Magic Space: Struggling to Survive in the Apocalypse-Chapter 76: Earthquake and Downpour

Amid the fleeing crowd, Evelyn Ford spotted Sheryl Finch and Yara Caldwell. Both women seemed to have sustained more injuries. As Sheryl fell into a massive, collapsed sinkhole, she desperately clung to a man trying to escape beside her, dragging him down with her.

Yara Caldwell stumbled and fell. Crying out her son’s name, she reached out, hoping he would pull her up. The pale-faced boy glanced back at her, let out a sigh of relief as if a great weight had been lifted, and then disappeared into the crowd.

The earthquake lasted for twenty minutes. By the time Evelyn reached the small plain, the tremors had stopped. Many others who had fled there with her were kneeling on the ground, wailing. They cursed the black bears, cursed the earthquake, cursed the heavens, and cursed their own powerlessness.

Evelyn leaned against a rock, took off her jacket, and draped it over her head. The torrential rain continued, though the hail had stopped. The water flowing beneath her gathered into a stream and began to run downhill.

She took Mina out to check on it. Thankfully, it wasn’t injured.

When Mina saw that she was covered in blood, her face caked with it, it started squeaking excitedly. Evelyn stroked its head and quickly covered its mouth.

"I’m okay. Don’t squeak. Don’t be scared."

Mina looked at her with teary eyes. Evelyn couldn’t help but marvel at her own bizarre luck. ’What kind of shitty luck is this? I went into the mountains and picked up a magical little squirrel.’ 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

Just as Evelyn was about to open her backpack to take a painkiller, an aftershock hit.

Evelyn quickly crouched down, holding Mina tightly in her arms. Cries and screams rose up once more. Some people, terrified, bolted and ran. Evelyn couldn’t run anymore. She just squatted there. A few minutes later, the aftershock subsided. This repeated over and over until five in the morning, when the earthquakes finally ceased. Only the torrential rain continued, showing no sign of stopping.

A convoy of several thousand people had been reduced to just a few hundred. Evelyn walked a circle around the small plain but didn’t see Officer Graham, Wendy, Quincy, Roy Henderson, or Owen Chapman.

She suddenly felt an overwhelming urge to cry. She was terrified that these companions she had spent so much time with were all dead. With a hoarse voice, Evelyn called out their names, starting from a whisper and rising to a desperate, ragged shout.

Everyone around her was injured to varying degrees. Evelyn took a foldable trekking pole from her pack, swallowed two painkillers, and decided to go back and check the area where the vehicles had been parked.

Most of the vehicles had been sent tumbling into the ravine below the road by the earthquake. Others were buried under rocks and earth that had slid down from the mountain.

Evelyn took out her raincoat and put it on. Her hands wouldn’t stop shaking, and she couldn’t tell if it was from the cold or the pain.

"Help... help me."

A hand reached out from an overturned vehicle. The person trapped underneath waved at Evelyn. She hesitated for two seconds before slowly walking toward the hand. But just as she got close, the hand dropped, and the person buried inside went still.

Evelyn just stared at it. Her eyes were bloodshot as she fixated on the hand like a madwoman.

The downpour washed over Evelyn, rinsing away all the filth from her body. She felt something warm on her face. Raising a hand to wipe it, she couldn’t tell if what she felt was rain or tears.

A small aftershock rippled through the ground, and Evelyn collapsed. The tears at the corners of her eyes fell into the rain. ’So tired...’ Evelyn closed her heavy eyelids.

"SQUEAK, SQUEAK..."

Mina wriggled out of the cloth bag. The rain soaked its fluffy, beautiful long tail, making it look more like a drenched, ugly rat. It nuzzled its head against Evelyn and slapped her with its tail, trying to wake her up.

Evelyn groggily opened her eyes. Seeing her awake, Mina excitedly burrowed into her arms.

Evelyn stared at the oppressive, dark sky. The metallic scent of wet earth stung her nostrils. She pushed herself up from the ground with effort.

All around her were collapsed landslides, overturned vehicles, and silent strangers. It seemed as if she and Mina were the only ones left in the world.

The road ahead was completely destroyed. After getting to her feet, Evelyn pressed forward with Mina. She still wanted to search for Officer Graham and the others among the convoy.

’If I can’t find them, it must mean they’re still alive.’

The rain seemed to have lessened slightly. The air grew damp, and the temperature dropped by several degrees. Evelyn walked to the middle of the convoy and found the buried van.

Evelyn called out everyone’s name but still received no answer.

She walked to the very front of the convoy. The RV there was surprisingly intact. Its body and door were smeared with fresh blood. Evelyn pulled the door open and stepped inside. The overwhelming stench of blood hit her. Mr. Holloway, whose legs had been bitten off, was hiding under a table. Hearing footsteps, he opened his eyes.

Evelyn met his gaze for a few seconds. There was another woman in the vehicle, trembling uncontrollably. Upon seeing Evelyn, the woman picked up a gun from the floor. She pulled the trigger, but unfortunately, the gun was out of bullets.

She glanced outside at the dismembered limbs in the downpour, the cracked earth, the mangled bodies crushed under boulders, and the pile-up of smashed vehicles.

She seemed stunned for a moment, then suddenly lunged at Mr. Holloway, grabbing his hair and slamming his head against the vehicle’s interior. Mr. Holloway looked at Evelyn, pleading for help, but within a dozen seconds, he stopped breathing in the woman’s grasp.

The woman paid Evelyn no more mind. Crying and laughing, she ran out of the vehicle and into the torrential rain.

Evelyn surveyed the RV. Aside from being a bit dirty, the equipment inside was completely undamaged. The refrigerators were even stocked with bear meat. Evelyn picked up Mr. Holloway’s body and threw it outside. Seeing no one else around, she stored the RV in her space.

Unfortunately, the other SUVs had all been shaken off the cliff. Evelyn couldn’t find Officer Graham or the others. The road was blocked both ahead and behind. She glanced at Broken Cloud Mountain and resolutely headed into the wilderness.

Between the eighteen peaks of Broken Cloud Mountain were small plains and hollows. Evelyn planned to find a place to recuperate first. Once her injuries were healed, she would consider her next move.

’Should I go to Wyrmrest Base, or head for the more distant Northwest or Southwest?’

Broken Cloud Mountain wasn’t suitable as a permanent settlement because it was too close to Corinth and Marris. Both cities had nuclear power plants.

The mountain paths were exceptionally difficult to traverse, and even more so in the rain. Evelyn fell almost every few steps. She planned to find a hollow, but that would take several hours of walking. After an hour and a half, she finally found a small cave. She decided to take shelter from the rain and tend to her wounds inside.

As soon as she let Mina out, it became very anxious, sticking close to Evelyn’s side.

"Mina, I’m not leaving. I won’t abandon you. Don’t be scared, okay?"

She gave it a handful of sunflower seeds to eat, then took some dry firewood from her space and built a fire in the cave.

Watching the rain outside begin to pour even harder, Evelyn was in no mood for self-pity. She changed out of her filthy clothes, took out gauze and iodine, and started dressing her wounds.

"DRIP, DRIP, DRIP..."

Raindrops fell on the dead leaves on the ground, splashing up tiny sprays of water.

Evelyn sat crouched by the fire, drying Mina’s damp fur.

The cave was small, only about five square meters. The RV wouldn’t fit inside, so Evelyn could only set up a tiny, simple tent within it.