Despite Louisa not understanding what was about to happen, she still instinctively felt the situation was going to transcend into something dangerous, so she heeded her sister's words.
And with that, Sienna charged forward.
The tires plunked across the bridge's uneven joints, and one could hear the whole structure groaning under their weight along with the whipping of the cold air outside.
Sienna drove with bated breath — her movement extremely careful. She adjusted the speed to be neither fast enough to impact the bridge nor too slow to get stuck.
Time seemed to have slowed at this moment, and when they were halfway through, the bridge suddenly shook, then creaked loudly.
Louisa gasped, squeezing her eyes shut. Fear coursed through her spine while she tried not to let out a sound so Sienna wouldn't lose focus.
Sienna's heart pounded, her focus reaching its peak. Every nerve in her body was wide awake as her foot pressed the accelerator, while her hands stayed tight against the wheel.
"Come on." She said through clenched teeth while wishing the car would grow wings and fly them to the other side. Unfortunately, that wouldn't happen.
The Cruiser continued forward. Snow and ice crunched beneath them. The far end of the bridge loomed closer—closer—and at last, the tires hit the solid ground with a jolt.
Behind them came a deafening crack, followed by a series of metallic shrieks.
Louisa's face was as pale as a sheet of paper, her body frozen as she stared behind her, just in time to see the middle span of the bridge collapse in on itself. The steel twisted then snapped, and finally plunged into the abyss, disappearing into swirling mist.
Her mouth opened, but no sound came out.
Sienna let out the breath she had been holding, relief spreading through her body.
"Are you okay?" she turned to the young girl beside her who clearly had never experienced anything remotely dangerous like this.
Louisa shook her head but nodded halfway like she didn't know what she was doing. Her voice trembled. "Yeah..."
Sienna patted her head, a reassuring look on her face. "Nothing will happen again."
For now.
They continued driving forward, and Sienna made some small talk to distract her little sis. She even took out some snacks from her space. Meanwhile, the cat was soundly asleep as if the environment had no effect on it.
They'd been driving for almost thirty minutes now, and Tiger City was even colder than where they were coming from.
Sienna's eyes landed on the dashboard display which was showing the current outside temperature, and she sucked in a deep breath.
Wasn't it just at -20°C (-4°F) when they left home?
How come in less than two hours, it's now -35°C (-31°F)?
No wonder she felt the cold was unbearable!
She had no idea whether this was just Tiger City being colder than her city or the weather had just went down this much back at home too. Either way, they needed to make it inside as soon as possible in case the temperature continued dropping.
The snow continued to pile up into mountains, crackling and crunchy. After driving for several more minutes, the two could finally see faint shapes of buildings in the distance — piercing into the horizon.
"We're almost there!" Louisa squealed.
Finally, they wouldn't have to tread this cold again! Even though she had no idea why Sienna chose this time for their relocation.
Sienna also smiled. "Yeah. We're here."
It took another ten minutes of cautious driving to reach the outskirts.
Unlike Moon City where they had come from, they met up to three cars along the way and even more passersby.
Sienna was quite surprised at how these people were managing in this raging cold. They thoroughly earned her respect.
Finally, Sienna pulled the Cruiser in front of a hotel whose entrance was half-sheltered from the storm. She turned off the engine but left the heater running on low. "Come on," she said, pulling her scarf tighter and telling Louisa to do the same while securing the cat in her arm.
She also brought out a medium suitcase from her space to serve as a decoy.
Stepping outside, a wave of coldness immediately whipped them, leading them to promptly cover their noses and go in.
Inside, the air was mercifully warmer. There was only one receptionist sitting at the desk who didn't look like he wanted to be there at all.
Sienna went straight to business and booked one of the deluxe rooms for a month. She knew by that time, the apocalypse would have arrived.
They entered the elevator, watching the numbers above the door intently, unaware of whom they were about to meet next.