Chapter 67: The Wrong Shadow
They reached a verdict after checking the trench: ’The van could not cross it.’
Eren pushed a long, broken pipe into the mud in the middle of the trench—half of it disappeared before it hit something solid. He looked at Rafe and said, "It’s really deep. If not for the pipe, we would be stuck inside the van if we forced ourselves to cross it."
Rafe nodded at him.
"Hey, sleepyhead, who’s dreaming of my greatness... wake up. We need to get off the van already." Rhovan shook Kellan so hard that it earned the latter a groan.
Kellan rubbed his eyes and grumbled. "Fuck, you just have to wake me up when I’m at the best part of my dream."
"Oh, sorry, you’ll have another time dreaming of my greatness; I will make sure of that," Rhovan replied.
"What the..." Kellan’s drowsiness completely disappeared as he looked at the other.
Dario ignored them. He stepped outside the car. Marek, on the other hand, forcefully pushed Rhovan out so he could step outside as well. Then, the others followed.
Rafe opened an old map and found a service road on it. He memorized the route direction and used his ability to see where the route was going to lead them. In his vision, he saw that the service road had passed apartment blocks, crossed a pedestrian lane, and then rejoined the western route near an evacuation point.
"It still had the same layout as this old map. Fortunately, the geography did not change. I found a service road ahead. We’re gonna have to walk it from here," Rafe said.
Marek adjusted his backpack. "How far do we have to walk from here?"
Rafe, in his flat tone, replied, "It should be less than two kilometers."
"How did you figure all of this out?" Marek asked. "It was too far away for the naked eye to see."
"Indeed, it is, but with my ability to zoom in long distances with a heightened sense of direction, I could do it easily."
"That’s a broken ability..." Marek said.
"Yeah, it is, compared to yours, which is basically useless. Other than your brain, nothing—"
Rhovan glared at Rafe. "Address the Ophiarch properly."
Marek glanced at him. He was tired of this guy’s antics. It wasn’t funny at all.
Rafe just nodded in response.
"Good."
"It’ll be a fucking long walk, but I think I can manage," Kellan remarked.
"Choose between two realities in front of you: do you want to live? Or do you want to rot in this place?" Marek replied. "Save your complaints for later."
Kellan harrumphed and thought, ’Another annoying guy.’
They decisively left the van beside the fuel station. They would come back to it when necessary. If they could find another, it would be ideal.
Marek slapped his forehead as he found Nadia and Kellan arguing, and then Silas even joined in and sided with Nadia. They were ganging up on Kellan.
He just walked past them before the argument developed into something that would make him feel like two kilometers was longer than it should be.
While walking, he thought of checking his phone again. Although not a single bar had returned, he still scrolled through their group chat. Then, he saw Mara’s message from two days before Day 367 happened.
"Buy eggs! Not the sad ones, okay? (◣ _ ◢)"
He recalled how confused he was at that time. His mother even laughed. But he still asked, because he wanted it clarified. "What did you mean by sad ones?"
Then, she sent a photo. He could not view it anymore, but he remembered it was something where there were two cracked eggs in one row of an egg carton. Then came another message from her that said: "You know what you did! (๑•̀ᗝ•́)૭"
It was cute. But the memory lasted only for a few seconds. Marek then put his phone away before Rhovan could notice what he had been reading. After all, the man had been staring at him since earlier—just like a weirdo—a creep.
The service road sat in silence as several apartment blocks looked the most desolate during the dark period. Lamps lit up some of the windows with broken curtain rods. There were also blankets on the railings. Names and apartment numbers also looked old. Potted plants had withered. Then came a battery radio that broke the silence for a moment. Afterward, it slowly dissolved into static.
It had only been days, and yet so much had changed already. ’Places with no people occupying them really do age faster. This is why I need to find Mara fast.’
He just didn’t want her childhood to be littered with tragedy and suffering. He had to make sure she was doing okay.
Marek looked away.
At the seventh apartment block, a strong metallic smell reached him. He stopped walking and examined the surroundings.
’Blood?’
Marek gulped. Then, a faint pressure formed behind his right ear. Celeste, who had not spoken for a long while, spoke. But it came as a warning. "Don’t touch the shadow."
His brows knitted. "What do you mean by shadow?"
He examined his own shadow. Looking down, there was nothing wrong with it. Then, he looked at Rhovan’s shadow beside him. Marek stared at his shadow for a moment.
Rhovan’s body was still, but the shadow beneath his feet was clearly not. It continued moving forward as though it had failed to notice that its owner had stopped. Then, it took another step and returned to where it should be.
Marek lifted his head to face Rhovan. "Did you do that?"
This time, the man’s usual smile was not present on his face. There was no amusement at all. He looked ahead of them and said, "No."
Then, Kellan, who had just gotten out of an intense argument with Nadia and Silas, was about to walk past them. Rhovan immediately grabbed the back of his shirt and pulled him backward. "Such a reckless lamb."
Kellan turned around in annoyance and glared at him. "What the hell are you doing?"
"Stay put, lamb."
"Why are you calling me lamb now?" Kellan asked, backing down.
Rhovan ignored him. Kellan was about to say something else, but even he realized that something was wrong. Marek and Rhovan had the sharpest minds among them. If they stopped, something must be wrong.
Marek’s senses heightened all of a sudden, for some reason. ’No, my senses are okay. It was just... that strong metallic smell returned even stronger than it was. My senses aren’t trying to trick me.’
Rafe then went beside Rhovan. "People. Ahead."
Marek’s expression changed. Footsteps came from somewhere ahead. ’One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Very heavy footsteps.’
Then... they stopped.
Silence flooded the whole place. The footsteps stopped. Then, a few seconds later, an eighth footstep sounded from somewhere farther ahead. He could not tell where it came from.
’What the hell was that? Am I imagining things?’