Magic Space: Struggling to Survive in the Apocalypse-Chapter 42: High Temperature, Snake Plague 6

For Evelyn Ford, knitting a sweater was an activity where the more she failed, the more determined she became. She even gradually began to enjoy it. Evelyn had a stubborn streak; for any task, she would either give up completely from the start or, if she decided to do it, she had to do it perfectly and would never quit halfway.

This time, however, Evelyn decided to knit a scarf. After all, a scarf was much simpler than a sweater.

After her first failure, her second attempt felt much more natural. She straightened the red yarn and wound it into a ball, planning to leave some for a fringe. It was easy for her to become completely absorbed in her tasks. Once she found the right technique, she became so focused she forgot to eat or sleep. From morning until night, she worked until a less-than-perfect scarf was complete. Evelyn Ford put it away with a sense of satisfaction.

Before going to sleep that night, Evelyn set a small goal for herself: tomorrow, she would learn to knit socks.

In the dead of night, Evelyn heard a child crying. She opened her eyes and stared blankly for a moment before turning on her desk lamp. Grabbing her binoculars and a flashlight, she walked to the window.

The crying was coming from the building next door. It fluctuated between loud and soft and sounded like a little girl.

Evelyn Ford looked out through the binoculars. A black snake was draped over the railing outside her window. Several of the metal bars had already been snapped by the snakes that had climbed up to watch her, and a black snake’s tail was now coiled tightly around the remaining two.

Evelyn ignored the black snake and listened carefully to the crying, trying to pinpoint its exact location. Just then, a strong gust of wind howled past, nearly blowing the snake off the railing. Of course, Evelyn Ford didn’t believe in any talk of Ghost Gods, but in that moment, a chill ran through her.

’Just in this building alone,’ she thought, ’how many people are still alive? Maybe... I’m the only one left.’

Bodies had been burned on the rooftop. More than ten corpses were lying on the sixth floor. Between the floors above and below, Evelyn had lost count.

The familiar and the unfamiliar, the friendly and the hated—all had lost their lives in this building.

She couldn’t see any movement through the binoculars. The crying continued, intermittent and sporadic. Evelyn had a very bad feeling. She knew all too well that without the constraints of law and civilization, humans were no different from any other species. In fact, they could be even more terrifying and cruel.

Just as large snakes eat smaller ones, so too did people. In some hidden corner, cannibalism might have already begun, and women and children were at the very bottom of the food chain.

"Two-legged sheep" was the term for them.

In the silent night, the crying sounded even more shrill and desperate. Evelyn Ford stared at the oppressive, dark sky, her heart shrouded in a thick, black veil.

Gradually, the crying stopped, and the wind outside died down. Evelyn went back to bed and lay there, staring listlessly at the lamp on her nightstand.

The next day, Evelyn Ford went about her usual routine: practicing knitting socks, reading, writing in her journal, and exercising. Occasionally, she’d pick up her Rubik’s Cube to train her hand speed and mind. Her monotonous life repeated day after day, while outside, the temperature had already climbed to forty degrees.

The water level had dropped to the fourth floor, revealing more skeletons, as well as cars, kayaks, and assault boats that had been swept down by the flood.

Although snakes are heat-tolerant animals, forty degrees was pushing their limit.

For the next few days, Evelyn kept an eye on the situation outside. On the fifth day, when the temperature reached forty-two degrees, snakes began to die in large numbers.

Dead snakes from the floors above fell and slammed onto the railing outside her window. The last two bars, unable to bear the weight, snapped completely.

Snakes decompose incredibly fast—normally in just three to five hours, and even faster in the heat.

The stench outside was overpowering, like being in a septic tank. Evelyn had to wear a mask even indoors to avoid inhaling the foul air.

Evelyn Ford scratched her palm. She broke a small blister, and the spot where the skin had torn was both itchy and painful. She scratched it again. The skin on her palm began to wrinkle and then peel. Frowning, Evelyn tore the skin off, but the more she tore, the more it peeled, until the entire surface of her palm was a mangled mess.

Evelyn glanced out the window and, suppressing her nausea, slowly walked over. On the railing of the opposite building hung shed snakeskins. Looking at her own palm, Evelyn’s scalp prickled with dread.

She quickly retrieved a tube of ointment from her space, squeezed out a large dollop, and slathered it all over her palm and the back of her hand. Evelyn reassured herself that skin peeling on her hands was just a normal allergic reaction, or perhaps a fungal infection like tinea manuum. ’It’s no big deal. The ointment will cure it.’

But as she looked at the strips of snakeskin fluttering in the wind outside, a cold sweat broke out on her back.

It was the first time Evelyn realized how agonizing an itch could be. She wanted to scratch the broken skin on her hand; just one scratch would bring so much relief. But common sense told her not to, or it would only get worse. Evelyn couldn’t bear it any longer. She even felt the urge to chop her entire hand off. The itch in her palm spread through every nerve in her body. Gritting her teeth, she bandaged her right hand.

As the ointment was applied to her itchy palm, a searing pain shot through it. To prevent reinfection, Evelyn took a disinfectant spray and coated every corner of her home.

After using three tubes of ointment and enduring it for five days, Evelyn’s right hand finally healed. Aside from some redness and swelling, the skin was no longer broken or itchy. Outside, the temperature had now risen to forty-five degrees. When she splashed water on the glass, it evaporated instantly with a SIZZLE.

Dressed in sun-protective clothing, a mask, and safety glasses, Evelyn Ford opened the window. A wave of heat washed over her, the intense blast making her feel dizzy.

The snake swarms were almost entirely dead. Occasionally, she could still see a few large snakes writhing in the sea of corpses. They tried to climb the walls, but the moment they touched the scorching surface, they fell right back down. The acrid smell of rot penetrated her mask and assaulted her nostrils, making her feel instantly suffocated.

Evelyn Ford put on a second mask. Once she could no longer smell anything, she took out her binoculars and began to survey the entire residential complex.

There was only silence. Not the slightest sound could be heard.

Just then, she heard a HISSSSSS from the floodwaters below. Evelyn Ford leaned out to look, and her pupils contracted in terror.

A giant black python emerged from the mass of snake corpses. Its wide, flat head was raised high. It opened its cavernous mouth and swallowed several dead snakes from the water in a single gulp. Evelyn had no idea how long its body was, but seeing its trunk, as thick as a basin, she estimated it had to be at least seven or eight meters long. Evelyn slammed the window shut as fast as she could. She pulled a Crossbow from her space, coated an arrowhead with poison, and pressed a hand against her wildly beating heart. Leaning against the wall with her eyes closed, Evelyn slowly exhaled.

The python was enormous. Though it wasn’t venomous, a human was no match for it.

Evelyn Ford’s grip on the Crossbow tightened until her knuckles turned white. She suddenly thought of the people on the eleventh floor who had begged God for forgiveness and prayed for divine protection. If she could, she would gladly kneel right now and beg the giant python to just leave.

In the face of such absolute power, Evelyn was overcome with a profound sense of defeat and helplessness.