The Corrupted Soul

Chapter 29

"You're backing out now?"

"Yes! I'm just going to go back into the woods!"

I latched a Crawler leg onto his hood and started to drag Sketch behind me, "We are literally here already, dude."

It wasn't an exaggeration, we were maybe a five minute walk away from the city. He planted his Crawler legs on the ground to try and stop, but the fresh fallen snow was not giving him any grip. I wasn't faring any better but that was besides the point. The snow was still falling, and it was getting heavier, to the point the silhouette of the city was growing fainter.

I hissed and let go of his hood, "What is your deal? What changed in the past hour we spent running here?"

He had a look of desperation, "For four years I've been around no one but the pack! Trying to get used to being around so many people and even other Crawlers...I don't think I can do it."

I crossed my arms over my chest, raising an eyebrow, "And if you go back out there now, you won't have the pack either."

"I know that!" He waved his arms above his head, "But I'd rather be alone than eat someone!"

I pinched the bridge of my nose, "You aren't going to eat anyone, Sketch! Seriously, if you showed any signs of having your control slip, I'd make sure nothing happened. Trust me on this one, if you go back out there, you'll go mad within the month."

"You spent quite a while alone yourself though."

"Exactly, I'm speaking from experience."

I resumed the walk towards the city, pulling my hood up to try and block some of the snow. Sketch, reluctantly, followed behind me. Several times he had to grab onto a tree to stop himself from slipping on the uneven and icy terrain, I was managing better, surprisingly. He had barbs on the ends of his claws that should help him grip more, yet he looked like a baby deer learning to walk.

He put his foot down on a slope, causing the snow to give way and send him shooting down towards me. I only noticed because he grabbed onto my shoulder to try and stop his fall, but only succeeded in sending us both to the ground as I lost my own footing.

I fell awkwardly on my wrist, sending a sharp pain up my arm with the initial impact. Thankfully it silenced fairly quickly, however I had worse things to focus on at the moment. When I fell, I had rolled onto my back, allowing me to see Olive perched in one of the trees above.

She was currently grinning down at me and Sketch, "Well isn't that cute."

I snarled as I sat upright, glaring up at her, "I will rip out your tongue!"

"Point taken!" She stiffened as she carefully climbed down out of the tree. She had a thick scarf wrapped around her neck, and I wondered how easy it would be to strangle her with it. She looked at Sketch, clearly only just now noticing not only the fact he was a Crawler, but the visible differences on his Crawler legs from her and I.

She dropped to the ground in a fighting crouch, low growl permeating the air, with an unwavering gaze. Sketch jolted backwards with his own defensive growl as he slowly climbed backwards up a tree. I quickly stood between the two before this broke out into an all out fight, "Okay okay okay, let's not do that right now."

Olive blinked several times, "What are you talking about, he is one of them!"

I put a hand on the back of my neck, "Somewhat. It's a long story."

She narrowed her eyes, "Your clothes are filled with tears and blood, and you have bandages on your face. Jack said you probably wouldn't get out unscathed..."

I sighed, half exasperated, but also relieved they had heard from Jack, "At least he made it back to you guys."

"More or less. He really only got out the fact you were fighting Crawlers before he passed out. Felix and I followed his blood trail back through the woods to find you, but when we finally there, all we saw was a blood spattered clearing with nothing else in sight. The storm was starting, so we couldn't track your scent anymore. Jack explained things more when he woke up."

I paused and stared at Olive, looking over my shoulder to Sketch, "An...empty clearing?"

He looked just as nervous as I felt. The others must have woken up faster than we thought they would. That, or Olive and Felix took their sweet time following that trail. I turned back to Olive, who seemed mildly concerned, "Let me guess, there should have been an incapacitated Crawler there?"

"Three, actually."

"Shit."

I noticed her staring at Sketch. I facepalmed internally. Of course she has no idea who this is, it's clear he's one of those Crawlers, but she wouldn't know who. I looked between them, "Olive, this is Sketch. He was basically part of the pack, but not part of the plan, if you get what I'm saying."

She narrowed her eyes slightly at him, to which he waved nervously, slowly sitting in the snow as he descended from the tree, "Sketch...okay, so what's your real name?"

He shrunk down into his jacket, and simply refused to answer. Olive gave me a look, I merely shrugged, "Don't look at me."

Tentatively, Sketch spoke up, changing the topic, "Olive, was that you who replied to our screeches earlier?"

She nodded slowly, "I was waiting in the trees here incase the pack tried to attack the city. Felix is posted on the opposite side of the forest that meets the town. I doubt he heard you guys, but I did."

I snorted lightly, shaking my head, "You're wasting your time. One is missing their vocal cords and likely can't manage a walk without gasping for breath, another is paralyzed from the waist down, and the last had their head torn off. None of them would even manage to evade a car, let alone keep from being caught by us."

Her expression turned to one of mild disgust and unease, "What the hell did you do to those people?"

Sketch shook his head slowly, "Bad things."

I couldn't help but chuckle, "Oh don't give me too much credit. Most of it was autopilot. Change of topic, we should probably try looking around for them. If we can find them while they can barely fight back, it might be our only hope to end this."

"We should probably talk to Clem about that, huh?"

"Sadly."