Chapter 423: Chapter 423: Fleeing in the Rainstorm 2
"Everyone, pay attention. This road has turned into a swamp. It’s nothing but sludge underneath. If you fall in, you won’t be able to pull yourself out. Be extremely careful."
After Evelyn Ford spoke, Ronan Kendrick plunged the oar into the sludge. With a slight push, he propelled the raft forward.
The people behind them hurried to keep up. At a time like this, the large rafts were much safer than the small ones. The smaller a raft was, the less stable it became, making it easier to capsize.
The raft began to glide forward with the current. Evelyn Ford could now clearly see the "thing" wedged between two trees. It was a person, all right—likely dead for three or four days, their body bloated and pale from the water.
Evelyn Ford gripped the raft tightly. ’Once we’re past this stretch, we won’t have to be so careful.’ Rain pounded on her hat, collecting on the brim before streaming down. Evelyn blinked, trying to shake the water from her eyelashes.
"It really is a dead person. They’re covered in mud and sand, and their clothes are so torn... They must have been dead for days, all bloated like that. How awful."
"Probably a refugee who was hiding in the mountains. Look, there’s a bundle next to them."
Ethan Dawson, Quincy, and the others had caught up. The sludge-filled path was treacherous, but as long as they kept their balance, it was much faster than paddling.
Wyatt Vaughn hunched his shoulders. "My god, how is this rain getting even heavier?"
"We haven’t seen a single living soul in two days, just a few floating corpses. You don’t think all the refugees in the mountains are dead, do you?"
"Maybe they fled long ago. If we’d left as soon as the rain started, we wouldn’t be in such a sorry state right now."
Quincy sighed. "Who could’ve known the rain would last this long? Besides, it’s definitely not just a local storm. For all we know, the entire Northwest—or maybe all of Azure—is getting rained on. Leaving earlier wouldn’t have made a difference."
"Is anywhere even safe anymore?"
"Hiding on a snow-capped mountain probably isn’t safe either. Even without the torrential rain, you still have volcanic eruptions."
"’Life and death are determined by fate; wealth and rank are up to Heaven.’ I’ve made my peace with it. If I die, it’s just my destiny." Everyone seemed to agree with what Chet Lawrence said.
There was nothing left to look forward to in life. Death might just be an end to all their troubles.
But now they faced a new problem. Dying on the road without even a proper burial, ending up like that corpse behind them—soaking in the muddy water, wedged between two trees, a death devoid of dignity—was a thought more terrifying than death itself.
"Let’s all try to be a little more optimistic. Who knows? Maybe the rain will stop once we get over the next mountain. We’ve survived for so many years already. I don’t want to die now."
Quincy adjusted the oilcloth covering Zoe, then pulled a piece of Dried Meat from his bag. It had gotten a little hard and was difficult to tear, so Quincy used his knife to shave it into thin slices before handing them to Zoe.
Ronan Kendrick glanced back at Evelyn Ford from time to time. While everyone else was shivering from the cold, he seemed completely unaffected. Evelyn looked at the white hair visible beneath Ronan’s hat and realized it had grown quite long. The past few months had been so hectic that she hadn’t had a chance to help him trim it.
They had already covered a good distance on the raft, and everything was stable for the time being.
"There’s movement up ahead," Ronan Kendrick said suddenly.
"Is it people?"
"I don’t think so."
Just then, Evelyn Ford also made out two wild boars trapped in the sludge ahead. They were on the verge of death, likely having been stuck there for hours.
"It’s wild boars!" Evelyn Ford said, a little excited. She furtively pulled the Eagle Claw Hook from her bag and handed it to Ronan Kendrick. Ronan first used an oar to brake the raft, then threw the hook, expertly snagging one of the boars in the sludge.
The moment it was hooked, the boar began to squeal. Hearing the sound, the people on the rafts behind them grew excited.
"It’s a wild boar! Ronan Kendrick is incredible. While the rest of us are just trying to escape, he’s out here hunting."
The wild boar wasn’t very big, weighing maybe a hundred pounds, and could be loaded onto the raft.
"Evelyn, how many of them are there?"
"Two. We’ll find a place to shelter from the rain before dark, then we can butcher them."
The two boars were clearly starving; there wasn’t much meat on their bones. Perhaps it was the sudden catch that lifted everyone’s spirits, as the rest of their journey went relatively smoothly. However, the raft couldn’t stay in the channel of sludge forever. The woods on either side were dense with short spruces, too thick for the raft to pass through.
Evelyn Ford’s brow furrowed. Behind her, Wyatt Vaughn was complaining of a stomachache, and others needed to use the toilet as well. The rain was still coming down. Evelyn wiped the water from her face and raised her binoculars to look ahead. It was past seven, and the fog had lifted slightly, allowing her to see clearly for about five hundred meters.
"There’s a fork up ahead," Ronan Kendrick said suddenly. "I’ll cut down the trees beside it to make a platform on the ground. Everyone can get up there and take shelter."
Evelyn Ford reached out and squeezed Ronan Kendrick’s arm. He was doing the work of four or five men all by himself, and her heart ached for him. But he never let it show, never complained of pain or exhaustion.
"Alright, I’ll help you."
Ronan Kendrick steered the raft, slowly paddling toward the fork on the left. Ethan Dawson, guessing Ronan’s intention, immediately followed suit. Luckily, the forest to the left was on level ground. If it had been a steep mountain, they would have had to worry about mudslides.
Ronan Kendrick grabbed a machete from the raft and chopped down the trees on either side of the fork, simply pushing them over. He then climbed off the raft, stepped onto the felled trunks, and began cutting down more trees nearby. Evelyn Ford and Ethan Dawson quickly climbed down to help.
They felled more than twenty trees, stripped the branches, and laid them over the logs to create a solid surface. With the sludge and water now covered, Ronan Kendrick hauled the two boars and the raft onto the platform, and the others followed.
"We’ll rest here tonight. Get the buckets out to collect rainwater. We’ll butcher the boars in a bit."
Evelyn Ford shook out an oilcloth, and Miles Vaughn and Quincy came over to help her rig it up as a makeshift shelter.
"How are we going to start a fire?"
"There are some rocks over there. I’ll go get them." Ethan Dawson dug some stones out of the sludge. By arranging a few of them together, they could build a fire right on top.
The task of butchering the boars fell to Chet Lawrence and Claudia Schultz. Evelyn Ford got the fire started, then sat down on the raft, not wanting to move an inch.
"Traveling before was either scorching hot or freezing cold, but it was never this miserable. This time is just pure suffering. We’re soaked every single day. I’ll probably get arthritis from all this."
"This is almost as hard as when the oceans flooded inland."
"I don’t even know where we are anymore. I almost wish we were back in Varden."
"I can’t take it. My stomach is starting to hurt... I think I’m about to get diarrhea."
Just then, a bolt of lightning flashed, followed by an unending roll of thunder. Evelyn Ford covered her ears and continued warming her feet by the fire.
Officer Graham was slicing ginger. Everyone was showing signs of catching a cold, so they needed to drink some ginger tea to ward off the chill.
’The only thing more miserable than being a refugee in a downpour was having to use the toilet.’ Evelyn Ford deeply regretted not having stockpiled diapers. As difficult as it was, she had to bite the bullet and take care of business.
"I don’t want to drink anything," Wendy said with a frown, staring at the ginger slices simmering in the pot. "It’s too much trouble to use the toilet."
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