Reborn with a Space: Hoarding Food and Raising My Kid

Flora Bloom was already on guard, a water shield materializing in front of her. The room was cramped, leaving no space for the zombie babies to use their speed. With one swing of her axe, she finished off the one flying toward her. Soon after, Neal Wallace incinerated the other one with fire.

Flora Bloom fed the diluted spiritual water from her hand to the doctor and nurse, who were so starved they could barely move. Then, Neal Wallace gave the two of them cookies and chocolate from his backpack, telling them to stay put and eat to regain their strength.

Flora Bloom, meanwhile, approached the two pregnant women. She gripped her axe tightly, as if silently waiting for something.

The two pregnant women had the same ashen complexions. They were skeletally thin, their half-lidded eyes devoid of life, and they couldn’t even speak.

Just then, one of the pregnant women’s stomachs suddenly began to bulge, as if a huge head were pushing against the skin from inside. The other woman, whose belly was slightly smaller, showed no movement at all.

Finally, the life faded from the eyes of the woman whose belly had been churning for some time. At the same moment, the movement stopped. The next second, her stomach burst open, and a zombie baby flew out, its bestial mouth snapping as it lunged straight for Flora Bloom’s face.

Without hesitation, Flora Bloom landed a precise and fatal blow with her axe.

Then, Flora Bloom’s gaze fell upon the other pregnant woman’s belly, watching it like a hawk.

"Don’t... don’t... kill... me."

Flora Bloom thought she had misheard. But the pregnant woman before her was indeed looking at her with tear-filled eyes, which were full of pleading and a desperate will to live.

"You’re not dead? You can still talk?"

Flora Bloom cautiously gave her a little of the diluted spiritual water. The pregnant woman, faced with the water source, struggled to work her throat and swallow. After drinking a whole bottle, her complexion actually improved.

But Flora Bloom was still uneasy. She stood beside the pregnant woman, watching her for a long time.

"Mr. Wallace, come take a look."

Neal Wallace found a stethoscope in a nearby drawer and placed it on the pregnant woman’s belly, listening intently.

"It’s a little weak, but the fetal heartbeat is intact. It’s normal."

"Whew!" Flora Bloom breathed a sigh of relief and handed the pregnant woman some food. "Zombies don’t have heartbeats. A fetal heartbeat means the baby in her womb is still a normal human."

"How on earth did you survive for over a month in this apocalypse?"

The doctor and nurse, having recovered some strength, had desolate expressions. After exchanging a glance, the female doctor sighed. "We survived by drinking the babies’ formula and nutritional supplements. It’s a shame... none of the babies made it."

Flora Bloom glanced around the sterile room. In the incubators piled in a corner, there was a dead infant in each. And every single infant had a pen stabbed through their temple.

"You were smart, knowing to destroy their brains after they died."

The female doctor gave a small smile. "That was her doing. She loved reading all sorts of apocalypse novels before the world ended. Who would’ve thought the apocalypse would actually happen, and that knowledge would come in handy?"

"Reading novels is one thing, but when it came to actually sticking a pen into the babies’ heads... I really couldn’t bring myself to do it at first. But... a person has to survive!"

Flora Bloom opened the door to the sterile room, letting the outside air flood in completely. She and Neal Wallace stood guard at the entrance for a while. Only after confirming that the three people inside showed no signs of turning did they leave the observation room.

However, Flora Bloom still harbored a deep-seated doubt about the encounter in the sterile room. She had a strange feeling about it, one she couldn’t quite label as good or bad.

Seeing the disappointment on Flora Bloom’s face, Jade anxiously wrung her hands. "Your brother wasn’t in there?"

"Don’t be anxious, Jade. Why don’t we search the other buildings? This hospital is so big, maybe he’s in a different one?" Cynthia Grant comforted Jade, but her words did little to ease the couple’s expressions.

"Are you looking for someone?"

Neal Wallace was helping the female doctor walk out slowly. Having overheard the group’s conversation, she couldn’t help but ask curiously.

A sudden thought struck Flora Bloom. Pretending to reach into her pocket, she retrieved her phone from her dimensional space.

The signal had died just a few days into the apocalypse, so Flora Bloom had tossed her phone into her space. But the battery was still full.

She opened her phone’s photo album, found a recent picture of her younger brother, Joel Bloom, and handed it to the female doctor.

The doctor took it and studied the photo for a long time, but it was the young nurse who walked out after her who looked at the photo on Flora Bloom’s phone and asked in surprise, "I’ve seen this person before. He’s your brother?"

At this, everyone in Flora Bloom’s group turned their gazes to the weak young nurse. Jade was especially fervent, gripping the nurse’s hand tightly as she asked, "You’ve seen my son? Where is he? How is he?"

Seeing the young nurse flustered by Jade’s barrage of questions, Caleb Bloom quickly soothed his wife. "Jade, let her catch her breath first."

Just then, the pregnant woman who had been resting inside had also recovered her strength and slowly walked out, supported by Cynthia Grant.

Flora Bloom handed out three more bottles of diluted spiritual water to the three women, then turned to the young nurse and asked, "He’s my brother. When did you see him?"

The young nurse recalled, "The day the apocalypse began, I was on duty at the first-floor nurses’ station. The scene suddenly became chaotic; a lot of people turned into zombies and started biting people. That boy took his girlfriend and left during the confusion. I don’t know where they went."

"In such a chaotic scene, are you sure you weren’t mistaken?"

The young nurse suddenly looked embarrassed. "He’s just so handsome, and his girlfriend was being very emotional. A lot of us nurses were gossiping about them behind their backs. So... I, uh, paid a little extra attention to him."

Hearing this, everyone understood.

"Then... then where could your brother have gone? With the world like this, what if he runs into danger!" Jade’s face was a mask of grief and self-blame as she leaned on Caleb Bloom’s shoulder, weeping softly.

Sherman Lynch held up his tablet, zooming in to inspect the few small, viable hiding spots around the hospital. "Besides the weather station across from the main entrance, there are no other places to hide nearby. But we can’t rule out that your brother went somewhere farther away."

Flora Bloom’s eyes narrowed. She knew Joel Bloom. If his girlfriend was pregnant, he would never risk taking her somewhere far away.

The most likely place he’d go is the weather station.

"Let’s go. My brother has his girlfriend with him; he wouldn’t have gone far. We’re going to the weather station."

"Right, let’s go to the weather station, right now!" Cynthia Grant chimed in, agreeing with Flora Bloom. She patted Jade’s back comfortingly. "Jade, think about it. Not finding him here is actually a good thing. It just proves that Joel is still alive, right?"

Jade took a deep breath, calming her emotions. ’After the apocalypse, everyone is improving. Her daughter was a powerful superpower user, and her husband had also awakened a superpower. In their group, only she and Irvin Holden had not. But even though Irvin hadn’t awakened, he was a soldier and physically far superior to her.

’Only she felt like a burden, someone who either hid behind the others in fear or couldn’t help but cry when things got tough.

’She couldn’t go on like this.’

Flora Bloom noticed the change in Jade’s expression. She went over and put an arm around her shoulder, saying, "Mom, don’t worry. You still have me! I will definitely find my brother!"

Jade nodded, the resolve in her eyes deepening.