image [https://i.postimg.cc/xCGPJWn1/ch-77-vol-3.jpg]

The snow storm was getting worse by the minute. The longer we stayed here in the barn, the more horrendous it would be to traverse. Even the hundred or so meters between us and the last wall would be impossible for the humans to make, and none of us brought an ice pick to crack out some snow tunnels.

That wasn’t even taking into account the bowalkers on top of said last wall, ready to snipe us as we’d race to reach the last gate into the town. Uncle and I wouldn't have a chance this time to clear them out.

Options were running dry, and pretty soon this barn would be snowed in completely.

We had to make a tough call to leave the rescued people here, but we’d make sure they’d keep warm, wrapped up in a big bundle of hay together. That would allow them to share body heat. Not a comfortable arrangement, but they wouldn’t be here for long. Once that demon lord was gone, everything would be back to normal…I hope.

As for us, now we had to think about how we were going to book it through the final dash.

“If we go now, we’ll make it,” Emily commented while peeking through a sliver in the wall.

FWINK!

Seconds later a bolt slipped through that crack, barely missing her! She was speechless.

“But there will be those demons, no?” Marek remembered. “Yalda and Mel should go and defeat them first.”

Uncle shook his head. “We wouldn’t have the time to waste taking out those demons. And even if we did, we’d still need to ensure that the people that get revived don’t freeze to death.”

With that sad realization, the people still cursed as bowalkers were better off in that form. We'd come back for them later, then everyone could be saved.

"If we could make shields to protect ourselves, we could bum rush it to the last wall," I suggested, thinking some of the scrap metal around here might work.

"We'd need to make tower shields to cover anything those demons could see," Uncle said.

Indena knocked her hand against the giant broken tube of a metal silo. “Can we use this thing to cover our run?”

The big sloped shape of the silo actually might give us the cover we needed, but it was heavy. Marek and Uncle would need to do the heavy lifting.

Uncle liked the plan though, so it was set in motion.

We ended up getting the silo chunk moved outside, breaking the top of the barn door to get it out all the way. All of us went under it and the two boys held it up at each end.

Indena set her feet ablaze, melting the snow below us and making it more watery. We were sinking toward the soil.

“Hey,” Uncle got her attention. “The snow is packed up enough that we can walk over it,” he mentioned, stomping a little over the cold accumulation. “Don’t melt it yet, or we’ll have a hard time climbing these banks.”

Her fire grew just a bit hotter than before, sinking us further.

“What’s wrong with you?” Marek asked with a scrutinizing look.

“I-I hate the snow more than anything,” she replied in a weak tone, trying to hide the worried look on her face by turning away.

Her body heat rose dramatically, keeping the underside of the silo warm, while also melting the snow around us.

“You hate a lot of things, no?” Marek commented. “Why is this any different?”

I don’t think he knew her history. She almost froze to death as a child, and her fire was a safety blanket of warmth.

Before I could tell him, she put her hand over my mouth.

“J…just leave me alone…”

When we were stuck in the valley, she had a good flamethrower going to keep herself from touching anything cold. It was a terrible waste of energy, but it kept her from losing herself.

Uncle let out a groan. “Alright, we’ll make this work then,” he announced. “Indena, can you melt the snow in front of us? We’ll need to take it slow, but we can walk through that.”

She gave a nod. “Easily.”

“Good.” He returned her nod. “Let’s get walking.”

And so began our trip to the wall.

TINK!

The first bolt came in, hitting hard against the metal silo and breaking into bits.

TINK TINK!

TINK TINK TINK!

It sounded like heavy chunks of hail falling down.

TINK TINK TINK!!

The bolt fire rained down even harder! It was actually pushing us back.

Among the rain of bolts, it appeared arrows were mixed in, possibly those weaker bowalkers, or maybe a different variant. I couldn’t tell.

The bits of wood and metal that broke on contact with the silo were scattering around our path, causing us to nearly trip a few times over the debris.

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

“Watch your step!” Emily announced.

The number of bolts and arrows flying down on us increased even more, but the focus was no longer on the silo, but rather to the left and right of us.

PING!

An arrow deflected off of a bolt, launching into the right side opening of the silo.

It missed Uncle by a hair, but bounced around and became a hazard for the rest of us until it stuck into the dirt.

That was but a sign of what was to come, because all the bowalkers followed the example and began deflecting their ammo off each other to try and hit us through the openings.

Each of us were narrowly dodging those weird shots. They were getting closer and closer each time.

“This is getting bad!” Emily announced.

We hunkered down the silo, trying to brace ourselves for a moment. Uncle spawned energy shields at both ends.

The blizzard was no friend of ours, and we were getting buried by it again.

Come to think of it, how were they seeing us at all? This snow cover was so heavy, I couldn’t even pick them out with my IFF’s active.

Unless…unless they could detect heat!

I remember seeing a thermal scope on the bowalkers. They had to have been using that to see, because I didn’t notice any eyes on them.

“Uncle, remember the thermal scopes they have on them?”

“I was thinking the exact same thing,” he replied.

“This metal is thick though,” Marek mentioned. “How can they see us through it with thermal vision?”

It was obvious that Indena’s heat was what they were detecting. It must have been heating up the metal enough that they could see us, even through the storm. We probably looked like a big blob of red in their sights.

“Indena! You’re too hot!” I commented.

“Oh come on!” She breathed out. “You’re saying I should lower my heat?”

If she didn’t lower it, these arrows would keep pouring on. The colder we were, the less likely they'd be to detect us.

“Please! Lower your body heat down. We need this thing to be cold.”

Even if she just went down to a human average, she’d be able to conceal us.

“I…I can’t!” She denied. “If I do that, I’ll have to deal with the cold!” Her voice was stressed, she was panicking and crouching down to curl up. “I can’t do it again!”

CRICK!

The silo was starting to crack from the heavy fire, little gaps were forming in the metal.

Her phobia was too great. The more frozen with fear she became, the warmer she got. And that just made us all the more of a target.

I’d never seen her this paralyzed by anything, not even back when we were stuck in the valley.

“I have an idea!” Marek took off his blue coat, then wrapped it around Indena. Uncle did the same with his.

Both of them bundled Indena up tightly, greatly masking her heat signature.

The arrows began to ease up on us, eventually stopping completely as the metal cooled. Did that mean the bowalkers really couldn’t see us anymore?

“Alright, let’s get moving again,” Uncle ordered.

Indena slowly rose to her feet, shivering like a leaf, clenching the coats to her tightly.

Without Indena’s heat melting the snow in our way, we had to climb up a steep snow bank. That was really difficult for five people carrying a chunk of metal tube, one of which was dealing with a PTSD episode, and another being just about a meter tall.

With seconds before a massive wall of snow piled down from the heavens, we managed to get to the final gate. The door opened up on its own, and we stepped inside the last wall.

Once we were sheltered, we tossed the silo chunk aside and took a few minutes to catch our breath. It was surprisingly roomy in here. This must have been a pretty thick wall.

“I…I’m…I’m sorry…” Indena hid her face under the coats.

“No need to apologize.” Uncle patted her shoulder. "Fear is a damning thing."

When fear sets in, it's hard to deal with problems. That’s why I kept saying it's not good to try and simply overcome that fear on her own.

“Indena, we’re here to help you.” I held onto her hand. “Fear tries to keep you down, but we’ll cover for you and get you back up.”

She looked down on me, her normally sharp narrow eyes were soft and warm.

“Can't believe I was holding you guys back out there because of my fear..." she shook her head.

This humble tone coming out of her was new and very comforting.

“So don’t wo…” She turned to Marek, confusion and shock spilling over her. “Uh…Hey…Marek?”

Hearing her say his name and not call him 'Blue Boy' caught us all off guard.

“What?” He looked frightened by her change in demeanor.

"Oi, dude, you're leg!"

Oh gosh! He had an arrow sticking out of his knee!

Marek hadn’t seemed to notice until she pointed it out. But when he did, fear must have taken over, because he just blankly stared at it in silence.

As Indena was about to yank it out he finally reacted by protesting and shoving her away.

“Wait!” His eyes were now bulging out of his head, he broke out into a cold sweat. “I can pull it out myself…”

“No, that’s a horrible idea,” Uncle said. “We’ll need some proper equipment to remove the arrow, then the Yalda can use magic to heal the wound.”

Healing magic could easily cure any of the damage done by the arrow. He’d be fixed in no time. As for his adventuring days however…

Just as the idea was starting to sink into his head, Marek fell to the floor, looking like he’d fainted.

“Oh no!” I primed my healing spell. “Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker's…”

Uncle put a hand up to stop me from using my healing spell.

“No, don’t worry. He just passed out from shock,” Uncle claimed. "As long as nobody takes it out, he won't bleed to death."

Emily took a closer look at the arrow protruding from his knee. “It might be a little worse than that.” She gestured to a blue, bubbly substance over the arrow. “This thing was laced with a potion.”

“Did they poison him?” Indena asked.

I rubbed a little of the substance across my palm, then scanned it with my hand scanners.

Incoming science!

The chemical formula of this substance was C₁₂H₁₈O, also known as 2,6-diisopropylphenol, which according to my internal encyclopedia was a drug known as propofol. This drug is typically used for surgeries to put people to sleep.

So, that means that Marek must have been affected by it and got sedated.

“Excellent job, Yalda.” Uncle patted my head. “Your father would be exceptionally proud of that deduction.”

“I’d expect no less from the daughter of the world's most famous scientist.” Emily started to lift Marek up, eventually prompting Uncle to hold him over his shoulder. “Either way…” Emily huffed, “this guy’s going to be out for a little while.”

If only Marek had been the worst of our troubles...because now that I'm taking a good look around, we appeared to be inside some kind of giant metal facility...how and when the heck did we end up here? I couldn't even find the gate we'd just gone through!

----------------------------------------