on the bus by his parents to save themselves or if his parents had turned into a zombie some time when he was on that bus where she found him. Without some protection, the child cannot live for long, so being taken in by his parents is the best ending for him.

Though she cannot say she will allow every other child they found to be taken in by her mother next time around. She’s no fool to allow others to take advantage of her mother’s traits. Perhaps at this time, her mother is simply a good Samaritan and a godsend, but later on she will become a fat sheep waiting to be slaughtered if no one can protect her.

It is said that vulnerable groups have always been a good capital for stepping into others. In the still peaceful world, the beggars, the abused and even the ethnic groups were often used by syndicates for crimes. At first, they might not be aware of being used, but sooner or later, they will more or less resign to their fate when awareness comes to them. And what awaits them is only despair if they do not begin imitating the one who exploits them. Thus creating a never ending cycle of darkness for those who fell in this pit.

And this situation is further magnified in the chaotic time.

Apocalypse never showed the good in people. Aila learned the hard way not to ever show kindness in the forsaken time the world has become. Especially for the weak and the helpless minority, they then are the most dangerous bunch to deal with, rather than those with real lethal abilities.

She had once helped a helpless young woman, but the woman had the intention of selling her to a gang for some benefit. For survival, people will be more than willing to do evil and step on other's bones in order to live another day. It was at that time she learned to kill her fellow men. Killing the men until their body is wasted and eaten by zombies after she is done, and the woman who wanted to harm her also did not escape her wrath.

Aila ruined her face and crippled her legs before she left her in a building. For longer torment for the woman, she left her some food and water to survive. After that, Aila did not think of what she would become, for all she knew, that woman was already dead the moment she had awakened the demon in her.

Aila did not want her mother to go through that pain. She knows the effects will come first hand and she does not want her to transform into the terrible monster she has become. A person who can no longer genuinely care for others outside those she cares about.

Her father perhaps understood her concerns and gave Aila a look. He said nothing, but, as his daughter, she knew he was telling her to not carelessly take someone to his wife. For someone who has been determined to shelter his other half from most of the darkness, he does not like making openings that will hurt his wife in the long run.

After that, they continued their journey until they reached a particularly spacious area. There is no human settlement nearby and there is nothing particularly eye-catching that can attract others to their location. So they parked their car in a not-easy to see location to call it a day.

Aila left a sign on the side of the highway that only her friends could understand. This way, they will know they are in the area and they only need to search in the vicinity for them if they are near. Should they leave and her friends be unable to catch up with them, Aila would leave another sign to indicate that they were in this place for a while.

Although there is indeed no human settlement nearby, it is inevitable that there are some people who settled here for the same reason they did. Fortunately, the people they met were no longer quite humans, cleaning up the area was easier in this case. Her father’s fire ability was so handy that they didn't need to worry about using their spare gas to ignite the bodies.

Her mother was immersed in the role of taking care of the toddler. She did not go out much of the RV in consideration of the child. A fact that her father is grateful as he does not like to stain his wife’s hand with messy matters at the moment. He might accompany her in the future to kill the undead, but at the moment he wants her to let her be for now.

Aila set up the generator and connected it to the RV. Today was another cloudy day and the solar panels cannot provide much energy to their reserves. So she has to remove them temporarily and set up the generator to fill up their electrical reserves. They have no idea of how long they can stay here, but she knows it will be enough to fill up the shortage.

Aila went to the woods to gather up some firewood for tonight. She wanted to stay out for the night and so she wanted a heat source as she took over the nightwatch duties.

Taking her trusty knife, Aila went and saw some animals that had greatly changed since the day the world ceased to be kind. They are much bigger in size now. The common squirrel that is often on the side is now almost bigger than an adult fat cat. It was a good thing that most of these creatures are relatively harmless and not too hostile to huumans, so Aila did not have any problem when she encountered them.

But the tricky thing she encountered was that she actually bumped into a snake on the way back. From what her eyes could see, it was a relatively young snake before the apocalypse came. It is longer and a little thicker than an average adult python. Aila was sure this snake was a poisonous variety when she saw the liquid that dripped from its fangs when it bit on a squirrel.

Aila did not hide nor did she run when she saw the snake, she only watched the process of it eating its prey effortlessly. Mildly fascinated with the grace the reptile has in the whole thing. She observed all its actions in a very straightforward way.

The reptile sensed her existence right there and then. It turned and raised its body higher to intimidate her. Eyes watching her every move as its forked tongue slid in and out of its mouth. From what Aila could interfere with its behaviour, it judged her as sufficient additional food to make it fully full.

Unimpressed with the snake’s display, Aila set down her gathered wood and took out her trusty knife in her hand. Her eyes are cold and she is seeing the reptile as a dead thing, not too amused being a target just by watching it eat its prey. Though she knew that watching others eating was not very polite, Aila just liked seeing reptiles swallowing their prey whole, unlike other creatures she knew of.

Feeling threatened by Aila, the snake opened its mouth to bite Aila. Anticipating the attack, Aila easily dodged the bite and stabbed the beast by the back of its scaly back. Her knife bounced at the impact of her attack, showing the extraordinary thickness and durability of the snake’s skin.

“I thought that only the later period of reptile species had tough skins,” Aila lightly said as she inspected her knife.Thanking that it did not bend into unusable thing. “Turns out this was something they had gained first in their evolution.”

Aila then readied her stance and aimed at the snake's eyes just because she always found this part as easy to access. Every time the snake pounced on her, she aimed at the eyes accurately. Making the reptile mad and hurt at every attack it does.

The snake was mad enough to have its venom drip on its tongue and randomly bite wherever it sensed Aila was. And whenever it does so, the girl slowly but surely attacks its softer belly after she has blinded it, inflicting wounds on the reptile. Red blood was spilling everywhere as death finally came to claim its life.

“It is always better to fight with large reptiles like crocodiles than to fight with snakes.” Aila complained as she saw how soaked her clothing was. “Even after they die they can still continue attacking for an hour more without any breath.”

Feeling disgusted with herself, Aila left the woods with her gathered firewood. She asked for her parents to allow her to take a bath first before they grill her. The blood that was splashed on her does not feel good on the skin. Her parents saw she really needed to clear the stink of iron from her body, thus allowing her a bath before they got to interrogate her.

Judith took this as a chance to appease the scared child when he saw the bloodied appearance of Aila. Young as he is, the child can associate blood with pain from what his young cognitive ability can recognize. Aila was the closest person he could recognize in this place by the virtue of being the one to have saved him. And fear is fermenting in the depths of him as the closest person to himself is drenched in red.

Aila could hear the child’s wails as she took her time to clean herself. She hastened her bath to let the child see that she was okay. His cries can attract all sorts of trouble should he not stop them. Although confident of her ability to deal with whatever mutant animals that may come to them, she is after all just one person. She cannot take care of a large number of enemies, no matter how strong she is.

Although her father is a good addition to the force, her father is ultimately not used to fighting these kinds of enemies. Aila plans to have him get used to fighting zombies and mutant animals slowly, and a huge number of them is not within her plans.

Finishing her bath, Aila wrapped her bloodied clothes in plastic to hide the scent of the snake and of its blood. To certain creatures, this is the greatest charm to ward off bad things, but it is also attractive to some. Aila wanted to use this when such a situation arose. So she is taking great care in storing them.

Done with her business, she went out of the RV and took the child in her mother’s arms to calm him down.