Their path south took them through the rest of Chateh, and the wasteland it had become. Buildings appeared to be in shambles, both from the monsters arriving as well as everyone grabbing all of their possessions and taking them with. By no means did the Dene Th'a pack light for their journey, but they were not exactly planning on coming back anyways. Therefore, even items that had been nailed down were travelling with them, reminders of when they had tried a more stationary life before the world went to shit. Bits of blood pooled in spots all over the place, a mix of both red and black. However, their eyes were not looking upon the barren scenery around them.

As they were going through the rest of the town that had multiple buildings, the biggest threat to them were the goblins that could still spawn. They had Sheera come out of Charlene's Core, and together the three of them had their heads on a swivel, watching out for anything that could approach them. With how sparse the buildings were in places, as well as the large number of trees in every direction, there were many vectors that the monsters could approach them from. Slowly they moved down the main road carrying spears, trying not to make any excess noise. They had seen that the weapons were at least effective against the monsters, if only they were careful not to over extend.

The south entrance to town was marked by the police station, now sitting there as a barren husk of what it once was. By the time they reached it, four goblins had received spears through the head, and another two had their head crushed by Sheera's powerful jaws. As they came up to the now desolate building, Matis and Charlene both looked back upon the town of Chateh. They felt that this would be the last time they would ever see it, or at least what it would look like with buildings still here. With the way that monsters spawned and how it destroyed the buildings piece by piece, they felt that this would be the last they would see of Chateh unless they came back in a few months. And with their plan to head south to meet up with Natalie, that felt unlikely at best. Bidding their goodbyes to the town, they headed down the Range Road towards the highway that led them back home.

The rest of their journey was pretty lack luster. There was a single hill along the whole road, but that amounted to the largest change in their travels. Not a single monster or animal was seen along either road they traveled. It was just trees, road, and a single river that they crossed. They didn't feel that was a bad thing though, as they were able to cover a large amount of ground thanks to that. It wasn't until they travelled about an hour and a half past the river that they had to set up camp, but that was due to the sun nearing the horizon behind them. As a group, they all agreed to call it for the night and set up camp.

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

The tent went up fast, but that was most likely because today was Matis turn to set up the fire pit area. Charlene and Sheera got the entire thing ready to go in record time. When Matis saw this, he just glared at the giant feline. Sheera seemed to just smile back at him, seeming to ask 'yea, so what?' Matis just turned away and did his best to calm down, trying not to blow up at the cougar for the teasing and messing with him. The sound of a high five between a hand and paw behind him did not help the situation. He should have known that they were in on this together, just to mess with him. It was a constant back and forth between him and his wife, just doing what they feel like and teasing one another. But they had a great and happy life together because of it. Every day was different and exciting, with the constant wonder of if the other would try to tease that day and how. This was actually the first time that Sheera had joined in to mess with him, at least as far as the setup of camp was concerned, and it was so well done he did not expect it to be his wife's idea instead of an accident.

Understanding how well they had got him, he mentally started planning how to get back while starting the fire.it would be far harder right now, due to her having all of their supplies carried inside her Core, and him without a bonded companion to do the same. Maybe his revenge teasing would have to wait until he got one of his own, but that was a future worry. For now, he was content just making sure that this fire grew to a decent size, while also keeping it from spreading. The last thing that they needed right now was a forest fire. That could turn into a complete destruction of the northern wilds if no cars worked and monsters spawned. The firefighters would not be able to do anything save watch as the world before them burned to the ground.

Dinner was a simple affair tonight. They just had more of the same that they had the night prior, due to neither in the mood to cook after walking for almost nine hours. There were no complaints though, as all of the food was delicious and seasoned wonderfully. Sheera was particularly fond of the roasted caribou, given how much of it she pulled out to eat with her family. Sitting together around the fire, the three of them ate in a happy silence as they watched the sky open up above to reveal the stars dancing across it. They watched the stars dance until the fire burned down to nothing, before extinguishing it and calling it a night inside their tent.