Chapter 170

I'm back! The main reason I needed this break was to storyboard the start of the second arc, as the current one 'ends' in chapter 179. hopefully, you all enjoy the way I have decided to take this story, and stick with me as we continue to explore things. Hope you all enjoy the chapter!

With their steps full of caution and their heads on a swivel, they made their way down the road. They were prepared to call out any sign of motion happening at a moment's notice, and then start running. Dealing with slow moving zombies as soon as you saw one was far easier than dealing with an enraged horde after all. The entire plan was not to hurt a single one, unless it was in a life or death scenario. The fear that they had back then was not something they wanted Sophie to experience. Nor was an angry horde of thousands something they would want to fight. There weren't even a hundred of them after all, and that count included all of the recent newborns. They just did not have the numbers to take on even ten percent of the previous population, which was a hopeful guess of how many zombies there were, of these two cities, let alone the monsters that would be on top.

They moved along the western side of the highway, trying to keep in what small ditch there was. This was only due to the fact that there was a wider green space between the road and the buildings there, as well as the fact that majority of Leduc was concentrated on the eastern side. This way, they hoped that they would not run into a zombie or monster without having seen it at a distance first. Their initial choice proved dividends shortly after they went into the city, having them walking beside a reservoir and a few baseball diamonds. The wide amount of open space gave all four of the people walking a sense of security and safety, at least in the form of knowing that they should have time to react to anything that showed up.

Sophie was the jumpiest of the bunch, the sound of wind whistling through the buildings and trees causing her to jump slightly every few minutes. She travelled in the middle of the four, alongside Shannon. She kept one hand holding Sophie's, as a form of support, while her other had a firm grip on the fire axe. She may not have any aptitude for ranged weapons, but she was confident that her strength and stamina had returned to a point that would make the weapon quite effective should the worst come to pass. Bryden seemed to be the most measured and calm of the group as he walked out in front. He just continued forward, not missing a step as he took the point position. His head was constantly on a slow swivel back and forth, his ears tilting as needed so he could pick up every sound from all around them. Finally, Natalie was bringing up the rear, making sure to check behind them regularly. Due to them planning to get into numerous fights in the day, she was moving about with her bow out, and an arrow nocked. In case they saw a goblin on their own, or were rushed by a group of them, she wanted to reduce any incoming threats as much as possible before they got close. Though if an orc or anything larger came at them, she would discard the bow entirely. She did not have faith in its ability to even hamper or slow the larger monsters, instead preparing to shift her arms into claws to tear at the creature's throat.

As they ended up passing by Exit 517 that led into Leduc's city center, the buildings on their left cut off abruptly, signaling the start of the airport's land for take-offs and arrivals. They could make out the control tower in the distance, but that was it. Otherwise, the highway curved slightly into the east, coming up right alongside the residential sector there. Thankfully, the ditch had started to deepen as well, as Bryden suddenly dropped low in the front. Mimicking him, the three women dropped down to a crouch as well. Curious on what he had seen, Nat peered up and over the slight rise to take a look at the houses on the opposite side of the road. Milling in and out of the broken fence line were numerous zombies. With the low sitting sun, they had blended into the shadow, barely being noticeable. After waiting for a few seconds to make sure they had not been seen, Nat gestured for the group to keep moving forward, staying low while keeping up as steady of a pace as they could.

Of course, this plan could only last so far. As the ditch slowly became more level with where the road sat, they came up to a point where there was a massive shopping complex sitting beside the road on the western side. Worst enough, they could see goblins milling about in the parking lot as they approached. Thanks to the event having happened at night, the entire lot was almost empty, save for a car here and there. This was both a good and bad thing, as while it allowed them easy sightlines on all the monsters, it sadly meant that they all had excellent sight lines on one another. Sneaking past would be tricky, but they could do it. And with where the zombies were in comparison, they couldn't even backtrack to cross over to the other side of the road. If they did, then being spotted was not and if, but more of a when. As the monsters were walking around in small groups of three to five, they decided to push their luck, and continued crouch-walking up the ditch.

They managed to make it most of the way as well, until Bryden walked straight into a small pool of water that hadn't dissipated. He was far too focused on the goblins beside him that he wasn't paying attention to where he was walking. The large splash of his feet going straight to the bottom of the pool caused the group to freeze and look. As they did, only the closest group of creatures had turned to see what that was. As quick as she could, Nat took out the three that were there with three consecutive arrows, each burrowing halfway into the goblins. Two had landed inside the goblins heads and one got lodged inside the last's windpipe. As far as shots from that distance went, Nat was pretty happy with her placement, but she did not have time to appreciate that. As a silence descended upon the entire area as the three corpses feel to the ground.

Huge thanks to my Elder Wolves Viktor, Saganatsu, Eeleater, John, Hades, Onean, Sebastian, Adam, 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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