For some reason, Evelyn Ford found herself growing calmer as the final days approached.
She felt no excitement, no fear, no anxiety, no thrill, and no sorrow.
On April 1st, the apocalyptic disaster descended.
Evelyn Ford turned off her phone and lay down on her bed. She had double-locked all the doors and windows, deciding not to participate in this round of "madness."
At eight o'clock the next morning, the sun did not rise. The sky was a vast expanse of blood-red. People walked out of their homes to start a new day of work and life.
Just then, a torrential downpour and hailstones the size of fists came crashing down from the sky. Dark clouds blotted out the heavens, a fierce wind raged, and lightning flashed as thunder roared. It was as if the sky had been torn open, and shrieking and whimpering sounds echoed between heaven and earth.
At twelve noon, Evelyn Ford got out of bed. She didn't open the curtains. Instead, after a quick wash, she went into the kitchen to continue cooking.
She didn't know what the world outside had become. She didn't want to know, and she didn't dare to find out.
The three-bedroom apartment had become very empty. All that remained in the living room was a sofa and a low coffee table.
Evelyn Ford placed a small family photo into a locket she wore around her neck. Everything else had been put away.
Her bedroom, too, was left with only a bed. The kitchen was the only room where nothing had been touched.
The sound of footsteps occasionally drifted up from the stairwell of the staff apartment building, and Evelyn Ford also heard her next-door neighbor slam their door shut.
In the afternoon, Evelyn Ford pulled the curtains open just a crack. When she saw cars rushing in and out of the complex and people running home in disarray, her gaze darkened, and she quickly drew the curtains closed again.
She opened her phone. Everyone was discussing the "superstorm" of the century. Many people started to complain, some were cursing angrily, and others were gloating over the misfortune.
A microcosm of humanity, yet Evelyn Ford felt nothing.
Evelyn Ford scrolled down and saw that the storm had started after eight in the morning. She then knew that the disaster's trajectory hadn't changed, but the timing had.
She remembered from her past life that the rainstorm had begun at five in the morning, and there had been no hail. It had started at 5:00 AM on April 1st and ended at 5:00 AM on June 1st.
Someone remembered that "Warning" post and asked online: since the storm has already arrived, how long will the disaster actually last?
For Evelyn Ford, this was also an unanswerable question. It was unsolvable.
All the drains in her apartment had been sealed with cement. Evelyn Ford returned to the kitchen and continued cooking.
With torrential rains falling across the globe, would rescue teams come? When would they come? Would relief supplies be distributed? When would they be distributed? These were all unknowns.
At this point, world order was still stable. Water and electricity were being supplied normally. Aside from complaining, people hadn't yet started to entertain more terrifying thoughts.
That night, the floodwaters below began to rise. Many posts asking for help appeared online, but they were followed by an overwhelming deluge of other posts, and the calls for help were instantly buried.
Evelyn Ford heard a series of screams and cries for help from downstairs. She guessed someone had been electrocuted, but she didn't go out.
On the morning of the third day, the heavy hail finally stopped. However, this also meant the water and power would soon be cut off.
Evelyn Ford was thankful that her water tanks were all full. Sure enough, after the water and power were cut that afternoon, her phone signal began to weaken. Just then, a property manager from the complex added her to a group chat.
Seeing the group name was "Prosperity Gardens Mutual Aid Group 3," Evelyn Ford raised an eyebrow but didn't leave.
There were 305 people in the group, and others were still being added.
Evelyn Ford's staff apartment building was Building D.
A302: Oh my god, that warning came true. What do we do? When are the authorities going to send people to rescue us? I'm on the third floor, it's terrifying. The water has almost submerged the first floor, and the water and power just went out. I'm having a breakdown.
C505: Haven't you seen the news pushed to your phone? This is a global superstorm, not just in Corinth. Rescue? We'll probably have to wait a while.
F601: How many supplies did you guys stock up on? I've only got two heads of cabbage left at my place.
A204: Pleading for a kind person to take me in. Generous reward offered.
F601: You'd be better off going out and booking a room in a high-rise hotel right now. They even include meals.
...
The group chat fell silent in an instant. Evelyn Ford glanced at it a few times before setting the group notifications to silent.
Suddenly, the signal disappeared, and no more messages came through. Half an hour later, a sound came from downstairs. Evelyn Ford looked out and saw two middle-aged men in raincoats and life jackets paddling away in an inflatable kayak.
At two in the afternoon, the signal returned. The group chat came alive again with a discussion about the people who had teamed up to go out and find supplies.
C702: What do I do? My husband isn't back yet. It's been five hours.
A203: Was that your husband who went out earlier? Why would he go out in a storm this bad?
C702: We have a baby at home, and we're out of formula and diapers.
C701: My husband went with him. We have an elderly parent who is sick at home, and they went to the hospital to get medicine.
B404: You guys actually have an inflatable kayak? That's amazing.
C702: We bought it for a camping trip.
C401: I just opened my door to look. The water level has risen again, and the rain seems to be getting heavier. Do you guys think... they might not...
C701: Holly Quinn, what nonsense are you spouting? How dare you curse my husband?
C401 sent a snarky sticker, and C701 immediately fired back with insults. The two went back and forth, neither giving an inch, until the group owner stepped in to stop the flame war.
Because of this exchange, the group fell into an eerie silence once again. Someone tried to offer a few words of comfort to ease the tension, but no one dared to go out and help search for the men.
Fortunately, around half-past three, the two men not only returned but also brought back a lot of supplies. Seeing them come back safely, the mood in the chat group became much more lighthearted and cheerful.
The residents of Building C had an inflatable kayak, so everyone started showering them with compliments, hoping they could borrow it for their own trips out.
At five in the afternoon, Evelyn Ford faintly heard a woman's crying and cursing coming from the balcony of her neighbor, Director Collins. She guessed that water must have collected on their balcony and was now flooding their apartment.
The storm raged with fierce winds and lightning. A large chunk of the roof corner of the apartment building in front was struck off by lightning, and the decorative trees in the complex were uprooted by the strong winds and swept into the air.
Her phone was constantly popping up with alerts: hail warnings, severe convection warnings, lightning warnings, tornado warnings, cold snap warnings...
Some residents in the complex had large families and hadn't stockpiled enough food. With rescue slow to arrive and the water level rising ever higher, panic and anxiety began to spiral out of control.
That night, just as Evelyn Ford had gotten into bed, several messages suddenly popped up in the group chat.
Someone in Building E was struck by lightning on their balcony and killed instantly. The emergency and police lines were unreachable, so the body could only be left in the apartment.
Building G housed over ten retired seniors who lived alone, with an average age of over seventy.
Late at night, the signal was spotty. Evelyn Ford saw that the temperature had dropped to eight degrees Celsius. She added a thick quilt to her bed and watched the news on her phone for a long time before drifting off to sleep.
The next day, the lightning subsided. More people in the complex started going out. Relying on the inflatable kayak and life jackets borrowed from Building C, many people went out in groups to procure supplies. From the group chat, Evelyn Ford learned that they were mainly going to buy glass to seal their balconies and cement to block their drains.
The previous night, floodwater had backed up through the drains, and every unit had been flooded.