Chapter 171

While the corpses of the unlucky goblins fell to the ground, the four of them did not sit idle. As they kept an eye on the nearest monsters, they slowly moved down the ditch while avoiding the pool of water. As the longer grass partially clung to Bryden's leg, they made their way northward, careful not to make sudden movements to attract any attention their way. Thankfully, the dead goblins were not discovered until they were nearing the end of the parking lot for the mall, and only by another group literally tripping on their bodies. Apparently, goblins did not have the inclination to either look down or watch where they were walking. In fact, one of them had managed to impale and kill itself, landing on the protruding arrow head when it fell. It was more disturbing than comforting, especially when the other goblins in the group just started pointing and making sounds that almost sounded like laughter mixed with nails on a chalk board.

Once they made it under the overpass, the four of them started moving faster along the road. The area surrounding them as they moved had opened up greatly, and they would be glad to put that mall behind them. Especially when they saw more and more goblins gathering to the noise of the group laughing. After all, the new members did nothing else but join in laughing, making the sound resonate through the air like a horribly out of tune and key orchestra. With the volume only increasing as more of them joined in. If the noise itself hadn't been enough, Nat also noticed that the zombies were starting to cross the road, attracted to the noise. Between both of those, none of them wanted to be even in the vicinity of the area, let alone in between the two groups.

They actually broke out into a light jog, all the way up until they reached the outer border of Edmonton. They kept an eye on the industrial sector far across the road, but it was so far away they had problems making out anything there. Thus, they judged it as not a threat, and focused on making sure they were putting one foot in front of the other, with regular checks on their surroundings. After all, that was one of the few spots for today that they felt safe trying to save some time with a bit of faster movement.

Sure enough, as soon as the highway turned into Gateway Blvd., buildings started becoming more numerous and closed in on either side of the road. It had turned into neither side having much space to even maneuver, let alone see. Therefore, they started moving up in the middle of both the north and south bound lanes of travel. That way, they could hopefully have a few second of warning as long as they were vigilant.

After they passed the Anthony Henday Drive, they saw the weirdest thing beside them. They were passing down beside the South Edmonton Commons, a commercial district with numerous stores and theatres throughout, when they discovered that monsters slept as well. Sprawled out on either the pavement and cars were a bunch of orcs and trolls, snoring their asses off. Goblins were milling about like children, while the hobs seemed to be groggy teenagers who haven't had their coffee yet. Up until this point, none of them had seen monsters that slept or had any other bodily functions that was normal to the rest of them. Was this a new development? Or had they always done this? It was hard to tell, but it seemed that their sleep schedule was influenced by their size. From this look anyways.

However, the amount of sleeping forms was staggering. There had to have been hundreds laying there resting. None of them made a noise, and paid very close attention to where their feet went. It was not a number that they wanted to fight against, even if all of them were fully grown and in top condition. However, as they went, they noticed something that put a chill down their spines. In the middle of the parking lot, coming out of one of the restaurants, was another group of people. They seemed to be carrying supplies, that they must have grabbed from the area, and were carefully weaving their way through the bodies and cars littered about. All that Natalie's group felt comfortable doing was hoping the best for them, and not making a noise. Especially since they seemed to be moving to the eastern side of the area.

While this had helped with the knowledge that monsters sleeping had been happening for a while, they were surprised that there were people willing to take the risk to go back and forth, looting while evading conflict. How many other groups were out there, doing similar things to keep alive, instead of travelling out in the world to reach their families and loved ones that they were separated from? And was it out of a hope that the military would ride in and fix everything? There was so much unknown, and barely anything they could do to help. After all, they had witnessed monsters pouring out of portals, fresh and ready to fight and destroy.

Moving down the road, they passed by a few more parking lots, filled with varying amount of sleeping and waking monsters. If this kept up, they may make it to Whitemud Drive before any of the monsters noticed them here in the city. It sat lower into the ground, between large berms on either side. This meant that they could use it as a hopefully fast and easy route to getting up into downtown where the zoo sat. However, as Shannon was thinking that this was lucky, did disaster finally strike. Out of an aptly named mini golf store just past Thirty-Fourth Avenue, a goblin came walking out, before freezing in place when it saw the group. Before Natalie could even lift her bow up to take it out, it opened up its mouth, and started shrieking.

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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