Chapter 109: Pharmaceuticals ~ 2

Whoever had broken in first had torn through the supply crates with a crowbar, leaving nothing behind but empty styrofoam packing peanuts and torn plastic wrap.

Dion kicked an empty box aside, his eyes scanning the dark corners just in case.

There was nothing worth taking at all.

He turned back toward the front, picking his path carefully around the shattered glass near the counter.

The whole trip inside had taken him under a minute.

Dion stepped back out through the empty door frame and stepped into the cold rain.

Irvin was standing nearer to the building than he had been when Dion went in, his hands shoved deep into his wet coat pockets.

"So what was in the back?" Irvin asked, his voice dripping with mild suspicion.

"Somebody already stripped that back room," Dion said, without slowing his pace as he walked past him.

He had settled on the answer while looking at the broken door, and it had the advantage of being entirely true.

Irvin did not ask a second question. He only stood there a moment longer, staring into the dark pharmacy, before he turned off the wall and followed behind.

Florence adjusted the strap of her bag as Dion caught up with the head of the group.

"Was the dispensary cage back there open too?" she asked.

Dion glanced at her, keeping his voice light and casual.

"It was torn wide open."

Florence stopped walking for a fraction of a second, her brows drawing together.

"Then it wasn't casual looters," she said, her mouth tightening into a hard line. "Looters from the neighborhood don't know to go straight for the rear storage cages and leave everything else. Somebody came through here who knew how pharmacies operate, and they had the tools to be thorough about it."

She turned to face Anton, her expression grim under the falling rain.

"That means there is an organized group at least somewhere nearby here."

Anton swore under his breath, shaking his head.

"That's all we bloody need," Anton muttered, thinking about how this meant there was a lower chance they could find food around.

Basil shifted the tall stack of medical supplies in his arms, his biceps bulging against his wet sleeves.

"We ought to be moving, then," Basil said, looking down the dark street. "Standing out in the open like this is just asking for a bullet or a bite."

Dion kept his mouth shut as the group fell back into formation.

Florence's sharp mind had connected dots that weren't even there, creating a ghost crew of organized scavengers out of thin air.

He filed the thought away alongside the rest of the small lies he had to tell to keep himself intact.

The list of things he couldn't explain to normal people was getting longer every single day he spent around them.

As they moved down the slick street, Anton fell in beside him, dropping his pace to match Dion's stride.

His voice came low, pitched strictly for the two of them under the patter of the rain.

"There's something I've been thinking about since we came back earlier..." Anton said quietly.

Dion turned his head slightly to look at him as they moved.

Anton wasn't looking back; his eyes were fixed on the asphalt ahead, his thumb working rhythmically along his own hand, then he clenched it briefly.

"The chronicle finally gave me my class options," Anton said.

Dion's interest piqued, though he kept his face completely neutral.

"It gave me three choices," Anton continued, letting out a short, dry laugh that sounded entirely devoid of humor. "Swordsman, Knight, and Barbarian."

He paused, his boots splashing through a shallow puddle on the road.

"And it's just been sitting there in my vision ever since, waiting on me to pick but i've been hesitating because im pretty sure something like this... the kind of decision I can't afford to be wrong about for the sake of mine... and everyone elses life"

Anton glanced over at Dion, his jaw tight.

"I wanted to ask what you thought I should..."

Anton cut himself off mid-sentence because suddenly, Dion stopped walking at the exact same moment.

A terrible, thick stench came crawling up the road from behind them, rising out of the flooded intersection.

It wasn't the smell... horribly disgusting

Rot and blood something Dion had been breathing in so much over these many hours that his lungs had long since made their grim peace with dead meat.

This was sharp, acidic, and heavy with foul chemicals. It scratching straight into the back of Dion's throat, and burnt over his tongue like a mouthful of burning copper and sulphur.

His gut churned instantly, the foul taste triggering a sharp spike of nausea that made his teeth clench.

"Everyone get off the road," Dion said, his voice dropping into an urgent whisper. "Get behind the cars. Now."

Anton turned to him, his hand instantly dropping toward the handle of his weapon.

"What is it?" Anton asked.

"I don't know," Dion said, pushing Anton toward the row of abandoned vehicles lined up along the curb. "Just move!"

The thing stepped out over the roof of a rusted sedan on the far side of the crossing without even breaking its stride.

It moved at a slow, leisurely walk, completely unbothered by the rain or the darkness.

Dion had seen skunks before, back behind the college dining halls near the garbage bins, and the absolute largest among them had barely reached the length of his forearm.

The monstrosity that now stepped into the middle of the street stood more than three meters tall at the shoulder.

The roof of the sedan groaned and buckled downward under the weight of a single, massive paw.

The black-and-white banding along its thick fur was unmistakable, but the fur along its spine had hardened and grown out into dense rows of jagged quills.

Each quill was as thick as a broom handle, rattling against the others with a dry, metallic clicking sound as it walked.

Its massive tail rose high behind its back like a solid wall of black bone and spikes, broad enough to shade the entire width of the road.

Its heavy head hung low to the asphalt, swinging slowly from side to side as it sniffed the air.

Its milk-white eyes fixed directly onto the spot where Dion and Anton were standing.

And then, with a slow, agonizing creak of muscle and bone, its giant tail began to lift higher into the air.