The Ancient Guardians

The Ancient Guardians (Chapter 24)

Just as I was thinking about touching something else than Marla's hand, a sudden gust of wind interrupted my train of thought.

"Shorty? Really?!" He was obviously flustered... and tired. "You couldn't think of anything else?"

I threw my hands up in exasperation. "What else would've gotten your attention?" I got on my feet and so did Marla. "Why is your hair untied anyway?"

"Oh my god!" Marla cut in. "What happened to your arm?"

As she was about to check his bandaged arm, William quickly pulled it away. "Please don't touch it; you're freezing. It's nothing, really."

I wanted to get back to important matters. I also snuffed out the shorty message on the ground. "Nothing saw you coming down here?" I asked Will.

He gently folded his wings. "No, the whole area here is pretty much deserted. Clint isn't here?"

I shook my head. "It's just us. We have no idea where he is.

"We should go find him then."

I shook my head. "No, it's too dangerous to move around in the open."

"I'll find him by myself; I can fly."

"Can you?" Yeah, it was obvious that flying here took up most of his stamina. He looked like he would collapse any minute.

William looked me in the eyes, hesitating. "...No. I can still run, but I need to rest my wings for a while."

"Let's just sit down and talk things through for now." I said. The other two nodded and we all settled ourselves under the bridge. I sat cross-legged with my back to the river. Will sat with his legs stretched out in front and his hands flat on the ground while Marla sat to my left, hugging her legs close to her body. "So tell us what happened to you."

William blew out his cheeks, as if just remembering it was tiring. "I landed north from here in one the villages outside the city. It was like a ghost town: crawling with living dead."

"They were chasing after you?" Marla asked him.

"They did chase after me, but only when I showed myself. Otherwise they didn't even know I was there. They were just... wandering around."

Ghost town? Chasing after him when he showed himself? They're definitely searching for us and getting rid of anything that gets in their way at the same time. I was starting to think of a plan, so I shared my thoughts: "The safest place we can go is the city; it's too big for Bob to launch an attack on it."

Marla's eyes lit up in some realization. "Jameson and his followers are there; they could help us."

Will seemed skeptical. "We can't just..." Then his eyes widened as he saw something behind me. "Wait, what the hell is that?!" He pointed at it with a finger.

I turned my head and followed his finger's direction, only to find nothing alarming was there; just my floating ball of fire. I returned my attention to William. "That's... an experiment."

"An experiment?" He replied.

"I haven't tried it out yet. What were you saying before?"

"If we go and hide," he continued, "everyone outside the city will be in danger. And Clint will be left out on his own, how will he find us?"

"We can handle both of those problems easily. The zombies will come after us when we show ourselves; that'll lure them out. Then, when we get to the city, I can throw out a giant beacon of fire to let them, and Clint, know where we are. If they know we're in the city they'll stop going through the villages outside and regroup. You said you could still run, right?"