"Wow, it’s really raining. Evelyn, you’re more accurate than the weather forecast," Wyatt Vaughn said, drying his hair and looking outside with a worried expression.

"I hope it’s just a light rain. I don’t think we can handle a real downpour."

Evelyn was worried about Ronan Kendrick and kept watching the window. Fortunately, he returned half an hour later with two rabbits and a pheasant in his hands.

Evelyn pulled out a towel to help him dry his hair, then hung a curtain to section off the back row and handed him a change of clothes.

"I thought you’d be gone for much longer."

Ronan Kendrick smiled at her. "I knew you’d be worried, so I came straight down the mountain."

Evelyn pursed her lips into a smile. Once he had changed, she pulled the curtain aside. Quincy and Wyatt Vaughn were already dressed in their thickest clothes.

"Every time it rains now, I feel traumatized. Evelyn, when do you think it will stop?"

"Sigh... I’m not a fortune teller. How would I know when it’s going to stop?"

The rain presented a very practical problem: the roads would become muddy, making travel exceptionally difficult.

Everyone sat in the car, anxiously watching the rain outside.

A little over two hours later, the rain stopped. Zion Lowell came over to tell everyone to get moving. They had to leave for the next town immediately, otherwise if the downpour returned, the consequences would be unthinkable.

"I really thought we could stop here for a couple of days and get a good rest. I can’t believe we have to set off again," Wyatt Vaughn sighed. Claudia Schultz looked just as worried.

"This weather is so unpredictable. There hasn’t been a single normal day."

Evelyn pulled out her pocket watch and glanced at it. It was 8:30.

"My brother was just telling me he wanted to go hunt a few rabbits and save the fur to make clothes."

"No wonder I heard him cursing over there earlier."

Quincy and Wyatt Vaughn couldn’t help but laugh. Evelyn glanced at the game at her feet. ’I need to find a chance to stash this in my storage space.’

The convoy had only been on the road for a little over ten minutes when a light drizzle began to fall again. Once they left Moon Lake behind, they were once again faced with endless mountains.

The main fear on a rainy day was thunder, but thankfully, there was no lightning.

The wind made the dead trees on either side of the road CREAK and groan. Occasionally, a small animal would leap down from a branch and disappear into the mountains below.

The vehicles moved at a steady pace, the drivers wary of skidding or encountering pits in the road.

Evelyn was constantly wiping rainwater from the windshield with a towel. The vehicle’s wipers were broken, and now the windows were starting to RATTLE.

"When are we going to get to the next town?"

Evelyn pulled out her notebook and took a look. "About five hours."

Hearing this, Quincy nearly cried out. "That far?"

"Just sleep for a while. We’ll be there when you wake up."

Quincy knew he was getting a little hysterical and forced himself to calm down.

Fortunately, the rain was light. It was a bit cold, but they were still relatively safe for the time being.

A five-hour journey wasn’t long, but it wasn’t short either. It certainly wasn’t a trip they could finish in an instant.

The seats in the vehicle were severely damaged, and sitting for so long made your ass hurt.

Although the rain was light, the wind was strong, and some sections of the road had collapsed. Everyone had no choice but to brave the rain and get out to clear the obstructions.

What should have been a five-hour drive ended up taking twelve.

By the time they reached Veridia, it was already nine in the morning. The rain had noticeably intensified, so the group had to find a safe place to park.

Veridia had been hit hard; collapsed buildings and mud were everywhere.

Evelyn took out her raincoat and put Mina and Lola into her bag.

The convoy navigated around a collapsed area and prepared to enter the town proper.

After driving around town for an hour, they finally found a building that hadn’t collapsed. They parked the cars on the ground floor, and everyone grabbed their luggage, got out, and hurried upstairs.

The building had many apartments, which were all relatively clean inside. Anything that could be carried away had been looted, but thankfully, there were no human skeletons or dead snakes and bugs left behind.

Evelyn and Ronan Kendrick settled into 501, while the others took rooms next door or on the floors above and below.

After more than ten hours on the move, everyone was exhausted. Although they were worried about a potential downpour, experiencing countless sudden natural disasters had trained them to be sufficiently calm and composed.

Evelyn set down her luggage and spread a straw mat on the floor. The room was covered in a thick layer of dust, but Evelyn couldn’t be bothered to clean. They would leave as soon as the rain stopped, as the group had no intention of staying here long.

It no longer felt like they were fleeing a catastrophe, but more like they were fugitives in hiding. They were as jumpy as startled birds, constantly worrying that disaster would strike at any second.

Evelyn couldn’t fight off her exhaustion any longer and fell asleep the moment she lay down on the straw mat. Outside the window, a fierce wind howled, and raindrops PITTER-PATTERED against the glass.

With the sudden drop in temperature, many people began showing signs of colds and fevers. When Evelyn woke up, she gave a large bag of medicinal herbs to Taylor Vance. Once Taylor had someone brew it, Ronan Kendrick went and got two bowls.

"I don’t have a cold. I don’t need to drink medicine, do I?"

"Everyone else drank some," Ronan Kendrick said, blowing on the medicine to cool it before bringing it to Evelyn’s lips.

Evelyn had prepared the herbal mixture herself, so she knew better than anyone how bitter it was. Drinking it was so unpleasant she felt like her soul was about to leave her body.

But the medicine was also very effective, and the fevers were quickly brought under control.

At three in the afternoon, the rain began to pick up. Everyone chopped up any burnable wood they could find in the rooms, but when that wasn’t enough, they had to venture out into the rain to find more. Ronan Kendrick went out as well. Since he had a raincoat, he was in a slightly better position than the others.

"There are still plenty of things to find in Veridia. When I was out just now, I found an SUV in the residential complex behind us."

Evelyn was pleasantly surprised. "What’s its condition?"

"It’s pinned under the ruins, but I checked. There’s some rebar holding up the weight, so the vehicle itself isn’t badly damaged."

Ronan Kendrick had also found a good deal of clothing and wood.

Evelyn decided to go take a look at the SUV. ’If I’m the one to get it, I won’t need to clear the ruins. I can just pull it directly into my storage space.’

After adding more wood to the fire, Evelyn took out clean clothes for Ronan Kendrick to change into. She stored the clothes he had brought back into her space.

"Let’s go out and get the vehicle later. We can see if we can find anything else while we’re at it."

Veridia was relatively remote and surrounded by mountains. People fleeing the disasters usually wouldn’t choose to pass through here; after all, the mountains were plentiful and the roads were complex.

The town hadn’t been burned by any major fires, so they should be able to find some things.

The others who had gone out to search for supplies also returned one after another. Judging by their expressions, they had found quite a bit.

Some people even put basins and buckets outside to collect rainwater. Claudia Schultz herself had gone out twice and brought back a good number of things.

Evelyn took some cooked food from her storage space, and the two began to eat dinner. A window in the room was left open, so the smoke from the fire quickly drifted out.

"Huh."

"What is it?"

"The insects are gone."

Evelyn walked to the windowsill, meal container in hand. "The bugs disappeared after the rain started."

Ronan Kendrick came to her side and joined her in watching the heavy rain outside. "It seems rainwater is their weakness."

After they finished eating, Evelyn put on her raincoat, settled Mina and Lola, and the two of them braved the rain and went outside.