"What time is it?"
In the darkness, the soldier in the tent yawned and poked his head out. All he saw was the same gloom, humid air filling his nose and mouth and making it hard to breathe.
"Two."
The sentry on duty glanced around, his eyes bloodshot as he answered impatiently.
"Oh." The young man nodded blankly. "It's still early before the shift change. I'll sleep a little longer..."
An empty canteen struck him on the forehead in reply.
"Sleep my ass!"
The sentry rolled his eyes. "Not two in the morning—two in the afternoon! It's already 2 PM."
The replacement stared blankly. "Then why didn't you wake me for the shift change?"
"You think everyone can sleep as well as you?"
The sentry, who had not closed his eyes for two days, chewed tobacco leaves and cast a resentful glance at the sky. "In this damn weather, I can't fucking sleep at all..."
Boom!
Before he could finish, thunder rolled across the dark Sky Dome once more.
The trembling air seemed to rock the earth itself, making even strands of hair sway in that deep, heavy reverberation.
Turbid currents surged past the cliff beneath the observation post, sweeping along rotten wreckage as they rushed onward, eventually flowing into a shoal that had appeared two days ago. Vast amounts of filthy mud had accumulated there, and faint green shoots were sprouting from the desert that had been barren for years. It was practically becoming a swamp.
When rampant vitality covered every corner, hordes of mosquitoes were the first to swarm everywhere, leaving huge welts on beasts and living creatures.
And in the foul water occasionally washing into the piles of rubble, shrimp could already faintly be seen. Water Rust Snails, extinct for years, crawled out from beneath stone shells