BXBX NOVEL Chapter 118 - Family First
Singapore was one of the crowdest cities in the world. But when the doomsday started there was not many people on the street, therefore there wasn\'t as much chaos as in the other cities.
On the first day of Doomsday, Christina listened to Alex\'s advice and chose to stay home with her two children, Kelly her 9 years old daughter, and Kaleb her 6 years old son. They holed up in a big mansion full of guards and maids, but Christina felt insecure waiting for the awful day.
Around noon, the storm came and the electricity went down, her worries became worse, it seemed that what Alex had said turned to be the truth. For the next few hours, her mind was fixed on the state of her two children. Then the infection came, more than half of her guards, maids were infected with the disease.
It included her daughter Kelly...
When her daughter\'s eye turned red, her heart lost a beat.. It seemed half of her world crumbled down.
She tried getting help from her personal physician and the family doctor, but none of them were available.
Deep down inside, looking at how the disease also affected many other people, she realized that there was no hope, but a mother would never give up on her own children, not while she was still breathing.
On her desperation, she contacted her ex-husband Ronny. But even the father of her daughter was unable to help.
That day she found out a more horrible truth about her ex-husband, although she knew he was a liar and a cheater, she never realized how heartless her ex-husband was. On that chaotic day, he did not even care about what happened to his own daughter, but only cared about his mistress.
When the night came, Christina held her daughter tightly seemingly never wanting to let go... She asked for help, none came, she hoped for a miracle, nothing. She could only stare helplessly as Kelly slowly loses her consciousness.
"Mommy."
"Mommy, I am scared mommy..."
"Mommy..."
- - - - - - - - - - - -
DDay +42
Christina woke up from her nightmare. This memory haunted her every time she closes her eyes. With cold sweat all over her body, she tried to stand up from a large bed that felt familiar. She looked at her surroundings and she realized that she just woke up in her own bedroom.
An old woman hurriedly walks inside the room, trying to help her stand.
"Please don\'t move too much young miss."
Christina looked at the old woman and tried to smile.
"I have told you so many time auntie, don\'t call me young miss again. I am no longer a young girl."
The old woman was Christina\'s personal maid, she had been taking care of her ever since Christina was born.
"To me, you will always be my young miss. Please don\'t move too much. The physician will be here soon."
"Auntie, where is my son Kaleb?"
Not long after, another old woman came in with a young boy who suddenly ran and gave Christina a hug.
"Mommy... You\'re awake. I was worried"
"Don\'t worry dear, mommy\'s fine."
This boy named Kaleb is the only remaining joy in her life and also her only reason to live in this crazy world.
After giving her son a warm hug, Christina looked at the other woman who was looking at her coldly. This graceful woman in her late 50s is Christina\'s mother, Elena Young the head of the Young family. Ever since the death of her husband, she took her late husband\'s place and is now leading the family.
"How long have I been sleeping, mother?"
"Two days."
"I see, what of my friends? Are they ok?"
"You mean your guards? They are all fine, you did well this time. Prime Minister Lee is looking for you."
"..."
"I can see that you are healthy enough to stand, you should head there quickly."
"Mother... but... I ..."
Christina had been gone a few days because militia duty, she would like to spend at least a few hours with her son.
"Your uncle is waiting for you as well. It\'s best you not keep them waiting."
"Ok. Mother..."
Christina has a strict childhood, especially with such a wealthy family background there\'s not much she can do. At times such as this, she misses her carefree time in Australia. Suddenly, Alex\'s image comes into her mind.
"Christina remember it\'s very important to support your uncle... Think of the family first."
"Yes, mother."
Later on that day, Christina traveled to the Istana, Singapore\'s presidential palace. As it seemed to be official business, she brought her 3 trusted firebirds leaders, but to her surprise, none of them were allowed to enter the inner chamber.
Christina entered alone, inside the room there was a big oval table. There are 10 sets of chairs but only 7 were filled. The one seating on the head is Prime Minister Lee Semo. The three men to his right are the top 3 surviving Singapore generals and on the left are the 3 ministers, one of them is her uncle, Sidao Young.
As Christina was part of the militia unit, she walked forward and gave the prime minister a soldier\'s salute and exclaimed,
"Christina Young, paying respect to the prime minister."
The prime minister was impressed by Christina\'s beauty.
"Is this your niece, minister Sidao?"
"Yes, she is."
"Not only she\'s a beauty, but she is now also a national hero."
The prime minister was happy with what he was seeing and continued,
"Tell me, Miss Young, what do you want as a reward?"
Christina didn\'t wait long and responded,
"Thank you for your kind words, prime minister. But I only did my duty for the country, and expect no reward."
"Good. Good. You even have a great personality..."
The prime minister looked at Minister Sidao and said,
"The Young family sure is blessed to have such talent!"
"Miss Young, there is no way you will walk out of this room without a reward. From today onwards, you will be assigned as a unit commander, you will have a total of 5 units under your command."
Christina glanced at her uncle and saw him nodding, she then answered,
"Thank you, prime minister."
"Don\'t thank me yet. Actually, I have a very important mission for you."
Suddenly, Christina felt anxious,
"Miss. no... Commander Christina, I need you to bring your units to establish contact with China\'s mainland. The government will provide you with a working ship to take your units to Hongkong and you will rendezvous with their team there. I need you to gather information and report back your findings."
Christina was startled. This was a very dangerous and difficult mission, she wondered why the prime minister is giving the mission to a militia unit and not the army. But before she could say anything,
"The mainland just received information about the black zombie you faced the other day. It seems that they are really interested to meet the person who managed to kill it. Don\'t worry the units assigned to you will be all military, I will also send high ranking military officers to accompany you, but you will be in charge of them."
Christina doesn\'t want to be separated from her son, but she understands the importance of this mission, but she is still somewhat confused. She suddenly thought of something,
"With all due respect prime minister, if you would like to know more information about the black zombies or anything else, the one we need to see is not in China, but someone down south, in Indonesia there is a man called Alex."
"Alex? Is that?"
"Alex is the man who gave information about the doomsday at the festival a few weeks ago. Because of his information, we were able to quickly nullify the zombie threat on the first day."
One of the prime minister\'s generals have the information about Alex, and Christina added,
"Yes sir, what he said during the festival appeared to be the truth, also, I know him pretty well, I believe we can get better information from him."
The prime minister gave a little thought, but he seemed decided already,
"No, we have promised to send you to the mainland. You will go there immediately."
Christina lost her words. She was just stunned.. Not sure what to do next, her uncle suddenly interjected as he knew the reason of her hesitation,
"Don\'t worry about your son. I promise I will take good care of him."
Because of what her uncle said, Christina had no other way or reason to refuse. She could only accept the mission. After Christina left, everyone in the room also left except for Prime Minister Lee Semo and Minister Sidao Young.
"So, Sidao, how is the preparation for the re-election coming?"
"Don\'t worry prime minister, it\'s all going smoothly. Within a few weeks, I assure you that you will definitely be the next President of Singapore, you will do a better job than the last one."
"Hahaha, good work! When I become president, I promise that you will be the next prime minister."
Knock!! Knock!!
"Prime minister, I have a surprise for you."
"Oooh, what is it?"
"Come in."
A man walked inside the room wearing a military uniform. The person had a rank of colonel and appeared to be carrying a huge cube-shaped safe.
"Prime minister, let me introduce you to Colonel Ronny. He was also involved in the fight with the black zombie. In fact, he is Christina ex-husband."
"Really? hahaha.. ex-husband? Why did you let that amazing woman go?"
Ronny frowned upon hearing the response and introduction. He hated to be known as someone husband\'s and be treated as a shadow. He liked to shine as himself. But before he was about to answer the prime minister, Minister Sidao went back to their main topic,
"This colonel has brought something that might interest you.."
"I wonder what it is?"
Sidao Young gave colonel Ronny a nod. He then placed the huge safe on the table in front of the prime minister. Looking at the safe the prime minister was suddenly startled,
"Is this?... Is this really what I think it is?"
The prime minister reached out and entered a code into the safe,
Tit Tit Tit Tit Tit Tit Clank!
The safe was opened by the prime minister\'s key code,
"Hahahahhah! Sidao you are an interesting man! I only mentioned it once and yet, you were actually able to bring it to me... Hahahahaah! Good! Good!"
The prime minister opened the chest and took out a few small boxes. He quickly opened one of the boxes. There\'s a label in front of it \'King of Denmark\' it\'s one of the rarest and most expensive cigars in the world. The prime minister lighted up one of them and quickly inhaled it.
"Huufffff.....Haaaa... This is great."
The prime minister offered the cigar to Minister Sidao and the minister took it. He then looked at Colonel Ronny he seemed to be hesitating but decided to offer one to the colonel as well, the colonel could read the situation and rejected the offer.
"Your loss then.. hahaha."
"You seem like a smart man, Colonel. I will reward you handsomely. If you prove yourself to be smart enough, I might consider you to fill out one of these empty chairs."
When Ronny saw the content of the safe, he was not even a little bit surprised, even if it cost him the life of dozens of men in his team for a mere cigar… Instead, he suddenly burned in ambition, he seemed to be just a few more steps into becoming one of the country\'s top executives. It seemed that there\'s something good that could come out from a doomsday after all. Seeing the situation, Minister Sidao smiled really wide.
- - - - - - - - - -
The next day, Christina gave Kaleb a very warm hug. She left her son to the trusted old maid and her mother. She then met up with her new units, she now have 5 units totalling 250 men, and is still led by Maxine, Corrie, and Jennie. Coincidentally, the military officer assigned to her is Lieutenant Choi. The group then went aboard an old corvette ship named RSS victory.
While the ship was slowly departing Singapore\'s port, Christina looked back with a heavy heart and said,
"I shall return..."