CHAPTER 175: 175-THEY ARE NOT CROWS

Clementine:

I frowned, pouting at his comment. He didn’t have to say that.

"Who told you I’d get impressed with something that simple? I don’t get impressed that easily," I groaned at him. He had to ruin everything. I was just complimenting him because it really was nice of him.

He nodded, and as I began to slow down to walk behind him, I noticed he slowed too, turning his head just slightly to look at me.

"So, just out of curiosity, what does impress you?" he asked, making me feel a little better about his earlier comment.

"You wouldn’t want to know. It’s not like you or anyone here can reach that level of understanding or commitment." I shrugged, almost sticking my tongue out before falling back again, leaving him to walk ahead.

"Would slaying a monster work?" I suddenly heard Yorick whisper in my ear from behind. I turned to look at him, watching him smirk as he walked past me on my right side.

We kept walking, and once we reached the abandoned road, the one where we felt safe, we decided to take a break. We sat down at the bus station and pulled out the maps.

"So listen, just three of us will climb the tower, okay?" Joshua reminded Jack and Ian, making sure the others agreed to their part. "You’ll all stay down by the tower, making sure no monster tries to climb after us, because we’ll be in a very vulnerable state. And we won’t have much time to fight them."

He repeated what we had already discussed, and honestly, nobody argued. It was better to keep our roles clear. Once that was settled, we ate a little before starting our journey again.

The weather was cloudy, not a single ray of sunshine. As we kept moving and finally reached the big city, I felt a chill creep in. The dark clouds had covered the sky like a blanket, the world around was beginning to darker as if it was night.

"Dude, are you okay?" I heard Yash ask Nate.

"I’m fine. It’s just— it’s really cold," Nate said, shivering.

I glanced at him and noticed how blue his lips had turned.

"Haiden, I don’t think he’s okay." I nudged Haiden, who followed my gaze toward Nate.

"We can feed him something if you want," Haiden suggested with no intention to be cocky. But the way Joshua turned to pass him a glare said he didn’t see it as that.

"You all don’t need to be so dramatic. It’s not like he’s dying. It’s just cold," Joshua grunted, already giving Nate a look that told him not to act like he was struggling.

"Yeah, I’m fine," Nate muttered, hugging himself and rubbing his arms as his lips began to quiver.

"Just because somebody needs help doesn’t mean they’re weak," Ian snapped, finally standing up to Joshua, who had been bossy toward his squadmates for a while. I guessed he was taking out his anger of Jack and Suki on the other two, who were completely innocent in all this. I mean, they were bullies too, but it’s not like they had personally hurt anyone.

"Really? So now you’ll tell me how I should run my pack?" Joshua shot back. And right then, I realized he was missing his leadership days back in the pack.

"Oh, Mr. Joshua wants to treat his squadmates like his pack members," Haiden taunted, making him clench his jaw.

"But how will he run a squad when he couldn’t even satisfy his mate?" Troy added, pouting and tilting his head.

"Hey, stay out of my personal business," Joshua barked, pointing at Troy and Haiden, who only laughed and gave each other a high five.

"You guys are so immature," Yorick muttered, shoving his hands in his pockets and turning away. He started scanning the area until I noticed him suddenly lift his head and briskly step ahead of us.

"What is that?" he asked, pointing up at the sky. Everybody followed his eyes, staring at the swarm of crows circling above.

"Have you never seen a crow before?" Suki joked, trying to be funny.

But I noticed something was off. The longer I looked, the more I realized they weren’t small birds, they were huge, much bigger than any crow should be.

"These are not crows," I growled.

"So what? They’re something else, eagles or whatever. Why does it matter?" Jack hissed.

The more they circled above us, the louder their screeching got, until it was so sharp we had to cover our ears. I noticed Nate shivering harder than before, his body almost freezing.

"Okay, they’re coming after Nate!" I shouted, and the second I did, everybody panicked.

"What do you mean?" Suki complained.

I narrowed my eyes at the creatures, staring harder until it finally clicked.

"These aren’t birds. They’re something else. They look like humans– but with wings," I said, rushing a little closer before stumbling back.

"Okay, we need to find shelter," Ian ordered, and we quickly searched around. But there wasn’t much time. The things started diving at us, and we all pulled out our swords and daggers.

The things were specifically targeting Nate, and he wasn’t even fighting back. He was just screaming and waving his arms around. We started swinging our swords at them. I slashed one of the things and noticed how scary it looked. Ian, Haiden, Yorick, everybody else was fighting with power. But then Suki screamed when one of them clawed her back, making her fall. Joshua and Jack both rushed over, but I caught a little hesitation in Joshua’s eyes, since Jack reached her first, and she instantly hugged him.

We didn’t have time to watch the drama. We needed to save Nate. Then I saw the White Squad retreating, running away from the spot.

"Hey! What about Nate?" I screamed.

Joshua stopped for a moment, turned, and said, "If you care so much, save him."

That was all he said before speeding away.

Not a single White Squad member stayed behind for Nate, and I guess he noticed, because he briefly looked up at me with a broken look on his face and then smiled. It was such a meek, sad smile that I felt like I would do anything to save him now.