"Get moving! Move! Move!!"

Riding in huge trucks and large vehicles, led by Silas, all the volunteers set out from the hill settlement, making their way to the city to secure the food for everyone.

The journey was unlike anything they had made before; moving through their quiet but alive neighbourhood, their vehicles moved through the curvy roads that led to the city region from this hilly residence.

The area up to a mile from the hills to the city was always quiet because of the lack of human residence; it was just surrounded by greenery and trees with empty paths.

After a few days of chaos, it felt like it had already been months since they had seen this path again; every time they felt so weird, with constant caution towards their surroundings, a fear that suddenly an evolved beast would jump out of the woods and attack their vehicles.

But led by Silas, there was somewhat of a relief in their eyes; Silas also felt somewhat assured leaving the place as Zara and her Phantom Claw Tiger were still stationed back at home, capable of dealing with most variables that might come their way.

"Charles!!!" Silas suddenly shouted out from his car windows; the person driving a truck right behind him momentarily closed his eyes; his vision seemed to be shared with his tamed eagle-like beast flying above the trucks in the sky.

Inspecting the surroundings with the eyes of his beast, he reported, "No issues!!!"

Silas nodded and glanced over at his two young wolves sitting right beside him and on the trunk of the truck. "Be cautious..." he commanded before accelerating the vehicle as they finally arrived outside of the woods.

Normally the woods are dangerous with fear of wild creatures everywhere, but escaping the woods without issue made them even more cautious of what might be in the city.

And finally they reached the outer region of the city, but the whole city was strangely quiet, and not just quiet; the smell of blood and flesh everywhere made it disturbing to even be here.

The city that used to hum with life now sat dead, frozen in time. Faded billboards hung loosely from steel frames, creaking as the wind tugged at their edges. The only sound was the steady rumble of engines and the crunch of tires on the ground.

No people. No cars moving. Nothing but empty streets and hollow buildings, their broken windows like dead eyes watching from the shadows.

Silas leaned forward in his seat, eyes narrowing as they passed by a gas station, its glass doors shattered and the pumps dented. The signs of struggle were everywhere—bullet casings glittered faintly on the ground, and the walls wore dark stains of blood that no one needed to question.

The deeper they went, the worse it got. Cars left abandoned in the middle of intersections, some flipped on their sides, others burnt down to their frames. A few still had their doors wide open.

On the walls, spray-painted messages screamed out at them.

TURN BACK

MONSTERS AHEAD, DON'T GO

RUN AWAY! GET INSIDE MILITARY DOME

Silas’s grip tightened on the wheel as they rolled by a checkpoint—what was left of it, at least. And this is where their true chaos was witnessed.

Silas and a few others were left in absolute daze and disgust as they witnessed that sight, corpses of humans lying everywhere with many corpses of beasts.

Their limbs were missing, some had their heads crunched away, and many crushed to the point their bodies were unrecognisable, an absolutely gruesome sight; the smell of blood and decay still lingered all over the place.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

The people besides Silas couldn't help but narrow their eyes and steel themselves; many even vomited on the spot, feeling extremely sick, but just as Silas was thinking this sight was the danger, his wolves stirred beside him, their ears twitching with their eyes scanning the surroundings around them.

“We’re not alone,” Silas muttered under his breath before once again starting his vehicle, which carefully avoided that bloody path ahead.

Charles’s eagle circled high above, but even through its eyes, the city looked deserted. Not a single soul walked those streets. It was too quiet.

As they made their way past an old market square, overturned stalls and rotting fruit lay scattered everywhere.

'We are almost at the grainery...' Silas sighed, and making their way past the chaotic roads, they arrived at a huge grainery made up of concrete walls.

They parked their trucks outside and quietly stepped outside, quite alert and cautious of their surroundings.

"There is no one here..." someone from the group muttered as he looked around, no security, no people, no nothing.

"The whole city has fallen..."

"We were thinking we had it worse, but there is a whole apocalypse going on in the world outside."

"Is humanity even going to survive?"

"What the hell did the world come to..."

Everyone frowned, gritting their teeth, but no solution was visible to their eyes right now.

"Let's get moving! Move! Move!" Silas's loud voice broke the strange, depressing silence that was overtaking the atmosphere, and while hanging his hands over the truck's metal frame, he commanded. "Let's think about world peace when our stomachs are full! Seems like the option to buy things isn't here! Just grab as many bags of grains as you can and get moving! Fast!!!"

"Yeah..."

"We don't have time! Get moving!"

"Fast!"

"Fast!!!"

Silas took the lead, crushing the lock on the building with his mere fist, and everyone rushed in, with enhanced physical abilities carrying a few dozen kg worth of weight was not that much of a tough job.

But even inside they noticed many bags of grains were torn apart with traces of the monster's visit here, but in silence everyone agreed to not question things now.

They quickly grabbed the grains and filled up their trucks with as many bags of grains as possible and after filling up 12 trucks full of grains, they closed the trunks and the doors is that grainery

"Let's get moving fast!" Silas remarked, signalling everyone to get moving. They nodded, and starting their trucks, everyone charged forward at full speed with a face full of sweat and blood, jumping up and down across their bodies.

The sound of engines roared through the air, the trucks pushing forward as the convoy surged out from the city, everyone keeping his foot on the gas, hands steady on the wheel, but heart pounding hard in the chest.

Silas was the one furthest in the back, keeping an eye out for any danger; not for one moment did anyone dare to look back once they charged forward in their vehicles.

But despite all the tension, nothing happened, even as they crossed the whole city. Their heartbeats seemed to stabilise; even Silas sighed with relief, "Sigh..."

But just then his eyes fell over the side mirrors; there was nothing but empty road behind them, but tension too heavy in the air.

Suddenly, a low growl echoed through the air, barely audible over the sound of the trucks, but enough to send a chill down everyone’s spine. Silas’s eyes snapped to the rearview mirror, his heart skipping a beat.

"Charles!" Silas shouted, his voice tight. "What's behind us?"

Charles’s voice immediately shouted back, strained and sharp. "I don’t know! It’s... too many! They’re coming out of the trees!"

Before Silas could respond, suddenly Silas's truck was tackled with a huge black goat-like beast with its whole body covered in black, heavy fur and two enormous horns growing backwards.

"Fuck!!!" Silas cursed, and his truck almost lost its balance, crashing into the woods, but he gained the balance and accelerated the gears

As he looked back through his side mirror, Silas noticed more than dozens of similar beasts stepping out of the woods, all charging forward towards the trucks running on the road. The sound of the mass crowd of those creepy creatures was enough to make the blood run cold.

"Go! Go! Go!" Silas’s voice thundered through the chaos. His foot slammed harder on the accelerator, speeding forward; the others did the same, charging their vehicles at full speed.

The chase continued all the way, and with time they started losing sight of those beasts, but just as they thought they had escaped suddenly, a figure suddenly landed straight over Silas's truck's hood.

"Ahhhhhh!!!" Silas covered his face as his truck suddenly came to a halt, and glass from the front windscreen fell all over him; the airbag barely saved him.

And in front of his eyes was the beast—a hulking, twisted creature with glowing red eyes—its sharp jaw dripping with saliva as it stared straight at Silas with something like a grin.

Silas's eyes narrowed, full of frown and crazy heartbeats, as he looked straight into the eyes of that creature with rage boiling up in his eyes.

"Another crazy fuck..."