"Huff… huff…"
Wang Chen gasped for air, his breath hurried and uneven like a man who had been running for his life. Sweat dripped from his forehead, trailing down his jaw before splattering onto the dusty rock beneath him.
Right now, he was curled into a narrow crack in the earth—barely wide enough to fit a human body. The sharp stone pressed into his ribs with every breath. It wasn't a hiding spot for the sane; it was the kind of suffocating crevice desperate men sought when death was inches behind them.
The stench of grime and burnt ashes lingered in the air. Every few seconds, a faint tremor rippled through the ground as if the world itself was shuddering.
He didn't dare move. Hell! He didn't even dare breathe too loudly.
Minutes crawled by in silence.
