"Retreat, retreat! Everyone retreat—"
On the chaotic, clamorous street, a soldier standing atop a wrecked vehicle clutched a loudspeaker and shouted himself hoarse, roaring, "Throw away all that useless stuff! No baggage allowance, no property protection! Everyone, retreat immediately! Now!"
Panicked screams and shouts echoed through the crowd, along with the bewildered cries of infants.
People who had fallen and been trampled struggled desperately to get back up, scrambling and crawling forward without daring to pause for even a moment.
Amid the devastation, only the anti-air arrays in the distant wilderness continued to spray counterattacking rain of fire into the sky.
And above the darkened Sky Dome, there was only a viscous black dot, rapidly expanding.
The light of the Rainbow Bridge kept descending, sweeping away the crowds gathered at evacuation points, yet the lines stretching like dragons still showed no end.
Panicked faces surged through the crowd, peering around uneasily, shoving and squeezing in an attempt to move farther forward. Even the threats and intimidation of armed soldiers could hardly stop them.
Not only here—throughout the borders of New Southern County, evacuation efforts were still underway everywhere.
Even more places had already been abandoned entirely.
Industrial foundations built up over decades, even centuries; factories that had once supplied more than half of the Americas; mountains of goods and raw materials.
Cars, homes, wealth—everything had been left behind.
Only those terrified people ran through the streets, some not even having had time to change clothes, barefoot and looking around blankly as they called out the names of their wives or children.
A man collapsed on the ground, too exhausted to walk any farther, silently weeping as he held a disabled relative in his arms.
A woman who had crawled out of the mud still clutched her child's clothes in her