'Why is it twenty minutes *again*?'
Song Kexin was getting sick of hearing about "twenty minutes," but before she could protest, Xie Ning had already grabbed her mother and was running toward the gas station.
"Mom, stay with me. If we see a rotting corpse, I'm not making a move this time. I'll show you what to do." Xie Ning turned to glance at Song You'ai, her expression grave.
"It's not that I won't help you, Mom. It's that everyone has to learn how to handle these rotting corpses to increase their chances of survival."
'Otherwise, what would Mom do if we got separated, or if some little accident happened? She doesn't know how to save herself.'
"I... I understand." Song You'ai's hand, gripping a long-handled cleaver, trembled slightly. "Mom will learn."
The pair ran into the gas station and froze.
A heavyset woman in a staff uniform was pinned against a pillar by a van, its front completely caved in.
The woman's eyes, with their gray-white pupils, were rolled back in her head, and guttural roars escaped her throat.
When she saw Xie Ning and her mother run in, her eyes filled with an unmistakable hunger.
Song You'ai's hand, gripping the cleaver, was slick with cold sweat. She stammered, "Mom… Mom will go… and chop her."
'I'm her mother! How can I let my daughter be on the front lines for everything? I'm scared, but I have to go, even if I'm terrified!'
Xie Ning walked forward with Song You'ai, coaching her on the swiftest and most effective place to strike.
"Mom, don't be afraid. Aim for the back of her head. Keep your head tilted a little, farther away… yes, just like that. Blood is going to gush out, so prepare yourself."
No matter how much Song You'ai braced herself, she couldn't stop herself from gagging when the cleaver struck and dark blood sprayed out.
The heavyset woman howled, her face a mask of savagery. Song You'ai's strike had failed to destroy the rotting corpse's central nervous system. The corpse was still moving, struggling as if trying to wriggle free from the wreckage.
Xie Ning broke out in a cold sweat, forcing herself to stay back and not interfere.
Song You'ai's hands shook uncontrollably. Squeezing her eyes shut, she steeled herself and brought the cleaver down again and again in a wild, frantic flurry, tears streaming down her face the entire time.
Once the corpse collapsed to the ground, Song You'ai spun around and began to retch violently.
Xie Ning patted her back and handed her a tissue.
With trembling lips and a choked voice, Song You'ai asked, "I-I'm sorry. Is… is Mom just too useless?"
'When I watched my daughter kill those things before, she could cut down the most disgusting rotting corpses without batting an eye.'
'So how can I be so useless when it's my turn?'
"It's different, Mom." Xie Ning said, hugging her mother's soft, plump frame.
'I've been surviving the apocalypse for so long. Our situations aren't even comparable.'
'When the apocalypse first started for me, I wasn't even as brave as Mom is being right now.'
"You'll get used to it. It just takes time." Xie Ning pulled out a towel and began to wipe the blood and filth from her mother's hands.
Song You'ai suddenly asked, "Is it a problem if this blood gets on you?"
"It's fine. The virus in these rotting corpses is concentrated in their mouths and under their fingernails. As long as you don't get scratched or bitten, you'll be fine."
Song You'ai nodded, then suddenly gave her daughter a strange look. "Honey, how do you know all this in such detail?"
'The emergency broadcast from the government didn't mention any of that.'
Xie Ning froze for a second, then quickly changed the subject. "Mom, I just checked and the pumps are dry. Let's go look for the storage tanks out back."
Still in a daze, Song You'ai nodded. 'My daughter is way too efficient,' she thought.
Finding the underground filling port, quickly prying it open with a tool, then pulling out a manual pump and starting to siphon the fuel—it was all one smooth, seamless motion.