At 3:40 in the morning, Evelyn Ford kept her head down as she hurried through streets and alleys. The potholed roads were littered with broken glass and rebar jutting out from the ground. Buses and private cars lay overturned in the mire. The faint outlines of malls and movie theaters still hinted at their former bustling glory.
A blast of hot wind blew past. Evelyn stopped and quickly held her breath. Only after the wind died down did she continue forward.
She encountered a pile of snake carcasses nearly every few steps. Occasionally, other people would emerge from empty buildings, hurrying along just like her. They shared a silent understanding, ignoring one another as they passed with heads bowed, quickening their pace in opposite directions.
