The next day, at dawn.
Oregon's roads looked as though they had been plowed over, the highways cracked like shattered scorched rice crusts.
Many people sat by the roadside, at a complete loss.
The Oregon police force, the emergency management agency, fire and rescue departments, the National Guard—nearly every organization involved in rescue efforts had deployed personnel.
Officers in uniform arrived on motorcycles, on foot, and by helicopter to carry out rescue operations.
The roads were too badly damaged.
Even all-terrain special operations vehicles were completely blocked before they could reach the highway leading to Portland, unable to proceed any farther.
"Matthias, we're out here risking our lives, and those politicians still won't tell us the truth!" a soldier complained.
"Tell me about it. To be honest, I joined the army for the money, not to throw my life away," replied the soldier called Matthias.
"Oh, my family made me join!"
"That strange gigantic figure in Portland last night—did you guys see it? Those bastards actually said it was a geomagnetic illusion!" The soldier glanced around and lowered his voice.
"Of course. I'd swear on it—it definitely existed."
The soldiers discussed the rescue operation at length. Most importantly, they did not believe this earthquake had been caused by tectonic movement triggered by a volcanic eruption.
What a joke.
Although Oregon had the Three Sisters Volcanoes, Mount Hood, Newberry Volcano, and other sites where the Pacific Plate subducting beneath the North American Plate had led to active geological activity, the Geological Survey, which constantly monitored Oregon's geology, had issued no warning beforehand.
"If it really was a volcano, every one of those Geological Survey people ought to be shot. Look at all these dead people—blegh!" The soldier had originally been pointing out the corpses by the roadside to his companion.
But