A fair-skinned, rosy-cheeked little boy was lying at the head of the bed, watching her with a worried face. But his movements were careful, as if he were afraid of his own mother.
It was five-year-old Leo Lawrence.
'Am I back?'
'Am I really back?'
She grabbed her phone to check the time. That's right—it was exactly one month before the apocalypse. She was back. She was alive and well. Leo was alive too. Her precious son!
"Mommy, have some water."
His voice was timid as he cautiously offered her his special little sippy cup. He was so little that the cup trembled in his hands, spilling a few drops. Leo immediately froze, looking at her nervously.
"Leo!"
Sue Lawrence choked back a sob, sitting up and pulling her son into a tight hug.
He was warm and soft, a tiny little bundle in her arms, with that special, clean scent unique to children. She drank in his smell, her heart gradually filling with warmth.
The little boy in her arms was stunned for a moment before happily wrapping his arms around her neck. He patted her shoulder gently, comforting her. "Mommy, don't cry. Leo will always be here with you."
Sue Lawrence broke down and sobbed.
She didn't know what the last sound she'd heard had been, but as long as her son was alive, nothing else mattered.
Whether this was a mutation, a dream, or some zombie evolving a Spiritual System Superpower to control her mind—it didn't matter.
As long as Leo was still alive.
'I know I wasn't a good mother.'
Leo's arrival had been a complete accident, forcing her to drop out of college. Her parents had been deeply disappointed, and her older brother was so angry he hadn't spoken to her for years. Only her sister-in-law tried to smooth things over. Whenever she was in a bad mood, Leo would become timid, carefully watching her expression.
She had gone out to a bar with Tiana Lynch and a few others. She'd had too much to drink that night and later discovered she was pregnant. She had wanted to get an abortion, but it was Tiana who persuaded her not to, saying it would be too damaging to her body and insisting she keep the baby...
'Wait... Tiana Lynch?'
When you trust someone, you don't question anything. But once that trust shatters, everything about them seems suspicious.
'Heh. So that's how it was.' The Tiana Lynch she had always looked out for was the one who had screwed her over the most.
"Mommy..."
Leo blinked his big eyes. Sue lowered her head and planted a big kiss on his cheek. She could feel his mixture of shock and delight, his eyes sparkling as he stared at her.
"Leo, Mommy hasn't been the best in the past. From now on, I promise I'll always be happy for you, okay?"
It was only after the apocalypse began, when the two of them had to rely on each other to survive, that she truly realized how much her son meant to her.
He was just a child. There was so much he couldn't do, and others called him the biggest burden. But when you're plunged into an abyss of despair and loneliness, having someone who loves you with all their heart, who looks at you with absolute trust, and for whom you are their only anchor in the world... Leo was the sole reason she hadn't gone insane, hadn't killed herself, the only thing that gave her the strength to keep living.
"Okay!" Leo was visibly thrilled. Children are always so easy to please. He carefully lifted the cup to her lips. "Mommy, have some water."
Sue took a few sips of water, composing herself. With one arm still around her son, she began to inspect her body.
'It's fine. This is definitely my twenty-five-year-old body.'
Ever since she'd acquired her Superpower, an interface had appeared in her mind. This interface recorded all the details about her Superpower. Sue opened it.
Superpower: [Taker]
Skill 1, What's Yours Is Mine: You will acquire all the Abilities of any being you personally kill.
Skill 2, And I'll Take That Too: You have a chance to strip a portion of another being's Abilities. The probability depends on their strength and moral alignment.
Skill 3, I can do whatever I want with my things: You can freely distribute the Abilities you have taken. The more a person means to you, the higher the chance they will successfully acquire the Superpower.
Aside from this initial Superpower, all the other Superpowers she had taken were gone.
The Space Ability, the Safe House, the A Level sense of smell—she had acquired all of them through this Superpower. That was why she, Jason Sterling, and the others had never run short on supplies. It was how they could so easily find a Safe House to hide from zombies. It was how they had managed to survive until the end.
She could never tell anyone about her Taker Superpower. In return, she was labeled a burden, incompetent, and worthless. Those people even got Leo killed.
'Since I get a do-over, this time I'm choosing my family. As for those ungrateful bastards, they can all go to hell.'
She got up and rummaged through the closet for some of Leo's clothes, picked out an outfit, and helped him change.
"Come on, we're going to Grandpa and Grandma's."
Leo visibly flinched and lowered his head. "But Mommy, Grandpa and Uncle don't like me."
Sue, who was changing her own clothes, paused for a moment. Then, as if she'd made a firm decision, she said, "If they don't like you, then Mommy doesn't want them anymore, either!"
This was something that had to be resolved. She was the one who had been manipulated. The person her parents should hate wasn't her or Leo—it was Tiana Lynch.
Her family had been at odds with her for years over Leo's existence, so she hadn't been back home. When the apocalypse hit, going back became impossible. By the time she finally had a chance to return, all she found were crumbling walls buried in rubble. Her family was gone. She only managed to piece together what happened later: on the day the extreme cold hit, her father had left to bring her warm supplies. He was targeted by others and never came back. Their home was robbed, her brother was gravely injured, and her sister-in-law lost her life along with her unborn child. Her mother tried to care for her brother alone, but neither of them survived the punishing cold.
It was then that Sue knew that despite his harsh rebukes, her father had always loved her.
"Mommy!" Leo stared at her in astonishment, his big eyes wide as saucers.
"Let's go!"
She took her son's small hand, and they walked down the stairs one step at a time.
In the north, the end of October was already quite cold. She wore a turtleneck sweater under a wool coat, and you could see your breath when you spoke. Who could have possibly imagined that in just one month, an extreme cold would sweep across the globe, with temperatures plummeting below minus 100 degrees Celsius?
"SOB SOB... Snowy, Snowy..."
By the greenbelt along the road, some people were holding a funeral for a beloved pet. Sue glanced over. A crowd was gathered around a small, snow-white cat that was struggling to breathe. Its owner, a little girl of about eight or nine, was crying so hard her face was bright red.
"Mommy, can we please go back to the vet?"
The girl's mother, her own eyes red-rimmed, shook her head. "We already went, sweetie. He's old. The doctor can't save him."
The little girl cried even harder, and Snowy's breathing grew faint.
Sue thought for a moment, then walked over. She pulled a small bag of dried fish from her pocket—one of her son's snacks—and gently placed it in front of Snowy before stroking its fur.
She felt the life drain away from beneath her fingertips. The breathing stopped, and the small body began to grow cold.
[Skill Activated: And I'll Take That Too. Acquired: [Cat's Hearing (70%)]!]