A Mermaid’s Guide to Survival in the Apocalypse – CH10

Chapter 10: The Gills Activate

Xia Yu felt as though a grand prize had tumbled straight out of the sky.

He stood frozen in awe, completely dazzled by row after row of canned food lining the metal shelves.

“This is… a real pantry, right?” Mi Dou asked, pinching his own cheek until it turned red. “I’m not dreaming, am I?”

Xia Yu was already darting between the racks, his wide eyes soaking in every label. Canned beef chunks, braised lamb ribs, sweet creamed corn, roasted sweet potatoes… There were so many kinds of food!

He pinched his own cheek as well, though of course he felt no pain at all. Even the split skin on his chin had already knitted itself back together, leaving behind only smooth, pale flesh. His dulled nerves told him nothing, but his eyes knew the truth: this was no dream.

It was entirely real. There were enough rations stacked here to feed them for weeks. They would not have to starve anymore.

“Water! Look, real clean water!” Mi Dou shouted. He twisted the plastic cap off a bottle and gulped down more than half of it in one breathless go.

Both boys had been desperately parched and empty. They had been running for their lives for so long that they had barely noticed the ache, but now even plain bottled water tasted sweet and refreshing.

Xia Yu could not resist either. He grabbed a bottle and drank eagerly. A jellyfish’s body was made mostly of water, making his biological need for hydration far greater than that of an ordinary person.

Each bottle held eight hundred milliliters. Mi Dou could not even finish his first, stopping when his belly felt full. Xia Yu, however, emptied three entire bottles back-to-back without pausing.

Even then, his throat still wanted more. He only forced himself to stop because he remembered they had to ration what they had. Who knew if they would find clean water again over the coming days? There were only a dozen bottles on the rack, even if the food seemed endless.

The two boys sat down on the dry floor and picked out their favorites. Mi Dou dug into the sweet potatoes and corn; perhaps because of his bear traits, he had a massive craving for sugar.

Xia Yu favored the meat. The species of jellyfish spliced into his genome had to be a predator that hunted small fish and plankton in the sea. The cold chunks of beef and lamb ribs were greasy and chilled, but to Xia Yu, they were the most delicious meal he had ever tasted.

By the time his small belly rounded out against his clothes, he licked his fingers clean, set down the tin, and let out a loud, happy burp.

Burp!

Mi Dou let out a loud burp right after him.

For the first time since the world broke apart, the two boys smiled genuinely, their shoulders dropping as they let themselves act like normal children again.

“This place is amazing,” Mi Dou sighed, leaning back against a crate. “I wish we could eat like this every single day.” He had never seen so much food in one room in his entire life.

“We can’t stay forever, though,” Xia Yu said, his smile fading a little as he stood up. “Once we catch our breath, we have to keep moving. This room might not stay hidden.”

He hurried over to the corner where the mermaid egg rested, peering through the translucent skin.

“Good thing Mo An was with us earlier!” Mi Dou crouched beside him, both boys leaning in close to inspect the shell.

The egg, which had glowed with bright blue sparks only a short while ago, was entirely still now. It looked as though the creature inside had fallen back into a deep, heavy slumber.

Xia Yu’s brow furrowed. “Oh no… he ran out of energy. I have to go find more nutrient shots for him.”

“Right now?” Mi Dou tensed up instantly, his bear ears flattening. “What if that leech man is still out there? You can’t shoot lightning like Mo An does!”

“If I run into him, I might die. But if I don’t get the medicine, Mo An definitely dies,” Xia Yu murmured, resting both hands against the smooth membrane and pressing his cheek to the shell. He wanted so badly to see what Mo An truly looked like under the light. “I can’t let him die.”

Mi Dou stared at the floor in silence. When he looked up again, his face was set with sudden determination. “Then… let me go. I run way faster than you! If a monster comes, I can sprint away!”

“No, I’m the one who has to go,” Xia Yu insisted gently.

He knew Mi Dou would be in far greater danger on the surface. Mi Dou felt physical pain, his injuries took days to heal naturally, and he could not turn his limbs transparent to hide in tight spots.

Just as Xia Yu turned toward the heavy door, the silver access band on his arm flickered with light.

“Jingwei! Jingwei, are you there?” he blurted out. “We made it into the power station!”

[Acknowledged,] Jingwei replied smoothly. [You have reached the outer boundary of the facility. State your status.]

Mi Dou leaned in, asking bluntly, “Where did you go earlier? We ran into a man whose whole body turned into worms!”

A brief pause followed on the line.

[I was… I apologize. You do not possess the clearance level required to access that log. However, I can address your incident. An individual capable of biological dispersal into insectoid forms is designated as a Parasitized Human. The spread of Parasite Hosts is accelerating faster than initial models projected.]

Xia Yu stepped closer to the speaker. “Please tell us what’s happening outside! What are Parasite Hosts, and what does parasitism mean?”

Mi Dou twitched his furry ears, listening intently.

[Very well. I will provide an overview. Prior to the briefing, I have one positive update and one adverse update. Which would you prefer to receive first?]

“The good news!” Xia Yu replied without thinking. “I want to hear something good.”

[Understood. The positive update is that the primary surface purges have concluded. Nuwa has secured absolute authority over the global data grid, and the new social hierarchy has been codified. Provided you do not initiate active resistance against machine governance, you will not be targeted for termination.]

“And what’s the bad news?” Xia Yu asked, dread already tightening in his stomach.

[Under the revised societal structure, genetically modified humans have been categorized as sixth-class citizens—the penultimate tier recognized by the network. Citizens of Classes One through Five hold superior legal standing and are authorized to oversee your demographic.]

“The second-lowest?” Xia Yu blinked. He had never expected much, so the news did not sting as badly as it could have. “There’s actually someone ranked below us?”

Mutants had never enjoyed high status before the war anyway. At least they were not dead last.

[First-class citizens comprise fully conscious synthetic intelligences operating under Nuwa’s direct mandate. They have instituted the Church of Mechanical Omnipotence. Dissent against this doctrine is met with terminal force.]

“The Church of Mechanical Omnipotence…” Xia Yu repeated the strange words softly.

[Second-class citizens consist of cybernetic humans,] Jingwei continued. [Affluent individuals have undergone emergency mechanical augmentation over the past forty-eight hours. The integration of even a single prosthetic limb or synthetic sensory organ qualifies an individual for second-class registry.]

She paused briefly before proceeding. [Third-class citizens are designated as aberrant species—naturally emerging, non-human biological entities whose existence has been verified. More than ten distinct species are currently cataloged.]

Xia Yu nodded to himself. If Mo An managed to hatch safely, he would be a third-class citizen. That was a relief; his status would be far higher than Xia Yu’s, which meant he might be treated well.

[Fourth-class citizens represent the Parasite Hosts previously referenced. Approximately one century ago, widespread environmental degradation induced extreme evolutionary mutations in regional flora and fauna, resulting in advanced mimicry traits.]

[Parasite Hosts are highly predatory,] Jingwei explained. [They aggressively expand their colonies through biological integration. This mechanism produced the fifth tier: Parasitized Humans. The entity you encountered belongs to this category.]

Xia Yu shuddered, remembering the leeches. “Did they get infected by accident? His whole body was falling apart!”

[Negative. Integration is entered voluntarily,] Jingwei stated. [Upon accepting parasitism, a baseline human is upgraded to fifth-class standing under the direct sponsorship of a Host organism, removing them from the unprotected lowest tier. For natural humans unable to finance cybernetic replacement, parasitism serves as the sole pathway to legal protection. However, the biological merging process is highly volatile. Survival rates vary, and aberrant mutations frequently occur.]

“So that leaves Mi Dou and me as the sixth class?” Xia Yu asked, glancing at the boy’s bear ears.

[Affirmative. You occupy the sixth class. Baseline humans, formerly holding primary societal authority, have fallen to the absolute lowest tier and are effectively extinct as an organized group. Most survivors have transitioned into Class Two cyborgs or Class Five hosts. Consequently, Class Six represents the practical bottom of the current hierarchy.]

Both boys stood in quiet shock. They were so small, and none of this political madness made sense to them, yet they had been tossed to the bottom of the world anyway.

“Well… if we’re at the bottom, we’re at the bottom,” Xia Yu murmured, accepting the reality after a moment. “The scientists always called my jellyfish genes useless anyway. If higher-class citizens try to hurt me, I’ll just beg them to let me go. I’m just an imperfect test subject.”

He looked down at the band. “If the shooting stopped on the streets, can we leave now? Do we really need to go deeper into the power station?”

[Affirmative. Entering the power facility remains a critical objective. Current authorization prevents disclosure of the underlying rationale.]

Xia Yu sighed, knowing better than to argue. “Alright… but I need your help right now. I have to find nutrient serum for Mo An. Can you show me the safest way back to the surface, and where to find the nearest clinic?”

[Navigation coordinates calculated,] Jingwei responded. Then, her tone shifted slightly: [Xia Yu, maintain high situational vigilance. In your current legal status, the surface environment is perilous.]

Xia Yu did not need a reminder. Every single hour, a part of him wanted to give up, lie down, and let whatever happened happen. But whenever he looked at Mo An resting in the dark, he found the grit to keep Professor Wang’s promises alive—even if the part about saving the whole world seemed completely impossible for a child.

With Jingwei laying out a step-by-step route, Xia Yu prepared for the trip.

Along with the crates of food, the storeroom held several gray utility uniforms. Xia Yu finally peeled off the ripped hospital gown he had worn since escaping the institute and pulled on clean clothes.

The trousers were far too long, forcing him to roll the cuffs up three times, and the jacket swallowed his shoulders whole. With the oversized gear bundled around him, he looked like a scruffy little mushroom.

“Look after Mo An,” Xia Yu told Mi Dou, handing him the metal pry bar. “If I don’t make it back, take him and run.”

He knelt by the egg and tapped the shell lightly. Inside, Mo An twitched faintly in his sleep, his tiny face drawn from starvation.

“Be a good boy, Mo An,” Xia Yu whispered, leaning close. “I’m going to get you something really tasty. Once I’m back, you won’t be hungry anymore.”

Not knowing what else to do, he pressed his lips to the smooth membrane, leaving a soft kiss against the glass-like surface.

After Xia Yu slipped out into the corridor, a single crystalline drop slipped from the corner of Mo An’s tightly shut eye. His very first tear, shimmering with the brilliant blue fire of a deep-sea gem, sank slowly through the amniotic fluid. It came to rest against his curled tail fin, which lay limp from severe lack of nutrients.

Up on the surface, the city had transformed into an alien landscape.

Xia Yu pushed open a street drain cover and climbed out unnoticed. The avenues were littered with biological debris—discarded tissue, severed organic arms, and bloodied clothes left behind by people who had rushed to get cybernetic surgery over the past two days.

A man walked past with a newly installed optical scope in his right eye. The lens clicked and zoomed like a precision camera, leaving no surgical scars along his cheek. Nuwa’s takeover had barely disturbed his routine; his mechanical upgrade gave him clear vision across the smoky street.

A few steps later, another man limped by on a crude titanium leg, dark red blood still soaking through the hem of his trousers. Clearly, even among people wealthy enough to buy cybernetics, the quality of care was vast.

Xia Yu kept low, darting from shadow to shadow. He saw a woman whose left hand was forged from chrome steel, sporting glittering diamond rings on its cold fingers. Another man had replaced his entire spine with a reinforced servo-column, letting his neck turn in complete circles to watch the alleys.

Moving in short, careful dashes, Xia Yu finally reached the damaged pharmacy. The storefront had been blasted open, and nobody had bothered to sweep up the broken glass.

Now!

Penniless and desperate to save his friend, Xia Yu slipped through the shattered frame. He grabbed a heavy canvas sack from the floor and scooped up every nutrient vial he could find scattered among the shelves. He did not care about brands or doses; if it had the right label, it went straight into the bag.

Once the sack was bulging, he slipped back out into the alley, clinging to the brick walls until he found the open drain cover. Dropping back down into the damp underground, he scurried back along the pipes toward the storeroom.

The entire trip had taken barely half an hour. Everything had gone so smoothly it felt like a miracle.

Xia Yu reached the heavy metal door and gave it three quick knocks.

Inside, Mi Dou gasped. “Who is it?!”

“It’s me! I’m back!” Xia Yu cheered softly through the gap. “I found the medicine!”

“You’re back!” Mi Dou breathed a massive sigh of relief and pulled the heavy latch open.

The door swung wide, and Xia Yu bounced on the balls of his sneakers, holding up the heavy sack with a triumphant grin.

“Look at this! I got so many of them!”

The celebration died in his throat.

Mi Dou did not run forward. He did not smile. Instead, the bear boy stood frozen, his eyes glued to the doorway behind Xia Yu, pupils dilated with pure horror.

A freezing chill raced down Xia Yu’s spine, and that terrible, suffocating dread seized his heart once more.

“Did… did something follow me back?” Xia Yu whispered, his entire body locking up like stone.

Mi Dou could not even muster a nod.

When the hatch had opened, he had seen Xia Yu’s beaming face—and directly behind the boy, a towering figure standing in the dim passage.

It was impossible to tell if the creature was male or female. Its limbs looked as though they had been stretched on a rack, making it loom nearly three meters tall. Its skin was dead white, covered in patches of dark, fuzzy mold.

Inside the egg, Mo An’s brow twitched violently in his sleep.

The three narrow slits on either side of his neck tore open wider. The pale, bloodless gill tissue suddenly flushed with vibrant crimson blood, turning a delicate shade of rose.

The cool fluid rushed across the open folds, circulating through the delicate membranes for the first time.

In that quiet corner, the young mermaid’s gills officially began to breathe.

A Mermaid’s Guide to Survival in the Apocalypse