The pain resulting from him straining his neck became overbearing, and Reno had to lay it back down onto the sandy surface supporting his body. The pain coursing through his whole body flared anew every time he even slightly moved, and even when lying still, it hurt like hell from the many gruesome wounds. There was no adrenaline left to make the pain less intense.

It was incredible that the fall hadn’t killed him. But now he was pretty sure he would succumb to his wounds, even if they were not immediately life-threatening, if he didn’t do anything. Dying of thirst, lack of food, hypothermia, and exhaustion were pretty high on the list at the moment.

Reno sighed, his lungs burning with every breath.

Now that he thought about it, what had happened to the other people in his camp and his family? And where the hell had the tornado come from? The fate of the people in the camp was unknown, but it was most likely that they had been killed. As for the tornado, there was no way to really tell.

A sickening feeling engulfed his mind. They had most likely died. The reality of it was surreal, unbelievable, and terrifying.

He wanted to cry for them but couldn’t; his body was unable to produce any water from its reserves. His body was completely dried out.

While lying in his misery, another thought crossed his mind.

What about his family: James, his father, and the others, including Dr. Dieb? Had they maybe been able to escape? They had probably had more time to prepare for the tornado, and he hadn’t seen any signs of them in the sandstorm.

There was even hope that his family and Dieb had used the helicopter in time to escape, but he also dreaded that possibility because it meant he would be here all alone. More than that, it would mean that all of the workers would have been left behind.

A cold feeling of dread ran down his spine.

The screams of the people in the sandstorm resonated in his mind. He was deeply terrified, sad, angry, and disappointed in his own lack of determination and strength to save them.

Of course, he had told himself that there had not been enough time to help them. Maybe that was true, and it was indeed out of his capabilities. Some would call it out of anybody’s control.

Even though he knew all of this, he still felt responsible for their deaths, at least partly—who wouldn’t? Reno was just human, after all, and he was allowed to experience such feelings.

As he noticed that his mind was running down a dangerous path and seemed to be overwhelmed, he tried to distract his chaotic thoughts.

‘But hey, the irrational fear I usually feel is almost gone or at least strongly suppressed… who would have thought that facing it head-on like a lunatic would actually tame it somehow? How poetic and… unsettling. Well, at least something good came out of it, I guess. But what exactly even happened…?’

Reno had difficulty recalling what had happened after he jumped atop the roof and eventually broke through it, his broken arm and wounds bearing testament to this event. Had he passed out? Had he experienced a concussion? Or had the fear been so bad that it made him pass out?

Any one of those possibilities seemed to make sense. Maybe it had been a mix of all of them.

Whatever it had been, Reno had to pull himself together and find a solution for how to not die in the next few hours.

His body was truly in bad shape, obviously so.

Reno tried to suppress his anxious feelings and deep sorrow that seeped through his bones.

It was really difficult, but there was no other way. He couldn’t allow himself to mourn the losses and drown in self-pity.

He ground his teeth together as a new wave of pain washed over him, but this time it was on purpose. It allowed him to focus on the present and not fall asleep… because he felt dead tired, really. All he wanted was to sleep and cry.

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But no, he wouldn’t allow himself to. Survival was more important, and the hope of finding other people, as slim as it was, lingered in the darkness of his sorrowful mind like a flickering candle.

Reno forced himself to evaluate his options and, at the same time, plan what to do next.

In his memory, he had taken his medical case with him and had used it as a shield for his body, which had worked out better than expected. If anyone would call his current predicament a good outcome, of course.

The medical case was his best chance—actually, his only viable chance, if he thought about it logically. After all, nobody would find him here, and even in this very unlikely scenario, he would already be dead by then.

He needed water, food, and medical equipment to treat his wounds as fast as possible. Oh, and then there was, of course, the unforgiving cold of the desert at night.

As the coldness made itself noticeable, Reno wanted to shiver, but his body seemed unwilling to. Its strength was completely drained.

Reno refocused his mind immediately.

All of his current needs for survival would be met to at least some degree by the things packed in the case, hopefully.

But more importantly—where the hell was it? It had to be here somewhere in the chamber.

‘Haha, great. Not like I can search for it.’

Or could he…?

‘No way.’

Reno’s face turned into an ugly grimace as he imagined himself crawling along the floor, desperately searching for the case.

But the more he thought about it, the more the reality of things dawned on him.

What else could he do? It wouldn’t just magically find its way to him.

‘Damnit…’

Reno made up his mind, choosing to survive and cling to the last slivers of hope there were.

His eyes closed for a few seconds, and then…

Then he moved his body, a pain so thick, multilayered, and intense—beyond anything he had imagined possible—flooded his nervous system. He ground his teeth harder than ever before in his life.

With all his willpower—which, for all he knew, should have already been used up—he made his battered body slowly move upward in an attempt to straighten his back.

A muffled scream sounded from his lips when his left arm was moved along with his torso. He couldn’t stabilize it properly, and holding it still was absolutely impossible.

His dusty face contorted into a grimace of pure pain and agony, but still, he somehow endured. He didn’t fall back down, knowing it would be just as painful.

As he finally managed to sit up straight, he looked deathly pale— even more than before.

Reno stabilized himself with his right arm, which was terribly bruised and battered as well but not broken. Every muscle movement hurt like hell.

He remained sitting still, breathing heavily, for a few minutes, adjusting.

Knowing he had to get moving again soon, he did just that.

He dragged his left arm along while clumsily trying to push himself from the hill of sand into a sitting position. No scream or groan escaped his mouth this time, only because his throat always hurt like hell when he used it.

Not sure how he would be able to move in this state, he started descending at a snail's pace.

As soon as his buttocks moved away from their current position, the hard surface it was resting on gave way to the much more comfortable sand.

It was only a little respite, though, not even worth mentioning.

He continued further down the small slope, and finally, his feet touched the cold stone floor of the chamber.

Before and all around him loomed the darkness of the underground building. The moonlight only illuminated an irregular circle around the sand hill where there were holes in the ancient dome at least 20 meters above him.

‘So, how am I going to do this? How am I going to find anything in this darkness without being able to even walk or see something?’

Well, he could try to walk, but he felt how weak he was. No chance of a good ending if he attempted to; it would not end well for him.

His face remained ashen.

He sat at the slope for a few more moments, then looked at the hill of sand, and his eyes suddenly widened.

Something seemed to reflect the moonlight, buried in the sand not far away from where he had woken up before.

‘What…’

Then Reno realized it. Maybe the case hadn’t been lost in the darkness but remained by his side all this while, after all. He remembered how strongly he had gripped it.

There was also the hard surface under him that he had expected to be some piece of stone.

Without wasting time, he made his way back up.

It was way more tedious than just sliding down, and his face contorted once more into a pained grimace. But he was extremely determined to reach it, finally treating his strong desires for relief.

He used his free arm and the rest of his body to wriggle up the slope, slowly but steadily.

Sand was running down the small hill while he wrestled against the pain and exhaustion. Reno was truly desperate for that damn case.

Finally, his hand touched something cold and hard—a metallic rim.

As he pulled on it, more of it was revealed—it was his medical case.

Finally, a hint of happy emotion crossed his face, only to be torn away by another wave of pain from his splintered arm that had scraped against his body.

‘Argh… That hurts.’

He grabbed the now-visible handle of the case and pulled it toward him, then turned his body around to lie on his back, of course, accompanied by terrible pain, as always in his current situation.

Reno held the case against his chest, the slight pressure on his body being uncomfortable, yet at the same time calming.

Now, he finally had a chance to survive the cold night and, maybe, avoid dying from exhaustion.