The beauty-loving girl of the group, Charm, was a bit farther away from all of them. When the impact happened, she was at the edge, looking at the town and pointing at her neighborhood.
She was too far away from the decent slopes and ended up jumping to whichever place was the nearest, which happened to be a long staircase. Because she didn’t fall down too far, part of the heat still reached her body.
Fortunately, she did not roll all the way; otherwise her neck would’ve broken already, like the corpse next to her.
"KYA!" she screamed when she saw the dead stranger, eyes open because death came too quickly. But then she felt sharp pain on one side of her body and face; her left eye was a bit blurry and stinging, so she couldn’t be bothered to check.
Instead, she looked ahead. She saw from the side that those not covered by the mountain were burnt. Along with a vague recollection of what happened, a heavy sense of dread immediately gripped her heart, making it even harder to breathe.
She did not even care about the burning sting on half her face anymore.
Her arms had dislocated, but she did not care for the pain either, and climbed back up the stairs. She dragged her legs to the top, back to the view deck, which had now disintegrated.
Her knees buckled immediately, her pupils contracting as she saw the desolation in front of her.
What had been a gorgeous tourist town view...now lay in ruins. There was barely anything still standing. Even if there were, it was only some buildings at the edges. Otherwise, it looked like flat land that had been cleared out.
Charm shakily took out her phone from her body bag, repeatedly trying to call her parents. She did not bother to look at the signal, but she kept dialing and dialing, hoping someone would answer.
Rather, none of her calls even connected.
While she was calling, her eyes were fixed on the place where her house had once been.
In her heart, she already knew: Everything and everyone was gone.
...
In their group of twelve, only five remained, and none of them were sane for a while, finding it difficult to accept the changes that hit them on the face.
It was only when another earthquake shook the ground that they managed to forcibly take back their souls.
Fred—the youngest in the group—was the first one to recover, having heard Alyssa’s cries as she called his cousin’s name. Yes, his cousin. He hadn’t seen him yet.
But then he realized the anguish in Alyssa’s tone, and Fred immediately knew it was not good news. He shut his eyes, forcing himself to compartmentalize.
Chris had always been his favourite cousin.
He was very kind. Growing up, he had always protected him from bullies. He was several years younger than Chris and always saw the man as a hero of sorts.
They were close when they were young, before his parents divorced and he had to move out for a couple of years. It just so happened that he went to university in his hometown, so they rekindled the relationship.
It was impossible not to be sad. However, with the continued earthquake and the changing skies, they did not know what else could happen. He certainly wasn’t staying exposed like this forever.
When he tried moving, though, he gasped when he remembered his body was screaming in pain.
He wanted to roll around, but even flinching made his eyes burn in tears.
He not only had a sprain on his leg, but also a second-degree burn at the back of his arm.
Hisss—
An old memory of his childhood suddenly passed by him, then. He was a naughty brat and climbed up a tree, and he ended up falling down. It was a tree far from the road, and for a child, even a bit of pain felt like it lasted forever, let alone a sprain.
Frankly, his overactive brain at the time made it feel like he was about to die.
His hero, big brother Chris, who was years older and had already gone through puberty, was like a shining hero to him. Only he responded to the young him’s "dying" calls.
Chris even performed first aid on him, and in Fred’s eyes, he was like a super doctor. It was clumsy in retrospect, but proficient for a kid.
His cousin was great, and he ended up being a nurse. Fred had never told Chris how his chosen path fit him so well. He wished he did.
In any case, knowing him, he knew Chris would want him and their other friends to survive this ordeal.
Pushing down the pain in body and heart, Fred turned his head and looked at big sis Alyssa.
Wasn’t she a doctor? He wanted to ask her to take a look at the other survivors, but knew she wasn’t in the right state of mind right now. Instead, he found a long branch and used it as a cane.
He adjusted the fastest because, unlike these people, he was the least sheltered among them, already working a part-time job since he was in high school.
His cousin and his friends, on the other hand, were considered well-off. The kind who traveled abroad together at least once a year. Should he leave them behind?
After that thought passed, he shook his head. They were his cousin’s friends. His cousin had helped him out a lot growing up, and even with this gig, he could’ve hired someone with more experience, but he chose him.
It was simply giving him an opportunity to make money. At least while he can, Chris always believed that he should help relatives.
Fred wanted to look at his cousin first, who had died protecting the woman he loved.
He wanted to see him, too, but the woman embraced Chris tightly, inconsolable, wanting to mesh their bodies together.
At this state, he doubted she’d let him have a look. However, His cousin...he needed a proper burial, and they needed to head out quickly. They did not have time.
He first went to look for the other survivors. There were some strangers there, too, and many were alive, but his priority was his cousin’s friends.
For better or for worse, for now, all they had were each other.
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