Chapter 75: No casualties!
No matter how ruthless the kidnappers were, one had to commend their effectiveness and competence. And speed.
While Lee's group proudly marched all over the place, with the corner of his eye he saw the scourge groups quickly gathering and adapting wagons found on the streets. No matter the size, the wagons were filled with crying and despaired children and pushed away, towards the direction of the rift.
Most of the kids were at the age of four to five, and from the looks of it the scourge ignored everyone younger or older than that. At one point Lee caught himself thinking it's not that bad then, but felt like slapping himself right after.
It didn't matter whom the scourge didn't kidnap, they still took children from their homes, and it didn't matter whom they didn't kill – thousands of people died on this day. And Lee's main problem was – he was one of the scourge now.
The idea made him depressed, and from the looks of it, he was the only one feeling this way. His squad members proudly stomped their feet, covered in the blood of the locals as if it was some kind of mark of honor.
The boys surely were happy about their first conquest, even though they only made up the numbers of the invaders and nothing more.
Fortunately the effectiveness of the kidnapping units was a blessing in disguise for Lee.
The relatively large city was combed quickly and the scourge fell back towards the rift. There was a brief moment of panic when the newbies realized the rift wasn't there, but the vanguard members were not bothered and joined the others who were already organizing a wide camp next to the earlier battlefield.
No one was bothered by the sight of the earlier massacre and no one was running around, looting corpses. There were few kids who ran off to find their lost weapons, like Olpax, but no one payed attention to them.
Then there were those who went to find their buddies who got trampled earlier. And surprisingly, while the absolute majority were dead, there were a couple of shocking exceptions where the kids still had signs of life.
It was questionable, though, whether they could lead normal lives with as many broken bones as they had, but at least they were breathing.