After Surviving the Apocalypse, I Built a City in Another World - Chapter 59

Chapter 59: Eugene
Althea was in a daze, it felt like she had a very good dream, as if a familiar voice and warmth lulled her to sleep.

She didn’t know what it was but she felt comfortable and safe, as if she just had the most comfortable rest she had in a while.

But before she could dwell on it, the ground started shaking again, completely shaking off all signs of lethargy from her body.

Her heart jumped and her eyebrows furrowed as she quickly packed up and ran to the others.

Everyone else was also woken up by an earthquake and was similarly packing up.

They gathered what they could in space and grabbed the others, running to the nearest exit.

Fortunately, it wasn’t too big of an earthquake and none of them lost their balance as they rushed out.

They quickly got up and ran out of the building, with Harold carrying Eugene and Sheila with Theodore.

“Another mob?!” Harold exclaimed, his gray eyebrows furrowed in worry.

They couldn’t handle that much by themselves! The others couldn’t answer him as they proceeded to run for their lives.

But—

They soon realized the earthquake stopped the moment they got out of the building.

The ground was still and they almost lost their balance, disoriented.

Harold even tripped and barely managed to keep himself from falling, especially since he had a dead weight on his back.

The group couldn’t help but look at each other in puzzlement.

They stared around them to see and found that it was only the buildings that were shaking. And they were shaking by themselves.

“What… is going on?” Harold mumbled out loud and Sheila cluelessly shook her head.

All the commotion also woke up the other two. Eugene groaned and his eyebrows crunched when he saw buildings shake.

He blinked and for a while thought he was dizzy, until he saw that the others were just as confused.

He awkwardly got out of Harold’s back, using the stick in his space as support.

Eventually, the vibrations stopped. For a moment, the air was still and they were extremely puzzled as to what was happening.

However, a change soon happened, and it was as magical as it was depressing.

From the top of the buildings, each building block slowly turned to powder. Slowly, but surely, the ones below suffered the same fate.

Little by little, it was as if the buildings turned to ashes, carried away by the wind.

The group watched as the buildings disintegrated into dust, with a heavy mood.

“How come?” Sheila uttered, looking at her companions in confusion.

Althea stared blankly at the floating dust, feeling melancholic.”Perhaps the buildings would fall when the territory did.”

“Just now?”

Althea nodded, voicing out her guess. “It could also mean that Bobby King just died.”

Everyone was silent, and Althea couldn’t help but think more deeply.

That was to say, if her supposition was correct, when the Lord of a territory died, the entire territory would die with him or her.

Well, at least no citizen of hers would try to attack her if they found out about her status.

Perhaps.

The air was stagnant for a while, with

everyone absorbing what had just happened.

But soon they heard an incongruent sound right next to them.

“—hehe….hehehehehe”

They turned to injured Eugene who was giggling like a lunatic.

He was laughing so hard that he lost support and fell on the dirt. Theo wanted to run to him, but Harold carried the child, afraid the less-abled man had gone insane.

“He finally died.” Abruptly stopping and suddenly tears lined up his eyes. “That bastard…” he mumbled, voice speaking as he sobbed. “He threw Mina as a Shield.”

When the fence was destroyed the ban for him was also lifted, it was pure luck that there were other people that interested the monsters than the incomplete him.

Perhaps it was also because he smelled a lot like metal, as he had been wearing special bionic legs for years that made him unattractive to the monsters.

Because of this, he was still able to see Mina one last time.

He could still remember what occurred like it was still happening.

That bastard… that bastard threw his Mina out to block an attack. He could still remember Mina’s expression of terror, how she tried to keep to herself holding her stomach, and how useless it was.

He ran and ran to her only to see an arm bit off the moment she was thrown, and then her entire lower body a second later.

He rushed as fast as he could to her, but he couldn’t help but see Bobby’s expression at the time, and it was etched in his head forever.

Instead of guilt, the man’s eyes were filled with disgust written all over his face. “A broken woman with another man’s child!” He yelled and ran away, not caring for Mina’s life and death.

It felt like he was struck by thunder at the time and he could only yell as he saw Mina fall, using his last strength to cover her body.

He knew he was too late but he still covered her, determined to be with her in the last moments.

He did not even notice that after biting off his leg, the monster spit it out in disgust.

He was in too much pain emotionally and physically he didn’t even realize his remaining leg was gone. It was even wasted.

He just thought that Mina’s abandonment made sense. They lost their parents in the same accident when they were young.

They had been close friends since then and fell in love as a man and a woman only a few years back.

They have been lovers only for a few years, but it felt like they spent a lifetime together.

They both had a special fondness for children and had thought of adopting a lot of orphans when they got married.

If he found out she was pregnant, he would no doubt do his best to give them the best—even in exchange for his life.

After all, what could he, a disabled waste, do?

He felt his soul dwelling deeper and deeper into depression, and will soon be unable to lift himself up anymore.

But then he felt a warm hand on his arm, pulling him out of the bog.

It was little angel Theodore, who had noticed the wild emotions, had gotten out of Harold’s hold and ran to him for a hug.

Eugene froze for a little, unused to the warmth.

But he soon felt his remaining limbs and he embraced the little boy into his arms, wanting to feel more of the pure, innocent, warmth he hadn’t encountered for a long, long, time.

….

The group gathered themselves well before continuing on to their journey East.

Theodore was very sticky with Sheila who had taken care of him, as well as with Eugene who needed him to survive.

They didn’t know how the child was so mature, he did not ask for his mother. He only looked listless from time to time but he never gave them trouble.

To be honest, it was more heartbreaking the better behaved he was.

Althea couldn’t help but pat her own stomach, heart hurt when she thought of the situation where they wouldn’t have their parents around them.

Eugene, on the other hand, seemed to have imprinted on Theodore, probably projecting on him the unborn child that died.

While not sustainable, it was a good alternative for a man who had lost his will to live.

They allowed him a moment of respite to gather himself. He held the little boy’s hand, gently patting, his dark eyes soon showing a flicker of life.

And, to a degree, he did recover.

To the point that he took out some tools from his space and manufactured himself a flexible stick leg, like the one he had on before it was detached due to all the commotion.

Although they were sticks and he had trouble balancing himself, he did eventually stand up by himself.

It was obviously an intricate construction, and he did it with ease.

It was quite impressive.

Suddenly, Eugene became more than just a pitiful less-abled guy who was dumped by his pregnant girlfriend.

Harold, in particular, became more enthusiastic. He approached Eugene and patted his shoulders amicably (because patting his metallic legs was weird, no matter how curious he was).

As if interviewing an idol, the old man asked the younger man a lot of questions.

After this bit of obsessive questioning by Harold, they soon found out more about Eugene.

Eugene Sparks, 31 years old, was a practicing technician. He graduated in mechanical engineering, but a few years ago every man above 18 and below 50 years old was required to serve in the military for 3 years.

Everyone looked at him in admiration making him feel awkward, while Althea’s eyes brightened for a different reason altogether.

A mechanical engineer?!

Expert! Recruit!

She couldn’t help but study the group’s coincidental composition.

Somehow, she managed to gather experts in their own fields, and maybe they could let their talents shine in her territory, helping it as well in turn.

They now had a food expert, a medical expert, a plant and resource expert (her), three cute mascots, and finally… an engineer.

Althea thought that the population of her (currently non-existent) territory was small, but it was really high quality.

She was really looking forward to how it’d look in the end.

She refused to believe that what she had seen in Royal Territory was all there could be!