Chapter 173

It was quiet for the first few minutes, but then they felt the ground start to shake. The footfalls of the horde of monsters sounding closer and closer with each passing moment. The three of them did not dare to move a muscle, and instead watched on either side of the bridge, seeing if their ruse would be uncovered. Time felt as if to almost stand still, save for the dust that came off the bridge supports around them.

Breaking them out of that trance, was the shaking of the bridge as what sounded like hundreds of monsters running across it, as well as more stampeding past the sides, down onto the road right past them. The monsters ran meters away from where the three hid, trying to take up as small of a space as possible. Sophie had her head tucked into Shannon's torso, unable to watch due to the thought that if she saw as many as she was hearing, she could not help but scream out. Meanwhile, Nat and Shan watched in speechless terror, hoping that none of the many monsters running by stopped and looked around. All it would take was one for them to be overwhelmed in an instant. They had no idea that the screams of that one goblin would cause such a large ripple.

As they watched the monsters running down the slopes and across the road, they heard a loud crashing sound come up from behind them. Monsters were only trickling past them at this point, majority of them on the bridge or already down at the road. At least, all of the small monsters were. They no longer felt the thunder of constant running by a large group. Now they more of bounced to large and heavy thuds that resonated out behind them. As they turned their heads to follow the sound, they saw a dozen ogres running down the hill after the smaller monsters, followed by one larger monster. It was the same one that Nat had seen in her dream a while back, before they had entered the city of Calgary. However, seeing it up close in real-life was far more terrifying than it had been in the dream. After all, the thing's foot was larger than she was. As it ran down the embankment with the ogres ahead of it, they could not help but notice the sign of the bank they had skirted past hanging off the monster's neck.

When they could not see nor hear any monsters any more, they finally moved out from underneath the bridge. Her curiosity over-bearing, Nat went back up and took a peek at the bank. Or rather, where the bank used to be. On a diagonal angle, walls stood up on either side, with a massive furrow running down in the middle. The giant monster must not have cared in the slightest as it ran after its monster brethren, going straight through the middle of the building like it was a sand castle. As one of the side walls fell to the ground in a heap, Nat slowly turned around to see if she could spot the massive troll. She was just in time to see its lumbering form disappear down a street behind some of the buildings.

Shuddering at the sheer size and strength of the lumbering beast, Nat went back and moved west alongside Shannon and Sophie. There was no dawdling or moving slowly, as they quickly vacated the area. They hadn't even considered the ecology or behaviour of monsters before. Did they return to a set area after a certain amount of time? Did they just go free range? It was hard to know what they did, given that the only time they had spent long around them was when they were being attacked or attacking the hostile creatures. They didn't really have time to sit back and watch what the monsters did, nor did they have a want at the moment. Neither Shannon nor Natalie had any idea on how their parents were doing through this whole thing, or if they were even alive. They also had to worry about Sophie, and making sure that she grew up with as much safety and care as they could afford. Hanging around monsters for weeks and writing down everything they did was a clear way to botch that. Especially when they just saw evidence of one having walked through a goddamn building.

Thankfully, the rest of their walk down Whitemud Drive was relatively peaceful. Large berms, with fences on top of them ran for the first half, blocking all view in and out of the residential areas on either side. Then when they came through the second half, it was almost all green space, and more berms and trees giving protection from being spotted. Honestly, if it wasn't in an apocalypse, they would have found the entire thing scenic and beautiful to drive down. The bridges themselves gave a wonderful view of the area, with it mostly being a sea of trees with some open green spaces and a large river running through it. It was a space that they were entirely not expecting to find in the middle of a city on the prairies, as it almost felt like a place they would find in the interior of British Columbia. The only thing reminding them they were still in Alberta was how dry it was here, the air lacking any noticeable sign of humidity.

After they crossed the second bridge, they followed along the waterside through Sir Wilfrid Laurier Park. The trails seemed almost entirely untouched, with the grass growing long and free on the sides of the pathway. The sound of the river running and the leaves through the trees was a nice background music to the abundance of animal noises that came from the north. They could see a fence, and assumed that it was the zoo given by the types of sounds that they heard. However, none of them wanted to break through it, just in case it helped act as a barrier against the monsters coming in. As they rounded the corner to come out in front of the entrance, they saw a person bandaging up a dog's leg in a splint. Before either Sophie or Shannon could ask what they were doing, the sound of Nat's bow falling to the ground entered their ears. "Dad?"

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