Chapter 138: Retching
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
[Margaret’s Perspective]
I took a deep breath and asked the question that was uppermost in my mind. “Where is the Lycan King now?”
Anthony shook his head and said, “I don’t know. That’s not my concern. Go back now. Take Elizabeth with you. Stay in a safe place and don’t come out again.”
After Anthony said this, he turned around to deal with the large group of people. No matter what I asked, he refused to talk to me anymore. He just firmly asked me to go back.
It took me a while to recover from the shock of the number of casualties. I had to admit that Anthony was right. There was nothing I could do here. I should return to safety and not cause trouble for the others here.
However, as soon as I turned around, I saw Elizabeth trying to squeeze through the crowd.
“Elizabeth!” I called.
It was very chaotic here. I noticed that Elizabeth was looking at Anthony and waving her arms in an attempt to attract his attention. She couldn’t see or hear me at all.
I struggled through the crowd toward her. There seemed to be more people here than when I first arrived.
Finally, I grabbed her arm. Elizabeth turned to me, looking surprised.
“Margaret, what are you doing here? I—”
Her voice was drowned out by the noise of the crowd behind her. I grabbed her arm and tried to pull her out of the crowd. But Elizabeth was pushing in the other direction. She looked like she was thinking of Anthony.
“Let’s get out of here,” I said to Elizabeth.
“What?”
“Get out!” I shouted at Elizabeth. I felt like my fingers were about to be broken by the jostling crowd.
Seeing that Elizabeth was still a little confused, I gave up communicating with her and pulled her to the empty space at the side.
“Hey! Margaret!” After being pulled out, Elizabeth was glaring at me. She said unhappily, “What are you doing? I barely got in.”
Elizabeth looked down at her dress and busied herself wiping the dust off her high heels. Under those circumstances, I was impressed that she could keep her heels from being stepped on.
I looked at Elizabeth, wondering how to tell her about this. The attack of a hundred people. The horror of it was something I still couldn’t accept.
But then I saw Elizabeth’s eyes widen in horror. She pointed behind me and asked, “What… what is that?”
I turned around and looked toward the forest. Many people were coming out of the forest. The noisy crowd around me quietened down suddenly. There was dead silence all around.
Most of the people who came out of the forest were covered in blood. Many of them were lying on stretchers. I recognized some of the people from our pack patrol who were supporting the casualties .
I thought about what Anthony had just said. These injured people were probably from the Red Sun Pack.
I felt queasy, even though I hadn’t eaten anything that morning.
I took a step forward and blocked Elizabeth’s view. She was even less used to this bloody scene than I was. I had more or less seen the cruelty of real combat last time because of my stupid actions. I could take this, but not Elizabeth.
I took Elizabeth’s hand and whispered, “Let’s go back.”
Elizabeth didn’t contradict me this time. I felt her palms getting sweaty.
We walked back to our own house in silence, away from the blood and sweat-filled area, and I felt a lot more comfortable breathing.
I went through our fridge. While Elizabeth lived alone, she obviously hadn’t stocked it with anything. I got the eggs I’d bought before from the preservation layer and started frying toast and eggs for our simple breakfast.
I tried to push the scene at the forest out of my mind. I stared at the fried egg in front of me, trying to focus on it.
But this wasn’t working very well. I doubted that the people on those stretchers would survive. There was also Donald. He was the one who led the overall situation. He had to see many deaths every day.
It wasn’t until the pan began to smoke that I realized I’d burned the toast and eggs.
I scrambled to turn off the stove, then dumped the black mass in the trash.
If a person died in the end, would they be burned to charcoal and then turned to ashes by the high temperature? This was the end of the people I had just seen. For a moment, I felt my stomach churn. I propped my hands on the bar countertop to adjust my breathing.
Suddenly I heard the sound of retching. I thought I had vomited. After a moment of dizziness, I saw that the charred mess in the trash was still there, emitting a nasty smell.
I heard a door open to one side and saw Elizabeth coming out of the bathroom. Her face was pale and there was a trace of water at the corner of her mouth. She looked frightened.