Chapter 3 : The night escape

In the night, near the settlement to the side going into the wilderness, a makeshift carriage with two horses that looked more like donkeys was departing toward the direction of that wilderness, inside it was the bald middle aged man Ken Liu and his men, they were leaving the slum going in the north in the opposite direction from the disaster that was nearing this place. This carriage was his most prized possession, he usually used it to go visit the town nearby to buy some goods that he would then exchange with the slum dwellers but this time he was using it to escape to a town in the north that was ten hours of journey from there through the wild, it was the first stopping point of their escape from there. 

There was a crowd of slum dwellers behind the carriage who followed it on foot they were mostly made of children and women with a few men mixed in, they also learned about the disaster and decided to follow his footsteps thinking that he knew where to go. One of his men seemed to have something to say, he then asked him in a small voice:

"Boss, I don't understand why you are bringing those people with us, they will only be burdens by following us."

Ken Liu looked at him with one eye before saying in a calm tone:

"That's why I am the boss and not you, you said they are burdens, you are right about that, but have you ever traveled in the night in the wilderness? They will find their due use when the time come."

The guy began to understand, as he shut up not questioning anymore.

Ken Liu then continued in a small voice:

"Don't blame me you people, everyone is just doing what he could do to survive in this world."

...…..

In the crowd of slum dwellers, the small silhouette of a kid was following the carriage on his own keeping to himself, it was Shu who decided to go with the mass since he thought that escaping alone seemed more dangerous. But, he was feeling suspicious of the weasel's motive musing to himself.

'That bald weasel wouldn't do anything that wouldn't benefit himself, he must have some objective to gather this crowd with him.'

 To be cautious, he always remained at the outskirts of the crowd readying to run if something were to happen. As he looked around, he saw other people thinking the same as him keeping their guard up.

Several hour passed by and the stars in the night sky were slowly covered by the clouds that passed sit this time. The carriage was already in the middle of the wilderness, the cold wind was howling stirring the bushes and trees nearby that seemed to hide the danger of this savage place. The crowd were beginning to feel tired after walking for this long but the ones who couldn't continue would be left behind to fend for themselves, so they persevered while thinking that the town wasn't far anymore. There was only a quarter of the road right now before they arrived in the town.

Suddenly, some weird noise came from the bushes nearby startling everyone, they got alert putting their guard up against whatever it was by gathering arround, sadly they wouldn't be able fend off what was to come. Ken Liu said to the coachman oh the front:

"Sped up as fast as you can, it's time to get out of there."

The carriage which was in the lead began to sped up under the coachman's lead as the horse neighed and rushed forward, it went further and further away leaving the crowd behind.

 The slum dwellers began to panic seeing this scene, but before they were able to register what was going on they heard a scream beside them. Several figures jumped out of the foliage drawing blood as they attacked them ferociously, they were hard to see in the darkness but those were gigantic wolves three meters long with dark fur, their maw filled with bloodied sharp teeth growled ringing the beginning of the massacre.

"Ahhhhh! Please help."

"Don't come over! This is must be a dream, a nightmare."

"Run away!"

Accompanying the shouting and screaming, children were torn to shred from a single claw from the beasts while the adult got their neck bitten savagely and their limbs torn apart, the scene was extremely gruesome. The number of wolfs wasn't actually that great but within the panicked crowd their claw and fangs easily found their target.

Admist this hell, Shu was able to get away in time. He was ready to run if something went wrong, so he immediately separated from the crowd when he saw the carriage speeding away, sparing himself the entanglement with the panicked people. He then began to run away decisively when he saw the wolfs attacking. 

As he sped to the distance, a wolf saw him passing by its side, it attacked him with a claw in order to stop him, the sharp attack managed to find his back.

"Ahhh" He let out a scream but it was fortunate for him that the attack hit the bag hung on his shoulder spreading the content and leaving only a bloody mark on his skin behind, if not it wouldn't be the bag's content that spread here. He was thrown forward but managed to roll on the ground before standing up hastily, he then gritted his teeth to suppress the pain and continued to run with all his might in the distance. The beast saw that the attack didn't kill the target and as it was about to pursue, a growl called it back, it was from the pack leader that prompted it to ignore him, there were many more to kill just near it so it should concentrate here...

.....

Shu ran as fast as he could from the darned place while ignoring the pain from the injury on his back and the blood that he was losing; he didn't know where to head to, so he went to the same direction as the carriage which ran away muttering in his mind 'those guy should be heading in the direction of the town'. 

Thinking about that bald head, he couldn't help feeling a surge of anger, that man knew full well that there were those ferocious wolves living in that place, he used him and the crowd as a distraction for the beasts while his group got away unscathed; he swore to kill those b*stards if they ever fell in his hands . With a blurry vision and a tired body, he was only moving with the will to live. It took him the rest of the night to walk out of the wilderness reaching the entrance of the town, when he arrived here the ray of dawn was already beginning to shine on it as if to chase the darkness away.

...…

While the crowd were left to fend for themselves dealing with the pack of wolves, the carriage was running at top speed to the direction of the town. As Ken Liu expected, the wolves were occupied dealing with them and didn't follow after them; traveling in the wilderness in the night was a very reckless choice, people who knew anything about travel would never try that since most of those who did were already in the stomach of the ferocious beast. He also knew about it, but with the threat from the war coming near him, he could only take the risk and walk this fool's path, fortunately this region of the wilderness was the territory of the dark wolves so they shouldn't encounter any other ferocious beast on their way. 

Several hours later, they managed to reach the entrance of the town, when they entered in, it was empty as they had expected, but looking at the scene, there should be some supply left as the townsfolk ran away in a hurry from the war leaving many things behind them.

 They didn't want to linger here for long though, the day was about to come and most of the beasts in the wild would stop their activity since they were nocturnal, if they hurried on the road ahead, they would be able rd reach the next town before the next nightfall come so the earlier they left the better. Ken Liu turned to his men and began to give orders :

"Look at the supplies in the houses nearby, don't wast time on anything else and bring only the food and water you can find. The other, go look for a carriage, this one wouldn't last long enough on our journey, the horses are still fine but give them some food and water when we still can."

The men followed his instructions and swiftly dealt with them, before long they managed to get enough supplies of foods and water and they brought a carriage of better quality from a place nearby. After loading the supplies in the new carriage and placing the fed horses on it, they continued on their road while ignoring any tiredness. The weasel gave a small lament though:

"If I knew something like this would happen, I wouldn't have exchanged for any of the supply of medicine."

When the dawn came there wasn't any trace of their shadow left while several figures who looked haggard and bloodied entered the town from the wilderness.