A/N: Thank you thank you thank you for staying with us so far!! Appreciate each and every one of you.

Though this story is a commercial flop, I promise to finish it! My estimate is about 150-200 more Chapters.

...

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Tens of kilometers away, in an underground passageway, a train had crashed against the walls of the tunnel, causing the already weak structure to fall into more disrepair.

The marks on the floor, the torn rail tracks, the missing rocks on the tunnel walls, and the fact that several train carriages were all over the place, detached, were indicative of how chaotic it had been here not too long ago.

Inside the train, there were dozens of bodies piled up; some were breathing, but most were not. There were plenty of broken bones jutting out, sinews from different people touching, and anyone conscious would’ve long vomited out their meals.

At a glance, one would think they were all dead. However, there were still several who persisted. How long they could remain breathing, on the other hand, was the main question.

Amidst this pileup of corpses, one moved, rolled aside to give way to the person underneath.

A blonde head lifted his head and gasped for air, coughing immediately when the dense, rusty smell of blood and astringent kick of pee assaulted his nose.

"Urggh..." Leon groaned, falling back down due to the pain. He barely registered the overload of stench, but when it did, it made him want to faint again. Eyes twitching, he turned his head to look for his friend. He vaguely remembered that the other lad was thrown to the opposite side of the car.

He paused when he saw a familiar backpack, the fabric now stained with blood. Next to that was the greasy bastard sitting beside them before the accident.

That greasy bastard was now impaled on a handle pole.

He felt no pity for him, but there were tens of others who were very dead but deserved better than him.

Leon liked to watch some disaster films and some gruesome thrillers like the Final Destiny series, but he never thought this type of situation would ever befall him.

He gasped as he struggled to get up, feeling like he had just been battered by several trucks. He dragged his body to the other side of the car to look for his friend, hoping he was alright.

There were a few groans and cries around, some moving around, but he didn’t bother with them. He didn’t know them, and he barely had the energy to move; how could he spend so much energy on strangers?

He soon arrived at the other end of the car, heart tense but hopeful.

But then he saw it: a leg underneath the pile, wearing familiar shoes. Those rubber shoes were limited edition. They bought them together with the bonuses they won during a school tournament.

He immediately burst into tears.

"WAAAA! TIM!!! WUUUUU!" he cried, and the only reason he hadn’t sobbed his heart out was that it felt physically painful to do so.

He cried silently, mourning the loss of his friend.

...

Except the shoe twitched and Leon’s voice immediately died down.

"..."

The young blonde extended his hand to the shoe, poking it, not quite sure what to expect.

Twitch

"..."

"TIMMMYYY!!!!!"

Leon forgot the pain in his body and found a new source of strength. He immediately knelt down to pull the others away from his friend’s body. Fortunately, after taking a few weights crushing his body, he confirmed that the person was alive and rolled out on his own.

He was relieved to see his friend in one piece (literally) and still breathing.

Without any gentleness, he shook him. "TIMOTHY! WAKE UP!"

He shook him awake. In his young mind, he was afraid that he would sleep forever. Fortunately for them, there were no bones displaced or all that shaking could’ve punctured an internal organ.

Luck still favored some people.

When Tim’s eyes flickered open, Leon finally stopped, falling at the side and feeling all the forgotten pain and tiredness he had been ignoring when he saw Tim’s shoes.

And damn, was he in pain.

But it was something that already happened, and after some time, you’d get used to it. It was torture, but at least their brains could finally start processing other things.

Leon’s eyes ended up on the corner and saw the girl being harassed before. Her glasses were a bit tilted now, and the girl had a deep gash on her arm and leg. However, she was alive. It was just that a man twice her size landed on her.

Biting his cheek, Leon made a decision to help. His friend was alive and moving now, anyway. He pushed away the heavy corpse and helped her up to sit on the chair.

She looked at him; without the glasses, he could see her eyes were bright with gratitude. She struggled to move her arm, and she placed it over her heart and made a circular gesture.

She repeated the gesture as she looked at him.

Leon tilted his head. "What?"

"She’s saying thank you," Timothy mumbled from behind. "It’s sign language," he said, his voice raspy. "A volunteer taught us the basic greetings before, don’t you remember?"

Leon vaguely remembered a community lesson for it, but he was the type to never sit still, so...

Then he realized that this girl couldn’t speak, which was why she hadn’t made a sound when the greasy man was harassing her. She was holding a pole to balance herself then. Had she tried to use her hands, in retrospect, she could’ve been pushed closer to the pervert instead.

And to think he had looked down on her tolerance back then.

He rubbed the back of his neck in guilt. He then pointed in a direction, pointing at the corpse of the man. "He’s dead now." As if it made anything better.

And to the girl, it did.

The two of them dragged themselves out of the car. The train had several cars, and other cars were way more damaged. Some were directly splattered, while another seemed to have been divided into two.

Outside were people who had crawled out, having various injuries over their bodies, crying, panicking, trying to find a way home and trying to find people they knew.

Those who lost someone could not be spoken with; they were too immersed in their pain and mourning. The others congregated at a clearing outside the displaced train cars.

"Why...did anyone call the police yet?"

"No signal!"

"I’m worried about the aftershocks..." someone said, and then someone wanted to slap him for fear of him being a crow’s mouth.

And just on cue, the earth shook again. Everyone’s heart dropped. Most jolted into action, while some others just froze in place.

Regardless of how their bodies reacted, their survival still depended on their luck. Some of those who managed to run away were still hit by rocks, after all.

"AH!"

"Don’t leave the train! What if the earth falls down!"

Timothy gasped and cursed when he saw a piece of rock fall down on the person running to them, splattering blood all over!

"DAMNIT!" he cursed and yelled, but his eyes were teary. "When will this end!?"

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