Chapter 52

Chapter 52: Chapter 52

Ingrid’s eyes widened in disbelief as she stared at the nightmare unfolding near the gates. Blood roared in her ears, competing with the agonizing shrieks of the crowd getting trampled below.

She turned her head sharply toward Soren and Kiana. Both of the fox beastmen looked completely frozen, their faces pale and their tails bristling in pure terror. Soren’s jaw trembled so hard he could barely breathe, his hand gripping Kiana so tightly her fingers were turning white. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

"Have... have you guys ever seen a zombie like that before?!" Ingrid asked over the deafening roars, her voice tight with rising panic.

Soren violently shook his head back and forth. "N... No! Never! We’ve wandered through dozens of infected territories! We’re fast on our feet, smaller than most beastmen, so we’ve always been able to outrun and dodge the zombies but that... that thing isn’t a normal zombie! We’ve never ever seen it before!"

Ingrid bit her lip so hard the iron taste of blood filled her mouth. If they haven’t seen this kind of zombie here, then that means it evolved slower than the other world where she came from. However, even at that, outrunning or killing an Evolved One wasn’t something she knew how to do. If that thing caught up with them, they’re dead meat!

"There’s no saving anyone back there," Ingrid spat out, her heart hammering against her ribs like a trapped bird. "If we stay, we die. Run!"

"Follow me!" Soren yelled, snapping out of his stupor.

He took the lead, his silver tail cutting through the dense brush. The other foxes scrambled right behind him like shadows. Ingrid dragged the cart with everything she had, her boots skidding against wet mud and hidden roots. Her lungs burned, her legs felt like heavy sacks of lead, but she didn’t dare slow down for even half a second.

Behind them, the horrifying sounds of tearing wood, snapping bones, and agonizing screams echoed. The crowd trapped at the gate was being slaughtered in real-time.

After twenty minutes of frantic, blind sprinting, the trees began to thin out, revealing a towering, moss-covered stone wall that marked the boundary of the gates. Soren skidded to a halt at the base of the wall, panting heavily.

"This is the spot!" Soren gasped, pointing toward a crumbling, narrow gap near the top of the stone structure. "The wall is much lower here, and there are small covered drainage holes at the bottom that we can pass through, but there’s no way we can pull the cart through that space. And I’m not sure the both of you can fit inside the hole. You’ll have to jump over the gates!"

Ingrid stopped, gasping for air, her hands trembling on the cart’s handles. "We can’t leave the cart! Lysander is still..."

"I can walk," a deep, rasping voice cut in.

Lysander had transformed into his human form already as he stepped down from the cart. The bandages wrapped around his body were now stained with blood, but he forced his upper body upright, his purple eyes sharp despite the exhaustion dragging at his face.

"Lysander, you’re still bleeding!" Ingrid protested, reaching out to support him.

"There is no time to waste, Ingrid," Lysander said tightly, his voice leaving no room for argument. He turned his sharp gaze toward Soren. "You can get to the other side on your own?"

Soren nodded fiercely, gesturing to the other fox beastmen behind him. "We’re light and nimble! We can scale this easily!"

"Then we move now!" Lysander commanded.

Without giving Ingrid a chance to argue, Lysander stepped forward and scooped her up into his arms in one fluid, powerful motion.

"Hey!" Ingrid gasped, wrapping her arms around his neck.

Lysander didn’t hesitate. He coiled his legs, pushed off the ground, and leaped straight toward the top of the stone wall. He cleared the ledge easily, but the moment his legs slammed onto the floor on the other side, a pained groan escaped his lips. If he could control the sound and keep it from escaping his lips, he would have but the impact pulled at his wounds, making them bleed even more.

"Lysander!" Ingrid cried out, feeling his chest shudder against hers.

"I’m fine. Don’t look back," he grunted, his grip on her never loosening.

Beside them, the foxes had already passed through the hole they talked about. Ingrid silently counted them all, they were complete. She turned her head back towards the side where the locked gate was, and she noticed that there was some kind of wetness that had already begun to spread through the gates, staining the dirt.

Blood. There was so much blood it was beginning to form a huge puddle. Ingrid clenched her fists, closed her eyes and took a deep and long breath. There was no changing this now.

"That’s the only path available." Soren’s voice brought her out of her thoughts.

Directly in front of them lay a long, desolate dirt path stretching deep into the hills. The wet tracks in the mud that suggested a few wagons had passed by maybe a few hours earlier.

"If we follow these wagon trails," Soren whispered, catching up to Lysander’s side, "Maybe we can catch up to some wagons or even follow the trail to the city. If we get to the city, things might be safer than here."

"Alright." Lysander nodded, his arms tightening around Ingrid’s body, "Let’s go. We don’t have any time to waste."

They sprinted down the road, their footsteps echoing in the eerie silence. For ten long minutes, the trail remained empty, as if no one had passed by but finally, after a few more minutes, they saw a huge dark object overhead.

It wasn’t very visible but as they neared it, they saw what it was. It was a large, covered merchant wagon, tilted awkwardly in the middle of the dirt trail.

Ingrid’s eyes lit up. "Look! A wagon! Lysander, get closer! Maybe they know what’s happening or we can ask them for help..."

As they approached the silent wagon, Lysander suddenly slowed his pace. The foxes behind them came to a dead stop, their ears twitching, tails puffing up in instinctual terror.

A thick, suffocating smell of copper and iron hung heavy in the air. Ingrid’s smile instantly vanished, she knew that smell.

Sitting inside the open canopy of the wagon were six merchants. None of them were moving. Their eyes were wide open, staring blankly into the night sky, their throats torn completely open, their bodies drained of blood.

And scattered on the dirt floor all around the wheels were dozens of long, jet-black bone spikes.

Ingrid’s blood ran dead cold. She recognised those spikes. They belonged to the Evolved Ones. But why were they on the ground and not on their body? These people were dead too, so does that mean...

"GET DOWN!" Lysander roared.

Before Ingrid could even process his words, Lysander threw his body sideways, leaping ten feet into the brush just as a blinding, massive shadow descended from the top of the trees!

A colossal, bone-spiked claw slammed directly down onto the merchant wagon. The vehicle was instantly sliced into a dozen pieces. A horrific wave of dark blood from the corpses inside exploded outward, splattering directly across Ingrid’s face and clothes as she hit the dirt with Lysander.

Ingrid wiped the blood from her eyes, her heart beating in terror as she gasped for air and slowly raised her head.

Standing over the pulverized remains of the wagon, its towering, muscle-stripped frame dripping with black fluid, its glowing red eyes locking straight onto them... was a second Evolved Zombie.

And this one... was a giant Evolved Zombie.