IN the end, simple days continued to pass by without much change to Hereh and Unen’s routine.
Then the fated day arrived, three years ago.
On a late-spring afternoon when the sun was at its highest, and just before Unen was about to celebrate her twelfth birthday, a sudden great earthquake struck the entire Baborak Province with Yezero as its epicenter.
At the time, Unen and Hereh had traveled deep into the forest and were standing in front of the distillation furnace making medicine.
Swept off her feet as if someone had knocked her legs out from under her, Unen painfully fell onto her backside. Unrelenting tremors followed, shaking them violently at the center of their gut. Every tree in the forest was teetering; the birds all took flight in a flurry of wings. The brick distillation furnace, which was taller than Hereh, emitted spurts of harsh grinding noises as it fell apart, and shrill shrieks of glass bottles shattering reverberated throughout the clearing.
“Are you all right, Unen?!” Hereh shouted, as he clung fast to a tree that managed to remain standing beside him.
Instead of answering with words, Unen nodded her head over and over again. When the shaking reached a lull, she called, “Hereh, the furnace—”
“I’m more concerned about the town.” Hereh sent his grim gaze beyond the forest. “This is going to be a big disaster…”
Unen gulped. A nearly two-meter tall distillation furnace made of brick had hopelessly crumbled to pieces. It wasn’t hard to imagine what happened to the houses and buildings, which were well over that size and made of far less durable materials.
“…Let’s go, Unen.”
“Okay.”
They returned to the cabin, cautiously treading their way through the countless aftershocks that jolted the earth. Hereh entrusted the medical bag he’d carefully stored in the cabinet to Unen and he carried the other bag, which was filled with bottles of disinfectant and an assortment of other medicines. They hurried west to the town of Yezero.
“Unen.” Hereh said her name but kept his eyes locked on the direction they headed.
“Yes?”
“I once ran from the suffering that transpired in front of me.”
Unen wordlessly waited for him to continue as she ran to keep up with him. They had to watch their step around downed trees and branches.
“But I believe…I mustn’t run away from this disaster. Even if it means…losing our peaceful life. I’m so sorry, Unen,” Hereh whispered, in the stiffest voice Unen had ever heard him speak in. “An equal level of responsibility accompanies power. I will fulfill my job as a doctor. Will you help me, Unen?”
Despite feeling like the anxiety would crush her, Unen gave him a resounding, “Yes!”
✦ ✦ ✦
THE town of Yezero was in a tragic state.
The bridge spanning Kenu River had completely fallen into the river and even parts of the embankment had collapsed. The watermill had lost its foundation and now leaned across the river, creating an unintentional dam, and a fragment of the washed-away bridge had gotten lodged in it. Every building with two stories or more, without exception, had caved in on itself, and the stone dividers and walls that remained had transformed into mountains among the wreckage. Even the one-story wooden houses had sunken roofs.
Hereh headed straight for Milosh’s clinic.
The tremors of the quake must have hit the two banks of the river differently. Many of the buildings located in the same area as the clinic were in a comparably better state. Milosh’s house was barely scathed in spite of its two stories. Unfortunately, all the glass windows he had recently splurged on for the clinic had shattered.
“Hereh! You came?!” Relief washed over Milosh’s face upon seeing Hereh and Unen.
Hereh and Unen weaved their way around the numerous injured already crammed into the clinic, until they reached Milosh. Hereh handed him the bag stuffed with medicine and took control of the situation.
“Leave the inner room open for seriously injured patients. Then get Zola and Simon to help by separating patients according to degree of injury. We’ll treat the most critical patients first,” Hereh directed. “And most important of all, spread word of our medical treatment procedure throughout town, so everyone knows. Only you can do this part, because the residents know and trust you. I’ll help as much as you need with treating the injured.”
“Okay,” Milosh agreed, and called for Zola and Simon.
Not long after, Zola came running inside short of breath. She was blue in the face.
“Milosh! Milosh! Simon, our Simon, hasn’t come home yet!”
“What?!”
“Remember you sent him on an errand to the town hall? I thought he would’ve raced home after all that shaking, but he hasn’t returned yet!”
“Town hall collapsed!” someone shouted from outside the clinic, where they waited for treatment.
Zola screamed and fell to her knees hyperventilating in panic.
Too restless to do nothing, Unen flew out the clinic. She raced outside but didn’t know where the town hall was or what she could even do, and stood rooted to the ground with her fists clenched tightly with a burning impatience to do something.
“Unen, this way!” Hereh dashed out of the clinic after her, but kept running toward the river.
Unen chased after him without a moment’s hesitation.
✦ ✦ ✦
THEY rescued Simon from under what had once been the town hall two hours later.
They managed to save him in such short time because Unen had made use of her small stature and crawled into the cracks and crevices between the wreckage. She pointed out exactly where Simon was buried, then was nearly buried alive herself by a further collapse of stone debris from above when an aftershock shook through the area.
Patiently enduring the intense pain from the injuries she had received from the wreckage caving in on her, Unen waited for Simon’s surgery to end. She prayed to every god in the world for Simon, and for his parents.