The Echelon Tower

Chapter 8 - Escape

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As he felt all his muscles intense and his breath leave, as if freedom had finally been achieved. A loud sound was produced.

BANG!

A gun shot and the air shattered. The bullet tore through space and silence fell upon its wake. Only the anguished scream of the mother wolf could be heard, as the bullet cleanly passed through her head, spilling brain matter.

As Jonathan was already falling to the left, so he dodged the mother's huge body, and fell on the ground.

'I'm alive???' Were his first thoughts.

He quickly got up, ignoring the pain and looked towards the source of the gunshot. He could see Guillaume, standing firmly with a magnum in hand, coldly looking at the mother wolf's body.

He quickly put away his gun, simply glancing at Jonathan with a nod. He then continued fighting the wolf with Rana using his spear, as if nothing had happened.

Jonathan stood there, staring at him with wide eyes. Never would he have thought that Guillaume would have such a trump card. Thankfully, it had saved him from sure death.

Instead of being happy of the situation, Jonathan's expression darkened.

'To think he would have a gun. I previously thought that I could win if I used my knife since he had no weapon. To think that I almost went on a full fight with someone that can shoot me down and kill me ten times over.'

Jonathan wasn't mad at him since he understood why Guillaume would hide the pistol. The weapon didn't have infinite uses, so choosing when to shoot with it carefully was crucial. Furthermore, you couldn't beat a gang of people with a single pistol, and there would certainly be one after Guillaume if waved it around. Lastly, it would make your team over reliant on you, making them think that everything was fine since you had a gun.

Wisdom was also a weapon here, so it was natural to use it.

Jonathan quickly headed towards the stack of leaves, where he found two pups. Although they looked young, they were quite big compared to his previous world's standards for dogs.

One of them seemed shyer and stayed back while the other growled at Jonathan. Surprisingly, that one had the same eyes as his mother, making him look a bit like a hell hound.

Still, they posed no threat the Jonathan, who was prepared and fearless.

When the aggressive one ran at him, he simply kicked its nose hard, which froze him and made him fall. Jonathan then kicked the other in the stomach, then stepped on his face repeatedly, until it's little screams could not be heard anymore. The other also started recovering from the shock, but Jonathan simply threw the knife at its skull, making it fall to the ground.

But he wouldn't make the same error as with the mother, so he also stepped on its head until it was nothing but a mix of broken bones, flesh and brain matter.

The others had also finished their fights, as the kids stopped being so scared and helped injure the two wolves left.

"Pick up the body of the wolves, we're leaving. The fog will help us escape when the rest of the pack comes and sees that there was a battle, but that's the most it will do. The more we wait the more dangerous the situation will become for us." The science teacher told everyone to grab the bodies so that they could leave.

"Steph will and I take the babies, the rest of you will share the three adult bodies. Since one adult can feed two people, it's quite fair, in my opinion." Jonathan also determined his pick of bodies. The babies were the less inured, so he could get the most food from them.

Nobody complained against this surprisingly, so after cutting the body of the mother in two with great difficulty, the group continued to walk.

The pups were a bit over 20 kilos each, so Jonathan felt some pain from his broken rib carrying one but he endured.

After about an hour of fast walk, they arrived to a current of water.

"Can't we just go around it?" Stephanie proposed, since wetting themselves could make them lose heat.

"No, this is our best chance of making the wolves lose our tracks. Considering that we might have a whole pack trying to kill us, it is worth it. We can also use it to remove the smells from the bodies." Julien countered her argument.

Jonathan and Guillaume both agreed to Julien's opinion, so the whole group decided to swim through.

The current was quite strong, so they faced a heavy challenge swimming through it with bodies on their back, but they eventually made it through. Jonathan even needed someone else to carry his body, since his injuries couldn't handle both the current and the extra weight.

'Will this injury plague me forever?' Jonathan quickly got into a foul mood because of his injury. In an environment of survival, this was one of the worst things that could happen, furthermore, the injury would heal even slower since they had no medicine.

Putting the issue to the side, the group continued walking. Once they found a good spot, they decided to settle there, knowing that there was only a low chance that the wolves would get to them.

Once again, they created shelter, but Jonathan shared them the info on his phone. Because of his injury he couldn't do much to help with building shelter, so he built weapons, including a new spear, and memorized the entire survival manual.

It was true that under pressure, humans could do anything. Like the story about becoming a pirate on another country's ship and learning the language in a single day, Jonathan knew the manual almost by heart in a few hours.

The group was extremely efficient in their tasks, splitting responsibilities. Hence, they soon had three fires ready to cook meat.

Everyone was hungry, so they quickly ate almost all of the meat. Their stomachs seemed to be endless pits, swallowing bits after bites, until only bone was left.

Although it was tough to chew and tasteless, no one complained. They had all remembered how they gave up on people at the camp, who were in that situation from eating random plants they had found.

Meat, however, was rarely poisonous, so they ate without worries. In fact, the meat seemed to have magical effects, spreading waves of joy through their bodies, although it tasted bad.

Actually, the baby with the red eyes tasted quite a bit better than the other wolves, so Stephanie and Jonathan both ate half of each of the babies.

Although it was a bit past lunch time. Everyone quickly went to sleep. They had been walking and for more than seven hours, which was a feat that they would never think as possible in their previous lives, so it was normal that they went to sleep immediately.

Although sleep was a good relief, it didn't change the fact that tomorrow was also a day of running and search for food. They still had to put their lives on the line, so their mood didn't change much.

However, it wouldn't be the case.

In no case were they expecting what was awaiting them when they would wake up.

The surprise would be shocking to the point that it would change their fate in this world.