Lahat ng Kabanata ng I'm Just Humanity's Spare Battery: Kabanata 1 - Kabanata 8

The heavy door of the cryopod slammed shut right in front of my face. Freezing mist instantly enveloped me, blurring everything outside into a hazy smear.I pounded on the reinforced door with all my might until my palms turned bright red from the impact."Dad! Mom! I didn't mean to! I'll never do it again!" I screamed. "Please, let me out!"Mom's voice cut through the thick walls of the pod."Oh, now you're sorry? Too late!" she snapped. "Beckett has a fragile constitution. His immune system is much weaker than yours. You stole his high-energy nutrient meals. Were you trying to kill him? You're going to stay in there and think about what you've done!"I shook my head frantically, even though I knew they couldn't see me. Tears mixed with the icy condensation, blurring my vision."I didn't! I just grabbed the wrong one!"Then came Dad's voice, cold and completely devoid of emotion, "24 hours of confinement." He turned to the medical staff standing nearby and barked an order, "C

"From now on, only prepare Beckett's portion," Dad commanded.The nutritionist froze, looking at him in utter confusion. "Commander Walker… What about Brielle's portion?"Mom waved her hand in annoyance. "Don't bother with her. That ungrateful girl is stubborn to a fault. She's still throwing a tantrum, convinced she's irreplaceable."They were certain that once my confinement ended, I would come crawling back with my tail between my legs, crying and begging for their forgiveness.They didn't remember that it was Dad who had personally ordered the pod's supply systems to be cut to the bare minimum.They had also forgotten that the sudden zombie outbreak had turned the old base into a graveyard.To them, I was just playing a childish game to vent my resentment. Dad even saw it as a direct challenge to his authority as commander.He picked up the radio on the command console and tuned it to the old base's public frequency. After a burst of sharp static, he spoke into the receiver,

After Dad hollered the command, a small team of elites was assembled immediately.After hearing the news, Mr. Lewis, who had always cared a lot about me, insisted on joining the team. He was one of the base's founding members and also a brilliant mechanical engineer.Even from the beginning, his expression was grim.Throughout the ride, the atmosphere was suffocating. Sitting in the vehicle, Mom kept twisting her hands tightly together, but she stubbornly insisted, "Brielle must've run off long ago… She definitely ran out by herself… She's not a baby. It's not like she'd starve herself to death… "I bet she's hiding somewhere, just waiting for us to beg her…"Mr. Lewis, who sat in the front passenger seat, finally couldn't take it anymore. He glared through the rearview mirror and looked right at Mom's pale face as he cut her off, saying, "Mrs. Walker, the cryopod's thermal regulation system can only last 72 hours, at most. "How many days has it been since the zombie horde attac

Upon hearing the truth, Mom fainted. When she woke up again, she saw my ripped cloth doll on the bed next to her. I had no idea how my doll ended up there.She clutched the doll with a foolish smile on her face. Reaching into her medical kit, she grabbed a suture needle and some surgical thread. Stitch by stitch, she clumsily mended the tear.Even though the needle pricked her fingers multiple times, staining the white thread with blood, she didn't feel a thing. All her attention went to mending the doll.At last, she sewed up the rip. The stitches were crooked and uneven, looking like an ugly centipede stained with blood. She hugged the blood-stained doll tightly, a tender smile appearing on her face."It doesn't hurt anymore, Brielle… I fixed it for you. It's not in any more pain now. Let's go to sleep…"She began to hum a soft lullaby, the only one she'd ever sung to me when I was little. The singing voice was as broken as the heart that had long since rotted away inside her.