Chapter 183: Chapter 183: Nightbane Family
A middle-aged woman was lying in bed with her red, wavy hair spread across the pillow; her pink eyes were staring blankly at the ceiling. Even though she looked worn down and there was dirt smeared on her face, she didn’t look the least bit repulsive.
Maybe it was because of her gentle aura, or maybe it was because of the deep sadness in her eyes, but she exuded a touch of vulnerability.
As the sound of water trickling from the ceiling remained persistent, the cold wind seeping from the broken window’s gap made the atmosphere a bit eerie.
To the woman, however, nothing mattered.
"Are you thinking about her again, Helena?" A deep masculine voice interrupted the beautiful middle-aged woman’s thought process.
Helena looked at Victor, her husband, whose black hair was tousled, and his blue eyes stared at her with deep affection and concern, and she gave a forced smile.
"No. I was... just thinking about surviving...."
Though she said so, there was no fear in her eyes. Only she knew that the agony she had been living with for the past few decades was eating her up from the inside. Even leaving the world seemed a luxury to her now.
If it wasn’t for the fact that she was worried that her lost daughter might still be alive and suffering, she would have ended her life.
After the arrival of the apocalypse, the possibility of her daughter being alive had reduced even more. Who can guarantee that by the time they get news about her, she will still be alive?
"Helena," The middle-aged man with a scholarly aura patted her hand and assured her, "Don’t worry, we will find her soon."
"You know, Victor, what is funny? Even after using up all our connections, we still haven’t found what our daughter even looks like other than the fact that she has pink hair." Helena’s words were laced with mockery; she stopped hiding the heartache in her heart and vented her sadness.
"My precious daughter... God knows where she is... God knows whether she is suffering... What if something bad has already happened to her? What if..."
"Helena." Victor called out in his soothing voice and hugged her, "Don’t... think negatively. The reason why we couldn’t find her was because of her DNA mutation... otherwise, we could have found her long ago."
Helena remained silent for a while, proposing, "Shall we post a message stating that we are ready to give 1000 kg of rice, as long as someone finds news about our daughter?"
"No." Victor opposed, "Helena, I love our lost daughter just as much as I love my other children. If we give away the last 1000 kg of rice we had hoarded, our children and we will die even before the news of our daughter reaches us."
"But..." Helena was anxious; she didn’t see the use of having so much food if she couldn’t have her daughter.
"Listen to me, and let’s wait. Even after 1 month, if we don’t get any news of our daughter... then we will post the mission." Victor’s heart too ached for his missing daughter, but he still had to plan ahead for the sake of the family.
Helena hugged Victor tightly while her entire body turned cold. The truth was... the Nightbane family’s condition wasn’t any better.
They were hardly surviving, and every day felt like a gamble. Their wealth, their status, their connections... all of it had crumbled the moment the world changed.
What once made the Nightbane family powerful was now useless. In the face of hunger, disease, and zombies, their fame hardly benefited them.
Helena buried her face into Victor’s chest, her tears soaking into his worn shirt. "Victor... if only I had protected her better back then. If only I had held her tighter... maybe she would still be with us."
Victor’s arms tightened around her. "Helena, stop blaming yourself. None of this was your fault. That day... we couldn’t have predicted what would happen. Fate tore her away from us."
Helena’s lips trembled. "But a mother should never lose her child. Even now, every night, I can hear her cries. As if she’s still calling for me."
Victor’s eyes dimmed. He, too, heard those cries in his dreams, but he would never say it aloud. His role was to be Helena’s anchor, the calm when she drowned in grief.
For a while, silence filled the ruined room.
Finally, Helena spoke again, her voice soft and hoarse, "Victor, promise me... Promise me that even if we are down to nothing, we will still search for her."
Victor closed his eyes. "I promise. Even if it costs me my life, I will not stop searching."
Her fingers clutched his hand tightly, as if drawing strength from his words. She did not care if the world turned to ashes, as long as she could hold her daughter again, just once.
Outside the room, three figures who had heard everything exchanged glances before leaving. All three of them arrived at the small room they were sharing.
Ember, with her straight black hair, stared at her brothers with deep blue eyes and stated worriedly, "We need to find our little sister soon... otherwise, Mom truly might not be able to hold on for long."
"I think we can just give 10 kg of rice to some big leader and ask them to use their connection to find our sister." Felix, the second-born of the family, commented, his red hair aligned with the fierce expression he had.
"No." Kael, the eldest son, shook his head and said in a serious tone, "It will attract too much attention, and we might get attacked. To others, we are some poor researcher family with hardly enough food to eat, and it’s better if our image stays that way."
"So what do you propose, big brother?" Ember asked anxiously, her heart filled with the thoughts of finding her younger sister she hasn’t met.
"Let’s find her on our own." Kael suggested, his purple eyes flashing with seriousness, "For starters, we at least know that she has pink hair and pink eyes."