Chapter 89
Clementine:
We walked around for a few minutes, but this time we didn’t head toward the woods. We knew the parents wouldn’t have gone there, there’s no way the mothers would think to hide in such a dangerous place. Or so we thought.
As soon as we stepped onto a road, I noticed the other squads following us. At that point, everyone looked suspicious, just staring at each other. I didn’t even know what was happening. I think they were trying to stay close so that if one of us found a baby, they could snatch it. And of course, none of us would be heartless enough to risk hurting a baby by trying to take it back.
“In the end, it might even come down to squad mates turning on each other,” Haiden said as he looked around. I saw him narrow his eyes at something in the distance. The road only goes two ways, forward or back.
“Let’s go,” Haiden said, gently tapping my elbow. We started walking the opposite way while the others kept going forward. But some of them noticed and began following us. It was exhausting. And the silence as they trailed behind was even louder.
About an hour into the walk, we finally came across the first house. It was painted completely yellow with red doors.
“Isn’t this the one Lenora was talking about?” Yorick said.
They had told us during the boarding that we’d know we were heading the right way if we saw this exact house. It was small but two stories tall. They said the border started with the woods, then led into this small village. It was a sign we were getting deeper into the northern area.
My eyes scanned the place anxiously. Bloodstains covered the ground, doors, and yellow walls, the contrast making it even more terrifying.
Before we could head toward the house, a Green Squad member ran past and bumped into me. I almost fell, but Yorick grabbed my arm to steady me.
The guy ran up to the porch, then turned to smirk at us.
“Green Squad takes over this house,” he announced.
We narrowed our eyes as more of his squad formed a circle around the house.
“Yeah, we saw it first,” one of the girls yelled to support the guy.
We were annoyed. We had chosen this direction, but technically, it wasn’t really about who saw it first since it was everyone’s end destination. So, we just let them have it. They kept smirking at us as we passed by in silence. Even the sound of our footsteps felt loud in that tense moment.
As we passed, the guy at the door struggled with it.
“Come on, open it, Markus!” the same girl yelled.
We’d already moved past the house and spotted others farther away when a loud, screeching cry made us turn. Markus had just opened the door— and stood there, headless.
His teammates screamed, stumbling backward and running in the direction they had come from. They only stopped farther away to look back and check on him. We were panicking too. My squad mates were already bracing themselves to fight whatever had done it.
Markus’s body collapsed with a thud. His head rolled down the porch steps, leaving a trail of blood behind.
Once the silence returned, my squadmates and I began walking toward the house. “Clementine, grab that,” Haiden said, pointing at something to the side of the house. A large butcher knife lay there, covered in blood. Someone might have tried to defend themselves against whatever monster had been here. The fact that Haiden told me to grab it before anyone else got to it moved me a little—just a bit. I went ahead and picked up the knife, and as I stood up, I caught a glimpse through one of the broken windows. Something was pacing around inside. It looked like a dinosaur, maybe, or some kind of creature, but I was sure it wasn’t a dinosaur. It had a long neck like an ostrich and a body covered in thick, armor-like shell as of a turtle. The tail reminded me of one of those dinosaurs, specifically, a Velociraptor.
“Hey Clementine, come back. What are you doing standing there?” Troy hissed, gesturing for me to return. But I couldn’t move. I could still see the creature roaming around. Its beak looked like a parrot’s, but it was completely red. I wasn’t sure if that was its natural color or if it was stained with blood. Some of its dark brown feathers around its head also looked bloodied. It was chittering as it looked around the house. That had to be the thing that bit off Markus’ head.
I raised my hand to signal my squadmates not to make any sudden moves. There was something else I noticed about the creature, it didn’t have eyes. My squadmates stared back at me, confused, but at least they had stopped moving.
That’s when the creature started walking toward the front porch. The door was already open. It stepped outside, finally coming into full view. I heard gasps from the green squadmates. I raised my hand and waved to get their attention, then slowly lowered it and put a finger to my lips to hush them.
We watched as the creature approached the body. It didn’t touch it. Instead, it kept its neck low to the ground, almost like it was sniffing the blood and locating its target. Then it moved toward the stairs, following the blood trail until it reached the severed head.
That’s when it started to feed.
Seeing Markus’ eyes still open while the creature ate his head made me feel like I was going to gag. I think everyone thought about running to put distance between them and this monster, but we didn’t know how strong it was. It could be fast, maybe even faster than anything we’d seen. There could be more of them nearby.
Just as that thought hit me, I slowly turned to my left, and saw another creature’s neck peeking out from behind the house, only a few feet away from where I stood.