Chapter 81: Memories (Part 3)
Eve watched as the gray wolf found a good spot next to her, lay down, stuck out its tongue to lick her face, and exposed its belly.
The little cubs eagerly lay down on her belly, found the mother wolf's nipple, and suckled greedily at the wolf's milk.
She was drinking milk while the mother wolf was eating meat nearby.
After she had drunk most of it, the mother wolf tore off two pieces of meat from her prey, chewed them up, and spat them out in front of her.
The mother wolf was always worried as she looked at her cubs, who hadn't grown much.
It can't always provide her with milk; the outside world is fraught with danger, and it could die at any moment. It also can't always protect her; she will eventually have to learn to eat meat and hunt for herself.
Anunu couldn't wait to grab the bits of meat and stuff them into her mouth. She had been hatched for over a year but still didn't have any teeth and couldn't chew anything. Before, when she was hungry, she would just swallow it raw.
Having finally filled her stomach, Anunu nestled in the mother wolf's arms, listening to the howling wind outside, and fell peacefully asleep.
She loves to sleep because when she falls asleep, the memories passed down in her mind allow her to dream of her home, her parents, and her people. In her dreams, she returns to her warm home and will never suffer from cold or hunger again.
But as she grows older, the memories passed down in her mind fade. Now, the faces of her parents in her dreams are blurry, and she is about to forget them.
The memories flashed before Evena's eyes, each scene showing her with the she-wolf.
It seems like the world is always covered in snow. The mother wolf has to go out hunting every few days. At first, the cubs had milk to drink, but later, the mother wolf had no more milk, so the cubs were forced to wean and could only eat raw meat with the mother wolf.
Because she eats raw meat, she often gets sick and has fevers. The Zerg's defense mechanism to protect the offspring has dissipated, and she can only rely on herself to get through it.
She lived with the mother wolf for nearly two years. In order to hunt better, the mother wolf gradually led her southward.
Although she only ate raw meat while living with the mother wolf, she was always able to fill her stomach. Except when the mother wolf went out hunting, she could stay in her warm embrace, and the days were not too difficult.
She was raised like a wolf cub and would howl along with her mother.
The mother wolf became a lone wolf for her sake, and wandered around with her.
Until one day, they encountered a group of humans. The mother wolf went out hunting and left her in a burrow she had dug, where the humans found her.
When the mother wolf returned from hunting, she discovered that her cubs had been taken away. She went on a frantic search for them and quickly caught up with their scent.
Seeing the cub struggling desperately in the human's hands, trying to return to its side, the cat, who completely regarded itself as the cub's mother, disregarded the fact that the humans had weapons and rushed up to fiercely bite them, trying to snatch the cub back from their hands.
In this world that has just suffered a devastating blow and is teeming with mutated plants and animals, this enormous mother wolf is seen as a ferocious beast by these humans.
One shot rang out, two shots rang out, three shots rang out...
Anunu screamed and yelled wildly as she watched them shoot and kill her wolf mother.
"What's wrong with this little brat? He's acting like he's gone mad."
"We've already tested her with a gene analyzer, and there are no mutated genes. That's rare; purebred humans are hard to find these days."
"An ordinary person? How could a two- or three-year-old child survive in the wild?"
"She doesn't look like an ordinary person either. What ordinary person has pointed ears and hair that color?"
"It's probably only a very small percentage of the mutated genes."
"Why is she howling like a wolf?"
Anunu broke free from their restraints and pounced on the mother wolf lying in a pool of blood, using her tiny hands to cover its bleeding wounds.
"Awoo..."
Anunu cried out for the mother wolf, and the mother wolf, with her last breath, licked her face before dying in front of her.
The group of humans stared in astonishment at her and the she-wolf, realizing why the she-wolf had attacked them—she had been raised by wolves.
A man walked over, picked her up, and let her struggle and hit him in his arms, even biting him.
Only when she was tired did he pat her head and say, "We'll take you back to base. There will be food and drink, and we'll take good care of you."
And so, she was taken back to a small human base.
They gave her a nice hot bath and dressed her in clean clothes. All twenty or so people in the base looked at her with great curiosity.
Even before the apocalypse, they had never seen such a beautiful child.
She was the only child in the base; the youngest child was already twenty years old.
These people were indeed very kind to her. During the six months she spent at the base, she gradually adapted to human life. Every day, she would follow these adults around like a child. They would take care of her like their own child, giving her the best food, bringing her toys, and trying to make her happy.
Before bringing her back, knowing that she had been raised by that mother wolf, they did not feed her but burned her carcass and kept a tuft of wolf fur to make a necklace for her as a keepsake.
She couldn't forgive them for killing the wolf mother who had raised her, but she was only three years old at the time and was still going through a period of memory transition.
Memories from before the age of three will fade along with the inherited memories of the Zerg, and she will gradually forget the mother wolf, along with the memory of its death.
The people at the base treated her very well. In those six months, she quickly learned human language. Not only language, but she also learned many characters. She could even recite the steps for assembling weapons and all kinds of weapons word for word. Her learning ability amazed the people at the base.
The faster she learns, the faster she forgets her past memories.
Soon, she forgot her memories from before she was three years old, stopped dreaming about anything related to the Zerg, and even when people in the base occasionally mentioned the mother wolf to her, she looked puzzled.
Although I've forgotten, I still feel inexplicably sad every time they arrive early.
Later, everyone tacitly agreed to never mention the mother wolf again.
If she grows up like this, it might not be so bad. After all, in the apocalypse, being able to eat and dress warmly, have a fixed place to live, and have someone to take care of you is already a very happy thing.
She was lucky to have met the mother wolf after hatching, and then she met this group of humans. But it seems that all her good luck ran out after meeting them.
She lived with them at the base for over a year, and just before winter was approaching, they fought another group of people vying for resources.
They were a group of vicious and desperate criminals. Many of them were dead or wounded, so they had no choice but to abandon the base and flee to other places with her.
As if things weren't bad enough, they also encountered a beast tide. Once winter arrives, the animals will need to fill their stomachs and will hunt in groups.
Of the twenty people at the base, only three, including her, survived.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com