Chapter 57

They left the area, following the road north straight into the residential area. Already having seen serious numbers of monsters in the area had made the pack wary, causing them to move building to building. The view itself was desolate and hellish though, as doors were broken or ripped of hinges, windows were shattered, and the interiors of the buildings that they could see were is a sorry state. And those were the nice ones. There were buildings where body parts littered the properties, and remains of barriers and barricades could be seen. Some people had tried to hold down the fort in their homes, but had been quite apparently overpowered. Every now and then, they could spot a zombie shuffling inside, showing that the people here were taken down easily.

Questions flared in Nat's head. Did the monsters come from somewhere else, or were they just spawning into existence? If they were coming in, from where? And if they were spawning, what determined where they spawned? Having only seen the one incident, everything was guesses so far out that even she laughed some of her own ideas off. Her attention tore back to the world in front of her as Shadow's hackles raised. Looking forward around the corner, three zombies were shuffling in their general direction. The mist clearly leaked off all three of them, but moreover the visual itself was heart wrenching. One of the zombies was a little boy, and he had to have been no older than eight. Assuming that the other two were his parents was a long shot, as one of the zombies looked to have been about seventy pre-death. Just the knowledge and visual that none were safe from the corruption irked her and almost made her throw up. However, there was no helping them at this point, save ending whatever suffering they may be experiencing. Given how they might spot and alarm the rest of the undead community here to their presence, Nat got three of the wolves to quickly take down the reanimated people. She was still wary of attacking anything, as she was unsure of how tough things were. Was everything here as tough as that orc? Or was it just how strong that strain of monster was?

After those zombies were disposed of, they continued on down the street, taking out another two groups of zombies on the way. As they left the area, they came across a large grocery store with a gravel parking lot behind it. Noticing that the two were separated by a thin strip of grass, Shadow led them that way, swiftly crossing the length of the building. Once at the other side of the building, Nat took a look at the path ahead. Scenic Drive was just ahead, but in between the road and them was a car dealership. Normally they would have just passed right through, but it was teeming with monsters. Hobs, orcs, and even another one of the stupidly tall ones was loitering about, milling between the cars and using them as chairs or beds. Thankfully the parking lot was fairly packed, and so she led them around to the west of the dealership. By some sheer luck, they were not spotted nor heard as they made their way around the gathering of creatures before getting onto and away along the main road.

Their trek down the road was very lackluster, for a lack of a better word. Despite houses being on either side of the road with occasional openings to see the river valley, not one view of life was seen. Plenty of not life was seen, from windows opening into the houses, but those zombies were usually quite focused on a certain patch of wall. What that was for was anyone's best guess. Maybe there was a laser pointer? Or perhaps they were all aspiring interior decorators and were stuck trying to choose a palette? Putting the silly thoughts out of mind, they hurried down the road being as expedient yet quiet as they could manage. Eventually they ended up passing by one of the city's cemeteries. At first Nat thought that it would be crawling with zombies, but as she looked in, she was pleasantly surprised at how peaceful it looked. Trees dotted the edges, with the view of mountains peeking through them. The light itself glistening through the leaves onto the tombstones below was breathtaking. The whole sight gave her a bit more faith that they would all be okay. Taking the sight one last time, she continued past the cemetery and around the bend ahead with the warm image of what she just saw implanted into her memories.

As the five of them rounded the bend, they were finally able to get their first unobstructed view of the first bridge. The only reason that they could not see the second was it was sitting on the far side away from them, hiding in its neighbour's shadow. Turning her head to look across the valley, she could clearly see the university campus sitting atop the opposite ridge. Her destination in sight, a sudden boost of energy flooded Nat, filling her and giving her the drive to move further. Her legs were starting to complain from the riding and walking they had done so far, and it was not even noon yet. However, she swore that she would not lay her head down and rest until this was all sorted, for better or worse. Until she saw her friend rescued, only death would stop her in her quest. Realistically though, she knew that after all of this was done, she would not want to move in the slightest for the next day or two. This had already been a day that has given her legs one of the more intensive workouts she had ever felt.

It took them another half hour of walking, but they made it to the bridge. As they made their way up the ramp, shrieks came from the east and a gentle rumbling began to be heard, slowly gaining in volume. Hiding behind the concrete barriers, the pack waited to see what would happen. Being unsure about her own abilities with the axe, Nat quickly got it traded out with the bow. Not a moment later, the source of the sound was revealed in its full glory. Easily over a hundred goblins and about half as many hobs flooded past them, shrieking in delight as they ran across the large bridge. There was no way that they could have taken that force head on. After the last one ran by, they waited a minute for any stragglers to pass by before following the horde. As far as they knew, Shannon was on the other side of that bridge. So now it was up to them to make sure that they would not have a chance at getting to her. Thankfully, Natalie had plenty of arrows that just so happened to develop a taste for goblin blood.

Huge thanks to my Elder Wolves Jake, Viktor, Nikolas, Saganatsu, Eeleater, Corgi, Zmal, Lachlan, Coen, Adam, John, Nicholas, Ty, and Kevin for supporting me and my writing! Remember that I keep Patreon ten chapters ahead at all times. Our next goal on Patreon will be getting up to 25 patrons, which I will then open up an official discord for everyone to come and discuss the story in and hang out!