William returned to the north wall to retrieve the city lord after the path to the south wall was cleared of all obstacles and zombies. When he arrived at the south wall earlier, he was appalled to see that everyone there had become a zombie. The ordinary people that had remained behind to contribute to the city’s defense and even the soldiers that he stationed there. No one was alive as they had all turned into the enemy.

The retreat signal was fired into the air and the north wall’s army began to slowly back away. The mages began collapsing the structures around them to form a blockade that would cover their retreat and once this blockade was finished, the army at the north wall began their full retreat. The same was happening for the soldiers on the east and west walls as well. However, when they came to the crossroads at the city’s central square, only the east wall unit faced difficulties.

“William, what happened to the square’s eastern section?”

“There was a horde of zombies heading that way. I thought it was best we collapsed the road so the zombies wouldn’t reach the eastern wall before the retreat signal was issued. Otherwise, the unit at the eastern wall would be sandwiched and they wouldn’t be able to retreat…” William answered monotonously.

He had no shred of guilt in his words and seeing the numerous zombies that could be seen buried underneath all of the collapsed debris on the eastern section, the city lord was somewhat convinced. The city lord turned to his aid and ordered, “Signal them. We have to let them know that the road here has been blocked.”

“Yes sir.”

The aid had one of the mages launch a spell into the air that acted as a signal flare. Richard and his unit were already making their way towards the central square but, from afar, they already saw the blockade and the flare that came soon after.

“Dammit, so it really was blocked.”

He was just about to give the order to turn around but noticed that they were surrounded by a large number of zombies.

“When did–”

“Captain! We’re surrounded! We can’t pull back anymore!”

“Shit, let’s keep going! Send a distress signal! We have to move forward!”

“But the path is blocked ahead, Captain!”

“That’s why I said send the signal! If they see it, they might be able to help us!”

A signal flare was sent into the air and both William and the city lord saw it.

“It’s a distress signal!”

A few moments later, on the other side of the debris field, Richard and his unit were now fighting the undead with their backs against the wall.

“Can anyone hear me? We need help! We’re surrounded by the undead!” Richard yelled.

The city lord and William hadn’t left when they saw the signal flare. William obviously wanted to go because the undead were now pouring through the gates and if they remained any longer, they’d definitely be killed.

“My Lord, we have to leave, now! The undead are approaching us from all sides!” William said.

“We can’t just leave them!” The city lord said as he watched one of his own being attacked on the other side of the debris field, helpless to do anything.

Just like what his commander said, the undead were approaching and if they dallied there then their fates would be the same as Richard and his unit.

“Sir, their lives…are already lost. If we stick around, then we’ll die along with them!”

“There must be something we can do!”

“There’s nothing, sir! We have to leave, and now!” William said as he began forcing the city lord to move.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

The city lord looked around and from the north and west gate’s directions, the undead really were rushing towards them. Hearing the undead’s repulsive cries, the city lord gave one desperate look at Richard and his unit before saying, “Dammit! Let’s go!”

Richard saw what was happening, he could only grit his teeth in dismay because William and the city lord really couldn’t do anything. Not with the undead closing in on them.

“What do we do?”

He didn’t want to resign to his death because he had his team members to take care of and if he gave up then he was essentially sealing the rest of his team’s fate.

‘If only the path hadn’t been blocked! That bastard William. It was definitely his doing! The city lord and he abandoned us…’

Richard wasn’t stupid enough to believe that their unit’s retreat route had been accidentally destroyed like that nor did he believe that there was a proper reason either. The west wall unit’s retreat path wasn’t destroyed, but his was? It seemed completely illogical from his standpoint.

The blocked path was definitely something that was orchestrated by someone and the only person he could think of was William. Only he had any motive to push him to his death, but what angered Richard the most was that the bastard was letting his personal vendetta affect the lives of people unrelated to them.

“Everyone, we have to push through! If we remain cornered like this, we’ll die!”

Richard took the front and began cutting down as many undead as he could. Maria was naturally at the front as well, wreaking havoc as much as she could within the limits of her character, Rio.

“Let’s push through!”

He was thinking about where they should go, but seeing as the undead were chasing after the bulk of their army which was heading towards the south wall, Richard had a somewhat insane idea.

“Everyone, we’ll head towards the north gate!”

“Captain?!”

“Sir?”

Those around him immediately began questioning his judgment, but Richard didn’t give anyone time to think as he was already rushing in that direction, but on the way, he began explaining. Since the zombies were mostly concentrated around the south area of the city and the rest of the undead were chasing after the bulk of their forces, it was logical to assume that the places they were coming from were now devoid of the undead.

This was Richard’s logic when he ordered everyone to start heading towards the north gate’s direction. Of course, they were only going in that general direction and making sure to avoid the areas where the undead were moving.

The only thing they had to do was try and lose the undead that were currently chasing after them, but that was never going to happen, since Maria was making sure that at least a few were still chasing after them.

She needed to constantly push Richard into a corner until his mindset changed and that serving under a lord really wasn’t going to do much for him. Earlier, his lord and the man that was responsible for their predicament had abandoned them. Maria wanted Richard to realize that serving under someone in the coming times of darkness wasn’t going to do him any good. From her observation, she was currently doing a good job. Now all she needed to do was give him a final push and she already knew what she was going to do.

When they arrived at a certain point in the northern section of the city, Maria herded Richard and his unit towards an area near the walls that had a side door that they could use to escape outside of the city.

“You guys go first!” Richard then turned to his vice-captain and said, “Kurt, you and I will block them here until everyone gets through!”

“...Yes sir.”

Kurt didn’t seem too keen on that idea, but since his captain was willing to do it, then he was just going to follow his orders. It wasn’t like Richard told him to hold them off while he would keep going forward.

Richard thought that everything was going well despite still being pursued by a bunch of undead, but since Maria herded him and his unit here, there was naturally something that Maria had in store for them and it truly wasn’t anything good.

When the first of his unit arrived outside of the wall, they began raising screams of pain as they were cut down by the undead that just so happened to be outside and was waiting for them. One of the members hurried back and reported, “Captain, t-there are u-undead outside of the wall!”

“What?!”

“...Richard, it seems we’ve been cornered here,” Kurt said with a resigned look.

“Ugh…”

“It’s been an honor to know and serve under you, old friend.”

“Don’t say that. We can still make it out of here alive…somehow…” Richard replied as he frantically began looking for a way.

While he was looking for some way they could get out of this mess, his subordinates were dropping like flies all around him.

“Captain, there’s a manhole cover over there…” Rio suddenly appeared next to the desperate captain and said.

“A manhole…yes, that could work!”

He moved over to the manhole and popped open the lid before yelling, “Everyone, over here!”

His men quickly heard him and they rushed over to his side. The first to arrive immediately jumped into the manhole but after 5 people jumped in, no more came. Only Rio and he were left. He wondered why everyone was taking so long, but when he looked up, he noticed that only a handful of his men were left and they were holding back the throngs of undead that were throwing themselves at them.

His heart sank to his stomach when he saw all of the dead bodies around him and his men who were slowly being mutilated by the zombies who were biting and clawing at them. Kurt was among those people. The team’s vice-captain only turned to his friend who was staring in shock at him and yelled, “Get going you fool!”

“N-No, Kurt!”

“Captain…we should go,” Rio said from the side as he kicked away a zombie.

“Go, you idiot! We can’t hold them back for much longer!”

Richard didn’t say anything as he just stared at the faces of his subordinates who were sacrificing themselves so that those behind them could run away and etched them into his memory.

“Please, just go! Live on for us! Kill these bastards and take revenge for us or do whatever! Just please, keep on living!” Kurt yelled just before his mouth was slashed apart by one of the zombies that were attacking him.

“Kurt, Rob, Dimitri, Valos, Pinon, Atka…I won’t forget you all and the sacrifice you've made today…”

After saying this, Richard pulled Rio by his collar and forced him down the manhole before following right after. He pulled the cover over the hole and sealed it before continuing downwards. The zombies were too unintelligent to get the manhole open, so after killing the remaining humans that couldn’t escape, they just stood around the area for a while before dispersing.

Richard and the handful that had survived moved through the smelly sewers until they found the exit that led outside of the city. They got lost a few times but eventually, they finally got out. This was by far one of the most repulsive experiences Maria had gone through since she started playing Unitale. She definitely didn’t want to go through this ever again in the future.