Magic Space: Struggling to Survive in the Apocalypse-Chapter 38: High Temperature, Snake Infestation 2

After a few minutes of a staring contest, Evelyn Ford was the first to back down. She took out a bottle of medicated oil, placed it by a crack in the window, and gently fanned the air twice. The oil’s unique, potent scent wafted out through the gap. The water snake outside began to writhe, its tail slapping against the glass—TAP, TAP. It flicked its forked tongue out agitatedly, its HISSING exceptionally clear in the night. Two minutes later, it left the windowsill.

Many things could be used to repel snakes, such as realgar, sulfur powder, snake repellent powder, medicated oil, and garlic.

Although Evelyn Ford had driven it away, she was still shaken. She quickly grabbed a flashlight and checked every corner of her home. Evelyn only relaxed after finding nothing amiss. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

Water snakes were only mildly venomous and didn’t pose a major threat to people. However, if it were a highly venomous, aggressive species, a bite without access to antivenom would be a death sentence.

Highly venomous snakes included sea snakes, sharp-nosed vipers, Silver-banded Kraits, banded kraits, bamboo vipers, cobras, and mamushi pit vipers. Those were the main types of venomous snakes found in this part of the world. But with the drastic climate change, it wasn’t impossible for species to have mutated.

’If it were any other creature, I could go out and fight it to the death,’ Evelyn Ford thought. ’But with snakes, it’s better to hide if I can.’

In the latter half of the night, several more snakes slithered up the outside of her balcony glass. At first, Evelyn diligently used the medicated oil to drive them away, but eventually, she gave up resisting entirely. ’They can’t get in anyway, so let them cling there,’ she thought.

Ripples spread across the floodwaters as snake after snake emerged, crawling into the building. Latching onto the scent of humans, their tails began to rise, heads held high and pupils constricted, flicking their scarlet forked tongues.

Evelyn Ford only got two or three hours of sleep that night. When she pulled the curtains back again and saw several snakes coiled outside her window, she was completely unfazed.

The other residents in the building, however, weren’t so lucky. Many had left their balcony doors and windows open. Some felt something cool and silky in their sleep, only to open their eyes and find a thick, slick snake lying beside them, its head raised as it watched them.

Still others were bitten in their sleep and never woke up.

Of course, there were also fearless warriors like Officer Graham, who was actually thinking of catching the snakes for food.

Evelyn Ford finished her breakfast and was just about to go back to sleep when she heard a huge commotion from upstairs, downstairs, and outside her door. Overnight, it seemed the entire residential complex—even all of Corinth—had become a snake pit.

On the other hand, the water level outside seemed to have dropped by about twenty centimeters. Beyond that, Evelyn made another major discovery: the bodies that had been floating in the water were gone. If they hadn’t sunk, there was only one other possibility—they were now inside the snakes.

Downstairs, Lauren Keller and Nana Doyle each clutched a kitchen cleaver, staring in terror at several snakes on the windowsill. Last night, Mrs. Doyle had complained the apartment was too stuffy and had opened a window on her own accord. When Lauren woke up this morning, she found five or six snakes had crawled inside, with another three still hanging from the window frame.

Nana was trembling violently, hiding behind Lauren with her cleaver. As for Mrs. Doyle, she had already fainted from fright.

"Lauren, what do we do? There are so many of them... I’m so scared. I can’t kill them."

Lauren wasn’t faring much better, but she couldn’t retreat. She had to protect this home. She swung the cleaver frantically, hacking a snake that lunged at her in half. Warm blood sprayed onto her face. She instinctively licked her lips, and the foul, fishy stench made her gag and vomit.

After dealing with the snakes on the windowsill, Lauren quickly shut the window. She then checked the balcony. Only after confirming there were no other openings did she return to the living room and look at Nana sternly.

"Nana, I told you yesterday not to open the windows or the door. Why didn’t you listen? And when those snakes were about to strike, why did you push me forward?"

Nana bit her lip, silent. Lauren took a deep breath, her expression turning cold.

"Once the snakes are gone, you and your mother can move out."

"Lauren, I’m sorry," Nana said. "I was just so scared. I won’t do it again, I promise. My mom and I are so grateful that you’ve let us stay here. We’ll move out. It seems like Dr. Ford has been distant with you because of me... I can tell she doesn’t like me, but I don’t know why. We’ve never had any problems. I’m sorry. I feel like I’ve caused you so much trouble."

"This has nothing to do with Evelyn Ford. She has been very good to me. I don’t care what you’re thinking, but don’t you dare speak ill of her in front of me again. I don’t want to hear it. When your mother wakes up, you can tell her. You can still borrow the tent. These snakes should be edible. I’ll go prepare them; you clean up the blood on the floor."

"Lauren, you’re misunderstanding me. I didn’t mean anything by it."

Lauren waved her hand. "That’s enough. No more talk. Let’s get to work."

Nana watched Lauren’s back, her lips pressed into a thin line. She didn’t say another word. At that moment, the still-faint Mrs. Doyle slowly began to stir.

"Nana, the snakes? Are they all dead?"

Nana’s anger flared. "Mom," she hissed, lowering her voice, "can you please stop being a burden? I have to take care of you and find food, and what do you do? You see a snake and just pass out, expecting me to protect you. Don’t you get it? We’re living on someone else’s charity. This isn’t our house."

Mrs. Doyle was silent for a long time as Nana complained. Once Nana had vented her frustrations, Mrs. Doyle grabbed her hand and said, enunciating each word.

"Then let’s make it our home."

Nana stared at her mother in shock. Mrs. Doyle’s gaze shifted to Lauren, busy in the kitchen, and she repeated her words.

"If we make this our home, no one can ever kick us out."

After a swarm of snakes dragged away an elderly man on the eleventh floor, leaving only a pool of blood behind, the sound of suppressed sobs echoed from outside a nearby door. Evelyn Ford took some red bricks and cement from her storage space, planning to build a brick wall to seal off her balcony. The glass was thick, but she didn’t want to take any chances.

Evelyn spent the entire day watching documentaries about snakes. After learning about the destructive power of giant pythons, she could no longer trust a simple pane of glass with her life.

Evelyn had been saving the water she used for washing up, which now came in handy for mixing cement. In addition to the balcony, she planned to seal her bedroom windows, leaving only one uncovered. Evelyn poured cement powder into a metal basin, added some fine sand, and mixed in water. ’Can’t be too watery,’ she thought, ’or the bricks won’t bond properly.’

After putting on an apron and gloves, Evelyn got to work.

As she was a novice at masonry, the result wasn’t exactly beautiful—it was even a little crooked. But Evelyn was quite satisfied. Once the cement dried for a couple of days, her home would be a veritable fortress.

While Evelyn was busy fortifying her apartment, the other residents were busy fighting snakes.