Surviving the Apocalypse with the Young Miss - Chapter 79

Chapter 79: Don’t Cry

In the distance, the forest fire raged.

No matter how desperate Tong Xiangyu felt, there was not a single soul in sight. The only person who could save Song Ge was her.

But how could she save her?

After a bout of hysterical crying, her tears seemed to run dry. She stood up again, picked up an extremely sharp stone, and lowered her head to grind and smash at the wreckage. Sweat slid from her forehead, hung on her eyelashes, and fell, mixing with countless tear stains.

Tong Xiangyu panted, hitting and grinding with focus. She had no idea how much time had passed, but finally, the car door could be opened. Overjoyed, she immediately threw away the blood-stained stone and went to look at Song Ge. “Song Ge!”

Song Ge was pale, leaning over the steering wheel with her eyes closed, unresponsive. Her abdomen had been impaled by the steel rod used for the rolling shutters, and the wound was bleeding continuously.

Seeing this scene, Tong Xiangyu was terrified again. Her lips trembled, and her hands shook so violently she didn’t even dare to touch the bleeding Song Ge. Lost and helpless, she had no idea how to get Song Ge out. The tears she thought had run dry welled up again. “Song Ge, Song…”

Song Ge hadn’t dreamed of her childhood for a very, very long time.

When she was very, very small, her mom and dad took her out to play. The sky was blue, the water was clear, and she sat wobbly on her father’s shoulders. Her dad kissed her mom and then picked her up as she smiled beautifully. A warm breeze blew, and beautiful little flowers bloomed on the grass…

Then, she grew a bit older. She followed her father to run, learn boxing, and practice shoulder throws. At four years old, she knocked her father down for the first time. She ran excitedly to the kitchen to tell her mom. Her mother was amazed, picked her up and kissed her repeatedly, saying happily, “Our Gege is so amazing! You can even knock down Daddy!” Her dad stood by, holding his arm and shouting “Ouch, ouch” in feigned pain.

Seeing her dad look so “pitiful,” she leaned in to blow on his arm, saying “Pain, pain, fly away.” Her father, surprised and happy, took her from her mother’s arms and told her that if she blew on it again, it really wouldn’t hurt anymore.

Later, she moved from kindergarten to elementary school. One day, she failed to wait for her mother to pick her up. The sun went down, and the streetlights came on. Her mother arrived late, got out of the car, and ran over. Seeing her mother, Song Ge burst into tears of grievance. Her mother held her and coaxed her, promising with red eyes that she would never be late again, and took her to buy a new dress and toys.

When her father came home from work, she immediately ran to report the grievance. Her father picked her up, kissed her, and said, “Oh, I’m so sorry our little baby felt wronged.” He said it was all because the bad guys were too wicked today and kept Mommy and Daddy busy for a long time.

But once all the bad guys were caught, more children could live happily with their parents. “Mommy and Daddy will work hard to catch them all so we can come home every day to play with Gege! Right?” She nodded vigorously.

Consequently, her mother was late more and more often. By the second half of first grade, she didn’t need her mother to pick her up anymore. She carried her backpack alone, took the bus, and dropped a coin to ride back to the neighborhood entrance.

She often woke up in the middle of the night. The big house was dark and silent. She would get out of bed alone to drink water, find food in the fridge, or stand on a small stool to make egg-fried rice for herself. On the rare occasions her parents had a day off, they still took her to the amusement park.

She rode “high horse” on her father’s neck and had a great time. While sitting on the carousel, she looked up and asked her mother if the bad guys were all caught. Her father, sitting on a wooden horse beside her, said, “Almost, almost. There are fewer and fewer; they’ll all be caught soon.”

She would always remember that night. It was raining very, very hard outside. Her father came back and happily lifted her high, saying the bad guys were finally all caught! Her mother was also smiling happily.

But that night, while she was sleeping dizzily, she felt her mother kiss her. She opened her eyes and pulled on her mother’s sleeve. Her mother said gently, “Be a good girl, Gege. Mommy and Daddy have to go out for just a little while. One bad guy got away. Once we catch him, we’ll come back to sleep with you. Mommy promises, we’ll be back very soon.”

But she never waited long enough for that “very soon.” The heavy rain kept falling, and school was canceled. She waited from day to night, then from night to day. She called her parents’ phones, but there was no answer. Later, the doorbell rang. She ran barefoot to open the door, thinking her mother had been in such a rush she forgot her keys. She was going to tell on her to her father—Mommy lied, she said “a little while” and it had been four days.

But standing behind the door were uncles and aunts wearing the same uniforms. Their eyes were red, they held black boxes, and they carried her parents’ photos. An uncle knelt and said, “Your mommy and daddy… Uncle brought them back for you.”

After losing her parents, she was sent to Kecheng to live with a family of strangers. After finishing elementary school and entering a boarding middle school, she never returned to that house. She skipped classes and fought, but the school wouldn’t expel her. Her academic grades were terrible, yet she could still enter a top high school. She didn’t want to go on like that; she ran away, was caught three days later, and sent to another school.

If she couldn’t rely on studying to find a way out, she would rely on connections. But her life was already a mess. She didn’t want anything; she just wanted to survive… During her three years at Ke Middle School, she didn’t make any upper-class connections; she couldn’t even name most of her classmates.

Except for that “Child of God”—the beautiful, excellent, and dazzling young lady.

Tong Xiangyu.

Once this name appeared in Song Ge’s dream, her memories accelerated. She remembered the monster virus, Kecheng, Taiyun, the forest fire, and then the car losing control… No, she had to wake up.

Her consciousness forcibly peeled away from the heavy darkness. Beside her, she heard a helpless crying sound. Song Ge slowly opened her eyes. Sure enough, in her blurred vision, she saw that delicate, crybaby young lady.

Song Ge moved her lips, wanting to tell her not to cry, but only a tiny sound came out. Tong Xiangyu’s tears stopped abruptly. She immediately leaned toward Song Ge with joy, frantically wiping the tears from her face as if grabbing onto her only lifeline. “Great! Song Ge, Song Ge, you’re awake!”

Song Ge panted lightly. Her face was pale as she lowered her head slightly to see her abdomen impaled by the steel rod. She wanted to reach out and pull it out, but she didn’t have the strength to move a single finger. She tried to struggle, but her body was firmly nailed to the seatback by the metal.

Outside, the sun was scorching, but Song Ge felt only cold.

“Song Ge, Song Ge, what do I do?” Tong Xiangyu sobbed as her tears fell again.

“Don’t… don’t cry…” Song Ge’s voice was very, very small. Her lips were as white as paper. She leaned against the steering wheel, looking at Tong Xiangyu, wanting to wipe away her tears and ask if she was hurt, but she had no strength at all.

“Okay, I won’t cry. I’m not crying.” Tong Xiangyu hurriedly wiped her tears, but her face was more than just tear-stained; it was a mess from her blood-covered fingers.

Song Ge wanted to smile at her, but she didn’t know if the corners of her mouth moved. She looked at Tong Xiangyu, her eyes gradually losing focus. She wanted to say, Sorry, Little Milk Tea, I broke my promise. I have to leave you to find your parents alone. But when she spoke, only a faint wheeze came from her throat.

Seeing her like this, Tong Xiangyu’s tears broke through the dam again. She knelt beside her, panicked and afraid. “Song Ge, Song Ge, don’t talk. Song Ge, please, please don’t talk yet. I can, I can get you out… I…”

“Mhm.” Song Ge’s eyes suddenly cleared for a moment. She looked at Tong Xiangyu and smiled, but winced as the movement pulled at her wound. She panted, looked down at the rod piercing her abdomen, and said, “Lis… listen to me…”

Tong Xiangyu nodded vigorously!

Song Ge suddenly found the strength to raise her hand and grip the rod. Her eyes were lowered, and her slightly reddened lips moved. “Pull it out. Use clothes to… stop the bleeding. Then, tie… tie the wound…”

Tong Xiangyu nodded hard through her tears. “And then?”

“Then… then…” Song Ge’s “then” stayed at the tip of her tongue, but she could no longer speak. That bit of strength seemed to drain from her body instantly, and her vision blurred. She didn’t even have time to turn back to look at Tong Xiangyu; her hand holding the rod fell heavily and limply…

Tong Xiangyu’s pupils shrank. She screamed in panic and fear, “Song Ge! Song Ge!!!”

“Song Ge!!” Tong Xiangyu’s mind went blank. After calling her several times without a response, she stared blankly at Song Ge’s bloodless face. As if suddenly realizing something, she scrambled to her feet. “Right… first, pull… pull it out first…”

“I know… I know what to do.” Tong Xiangyu ran to the back of the car and yanked the door open. She threw out all the messy supplies onto the ground and saw the long steel rod that had pierced through the back of the seat. This was the rod pinning Song Ge to the driver’s seat.

Just pull it out. Tong Xiangyu grabbed the rod. It didn’t come out on the first try; it was buried too deep and stuck in the seat. Using both hands, she gritted her teeth and pulled with all her might!!

With the force of the momentum, she fell back onto the rear seat, holding the meter-long, blood-stained steel rod in her hands. She immediately threw it away and ran to the front. She saw Song Ge’s abdomen bleeding steadily; a large amount of fresh blood covered the old stains on her clothes.

It’s okay, it’s okay.

Tong Xiangyu unbuckled Song Ge’s seatbelt. “Song Ge, don’t be afraid. I’ll save you. Just bear with it, it’ll be quick…”

She hooked her arms under Song Ge’s armpits, gritted her teeth until her face was flushed, used every ounce of strength she had, and broke into a sweat as she dragged Song Ge out of the driver’s seat.

“Not here, further away…” she muttered to herself. The car was leaking gas; if the wind blew the fire this way, it would explode.

Tong Xiangyu dragged Song Ge to a distance, then took off her own clothes to cover the wound, but they were already soaked with sweat and blood and were useless. She ran back to the car to grab her backpack.

The sun was dizzyingly hot. She quickly returned to Song Ge’s side, knelt, and frantically rummaged through the bag. After finding a sanitary pad, she unwrapped it, lifted Song Ge’s shirt, and pressed the pad against the dark hole in the upper right of her abdomen where the blood was gushing.

“Okay, okay,” she said, pressing down with both hands. “Tie… I need to tie the wound…”

She searched the bag again, but there was no rope. Her fingers were trembling. Suddenly remembering something, she pulled the folding knife from Song Ge’s waistband, grabbed her own long hair, and cut it off in one handful. She knotted the hair into a rope, then propped Song Ge up to cover the exit wound on her back with another sanitary pad, using the hair-rope to tie it tightly in place.

Having done all this, she cradled Song Ge’s face. “It’s okay now. It’s okay, Song Ge.”

Song Ge remained unresponsive, her lips ghostly pale.

“Oh right, water, water…” Tong Xiangyu carefully laid Song Ge on the ground and ran back to the car for water. She picked up a crate, but after a few steps, she tripped and fell hard. She scrambled up, picked up the crate again, and ran to Song Ge. She used the knife to slit the tape on the crate, her hand shaking so much she accidentally sliced her finger. Blood flowed.

She froze for half a second, feeling no pain. She put the knife down, took a bottle of water, opened it, and lifted Song Ge’s upper body to feed her. But the water wouldn’t go in. Tong Xiangyu took a mouthful herself and tried to feed her mouth-to-mouth, but it still didn’t work; all the water spilled from the corners of Song Ge’s mouth.

The sun was still so huge. Tong Xiangyu held Song Ge’s increasingly cold body tightly, her face pressed against Song Ge’s forehead, whispering, “It’s okay, Song Ge… you’ll be fine once you drink some water.”

“Hurry up and wake up.”

As she whispered, the surging tears completely blurred her vision. “Hurry, Song Ge, please wake up. You… you said you’d take me to find my parents, Song Ge, you said so…”

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