Magic Space: Struggling to Survive in the Apocalypse-Chapter 20: Downpour, Poisonous Moths 16

A bloodcurdling scream traveled from the fourth floor to the tenth. Evelyn Ford kept her eyes closed, but her hand rested on the doorknob. She was like a lioness poised to strike, waiting for the perfect moment. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

"Don’t kill me! I know who has food in their apartment. I can tell you."

A pair of filthy, stinking hands gripped Luna Rhodes’s neck and lifted her off the ground. The man’s eyes roamed wantonly over her body as he let out a wicked laugh.

"Is that so? I’m not interested in finding food right now. I’m more interested in you."

Luna Rhodes trembled in fear. Her neck was constricted, her face turning crimson as the whites of her eyes began to show.

"I’m sick! I have AIDS! But there are clean, pretty ones in this building. There’s one in 902. Everyone in her apartment is old except for her. There’s another in 1001—she’s an orphan, used to be the top scorer on Corinth’s college entrance exam. She has a ton of food. I saw her bring a lot of stuff back. They’re both much prettier than me. I can take you up there. I’m really sick. Please, spare my life. I’m begging you."

"Bitch. Still trying to play tricks." A slap struck Luna Rhodes across the face. Her head snapped to the side, and she spat out a mouthful of blood, two of her teeth knocked loose.

Luna Rhodes’s head was spinning with pain. The man tore at her clothes, pressing a knife to her neck. Seeing the poisonous moths flying in, Luna Rhodes trembled uncontrollably.

"If you don’t want to die, be still."

"Please, I really am sick. My medical records are in the cabinet. You can look if you don’t believe me. I’m not lying."

Luna Rhodes’s father and brother had already had their throats slit. Her mother was screaming in another room. Her hands wouldn’t stop shaking as she desperately tried to calm herself.

The man pulled open the cabinet and saw a medical file inside. It was filled with technical jargon he couldn’t understand, but he no longer doubted Luna Rhodes.

He looked at Luna Rhodes’s delicate face, cursed, and slit her throat without hesitation.

"Done so soon?" his companion outside asked with a malicious grin when the man came out.

"Screw ’soon.’ The bitch was diseased."

Then, he glanced at the room where the screaming continued and pointed upward. "I hear there are two more young, pretty ones in this building."

On the ninth floor, the door to Lauren Keller’s apartment was chopped down with an axe and kicked open. Her grandparents were locked in a room while she and her parents faced the marauders with kitchen knives. Lauren remembered Evelyn’s words: only by staying alive could she better protect her family. Her hand, holding the knife, was perfectly steady. In that moment, she knew with stark clarity that the world had changed, and so had she.

"Look at that, a young one. Fourth Bro, kill these two old geezers first. We’ll take the girl back and have some fun with her later."

Mr. Keller stood protectively in front of Lauren and Mrs. Keller. Hearing the raider’s words, he raised his knife to charge, but his opponent’s long blade sliced off his arm. A second later, the blade was plunged into his stomach.

Lauren’s eyes widened with fury as she watched her parents being killed one after another. Her attempts to fight back were a joke against several powerful men. Just then, she remembered what Evelyn had given her. She grabbed a glass bottle from the table and flung its contents at the face of the man in front of her.

A horrific scream erupted. The man who was hit cried out as his flesh began to burn and rot. Seeing this, Lauren threw the rest at another man. Though he reacted quickly, some of it still splashed onto his face. In an instant, the skin on his face rotted and sloughed off.

’No wonder Evelyn said this was for saving your life. But there wasn’t much of it; it had to be a one-hit kill.’ Lauren’s aim was only average, so she hadn’t managed to hit their necks or chests.

Listening to the two men’s screams, Lauren looked at her parents lying to the side. She raised her knife and hacked at the two raiders again and again until they stopped moving. Only then did Lauren come to her senses. Suppressing her heartache, she moved her parents’ bodies to another room, picked up the raiders’ long blades, and left apartment 902.

The moment Evelyn heard footsteps outside her door, she threw it open and fired her first Crossbow Arrow. Her arrows were coated in poison. She could no longer hear the cries and screams. It was as if she’d lost her mind. Only one thought echoed in her head: ’Kill them. Kill them all.’

Officer Graham coordinated with her perfectly. The tenth, eleventh, and twelfth floors suffered no casualties. All the raiders in Building D were eliminated, but many of Building D’s residents had also died.

The two of them took an assault boat over to Building E in front. Looking at the horrific scenes before them, Officer Graham nearly lost his footing. The hand gripping his combat knife was trembling. Evelyn had long since witnessed the cruelty of the apocalypse; she had no time for anger. She fired a Crossbow Arrow, and a raider charging at them with a knife took it square in the chest, tumbling down the stairs.

There were eighteen raiders in total, split into three teams to slaughter and rob three residential buildings. By the time Evelyn and Officer Graham had finished cleaning them all up, two hours had passed.

Evelyn’s protective suit was torn to shreds, and the windbreaker underneath was soaked with blood. She had her Crossbow for defense, so she herself was uninjured.

Officer Graham had knife wounds on his back, waist, lower abdomen, and calves. By the time they returned to Building D, he was on the verge of death, his wounds still bleeding. He called out his daughter’s name as he coughed up mouthfuls of blood. Evelyn dragged him to the twelfth floor, only to find all of Building D’s survivors crowded there.

Their gazes held no gratitude for Evelyn, only fear. Seeing the half-dead Officer Graham, they shrank back in fright.

Evelyn found Lauren Keller on the seventh floor. She was covered in blood, knife in hand, still hacking at the raider beneath her. Evelyn pulled her up and patted her on the shoulder. Then, the two of them dragged all the raiders’ bodies to 601 to feed the poisonous moths.

"You had weapons! Why didn’t you show up sooner? If you had, my husband wouldn’t be dead!"

A middle-aged woman lunged at Evelyn, trying to strike her. In an instant, the two of them became the target of everyone’s anger, recast as the culprits of the whole disaster.

Evelyn ignored the woman and looked at Mrs. Graham. Her tone was serious. "Officer Graham isn’t in good shape. We need to treat his wounds immediately."

Then she turned to Lauren. "You should go home first."

"Evelyn, go check on my son! I’m sure he can still be saved! Hurry and save him!"

"My son... Those damned raiders... they’re not human!"

"Evelyn, why didn’t you save my wife just now? You clearly could have saved her!"

"Chester Graham, have you forgotten your duty? You’re a police officer! Why didn’t you come save us sooner? Why?!"

They shrieked and cried, heaping blame on them. Not a single person spoke up for Officer Graham, who had elderly parents and a young daughter at home. Nor did anyone speak up for Evelyn, who was just a nineteen-year-old girl.

"Enough! If it weren’t for Evelyn and Officer Graham, every single one of you would be dead today! All you can do is kneel and beg for mercy, watching your families get murdered without even daring to fight back. And you have the nerve to blame them?"

Lauren Keller stared coldly at them and said, word by word, "Let me tell you something. Things are different now. Killing and looting are going to be the new normal. If you expect someone else to protect you, you’re dreaming."