Chapter 51

Chapter 51: Chapter 51

Night had long settled over the valley, but around the main border gates, the glare of hundreds of torch lights turned the dark sky into an artificial day. A massive wave of wagons, horses and panicked travelers choked the narrow entrance, everyone shouting over one another, trying to push through to the outer roads.

Ingrid pulled her cart to a stop. "Keep close," she whispered to the fox beastmen trailing behind her. "Stay together. Don’t let anyone get separated in this mess."

The Silver Fox, Soren nodded quickly, pulling the mute red tailed Kiana towards him. The other foxes also huddled together.

Ingrid wiped sweat from her forehead, her eyes narrowing as she studied the gate. Something was deeply off. The giant iron-reinforced gates were bolted shut and it wasn’t from the inside, rather, they were shut from the outside. That should have said something about whatever was happening.

As she maneuvered the cart slightly to the left, scraps of frantic conversation from nearby merchants drifted into her ears.

"—tell you, the merchant guild house was empty!" a stout bull beastman barked to his companion. "They packed up and left before sunset!"

"We came through the West River settlement two hours ago," another voice trembled from behind a covered wagon. "Every single house was open. Fires still burning, food left on the tables... but not a living soul in sight. It was like the whole village vanished into thin air."

Ingrid’s stomach churned. Her ears twitched, catching the rising panic in the crowd. A whole village cleared out? And now the gates were locked from the outside. Were they too late? If the merchant guild was empty, then they must have cleared out hours ago or even days ago. It was only a few hours to the next day, would they really catch people off guard and destroy this place?

"Fuck." Ingrid cursed under her breath. If it wasn’t for those idiots, they would have left this place long ago and even forgot about here. She shouldn’t have said she would try to save people, now, she was the one that needed saving! After everything she prepared!

Ingrid wanted to hit herself for her stupidity. But she couldn’t just give up. No, they had to be another way out of here, they couldn’t just stay here and wait to be destroyed.

’Where’s Lorna when you need her?’ she wondered furiously. Ingrid took a slow step backward, intending to turn the cart around and leave the crowd to try to figure something out because in times like this, especially sonce you don’t know who is who, staying amongst a crowd is like a death sentence.

However, just as she was about to fully turn, someone stumbled hard into her shoulder.

Ingrid gasped, her skin instantly burning from the brief contact. The man felt like someone who had just come out from hell and was still burning. Even in the cool night air, he was still burning so much.

She spun around to look at him. He was a boar beastman, his skin was flushed a very unhealthy purple. His body shook violently, his teeth clattering together with a wet, unnatural sound as he clutched his own throat.

Ingrid backed away immediately, every hair on her arms standing up. "Move back," she hissed to the foxes, her voice dropping into a sharp, icy whisper. "We’re leaving the crowd. Right now."

Inside the cart, Lysander who was resting earlier had raised his head, hissing sound escaping his throat. He had also noticed the smell. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

"Is there another path out of this valley?" Ingrid asked, turning to Soren, "Maybe through the woods?"

Soren swallowed hard, his tail stiffening. "Yes. There’s another path through the forest, but it’ll take a much longer time to get outside and it’s not guaranteed that we’ll be able to get out through that place. It’s usually closed down."

"Do we have a better chance here than there? Even if it’s by jumping over the walls?"Ingrid cut him off, her heart hammering against her ribs.

"Yes. It’s better than here, the walls there are smaller than here and there are also covered holes we can pass through. But I don’t know if we’ll be able to take the cart through there."

"Then we’re taking it. Once we’re there, we can figure out what to do later." Ingrid grabbed the handles of the cart, digging her boots into the dirt to haul it back out of the packed crowd.

"Follow me! We don’t have much time." They all dashed towards the trees but they had barely left the crowd and gone into the forest when a loud growl shattered through the earth. From where Ingrid stood, since she had a higher level ground, she could see what was happening.

The shivering boar beastman who had bumped into her earlier had suddenly collapsed onto his knees in the middle of the crowd. The surrounding people stopped, shouting at him to get up, but the man’s spine suddenly bent backward at an impossible, sickening angle.

Ingrid didn’t wait to watch. She threw her weight into the cart handles, shoving it violently past the treeline into the dark woods.

"Run!" She commanded the foxes. "Run now!"

Before they could take ten steps into the forest, a horrific chorus of shrieks tore through the night behind them. A guttural and heavy growl vibrated right through the soles of Ingrid’s boots. A wave of stench hit her nose seconds later, a rancid, sweet rot so thick it made her gag.

Ingrid whipped her head around. Above the screaming crowd, a towering figure rose from the shadows near the locked gates. It was twice the size of an ordinary beastman, its skin stripped down to dark, hardened muscle, with long, bone-like spikes bursting through its spine and shoulders. Its jaw hung loose, dripping black fluid as it swept a massive, clawed arm through a row of wooden wagons like they were made of paper.

It was an Evolved Zombie!