Chapter 105

Shannon went over everything that happened in her dream, leaving no part untouched. She had told Natalie about the dojo she used to live in, but never in so much detail. She felt as though she was given an opportunity to look into her lover's childhood. However, that chance had to be pushed aside, as she was given a message. The way it sounded seemed very familiar towards the time with the wargs, but also seemed slightly different. How did they save her? Since she was neutral in terms of energy, did that mean she could have been swayed one way or the other? Or was it just symbolic, as they had saved her from an otherwise terrible experience? Too many questions, and with the way these dreams worked, they would continue to remain unanswered while only adding more to the list.

In the end, everything pointed to the whole gorilla issue being a lot more pressing than they imagined. As soon as they finished eating, they all took down camp as fast as possible. Given that it sat on the north side of Calgary, getting to the zoo was not going to be an easy feat. Chances are, they would not be able to get there today even if they did not slow down to be cautious. When it was down to just getting the last few things stored away, Nat and Shannon left the rest of the clean-up to their companions, focusing on mapping out their route through the city as they spent their last few dry moments in the tent. They wanted the straightest shot through the city, involving passing by the least number of buildings possible, and they would not easily be able to pull a map out to readjust their course. Thankfully, as they had gone to university here, it made it easier for the two of them to navigate. It took some debating however, before they had to go against their instincts. Deerfoot trail was not known for its smooth flow of traffic. In fact, the entire time they had lived in this city, they had never heard of any other road getting nearly as many incidents on it. But now, without cars being a thing, it actually lined up to be the perfect path.

When they both agreed on a path, they got up to help finish cleaning up, only to notice that three canines were sitting there waiting. Bryden, Shadow, and most surprisingly Scout were sitting by waiting to go, with all of the other ones having returned to the Soulscape. None of them were shifted into their humanoid forms, but today was all about speed and distance. Even Kali and Maia were still not able to run in those forms, and they had been the ones who had been in that form the longest. When Scout was asked for reasoning, he brought forward the fact that they would be moving about in a dense population center, and people were less likely to over react if they saw him first compared to one of the larger canines in the pack. Seeing the logic in his reasoning, both Shannon and Nat agreed. Making sure that their weapons were in hand, the five of them headed north towards the small city of Okotoks.

Once inside, the town seemed to be just about as desolate as High River was. Realizing that this was likely to be a trend, the five of them headed north on Southridge Drive with Scout taking the point position. Moderate ditches ran along either side of the road, probably in an effort to combat the potential of flooding. They did have some bad floods almost a decade ago, and it was easy to believe that the city did something to prevent large damage in the future. However, right now this meant that the ditches were not usable for travel, due to the rain pooling in them. While the rain left all of them soaked and caused their clothes to adhere to their skin, it also reduced the visibility. This was both a hinderance as well as a help, as monsters would not be able to see them, but would likewise be harder to be spotted. In fact, nothing seemed weird in the town till they reached the point where the main road turned for the first time. At that point a high school sat to the right as the road veered to the left. The weird part, was that between the high school, around the football field, and all the way up to the businesses that lay along the road sat a massive wall. At least, it seemed like a wall in the rain. It was hard to tell if anyone was keeping a watch in this weather, but it was believed to be likely. Not wanting to deal with people at this time, the pack stuck to the western side of the road, keeping as much distance between the barricaded area and themselves as they could while staying on route.

The rest of their journey through the small city was relatively uneventful. They only ran across a single group of monsters the entire time. It was a dozen goblins all walking around, seemingly on patrol, being absolutely miserable as they walked down Elizabeth Street. Thanks to both the rain as well as Scout's quick reaction, they managed to have the entire group just walk right past them without notice. Otherwise they managed to make it out the other side of the town in just over an hour after entering. From there it was just a straight walk north along highway 2A that went entirely unimpeded. As they did, they passed by a veterinary emergency clinic. Part of Nat wanted to stop, but she decided not to. The gorillas were probably in danger, and she was not sure if she could take the sight of so many forgotten about dead animals. At this point, there were only two options. Somehow the animals got out of the building, or they passed away inside due to lack of food and/or water. While Nat could hope for one, the sheer likelihood of let-down was too much. Better to focus on getting to the zoo, and to the animals that were supposedly still hanging on. That, and Shannon had a firm grasp on her forearm and dragged her past the building, forcing her to continue the journey northward with haste.

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