<br/><p>Awang tried to forget the pain by thinking about some many-legged creature that might have drilled into his skull and eaten his brain. He forced his eyes open and was immediately greeted by blinding sunlight. With great difficulty, he managed to lift his head.</p> <p>"Awang, are you all right?" Kuntum pleaded. Tears streamed down her cheeks, and the panic in her trembling voice was obvious even to Awang, who was still confused and only half-conscious.</p> <p>"Uhhh...." His own voice slammed against his eardrums. The watermelon that was his head throbbed.</p> <p>"I don't think so...." He forced himself to answer before darkness swallowed him again.</p> <p>The smell of spoiled venison satay sauce replaced the pain. Suddenly, the stone ledge supporting his body shook, adding to the agony in his battered mind. Somehow, the many-legged insect had done massive damage!</p> <p>The violent vibrations made him afraid to open his eyes again, and he vaguely realized that Kuntum was no longer looking down at him—or, if that really had been Kuntum earlier, rather than his imagination. The pain became so severe that he believed he could truly feel a burning current of torment flowing throughout his body.</p> <p>The entire world around him trembled with a terrifying roar that made him feel his death was near, and he distinctly felt spoiled venison satay sauce filling his nose until he choked.</p> <p>What he was feeling seemed as though it would never end. But in reality, only a few minutes later, everything gradually settled down, slowing the cascade of gravel raining down on Awang and Kuntum.</p> <p>According to a report from the National Weather Agency, the magnitude 7.2 earthquake that day was the largest quake ever to strike the Grand Malay Kingdom, something the region had never experienced in living memory. The report stated that the earthquake had forced seawater as far as thirty kilometers up the Batang Kuantan.</p> <p>Buildings throughout the surrounding area were nearly destroyed. Yet stranded on a ledge thirty meters below the hilltop, not far from the earthquake's epicenter, it was the furthest thing from Kuntum's mind.</p> <p>Awang was shivering from the cold, and judging by the swollen lump on his forehead, her husband had suffered at least a concussion.</p> <p>Although she had no formal medical training herself, the years she had spent with Awang had given Kuntum enough basic knowledge to fill her mind with a terrifying list of possibilities as she watched Awang lying unconscious. She knew that sometimes, a little knowledge could be a dangerous thing.</p> <p>Gently, Kuntum lifted Awang's head. She found that his hair was completely dry and that his head was not bleeding. She did her best to scan for visible injuries, but lacking the knowledge needed to identify this kind of trauma made finding evidence of it two very different things—and the latter was far beyond what her limited knowledge could provide.</p> <p>Doubt and uncertainty filled her thoughts as a sense of helplessness in the face of the situation slowly enveloped her.</p> <p><i>Damn it, you're the doctor! Why aren't you awake and doing something for yourself?</i></p> <p>Tears welled in her eyes as memories of their life together flashed through her mind. If she hadn't been so terrified during the earthquake, Kuntum would have seen Awang's eyes roll back until only the whites showed, along with convulsions that shook his body almost in time with the trembling earth. The seizure was as brief as the earthquake, but just as disturbing.</p> <p>Awang had never suffered such a severe seizure since awakening from his coma after the international freeway tragedy. Until now, an episode of "the smell of spoiled venison satay sauce" had only preceded brief periods of impaired consciousness. Then they became frequent enough to make him question his own ability to drive on several occasions since the coma.</p> <p>He was painfully aware of the consequences of losing his driver's license, his ability to practice medicine, and his life in general, and for those reasons, he deliberately never followed up with a neurologist after leaving the hospital.</p>