Liam

Monday, April 25th, 2022 (34 days after the Shutdown)

His captors went through great precautions to secure him. They tightened the bag with a belt till he could barely breathe, took his knife, and bound his upper body with a cloth till he resembled an asylum patient.

None of that would’ve made a difference if Liam wanted to escape. He couldn’t.

The moment the demon returned control of his body it took the last of his energy, leaving him vulnerable to attacks. Just standing in the lobby took all of Liam’s concentration. To make matters even worse — if that was possible — since being possessed, his senses had been clocked into overdrive.

Stimuli from his surrounding environment bombarded him, making his headache swell to a hundred. The changes weren’t limited to heightened hearing. He could smell the emotions of the people around him.

Those who nervously chattered smelled sweet like rose water. Others who were angrily muttering in his direction smelt like asphalt on a blistering day. Each emotion had a unique scent and as he stood immobilized in his burlap sack, Liam’s senses were plunged into a maelstrom of information.

A woman’s words caught his attention, “That’s him, right? The Reaper?”

“Shut up,” someone else reprimanded. “Don’t look at it.”

“We’re moving out!”

“Everyone follows their team leader,” the group’s leader yelled over the crowd. “Don’t bunch together like rats, it looks like they’re attracted to that. Split up to draw their attention and meet us at the home base. This isn’t a daycare. If you fall behind, no one is gonna risk their hide to save you. Capeesh?! Now fuck off!”

Footsteps approached him and someone grabbed Liam by the arm. Recognizing his stale breath before he even spoke, the leader whispered to Liam, “You’re with me, hot shot. If you try and act funny, I’m going to give you to the smoking farts outside which we both don’t want. Play nice, got it?”

Liam nodded, glad that the man couldn’t see him rolling his eyes.

“Great. Decoy Team, go out from the side. Don’t think of trying to run off with the supplies or you’ll end up a marked man,” he warned them.

A sweet smell permeated from the room's far side, making Liam’s mouth water.

The instant they left, the monsters outside screeched and drifted in their direction.

“Wait… wait for it… next group go! Take a different path!” some random man yelled.

More groups followed till at last it was Liam’s turn… but his feet didn’t want to move.

The group leader squeezed his arm. “What do you think you’re doing? I said no funny business.”

“I don’t think my legs are working.”

“Oh… oh no. What ever shall we do?” he sarcastically mused aloud. “They were working fine when you were killing my men, people with families to get back to. For all I care, the only time you are allowed to complain is when I pop a bullet in both your knees, and believe me, princess, I’m so close to doing so.”

***

To his dismay, it wasn’t only his external sense that had heightened. Every nerve in his lower body was pleading for him to put an end to the suffering. The only thing to have improved was his stamina but it was like a candle on a heap of manure. It didn’t do anything to help his situation.

How long have we been running for? 30 minutes? What base are they taking me to that it has to be kept a secret?

“We’re closing in. Mark, what’s the forecast?” the leader whispered in case the monsters were nearby.

Though he couldn’t have known about Liam’s ability to melt into shadows, the man hadn’t loosened his grip on Liam’s binds for a second.

“Clear skies.”

“Good, as long as we don’t attract or see any ghosts, there shouldn’t be any reason to travel more than a road.”

Waiting a second longer before proceeding, they cautiously emerged from their hiding place. Heavy silence gripped the city and in an uncomfortable realization, their boots clicking against the asphalt didn’t do much in terms of stealth.

Seconds after they started, Liam could feel a shift in their behavior. Perhaps it was the paranoia they’d be found that had thinned their patience, but they began to pick up the pace. Discretely at first, as more of the group picked up on the urgency, they grew more frantic.

Noticing that Liam was unable to keep up, the leader yelled at another group member and suddenly Liam found himself being carried like a ragdoll.

“Boss, there is another group coming towards us!” someone yelled from behind them. “And they’re not alone!”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Opening his mouth to speak again, a storm of screams drowned out his voice.

There must be hundreds of them.

“How the hell do they have half the city’s ghouls chasing after them?! The guards won’t open the gate if we bring a horde of monsters to their front door.”

Gasping as he carried one end of Liam’s body, after a period of reflection, the group’s leader spat back, “... Then cut down their number.”

“Boss? But that’s Lucas’ group,” Mark replied, his breathing coming out hard and uneven.

“Then don’t shoot him. Take out someone in the back.”

“... to bait the monsters… alright… I’ll catch up.”

Liam could feel hatred brimming from him as they passed each other.

Through the burlap sack, Liam could vaguely make out Mark standing erect in the middle of the street, his gun raised straight in front of him. Three gunshots later, he heard cries of pain and surprise and the group of people running towards them decreased in number.

Lucas ran up to them.

“What the hell is wrong with you, asshole! Those were my men! I promised to get them home safely and you shot them!”

“Take a look behind you,” he faintly heard Mark reply, already on his way back to the first group. “We bought ourselves enough time to let the guards open the gate.”

True to his word, the wall of haze that Liam saw had stopped creeping closer. But it was only for a second. Crying out in triumph, the wall of monsters immediately resumed their pursuit.

Even though he was being carried away, Liam could tell that it wasn’t because the monsters weren’t fast that they were gaining on them. It was that they had endless endurance and were immune to physical attacks. So as their group grew fatigued from constantly running, they had to sacrifice others to increase the distance between them.

Up ahead, shouts arose as the guards saw them and scrambled to open the gates. Out of the two dozen people who had left the lobby, only 7 were returning, haggard and supply-less. Liam wondered what the guards would say when they showed up with him instead.

Passing through the gates, no one stopped to rest.

Running to assist the guards with the gates, they screamed with exertion as the metal sheets resisted their efforts to move them. Seeing the monsters’ pace quicken at the sight of their prey escaping, the men holding Liam dropped him and joined the men at the gates.

Bound by his linen restraints he could only tense his body as it smacked against the ground. Clenching his teeth, he could feel his ribs tingle like they’d been bruised.

Just as they managed to set a heavy bar across the gates, the monsters were on them, buffeting the gates with their bodies. The entire wall that had hastily been raised started to lean towards them. Not wishing to wait and see if it would stay up, the group fled to the massive building with Liam being dragged in tow.

“How many did you bring, Lucas?! I sent you out second to last so why is there an entire swarm of the creatures outside?”

“Fuck you, old man. You sent me out to die just to protect this sack of shit?!” he cried, digging his toe into Liam’s side causing him to gasp in pain. “You shot the people I was supposed to protect and we barely gained anything from it but some stranger. And Mark, you sick psychopath. I saw you aiming for their legs. You could’ve aimed for their heads so they weren’t crapping themselves in their last moments. Fuck all of you.”

A wave of anger rolled off Mark and he stepped towards Lucas. “Listen here, you little—”

“Their sacrifice is why we were able to close the gates in time,” the group’s leader interrupted in a monotone voice. “Was… did you see anyone else while you were out there?”

“... No, we’re all that’s left,” Lucas said, the weight of the loss hanging over the entire group.

“... Well, shit. I have to report this so you’re all done for the day.”

As the group started to disband, one of the guards called out, “Wait, what are we supposed to do with him? What is he, Produce?”

Snorting at the guard’s words, the man turned around. “You think I would’ve gone through all that effort just to secure Produce? No, he’s Dessert. Treat him as such.”

“Yes, sir.”

The hell are they talking about? Cannibalism?

Dragged towards a pair of doors, the smell of a myriad of emotions hit him — there were more people beyond those doors. Though passing through those doors could irrevocably change his fate, Liam welcomed it as long as he wasn’t in the same room as the two people currently staring daggers at him.

However, he severely miscalculated how his heightened senses would react.

The clamor of hundreds of voices made it feel like someone was scraping their nails across his eardrums. Biting his lip till he bled to keep himself conscious, he gasped in relief as the guards suddenly dragged him to a more secluded area.

They continued like this for a while, with the guards dragging Liam behind them. If any bystanders saw him, no one gave him a second look. Either people like Liam were a common sight – bound in table sheets and covered by a burlap sack – or the guards had taken special care so that no one saw him.

Hearing voices nearby, the guards stopped and waited.

So I’m an illegal substance then, Liam smirked half-heartedly.

The deeper they went, the level of noise decreased but in its place, his sense of smell warned him of the impending danger.

His surroundings reeked of blood.

Given how dusty it was, Liam knew only a few people knew of this location which meant that being a “Dessert” was not as welcoming as it sounded.

Finally, the guards stopped at a door and one of them withdrew a key bunch. Struggling with a lock, one of them took the burlap sack off his head and even before Liam could get a grasp of his surroundings, the two guards threw him into a small room.

“Food will be in an hour.”

That’s all the information they left him with before they turned around. Wiggling an arm free, he watched their shadows disappear from under the door.

Pulling the rest of himself free, he watched his arms flop beside him. There was no way he was moving anytime soon. He couldn’t even make a fist.

“I just want to go home,” he sighed as he spread out on the floor and stared at the ceiling of his dark room.

Closing his eyes, a familiar smell hit him.

It had been initially masked by the smell of blood but hidden under it, he vaguely made out the smell of his mother’s freshly baked cookie – the smell of fear.

There was someone else near him.