Chapter 100: 100-Found A Girl In The Woods
Troy:
The moment her head came off, the monster stepped back so it could roll it around. At the same time, I saw her body collapse, and the hold she’d had on the baby was gone. I lunged toward her lifeless body and scooped up the baby girl. My heartbeat must have been deafening, along with my panting and footsteps, because the monster dropped the head and turned its attention to me.
It charged, but with one arm holding the baby and the other reaching for the back of the building, I started climbing. Halfway up, something yanked at my leg. I groaned in pain, kicking at the damn creature as I tried to pull free from its beak. It clamped onto my shoe with brutal force.
"Did you not have enough?" I shouted at it. Suddenly, it released me and began searching for the head again. I hated it at that moment. It was like it could understand me.
Once I reached the top, I cradled the crying baby. The other monsters heard her wails and began gathering around the house, some even leaping toward us. But they couldn’t climb this high. It didn’t matter, they had already done their damage.
Holding her close, I gazed at the full moon, tears welling in my eyes as I rocked her gently. For an hour, she cried while the monsters screeched below. Then, silence. But inside me, a storm was building.
"There was nothing you could have done," my wolf murmured, trying to comfort me. "We were just a little too late."
"We could have saved that woman," I replied, my body trembling with a strange sense of loss.
"Hey, Troy, you saved the baby. And from what I’m seeing here, I don’t think we were meant to save the mothers. They were supposed to stay behind. Remember what the squadmates said? No matter how many times they sent warriors or lurkers, they never found any adults to rescue." My wolf’s words felt like lies. If a newborn could survive and make it back to the mainland, why couldn’t an adult? How was it possible that none of the crusaders had ever come across a civilian here? I had just found one. I was simply too late.
"You might want to move to the house next to this one. There’s a rooftop there. You’d be much safer."
I guess my wolf noticed I was nodding off. It happens often, whenever I’m too upset or grieving, I get drowsy. It’s my body’s way of forcing me to rest, because if I stay awake, I just keep stressing. I listened to my wolf and climbed onto the rooftop of the next house. The high walls made it safer, much safer.
Even then, I couldn’t fully sleep. Screams and shouts broke the night every so often. Once, I thought I heard Clementine talking to someone, but maybe it was just part of a dream. I was still pretty out of it. When the moon began to rise, I woke up. The child with me was hungry, so I knew I had to get back to the station to feed her.
’Then we could board the train.’ It felt like my wolf wanted to hear my plan.
"No, I want to go back and find her," I muttered, and he already knew who I meant. Roy didn’t seem to object.
"We can hand the baby to someone so they can take her to the mainland," he suggested. I nodded. I didn’t want to return to the same house where the mother’s body had been, or maybe wasn’t anymore. These creatures had spent the whole night playing with corpses and severed heads. They seemed to like staying in this area for some reason.
I climbed down from the building. By then, it seemed the creatures had either gone into hiding or fallen asleep. I spotted one near the woods, lying there peacefully, while the rest were probably inside the houses. For some reason, I walked back toward the mansion. This time, the door was open. The white squad was gone. I had hoped Clementine might be there, but she wasn’t.
"We should hand over the baby and then come back. She’s going to wake up again and set off all the sleeping monsters. It’ll be dangerous for us and for the others carrying babies," Roy argued, noticing that other squadmates had infants with them too. I followed the crowd heading toward the train station.
"Troy!" A cheerful voice jolted me. How could anyone sound happy here? I turned and saw the girl from the red squad, the same one who had flirted with us in our room last time. I didn’t feel like talking to anyone. I was carrying the daughter of a woman who died because I’d been too slow to help. And worried for an ex-friend that was missing. I had no time for anyone else. I quickened my pace, ignoring her.
Halfway there, I heard a girl in pain. It wasn’t the kind of pain from a monster attack, it was different. She was groaning, moaning.
"Is anybody there?" I called out from the edge of the woods. The others had already passed me. I was too slow, my eyes constantly scanning for Clementine.
"Help! Please help me!" The cry was faint but desperate. I followed the sound, and when I found the voice’s owner, my whole body went numb.
"Oh, you’re a crusader. Please help me," the girl whispered. She had heavy bags under her eyes, like she’d been crying the whole time she’d been left behind. It was clear she was one of us who’d been left behind, the pregnant girl Haiden had worried about. The same one the ringleaders claimed they couldn’t find. But how? She was right here in the woods, right next to the station. Had she been moving too much? Was that why they couldn’t track her down? Questions crowded my mind, but I had no answers. In that moment, all that mattered was taking care of her.
"Sadie?" I blurted, shocked to see her. "What is going on? How do you—oh—what’s happened to you?" I stammered, moving quickly toward her.
"Shh!!!" Her hand rested on her swollen belly. I guessed we hadn’t noticed before because she was always in baggy clothes. But now she’d taken off her sweater, and it was clear.
"I’m going into labor." Then, in a soft, gentle voice, she explained exactly what was happening to her.