Chapter 92
Unpleasant Travels
Even though they had managed to get away from Zadar’s caravan, Erin’s group was far from safe, as they needed to get out of the town. The green kobold and his underlings would still be there, so they wouldn’t have any safe places to rest at. Escaping the town altogether was their best shot at avoiding any further encounters with the caravan.
“Okay, since Lexton made some pretty thorough plans here, I’m guessing he also saw to it that we would be able to get out of here as well, right?” Erin asked. “Did he tell any of you what that plan is exactly?”
“Actually, I do,” Durge replied. “I didn’t understand it at first, but this morning he told me to keep my eyes open at all times and act accordingly. He then game me something that really confused me, but I think I now know what it was for.”
“What was it?” the redhead asked, curious at what Lexton had planned.
The orc dug into his pocket and pulled out a ticket and gave it to Erin. She read the text on it that said “Undercrawler Express.”
“What is this exactly?” the redhead asked. “I can only assume that it’s some sort of a transportation company here.”
“Seems that way. As we were making our way to the caravan earlier today, I asked a couple of the locals where I could find this place. Turns out we actually saw this place when we got to town,” Durge explained. “Remember that large metal tunnel at the edge of the town? Turns out this company operates there.”
“...Lexton said that this place had become a transportation center a long time ago. I guess that’s what he had in mind when he had us heading towards here,” Erin said thoughtfully. “This must have bee his plan all along.”
“He really planned this through, huh?” the orc said with a smile. “Quite an impressive fellow you’ve got in your group there.”
“That’s for sure,” Erin said with a smile. “Now we need to make sure that all of his hard work doesn’t go to waste. Let’s not allow those thugs from the caravan to catch us!”
“You got it!” Durge said as he pressed down on the gas, causing the van to speed up even further.
Speeding through the streets of the town was proving to be much easier than one would have suspected. Due to the bad state of things, there weren’t that many people walking around, leaving the streets almost completely empty. It didn’t take long for the group to reach their destination.
Upon reaching the gigantic tunnel, Erin took the ticket they had and got out of the car. She looked around at the company they would be using for their travels and was somewhat confused by what she saw. Besides the tunnel, there was only one small rundown shack when it came to buildings. There were only around dozen or so employees from what she could tell. The only other people seemed to be groups similar to theirs, also traveling with their own vehicles. Next to the tunnel were five giant canister with flammable markings on them. The redhead noticed some of the workers walking around with what seemed like equipment meant for exterminators, as they had canisters on their backs that were attached to hoses through tubes.
With no other place to go to, Erin walked up to the shack and saw a window similar to a ticket booth at a movie theater with a sleepy looking orc attending it. She gently tapped on the window to get the orc’s attention before taking out her ticket.
“Hi. My friends and I have a ticket for one of your rides,” the redhead said politely.
“Can I see your ticket, miss?” the orc asked in a tired voice. Erin handed her ticket to him and he took a quick look at it before giving it back. “You came just in time. We are just getting ready to start the transport procedure. You and your friends can get back in your vehicle and drive to the back of the line. Once there, wait for your turn to get picked up.”
“Picked up? Picked up by what?” the redhead asked.
“Is this your first time?” the attendant asked to which Erin nodded. “I see. I can tell you already that this will come as a bit of a surprise to you, but rest assured that it is completely safe. Just watch what the customers before you do and do the same on your turn. Everything should go just fine with that.”
The redhead simply nodded at the advice she had been given, despite still being completely confused as to what it all meant. However, seeing as Lexton had planned this whole thing for them, she decided to simply put her trust in him and go with it.
Once back with the rest of her group, the others began to ask questions.
“So, did we make it in time for our ride?” Durge asked.
“Apparently yes,” Erin replied. “From what I was told, they were just preparing for the next transport.”
“That’s great! It would have sucked for us if we had been too late!” Ryle said with a grin. “Although, any idea how we are going to be moving from here? This place looks weird to me.”
“I have no idea. I was simply told that we would be “picked up” by something and that we should just do as the ones before us do,” the redhead answered with a shrug. “Do any of you know how this whole thing operates?”
“I-I’m afraid that I don’t know,” Arkay replied. “I’ve never really traveled before, so I’m completely new to all of this.”
“Same here,” Durge said. “What about you, Zeldana?”
“I don’t know anything about this at all,” the elf answered. “I’m guessing Lex is the only one who knows. So if we want answers, we’d need to wake him up.”
Erin turned to look at the kobold and saw him sleeping peacefully. Knowing how much he had gone through for them to beat Zadar, the redhead couldn’t bring herself to even consider waking him up.
“No. We are not going to do that. He has put so much effort into all of this that he has earned his rest. It’s the least we can do for him,” Erin said with a gentle smile. “Besides, his plan has gotten us this far, hasn’t it? There’s no reason for us to start doubting him now.”
The others agreed with the redhead and decided to simply follow the plan Lexton had set up for them. However, had any of them paid attention, they might have been able to notice the corners of Zeldana’s mouth twitching upwards ever so slightly, as she was trying to hold back laughter.
After waiting for some time, one of the workers used a megaphone to make an announcement.
“Attention everyone! We are starting the boarding procedure now!” the worker said. “Please remain within your vehicles and keep the windows and doors closed!”
Following the instructions given to them, Erin and Durge rolled up the windows on their doors. They then watched as the workers motioned for the vehicle first in line to move closer towards the tunnel. Once close enough, the vehicle came to a stop. The workers then began to spray some sort of a gas all over it before walking away. As soon as this was over, another worker situated next to a panel on the side of the tunnel pressed some buttons which in turn caused the gate keeping the tunnel closed to open.
Erin watched the whole process with intrigue and confusion, along with most of her friends. They couldn’t imagine why such a strange procedure would be necessary. The only ones who didn’t share these feelings were Lexton, who was still asleep, and Zeldana, who seemed to know much more than she was letting the others know.
For a moment, everything went silent as the gate was fully opened. It seemed like nothing was happening at all, until some light rumbling could be felt coming from underground. It didn’t take long for the rumbling to intensify, until the ground seemed to be shaking violently, almost like an earthquake had just struck the town.
Then almost as soon as it appeared, the rumbling stopped. This was followed by a sight that sent chills down Erin’s spine, along with most of the others.
A gigantic centipede emerged from the tunnel. It clicked its pincers as it seemed to be observing its surroundings with curiosity. Its attention soon fell on the vehicle that had just been sprayed by the workers and it began to lean towards it. Once it had gotten close enough, the gigantic insect opened its jaws, revealing several tentacle-like appendages that wrapped themselves around the vehicle, which was then lifted up and brought to the monster’s mouth and swallowed completely.
Erin, Ryle, Durge and Arkay were absolutely horrified by the sight before them. For all they knew, the people before their eyes had just been fed to a monster. Simultaneously, the flight or fight instincts within all four turned on and told them all to run away fast.
“W-W-W-WHAT THE HELL IS THIS SHIT!?” Ryle screamed in terror. “IS THIS A TRANSPORTATION COMPANY OR SOME FREAKY SUICIDE CULT!?”
“This can’t be right! What kind of a company just allows their customers to be eaten by monsters like this!?” Durge yelled as even he was starting to panic. “Did we come to the wrong place or something!?”
While the others were panicking, Arkay had gone completely silent due to passing out. The sight of the monstrous centipede had been too much for him to handle.
As her friends were in full panic, Erin was furiously trying to figure out what was going on. On one hand, this seemed to all be part of Lexton’s plan and she knew she could always trust the kobold to look out for her and the rest of the group. Not only that, but the tickets that he had provided them seemed to be legitimate, as the attendant at the booth had accepted them.
However, despite all of these things, the fact was that they were facing a gigantic centipede that had swallowed an entire car with all of its passengers. Even a less horrifying sight would cast doubts on anyone.
There was a sudden knock on the window next to the redhead, who turned to see one of the workers looking at them with a somewhat agitated look on his face.
“Hey, would you guys mind and keep it down over there?” the worker asked. “I know its not exactly a pretty sight and all, but you’re just making our work more difficult over here. Besides, you all paid for this, didn’t you? Calm down already.”
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“How the hell can we be calm, you psychopath!?” Ryle yelled angrily. “We just watched people get devoured by that goddamn monster over there! What the hell even is this place!? Some messed up murder cult!?”
“Oh for the love of… Why do I have to deal with the first timers?” the worker said with a sigh as he facepalmed. “Look, I know this looks bad and all, but this is perfectly safe and normal. That thing over there is just going to swallow you in order to transport you to your destination. Okay? There’s no risk for you at all, so just calm down already.”
Upon hearing the somewhat blunt explanation, Erin managed to calm herself at least a bit. While this whole thing still seemed very suspicious and horrifying, there were a lot of factors that pointed at this being just an honest and safe business. Not only had this all been planned by Lexton, but no one besides them seemed to be even mildly concerned over what was happening. Not only that, but even if this was a ploy to feed people to a monster, why was the process so complicated? There would have surely been a more efficient method to gather sacrifices, if that was the ultimate goal.
“I-I apologize for our behavior. It’s just that this is our first time and it caught us by surprise,” the redhead explained apologetically. “I’ll make sure that we won’t cause any issues.”
“Thank you. Have a pleasant travel,” the worker said before walking away while muttering unhappily to himself.
Erin turned around to see both Ryle and Durge staring at her in wide-eyed shock. The redhead let out a sigh as she knew what was coming next.
“Guys, I know you’re not all that happy about what I just said, but can I at least ask you one thing?” Erin said with a sigh. “Whatever complaints you have, please try to keep the volume down as much as possible.”
“How could you just be so calm about this!?” Ryle asked in an angry whisper. “Do I need to remind you that we are literally watching a monster eat people right before our eyes!?”
“Yes, I know! You don’t need to remind me about that! Trust me, that sight is going to haunt my nightmares for certain,” the redhead replied. “But you have to remember that this is all part of Lexton’s overall plan. He knew exactly what Zadar was going to do and had made countermeasures for all it. Do you really think that after all that he was just going to have all of us get eaten by some big bug? I don’t think so.”
“Hey, I get that we should trust him and all, but trust only goes so far,” Durge said. “No matter how trustworthy one might have been, it’s a pretty big leap of faith to just ask someone to go through with something like this! Are you sure we can trust him even with this?”
Erin looked at the sleeping kobold next to her. While he looked completely peaceful, she knew that it had come at the expense of pushing himself to the utmost limit. And who had that been for? Their whole group. He had done it for all of them.
“I trust him with my life. So I’m going to continue to trust him even now,” the redhead said with a strong resolve burning behind her lone eye. “I suggest that you guys do the same and simply remain calm. I’m sure everything will be fine.”
“You can’t be freaking serious!” Ryle complained. “Are you honestly telling us to-!?”
The blonde’s complaints were stopped by a strong hand on her shoulder from Durge. She turned to look at the orc, who had a complicated expression on his face. While he had apparently been able to calm down somewhat, one could still see fear and doubt on his face.
“Ryle, she has made her decision and I don’t think we can change her mind,” the orc said. “Let’s just put our faith in her and Lex, okay?”
Seeing as she wasn’t going to win this argument, Ryle decided to let it be. She was still obviously very unhappy, as she still believed that they had simply succumbed to their fate, which was to be eaten by a monstrous bug.
With their decision on staying made, everyone in Erin’s group took their places within the van to wait for when it was their turn. Erin was sitting at the front with Durge, looking at what was happening before them. The orc had his hands on the steering wheel, still contemplating if it was for the best to simply press down on the gas pedal and just drive away as fast as he could. Ryle was sitting at back, hugging Arkay’s unconscious body like a teddy bear. She had decided that if these were her final moments, she was at least going to enjoy them to the best of her abilities. Lexton continued to sleep peacefully, unaware of the panic that had fallen over his companions. Lastly, Zeldana was facing the back of the van, away from the others as she was struggling to hold back her laughter.
Erin and Durge watched as the procedure continued with the other vehicles before them. They watched as one by one the cars were sprayed with the gas by the workers, before they were swallowed whole by the centipede. With each vehicle that was swallowed, their faith in Lexton was shaken a bit over the horrifying sight.
Eventually, it was their turn to face the monster. Erin and Durge watched as the workers sprayed their van and then simply walked away. Once this was done, the centipede lowered its head closer to them. Upon seeing the gigantic monster up close, Erin felt the color drain from her face as she was beginning to find it very difficult to breathe. Durge could no longer even keep his eyes open, as he gripped the steering wheel tightly and prayed in his mind that nothing bad would happen to them.
Now that it had gotten close enough, the centipede opened its mouth, revealing the tentacles it had there. The slimy appendages slowly wrapped around the van and lifted it up in the air, before bringing it closer towards the monster’s maw. Erin felt like screaming, but her fear had gotten to her so bad that she wouldn’t have been able to let out any sound. It was at this moment that she could no longer watch what was happening to them either and closed her eye, waiting for the end to come.
However, after waiting for a couple of minutes without anything happening, Erin slowly opened her eye to see that she and her friends were still alive. Outside of the odd slime that seemed to be now covering their van, nothing had really happened to any of them.
“Guys… Guys! It’s alright! We’re alright! Everything is alright!” Erin said excitedly as she began to shake Durge slightly in order to get him to open his eyes as well. “Look! Nothing happened to us! We are still alive!”
“...Are you serious?” Durge asked as he finally dared to take a look at his surroundings. “Well, holy shit… Guess there was nothing to worry about after all!”
“Talk about freaking miracle!” Ryle said happily, as tears of joy fell from her eyes. “I was certain that we were going to be worm food!”
“Yeah… I gotta admit that even I was starting to have my doubts towards the end… Good thing we can trust Lex,” Erin said as she let out a deep sigh of relief. She then glanced at the blonde and noticed something. “Hey, is Arnie alright? He looks a bit unwell.”
Upon hearing the cat boy’s name get mentioned, Ryle looked down at him and realized that in her terror she had been hugging him just a bit too much. Arkay’s face had turned pale from being unable to breathe properly and he certainly didn’t look good because of it.
“Oh crap!” the blonde said in a panic as she gently laid Arkay on the floor and began to try to wake him up. “Arnie! Arnie, can you hear me!? You okay!? Do you need something!? Like mouth to mouth!?”
Erin could only let out a somewhat frustrated sigh at her friend’s antics, before looking at the last member of their group, Zeldana. Since she hadn’t known about how this whole process worked either, the redhead assumed that the elf must have been just as scared as the rest of them. She was still facing away from the rest of the group, so she must have still been in a state of terror.
“Hey, Zel, you okay over there?” Erin called out to the elf, hoping that the shock hadn’t affected her too badly. “It’s alright. Nothing bad happened.”
“I know!” Zeldana replied quickly, accidentally letting out a short chuckle that she tried her best to hide. “I’m just surprised as the rest of you! Honest!”
However, the redhead wasn’t fooled by the elf’s attempts at hiding her true feelings. She had managed to pick up on the chuckle that Zeldana had accidentally let out. Not only that, there was no signs of fear in the tone of the elf’s voice at all. In fact, there was almost a happy tone in it. And to add to the whole thing, Zeldana’s body seemed to shaking lightly in a way that a person who was laughing would.
“What’s up with you?” Erin asked as her eye narrowed in suspicion. “Why don’t you look at the rest of us over here?”
Ryle and Durge had also picked up on the odd behavior of Zeldana and had turned their eyes on her. Even Arkay, who had managed to regain consciousness in time was now staring at the elf in suspicion.
“No no no! I’m okay! I was just as scared as all of you were!” Zeldana said, trying her best to hide how she had actually been feeling. “I’m just kind of processing everything right now, you know? This whole thing was quite a bit to go through, after all.”
“Oh yeah? Why don’t you show your face to us, chuckles?” Ryle asked, as she felt her anger beginning to rise. “Maybe we’ll have an easier time believing what you say, when we can see it on your face as well.”
“I don’t think there’s a need for that,” the elf tried to argue, but it fell on deaf ears.
“Turn your face towards us NOW!” Erin shouted, getting tired of this whole argument.
Seeing as how there was no hiding it anymore, Zeldana turned herself to face the others to show that she looked like she was trying as hard as possible to hold back her laughter. She was biting down on her lower lip to keep any sounds from escaping her lips and there were a couple of tears falling from her eyes as well.
The others were NOT happy by this revelation, to say the least.
image [https://i.ibb.co/710pZ35/Ch-92-Pic-1.jpg]
“And just what the hell are you laughing about, you shitty elf!?” Ryle asked angrily. “What about this goddamn nightmare is so freaking funny to you!?”
“Nothing! Nothing is funny here!” Zeldana said, still trying hold it back, but she was clearly starting to crack. “It’s just that… Just…”
The elf couldn’t hold it back any longer and erupted into roaring laughter. She held her sides as she fell to the floor, still cackling like a maniac.
“Well, you certainly seem to be enjoying yourself, you asshole!” Ryle shouted, not finding any of this humorous in the least. “Mind explaining what is it that you’re laughing about!?”
“Isn’t it obvious, Ryle?” Durge asked with a frustrated sigh. “She’s laughing at us.”
“Wait, what the hell!?” the blonde asked.
“He means that Zeldana knew all along how this whole thing worked,” Arkay explained, just as unhappy with the elf as the others. “She was just pretending to not know, so she could laugh at our expense.”
“...WHAT!?” Ryle screamed.
“Is this true, Zeldana!?” Erin asked angrily. “You actually knew that this was safe and didn’t bother telling us!? Why the hell would you do something like that!?”
“Isn’t it obvious? Because it was hilarious!” the elf replied, still laughing as she wiped away some of her tears. “You guys should have seen your own faces! They were priceless! You were all so terrified and on the verge of tears that I was having a hard time holding it back! I should honestly get an award for not cracking up earlier! Oh God, I think I peed a little!”
As the elf was still laughing, the others shared a look with each other. They were all obviously quite upset with her behavior and wanted to do something about it.
“Ryle, I’ll hold her down while you do the rest,” Erin said.
“You got it,” the blonde replied, as she cracker her knuckles a bit.
“Wait, what?” Zeldana managed to ask through her laughter, as the two walked towards her.
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Meanwhile, one of the cars before Erin’s group had an older wealthy couple sitting inside. The two of them were on a vacation, traveling through some of the more interesting places on the Western Continent.
“I wish you’d have chosen a better form of transportation, dear,” the wife said unhappily. “This is just such an unsightly way to travel. Not to mention, it’s uncomfortable and the workers are just some of lowest class people I have ever met! Are you sure there was no other way!?”
“Sweetheart, I told you already that this is the fastest method to travel through the Western Continent. Not only that, but it’s also the safest. Had we gone through the wasteland without any hired protection, we could have been attacked by bandits on our way!” the husband replied, frustrated that he had to go through this conversation. “The way I see it, I just saved us a ton of money and made our trip go faster and safer! I believe I should receive some congratulations over here!”
“Well, I think it would have been better to spend some of that money you saved on some level of comfort!” the wife snapped back. “What’s the point of working towards the fortunes we have, if we can’t even afford some level of luxury!?”
The husband was about to respond, when some strange sounds suddenly erupted from behind them. It sounded like banging of some type accompanied by what sounded like screaming.
“...Maybe this isn’t as safe as I thoughts,” the husband muttered inaudibly, once the strange sounds had subsided.
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“Okay… I get that you’re all upset and for good reason, too,” Zeldana said as she laid on the floor after getting trashed by Erin and Ryle. “That’s why I’m going to accept this and let it be. I mean, that’s fair, isn’t it?”
“You’re the last person who should be talking about fair!” Ryle shouted at the elf. “I mean… Maybe after Lex, but that’s not relevant right now…”
“Ryle, can you please try and focus for one minute?” Erin asked with a sigh, before turning her attention back to Zeldana. “Now, since you are so knowledgeable about this, why don’t you explain what exactly did we go through? I was going to wait for Lex to wake up, but seeing as you know more than enough, I’ve decided to ask you instead!”
“But I really don’t know all that-” the elf began to lie, only for Ryle to hit the side of the van as a warning. “Okay! Okay! Take a joke, would you!?”
“I think we’ve had enough jokes for now!” Erin said angrily. Now start talking! What are these things and what are they used for!?”
“Well, the latter should be pretty obvious, shouldn’t it?” Zeldana mumbled as she sat up in order to start her explanation. “Okay, so these things are known as Grand Centipedes. They normally live below ground, so most people don’t even get to see them for the most part. As you’ve probably summarized from how they look, they aren’t exactly creatures you’d want to face, but the people behind this company found a way to actually utilize them in a very useful manner. They can be used to transport things around the Western Continent very efficiently, which is what they’re doing with us right now.”
“But how can one use a gigantic beast like this to simply move people around?” the redhead asked. “Wouldn’t they just devour their customers?”
“Normally, that would be the case, but that’s where the discovery these people made comes in,” the elf continued. “You saw us getting sprayed with that weird gas before the centipede swallowed us, right? Turns out that these creatures communicate with each other through pheromones. You can get them to do all sorts of things by using the right pheromones. That’s what allowed us to be taken in gently to be moved, instead of getting chewed up and digested.”
“...I know I’m probably going to regret asking this, but what kind of pheromone were we sprayed with?” Erin asked.
“Oh, it’s nothing terrible. It’s just the smell the babies of these things let out,” Zeldana replied nonchalantly. “You see, these guys are surprisingly caring over their little ones. Upon smelling one, they immediately rush to them in order to transport them to a safer place. On the other end of this tunnel, there are workers spraying that area with pheromones that basically tell the centipede that it’s a safe area. It’s also the reason as to why we are moving so fast. The centipede wants to move its babies to safety as fast as possible, so it doesn’t have to worry about them any longer.”
“Great… So we just became adopted bug babies,” Ryle said in disgust. “I never expected to get to experience something so gross…”
“Hey, it gets the job done, doesn’t it? I’d say it’s worth the little trouble we have to face,” the elf said. “Anyways, I recommend that you guys get comfortable. While this thing is pretty damn fast, it’s going to take a while for it to reach our destination.”
Erin couldn’t help but let out a deep sigh. Today had been just tiring for her from start to finish. First they had to take part in a race that put their lives at risk multiple times, before they had to run away from the people they were up against. As if that hadn’t been enough, they had to get out of town in order to not get hunted by those same people they had angered, but in order to do so they had to come face to face with a monstrous centipede that ended up swallowing them, which was an experience she hoped would never be repeated. To make matters worse, she found out that she could have been saved from the fright of a lifetime that probably shortened her lifespan, had one of her companions been considerate enough to tell them there was no danger.
Right now, all she wanted was to sit back and enjoy some peace and quiet, before all the stress would send her to an early grave.