Chapter 96
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It took them about thirty minutes before they came up to the entrance of Nanton. However, as soon as they saw it, Natalie ushered them all into the ditch as quick as they could. Sitting across the road in was a large barricade, covered in signs. Sending some energy to her eyes, Natalie did her best to enhance her vision. However, except for in the Soulscape she had not practised with zooming her vision in. Slowly, they slunk along the roadside, keeping as low as they could until they could make anything out. It was not until they reached the intersection that sat just outside that Natalie could make out the writing. From there, it was about half a kilometer away from the barricade, and it did not look good. The writing all looked as if it was done with blood, though hopefully it was just read paint done sloppily. Thought the signs varied with what was said cross them all, the message they all conveyed was a clear one. 'Go away, we don't have any supplies for anyone else. People who ignore these warnings shall be shot on sight.' What added to the whole scene was a number of dead bodies and pools of black blood.
Before any of the pack moved, bushes on the other side of the road rustled loudly. Keeping low to the ground, they peered over to see what the movement was. As they watched, a Man came up and out of the bushes, and started walking straight towards the barricade. From the look of him, he had to have been travelling for a while. He looked dehydrated, malnourished, and was starting to get scruffy. His eyes solely focused on the barricade, and did not even turn to notice his surroundings. His walk had an unsteady gait, probably coming from the large blood spot on his pants. Parts of him were covered with dried black goo, and he looked truly downtrodden. As he got close enough to read the signs, than man started shouting out, "Help me! Please! I am hurt and hungry, and I just want to live!" He repeated this over and over, slowly gathering hope more and more in his voice.
That voice was cut horribly short, as after he got close enough to the barricade, the sound of a crossbow rang out from it. The next thing everyone knew, the man staggered back a few steps, clutching his chest, before falling to the ground in a crumpled heap. As the man lay there dead, and the pack stared on at the sight, the crossbow rang out once more. This time, his head blossomed open, with red mist shooting up and around the corpse. While Nat understood why they did it, as the zombies were a stubborn pain, it did not make the act any less gruesome or revolting. For their own friends and family, it was now clear that the people behind that barricade were more than willing to kill to ensure their safety. Taking the warning at face value, the group unanimously decided that going through town was not a great idea. Not in the slightest.
Slowly and carefully, they all moved westward, keeping behind the ditch as much as they could to keep out of view of the barricade. All of them figured they would be fine, but Natalie knew what a crossbow was like. While it would only be accurate up to about a hundred meters or so, they could shoot farther than five hundred meters. All it took was one stray shot and it could be lights out for any of them. She did not want to take that risk with her family against a weapon that the church had banned at one point for being to deathly efficient. As they walked down the road, no more signs of barricades were seen anywhere else in the town. They had probably limited the size of it so they could better protect everyone. Thankfully for them, there was good chances that the largest enemy they would see here was a Hob, just going off of similarly sized towns they had already passed.
Shannon had everyone take a turn up 26th Avenue. This way they were now heading northwards once more. The lack of barricades seen had given everyone faith that they would not run into any more people on this side of town. However, as they walked down the street, signs of looting and destruction were prevalent everywhere. Houses were broken into, cars were torn apart for scraps, and even churches had been picked clean for barricade supplies. While they traveled through the town, no one made any attempts to practice or make noise. The locals clearly were not happy to have anyone else here, so they all kept their perception up, so as to not tip off anyone that they were even here. Far better to avoid conflict rather than fight constantly and have another one of their family get hurt.
After twenty minutes, they finally reached the northern side of Nanton. As the group got back onto the main highway and made some distance between them and the town, they all let out a collective sigh of relief. In most towns they had gone through, something always happened to them. This being one of the few times where they got in and out without hassle had a slight chance of being the last time that this would happen. Looking ahead, they all carried on along the road, slowly working into their practice and training the farther away they got from the town. The three 'personal trainers' only really got into harshly and loudly critiquing Bryden's walking form when they felt as though they would not be heard from anyone. And as it turned out, they had taken notes on what he did as they moved through Nanton. The notes were hitting him so hard and fast that he was completely unable to keep up with what the three women were telling him to do. Nat just giggled at the sight, before focusing on her own practice with the energy inside her while.
Huge thanks to my Elder Wolves Jake, Selvaria, Viktor, Nikolas, Saganatsu, Eeleater, Eric, Corgi, Lachlan, Adam, John, Nicholas, Jacob, Onean, Erudual, Hades, Krimson, Neal, Juuso, Sebastian, Sir Hellington, 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 50 patrons, which I will then spend more time each month writing some side stories and shorts that show other perspectives throughout my stories!
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