The group watched as the two pride-striken hounds returned to their positions, closing the gap Niles and Dominic made. Now, standing face-to-face with them, the two new arrivals could smell their necrotic breath, like a mix of spoiled meat and sewage.

  Niles took a glance at the men closest to him, checking what they had in hand.

  The muscular man on his left had a large splitting ax; the suited man had nothing. The two to his right had a shovel and a small hatchet, respectively. He couldn’t see the others from his vantage point, but it seemed as though they alternated armed and unarmed after that.

  After taking a breath to calm himself down, he shouted to Réal. “I have two arrows left. If we can pull one’s attention away from me, I think the narrow head can get in pretty deep.”

  The older man slipped behind the others, patting his son on the back along the way, and got between the athletic man and Niles. “You think you can hit a vital spot?”

  “From this close, as long as I don’t get shoved, I can probably hit right between those ribs.”

  The snout-clipped dog growled audibly, staring at Niles as though it knew he was the one who injured it. However, its eyes were watery and unfocused, thanks to the bleeding wound on its face, where the pain receptors are a bit more sensitive.

  It shook its head, trying to stay on task. It was hurt, but determined to keep its eyes on him.

  The other was wary of Dominic, feeling the sting to its pride by being scared of just a thin-looking prey.

  Réal nodded and guided Niles over to where he was standing before. He gripped the three-foot-long adjustable wrench in his hands and took a deep breath. “Okay. I’ll distract the one the arrow bounced off of.” Then he turned to his son and the big guy beside him. “You two keep the other two from attacking us.”

  Getting nods of acknowledgement, he turned to the crowd behind him.

  “If this works like I hope it does, get ready to run as fast as you can out of town! Don’t move without my signal, got it?”

  With that, he inched his way back to the other side of the blonde athlete and waited for the dogs between him and his target to go back to watching the two that hurt them. The second their eyes moved away from him, a dull object flew over their prey, barely in their periphery.

  Réal threw the wrench with all his strength. He hoped that it would land next to the beast blocking the highway, spooking it into turning to its side. But instead, the damn thing landed square on its head, dazing it.

  Niles, understandably, hesitated when he saw that happen.

  The creature’s stance faltered, drool started to pour from its mouth, and its eyes completely lost focus. The two who were previously assaulted snapped their attention to the one who threw the object, and prepared themselves to pounce. However, Dominic and the muscular man widened their stance in front of him, weapons at the ready.

  Looking at the dilerious state of the dog hit by the wrench, barely keeping itself upright, Niles decided to change the plan.

  He fired a shot at a different beast, opposite the direction of Réal, with the broad-tipped arrow, instead of the narrow tip. It dug under one of its ribs, lodging itself with a satisfying “thunk”. Then, as quickly as he could, he swiped the shovel from the person on his left, gripping it with both hands, and lunged forward.

  With a hop after two wide steps, his momentum and downward force slammed the head of the shovel into the wide area, roughly where the wrench had landed.

  A quick snap and crack of bone was heard, mixed with the whining sound of the square shovel denting on impact. The dazed hound collapsed with the impact without making more than a reactive huff.

  The arrow-scarred one saw Niles move in the corner of its eye and prepared to attack, but the athlete jumped in, swiping his ax at it.

  He didn’t manage to cut in, but did make it jump back and second-guess attacking.

  From here, Réal’s muscle memory kicked in, causing him to shout “Run!” as Dominic and the other man next to him swung their weapons at the two dogs to push them back.

  The crowd moved as instructed, bolting down the highway as fast as they could. The oldest among them started falling behind — a little old lady with dark, tan skin. Her granddaughter tried to pull her along, but couldn’t make her go any faster. Thankfully, the unarmed mousey-haired man noticed and grabbed the woman in his arms, running like a maniac and screaming for dear life.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  Many adults did the same for the small children.

  As the group of survivors barely slipped through the encirclement, the largest of the six beasts let out a sharp bark. The other four froze when they heard it snap. An order not to chase, as doing so would be too risky.

  Especially after losing one of their own.

  ***

  It took several minutes before they realized they weren’t being chased. When they did, they stopped to catch their breath.

  Weary eyes tried to ignore the rising plumes of smoke. As far as they were aware, only the fifty people presently standing in the middle of the highway were the only ones to make it out of Wawa alive.

  Homes, livelihoods, memories; all these things and more were being burned and destroyed by the chaos that landed in the town without warning. But the question that burned in the back of their minds after somehow escaping from their town was, “What do we do now?”

  The question was asked by the young woman whose grandmother was helped by the well-dressed man. She was of average height for an adult woman, with long, black hair and slightly lighter, tan skin. Holding the older woman with worry, while giving the man who helped a grateful bow of the head, she turned to Réal with those words.

  The head of the Fairbanks family crossed his arms, feeling dozens of teary eyes and concerned looks pressing down on him.

  Back in his military days, he’d been put in charge countless times. However, this was different. The rules had changed so much that even he couldn’t completely rely on those past experiences. Only his discipline and improvisational skills could help. And while he was competent with logistics, there was someone present who was better suited for the job.

  “Niles.” He called out. “Where’s the nearest farm large enough to sustain us?”

  It wasn’t hard to see what the man was asking. Asking for a large farm meant he was hoping to use it for a long time. And to care for fifty people, they would need a lot of food in order to survive. Unfortunately–

  “I don’t think that’s such a good idea,” Niles answered with an apologetic expression.

  Réal kept an eye on the people’s reactions while pressing the issue. “Could you tell me why? I’m sure you know we need a lot of food to survive, and a farm should have buildings we can use as shelter.”

  The others looked hopeful, though the rest of the Fairbanks family knew him well enough to know that his mentioning these facts meant it likely wasn’t a good idea.

  Niles nodded and began to elaborate.

  “While yes, we need food and shelter. The closest farm large enough to have everything we need is about a day’s walk from here, on the other side of Hawk Junction. Going there would mean putting a lot of stress on our oldest and youngest members here, and exhausting ourselves well before we even reach the area, which could be in the same or a worse state than Wawa is right now.”

  This statement changed the way the crowd thought about their situation. There was no telling how bad the conditions in other towns would be. Plus, they did have some small children and elderly folks with them, too. Walking for a full day would be asking a lot.

  “Then what would you recommend?” The man added, putting his son’s friend — who also happened to be his friend’s son — under scrutiny.

  This wasn’t some elaborate test. It was simply giving him the chance to earn some trust for his knowledge and understanding, to keep the small fraction of the town from breaking apart and destroying itself out of suspicion.

  Réal was the man who saved many of them and guided them away from the town. And now he’s depending on this younger guy for answers. If he didn’t provide a solution with good reasons behind it, it would be difficult to keep everyone in line.

  He was confident Niles would come up with something, as he learned from the same man he relied on for counsel for years. Yet, what was said next both surprised and impressed him.

  With a long breath, Niles spoke.

  “We need to think about three things. Water, food, and shelter. All three can be found about two hours away from here, near the Dunaven farm. We should make it before it rains this afternoon, giving us time to set up a tarp and DIY roofs to stay dry under the trees. I also suggest we don’t set up at the farm itself, but in a clearing about five to six hundred meters away, a little closer to town.”

  Hearing this, someone near the back holding a small prybar as a weapon exclaimed, “You want us to stay close? After everything we just did and went through?”

  “Yes.” He said without batting an eye or raising his voice, throwing the middle-aged man off. “Think about this realistically. Unless you want this group to cut a wide berth around Hawk, wasting extra days and energy, only to find the farm ransacked by hungry monsters that will turn to have us as their next meal, not going too far is the next best option.”

  Niles turned to the others who were staring at him with concern, and spoke softly. “We’re not between a rock and a hard place. We’re surrounded by hell on all sides. What’s worse is that we’re pretty much just a stone’s throw away from winter. Barns and large farm buildings will have space and a roof, but with enough food to last us through the winter, I highly doubt we’ll be able to avoid catching the attention of creatures like those dogs we just ran from.

  They have better senses, after all.

  While it’s not ideal, the Dunaven farm should have enough food to last us a little while, and with all the little lakes and rivers I know like the back of my hand, we won’t be wanting for water. Plus, we can fish and forage for food, too. To top it off, staying close means we can circle back for winter.”

  The athletic man from before stepped forward, holding a tall, but still shorter than himself, woman tight. Likely his girlfriend or wife. “What do you mean by circle back?”

  This question made Niles sigh and notice what Réal actually wanted besides just recommendations.

  It was also going to be a difficult one to answer.