Fight, Flight, or Freeze: The Healer's Story
Chapter 319: Cannon Fodder

Chapter 319: Cannon Fodder

I don’t know how long I was out, but what I did know was that when I came to, I was tied to a stake in front of the first gate, just outside of the fifth circle.

"You’re awake," said a woman as she stood in front of me, staring at me.

"And yet, I have no idea what is going on," I shrugged. Or at least I tried to. My wrists were bound behind my back, and the cold pole I was against dug into my spine. Looking down, I half expected to see a pile of wood by my feet, but instead, I was barefooted on the ground.

Oh, the poor, poor humans.

"There was no point in sacrificing your boots when one of us could use them," replied the woman, her eyes going to where I was looking. If she thought I was upset that they took them off, she was really misreading the situation.

"That makes sense," I replied, absentmindedly nodding my head. "But why am I here? And why do you look so familiar?"

"You recognize me? I’m impressed. You once pretended to heal my husband," said the woman, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "Not like it did much good. The creatures still came and took him away in one of the first raids."

"Wait," I muttered, shaking my head. "You’re husband was the one with the gunshot wound?"

The woman nodded her head, and as dawn approached, I could see a lineup of citizens from City A behind her. But that wasn’t what bothered me the most.

"You think that I magically manipulated you and your husband into thinking that he was healed from a through and through?" I demanded. I honestly think that this was the biggest insult that had ever been thrown my way.

The snarky comments and death threats from Camp Hell didn’t piss me off as much as this woman’s comment did.

"Are you dumb?" I asked, completely seriously. I would deal with the reason why I was tied to a stake and why I was here later. I needed to know the answer to my question.

"Princess had told us that you are a spirit user, one that specializes in manipulation. And if you are capable of eating a child, then what aren’t you capable of?" called out one of the voices from the mob behind the woman.

I guess it was true what they said; one person was smart, and many people together were dumb as fuck.

"I see," I answered, nodding my head. "And, of course, you just blindly believe everything she says, right?"

"How could we not? She is the Princess of City A. She was the one who told us that if we wanted everything to stop, we just needed to sacrifice you. If we hadn’t hesitated, people would still be alive now," shouted back yet another person.

Suddenly, a person at the edge of the crowd caught my eye. Hu Wen Cheng stood staring at me. His hands were clutched into fists, and I could see the anger going through him.

Fuck. He couldn’t be here.

Taking in a deep breath, I took some of the energy from the environment around us and sent it into him, hoping that he would realize where it was coming from.

For the first time tonight, luck was in my favor. His head jolted up as he looked me in the eyes. Shaking my head, I moved my lips, telling him to go. He needed to be back in that ark he had built because the flood waters were coming soon.

The woman in front of me caught my actions, and her head quickly snapped around to see who I was trying to talk to.

"If all of this is because of your Princess, then where is she? Why isn’t she here right now?" I demanded, my voice loud enough to pull her attention away from scanning the crowd and back to me.

"You killed her," said the woman with a harsh chuckle. "I went to go speak to her last night before the attack and found her in her bedroom, her throat slit."

I blinked at her words.

Wu Bai Hee was dead? All of this shit was still happening to me when she was already in the grave. Fuck, that bitch really had it out for me, didn’t she?

"I didn’t kill her," I said instead. There was no point in wasting my breath on the angry mob in front of me. They wouldn’t listen to me, no matter what I said.

The woman was about to speak when the sound of a loud roar came from behind her.

The human scrambled until they were once again on the ’right’ side of the gate, leaving the woman beside me.

I wanted to point out that if they had gotten in so many nights in a row, that chain link fence wasn’t going to protect them, but why bother.

"Our Princess told us that if we sacrifice this woman to you, you will leave us alone," called out the woman to the zombies that seemed to appear out of thin air. There were thousands of them.

I closed my eyes. This was the end of City A; nothing was going to stand in the way of the zombies now.

"You know they are zombies, right?" I said, completely unable to help myself. It really needed to be said.

"No, the Princess said that they weren’t, so they aren’t. Besides, have you ever seen zombies like this before?" chuckled the woman as she looked at me.

"Yup," I nodded. "The last time I fought them in City B."

"You are a liar. And no one ever believes a liar." Her point made, she turned her attention away from me and back to the zombies in front of her.

I hadn’t spotted an Alpha yet, so this must be the cannon fodder, the most expendable of the tide. If this was a trap, then it wouldn’t matter if they were killed. And if it wasn’t...

They were so much brighter than I had given them credit for.

"Well?" asked the woman, raising her voice as she stared one in the eyes.