Chapter 199: Vanishing From Sight
Wilbur knew if he burst from cover at full speed, the Scarred Woman would notice.
She’d know the man on her tail wasn’t just another Second-Rank.
His carefully laid ambush would be blown.
And she was fast—almost as fast as he was. She also knew how to disappear.
He wasn’t confident he could take her in a straight chase if she was on her guard.
So he waited.
Wilbur fell in behind the Scarred Woman. They slipped away from the bloody battlefield on the east side, silent as ghosts.
They left the Botanical Garden entirely, melting into the ruined city streets, where the rain and fog were thicker, the light dimmer.
Cold rain lashed his face, blurring his vision.
The sounds of slaughter from the Garden faded behind them, growing distant and muffled.
Only now, with the battlefield’s noise gone, did the chaos in his mind start to settle.
His eyes were locked on the scarlet silhouette ahead, a faint shape in the rain moving at a steady, deliberate pace.
Give up?
Not an option. He was already out here.
If he could just follow her, follow her all the way back to her den, a place she’d never exposed before... or at least to one of her safe houses...
Even if he didn’t make a move this time, he and Aldrich would win. They could choose their moment, strike when she least expected it. That was better than a simple, one-off kill.
Even if he lost her trail, he could wait. Wait for her to let her guard down, to rest. Then he’d take his shot. It still fit Aldrich’s orders.
Thinking it through, the last of his doubt vanished.
He stopped obsessing over the “perfect” plan and focused on the hunt.
He drew on his power over plague, smothering his life force and Transcendent aura until he was almost impossible to sense. He held his distance, staying in that sweet spot where he wouldn’t lose her, but wouldn’t be detected.
Like the most patient of hunting hounds, he clung to the scent of his prey, weaving through the rain-shrouded streets of the ruined capital.
The cold rain slipped down his collar, sending shivers down his spine.
As the minutes passed, a strange sense of curiosity began to bubble up inside him.
This Scarred Woman, with her bizarre tactics, her ghostly comings and goings… the one who gave even Aldrich so much trouble.
Where in this rotten city did she hide?
Over ten minutes later, Wilbur had followed the scarlet figure through several winding streets.
The rain was coming down harder now. The wind drove the cold threads of it diagonally, slicing the distant buildings into even blurrier shapes.
After a few dozen more steps, the street opened up to the left.
It was a commercial plaza from the old world. A huge space, paved with cracked granite. Weeds pushed through the fissures. A few abstract statues stood here and there, their metal skins flaked away to show the rust beneath.
The skybridges connecting the malls on either side spanned the open air like the bones of some great beast, their glass walls shattered, leaving only blackened frames.
Right now, the rain and fog were a heavy gray shroud, swallowing the whole place.
The statues, the bridges, the tattered billboards… the rain had melted their edges, turning them into indistinct shapes, silent and eerie.
The moment the Scarred Woman turned and stepped into the plaza without a moment’s hesitation, Wilbur followed, slipping into the shadows at its edge.
And then he saw it.
Maybe because the Eden Open-Air Cinema had been playing old-world horror movies on a loop for the past week… as Wilbur stared at the plaza being swallowed by the rain and fog, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was standing in the middle of a chilling horror film.
The deep shadows in the fog seemed to sway and writhe at the edge of his vision.
Silent, but twisting.
Like they could break free from the rain at any moment and become monsters.
“Heh…”
Wilbur snorted at himself and shook his head. What a stupid thought.
He dismissed the bizarre, comical image.
His hunter’s instincts reasserted themselves, his mind coolly analyzing the terrain.
This plaza… was off.
The number of shambling zombies around here had been “deliberately” thinned out. The faint stench of rot in the air was weaker than in other districts. Even the distant groans of the dead seemed far away.
In other words…
This was it. One of her residences.
Or, at the very least, an area she used. Managed.
A tightly controlled flicker of excitement sparked in his eyes.
He reined it in, focusing on the task at hand.
The scarlet figure had slowed down a little, but she was still heading for the largest of the shopping malls across the plaza—the one that looked like a giant, open clam shell.
Wilbur kept his distance, a shadow’s shadow, and slipped into the mall entrance right behind her.
Inside, the concentration of rain and fog was lower, but not gone. The old air purification system hummed away, probably on solar or wind power, trying to filter the air.
The difference in humidity meant a thin layer of moisture still clung to everything.
But the very moment he stepped inside…
The flicker of excitement in his gut died.
Because…
he had lost her.