Chapter 11
Lionel had told Jonah on the way that Nyora was experiencing a rainy season. Therefore, it was normal for natural disasters to occur during this time.
He had even tried to persuade Jonah to reconsider and wait it out, but Jonah refused to listen.
Now that he knew where Pearl was, how could he possibly stand to wait even a second longer?
He had been too obtuse in the past. He had turned a blind eye to Pearl when she had loved him wholeheartedly. That was what had ultimately broken her heart. That was why Pearl would choose to hide her pregnancy and miscarriage from him.
He had already vowed to himself that he would make it up to Pearl a thousand times over. Yet, fate had played a cruel joke on him. The reality was that he had received news of Pearl being caught in an accident as soon as he set foot in the medical base.
Night had already fallen by the time Jonah made it to the collapsed bridge. However, he could see rescue workers with headlamps moving frantically through the rubble and ruin.
Jonah couldn’t understand the local language, so all he could do was help the rescue team dig through the debris.
He had no tools of his own, so he could only use his bare hands to claw through the bricks and mud. The coarse rocks and gravel soon left his hands covered in cuts.
Still, Jonah didn’t dare stop. Instead, the thought that Pearl might be buried beneath all the rubble only made his movements more manic. It was as if the faster he dug through his section, the more likely she was to survive.
The sky grew darker as he went through the motions. Sure enough, Jonah’s hands were a mess of blood and gore. Yet, he was behaving as if he couldn’t feel the passage of time or the pain assailing his senses.
Only he knew that his mind had decided to torment him with his own personal cinema. All it did was replay scenes of his time with Pearl.
It was only now that he realized that he had unknowingly come to memorize every minute shift of expression Pearl had ever shown over the past four years. She had quietly carved herself a space in his heart long ago.
Unfortunately, he had come to that realization far too late. He had pushed the person he loved most away with his own two hands.
Jonah was so lost in the depths of his sorrow that he didn’t even notice a couple of medical staff in white coats walking past him. One of whom also happened to be the very person he had been desperately searching for–Pearl.
“Dr. Hamilton, there’s an Ethrian–looking guy over there who’s been digging through the rubble with his bare hands. I think I heard him calling out your name when I passed by. Do you recognize him?”
Pearl looked in the direction the flashlight was pointing. Alas, the light was too dim, and she could only make out a vague silhouette of a tall figure. Although the figure’s impressive build immediately made her think of Jonah, Pearl still shook her head at one of her fellow teammates, saying, “I don’t think so. I don’t know anyone here.”
Then, she let out a sad sigh and murmured, “Judging by how lost he looks, he has probably lost someone dear to him in the accident. Poor thing.” With that, Pearl sauntered into the temporary medical tent they had set up and immediately began treating the injured they had managed to rescue from the rubble.
It had been: a very close call for her. She had nearly been one of those poor victims buried under the debris.
The vehicle driving the medical team was actually en route to this exact road. However, they received a call from Lionel on the way to their destination. He informed them that the medical team had just received a very generous donation, and the donor was coming to inspect their base.
A donation was a great deal to them. Thus, everyone in the team took the announcement very seriously. So, they decided to take a shortcut back to the base after the call, thereby narrowly avoiding a gruesome fate.
Regardless of their good luck, the disaster was a big one and had resulted in many casualties. Therefore, Pearl and the others had no time to return to the base. Instead, they went straight to the site to assist with the rescue efforts.
As the local area had poor medical infrastructure, there was a severe shortage of available personnel.
As a result, Pearl and the others had been working around the clock due to the large–scale disaster. All of them had to stay up for hours, only getting a short breather by the time dawn broke.
Pearl joined her teammates as they went over to the supply area to fill their bellies.
“Hello, one piece of bread and a bottle of water, please,” Pearl said in halting stops, using her newly learned knowledge of the local language to communicate with the supply staff.
Behind the ruins, Jonah was on the verge of collapse out of sheer exhaustion. He was about to keel over when he suddenly heard a familiar voice. The second he did, his bloodshot eyes immediately snapped open, alert and hopeful.
He turned to the voice, and sure enough, the face that had been haunting him throughout the night appeared before him without warning.
“Pearl!”
