Chapter 74: Movements
Grimm wiped gunk off the butt of his rifle in the snow. He stood over the corpse of the ghoul that had targeted Brandon. The heavy body of the empty rifle still served some use.
Brandon, the boy in question, pushed himself back up with a frown on his face. He shot Grimm a glance but didn’t say anything.
The front row began moving, with Mia tossing a now bent mop stick into the wind. Below her lay a very dead ghoul.
Sarah still wasn’t up by then, so Miles walked towards her, lending the girl a hand. She accepted it quickly.
It was only upon grasping her hand that he finally understood how badly the cold was affecting her. It felt cold, in a way that reminded him of corpses, and she shivered noticeably.
Looking over her skin in the limited visibility of the storm, he found no trace of frostbite, just slight signs of nipping around her knuckles.
’Is it meant to be this fast?’
Still, now wasn’t the time to question things. He pulled her up. Her cold hand clasped tightly against his skin as she stood, not releasing it even when she was up.
He made no comments about it, and didn’t force her to release it either. Her grip made it easier to pull her towards the canopy.
And so he did, one step after another, with Sarah doing her best not to tumble in the thick snow. Luckily, the structure wasn’t far from the school. They got to it after a couple more steps, joining Ryan and the rest of the girls beneath it.
They’d been lucky enough to not encounter any ambushes on the final steps here.
The relief as they went under it was immediate. An unconscious pressure that he had begun welling from having the snow piling directly upon him deflated immediately.
Grimm and Brandon came quickly up their rear.
Under the protection of the canopy, Miles could see the building they’d left behind them. The outcrop that was the kitchen, and the towering silhouette of the three stories of the school behind. The edges blended in with the snowy haze, making it hard to tell where the structure started and ended.
Something shifted in the dark depths of the shattered windows on the upper floors.
’He really can’t affect us here. What about Bloody Mary?’
Taking his focus off it, he let go of Sarah’s arm, letting the girl rest on a snow-covered bench nearby. The cold was clearly getting to her.
Even he had started feeling its effects. A numbing chill was slowly spreading across his back, disregarding [Cold resistance] completely.
"What now!?"
Brandon shouted the moment he stepped under the cover, the wind trying its hardest to smother his voice.
"We still have to check the fen-"
Miles interrupted before Ryan could finish his sentence.
"Look over there."
He pointed at the figures in the snow. They were moving now. All thirteen silhouettes slowly turned their heads towards them and began approaching in a very familiar manner.
’The janitor.’
The ghoul that had attacked the classroom earlier, killing Mrs. Martinez. They were all ghouls, then.
Ryan narrowed his eyes.
"Ghouls!?"
"Probably."
The boy considered his reply for a moment, then nodded.
"We... we can take them on, then."
Just like the janitor, the ghouls picked up pace the closer they got. It wasn’t long before they were full-on sprinting, the snow below doing absolutely nothing to hinder them.
Five approached from the front, four from the back, and four more from different sides.
They’d already regrouped into formation, so none of them panicked. Besides the middle row, they all had enough strength to deal with it. They weren’t the same kids that had run away before.
Grimm went first, throwing two cans at a pair of ghouls that had clustered together. Unfortunately, the cans were empty, so the wind swept them away before they could even get close. Both exploded harmlessly in the snow.
Cursing, the boy dumped all his cans on the ground, then buried his hand deep into the snow, rummaging through it until he brought out two stones.
He targeted them again, and this time they struck true. A ghoul’s abdomen and another’s waist burst open one after the other, sending both to the ground.
The boy hadn’t struck their heads, so they weren’t down for the count yet.
By now, the first of the ghouls had already reached the canopy. In the front, two went for Mia, with the remaining heading for Ryan and Chloe.
Two more still headed for the back line, while Miles found his meager center under assault by almost four ghouls. Almost, because Grimm threw another stone at one of them, sending it down too.
Still, he was surrounded on two sides. One coming from the left, and two more from the right.
Glancing at Sarah, he found the girl still sitting on the bench. Her condition seemed to have grown even worse somehow. She was shivering violently, with her breaths coming out as rapid, short puffs of mist.
Still, he kept his voice harsh.
"If you don’t kill one of those things, you’re going to die!"
His voice reached her in spite of the wind, knocking her out of her cold-laden daze. He didn’t look back at her afterwards, turning instead to face the two ghouls rapidly approaching from the right.
The strange cold on his back had moved beyond it now, reaching his shoulders, chest, and abdomen. He shivered as the cold ruthlessly stamped on the warmth of [Cold resistance].
[Delusion]
The distraction cleared, and he could focus once again. The first among them had already reached him.
He swung, slamming his crooked bat towards its head. An odd stiffness in his shoulders restricted the motion, only letting him hit the thing’s neck.
A painful shudder ran down his arms as he struck. Two snaps rang out at once. One from the ghoul’s neck, and the other from the handle of his bat.
Its flimsy metal had finally broken.