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Gale cursed to himself as he came upon the tree where he'd left the prince a little bit ago. He had regained his horse along with all of his possessions and the boy's bag, and even managed to take a few of the guard's arrows while he was at it. He knew he shouldn't have left the boy by his lonesome, but the longer he stayed thinking about it, the closer the royal guardsman drew. He's just happy that they didn't end up finding the boy and steeling him back.

The wolf sniffed the air, picking up the boys scent easily, but didn't like the direction it was pointing in. Gale had taken a rout away from the prince's home city that was dangerously close to an overtaken city. He was hoping that the guards wouldn't follow him this close to the city of Haulburry, but it looked like they weren't going to stop for anything.

Gale shook his head and followed the boy's scent. He followed it around trees and through bushes, once finding a piece of the princes tunic, letting him know that he was going in the right directdead, It took him a food few minutes to lead his horse through the dense forest before he finally emerged into a clearing. A few thousand yards in front of him sat the dead, quiet city of Haulburry, and the prince's scent leading to the cursed city. "This is Karma... isn't it?" Gale asked his horse before patting it on the nose and hoisting himself onto its back. "Well... might as well get going before he gets himself killed..."

~*~

Elson huffed as he ran down the middle of the sand street. His legs were way past tired and lungs burned with exhaustion, but he knew that he needed to get away from that wolfman, who was probably on his way after him by now.

The boy had no idea where he was, or what city he was in. He had been hoping that he would find someone to help him get back home, but the city was so quiet, he doubted that anyone was still in here. "Hello?!" he called, cupping his hands around his mouth as he yelled, but the only sound he heard was the echo of his own voice. "Is anyone out there?!" he called again, but still, no one replied.

Elson slumped his shoulders, no one was here. He continued walking further into the city, thinking that he'd be safer from that wolf if he were to follow the boy in here.

As he walked on, Elson started to notice that the houses and buildings were rotting or broken. Unstable structures and fallen debris were scattered about the sand roads as he walked down them. He saw faded and cracked paintings on the walls of some of the buildings, some with unrecognizable symbols and others with a few visible elven words.

When Elson looked down, he noticed that some of the sand still had footprints leading in a different direction. That's odd, he thought. The houses look decades old, but these footprints are only a few hours old... Elson looked around in hopes of finding who the footprints belonged to, but all he saw was more torn up buildings and still sand.

He looked back down to the footprints and contemplated. He wasn't sure if he should follow them and see where they lead, or keep exploring the city.

Finally, the boy shrugged and started following the footprints, figuring that he could explore the city while he followed the tracks.

The tracks curved with uneven footsteps, almost as if the person didn't know how to walk, or was too drunk to. A few times, the tracks led right into the middle of a wall. Elson thought it odd that the tracks would run right into a solid object as such, but continued to follow the tracks as the backed up and continued on in a completely different direction.

After a while of following the footprints, Elson couldn't help but wonder if even the tracks knew where they were going. He was pretty sure that he's at least gone in a circle about three times by now. He was about to turn back when he thought he heard a faint noise coming from around the block's corner.

He froze for a moment; up until now, he hadn't heard anything except from the soft breeze and the complaining words of his thoughts. He could have just been imagining that voice, he was tired, hungry and dehydrated, so hallucinations were expected. But when he thought he heard the noise again, he couldn't help but see if he was really hearing something, or just going crazy.

Elson walked onward, hearing the noise grow louder as he drew nearer to the edge of the block. Soon, a strange groaning sound illuminated as he got closer, and just kept getting louder. Eventually, it sounded as if a multitude of people were all groaning in pain of some sort.

Elson nerves started to bug him, telling him that he shouldn't look at what was behind that corner, but curiousety was strong and drove him to take that last step.

As Elson peered around the corner, he immediately wished that he hadn't. Hordes of pale, leathery skinned people limped around in a rhythmless manner; bumping into each other, snapping their jaws at each other like wild animals and walking over those who couldn't walk as if they weren't even there. But what Elson noticed the most about these people was how they were all badly injured. Some bore deep gashes all over their body, some almost looked like walking skeletons, some not having any legs or arms, or even missing their entire bottom half. Their eyes were cloudy and lifeless, making Elson gasp in realization; these people weren't actually alive.

As soon as the boy gasped, every single one of the hundreds of undead stopped walking and groaning and snapped their heads in his direction. For a moment, none of them moved, just staring in his general direction as if contemplating if he were really there or not, all the while Elson held his breath and slowly slid back behind the corner. Before Elson could slip away, a shrill, bloodcurdling screech was let out from one of the undead as it took off in a mad sprint after him, followed by more screams and in a matter of two seconds, every one of the hundreds of undead was either running or frantically crawling after the young prince.

Elson panicked, reflexively throwing his hand in front of him and sending a spear of sparkling blue dust at the nearest corps, sending it flying back into the few undead that ran behind it. His powers were starting to return, but he knew that they were still too week to combat many of the corps, so he took off running in the opposite direction.

He tried to summon a dust cloud to take him out of here, but every time he tried, a small puff would appear below his feet and dissipate before he got far off the ground. He would occasionally throw small spears or balls of sparkling dust behind him to try and slow the dead down, but every time he hit one, it would just stand right back up and continue its pursuit as if nothing had happened.

He tried to run faster, but he was still tired from getting away from that wolf guy that he felt his legs getting slower with every step. He prayed to God to give him strength, or some kind of salvation, but nothing came as the dead drew closer. He could hear the crazed gasping and groans from the dead as their fleshy and boney fingers reached out to grab Elson.

The boy let out a short scream as he felt one of them grab the back of his tunic and lifted him into the air. It took him to realize that it wasn't actually one of the dead that grabbed him, rather a large, blocky, furry figure ridding on the back of a sprinting horse.

Elson never thought he would be so happy to see Gale.

The wolf placed the boy in front of him and handed him the ropes to steer the horse. "Hope you know how to drive one of these." Gale said as he drew his bow and arrow and began shooting down the chasing undead behind them.

Elson knew how to steer a horse, but he's never ridden one beyond trotting speed. It wasn't hard, just uncomfortable. He turned a corner and hurried the horse down a street, which seemed to be just as afraid of the undead as they were. "C'mon, faster!" Elson said, mostly to himself.

The undead weren't exactly as fast as the horse, but the more they drove on, the more corps poured through the alleys and joined the others in their chase. "Is there no end to these flesh bags?" Gale asked, looking to Elson for a brief moment. "What did you do to make them so upset?"

Elson ignored the wolf's comment and concentrated on keeping the horse going in the right direction. He turned a few more corners, finally seeing the city exit on the far side of the street. A flicker of hope fluttered in his chest, feeling like they might actually make it out of this mess... when more undead started to block off the exit, coming from the alleys and seemingly vacant buildings.

Elson stopped the horse and nearly got flung off by doing so. "What in the hells are you doing?" Gale asked, turning to look at Elson when the mass of corps in front of them caught his attention.

"Directions would be greatly appreciated right now!" Elson said, looking from side to side for a way out.

The horse trotted around in a nervous circle, threatening to start running again, no matter what direction. "Uhhh...." Gale looked around as well.

"Gale!" Elson yelled as the undead got closer.

The wolf pointed to a narrow alleyway to their left. "There, go there!"

The boy whipped the rope and guided the horse down into the alley. It was a tight fit. Gale wrapped his arms around the front of Elson and squeezed him so that they both could fit through and not get knocked off from the horse. Elson shut his eyes as he felt the weight of the wolf on his back as they leaned forward to duck under a wooden staircase. He could hear the corps screaming at them as they all tried to fit into the alley at once.

When they finally made it out on the other side of the alley, Gale lifted his weight off from the prince and grabbed the rope to steer the horse away from entering another alley and down the street back towards the open gate.

Elson glanced behind them under the wolf's arm to see thousands of corps spilling out of the alleys as they passed them. So many, so many walking dead, it was terrifying. So many walking dead that Elson had to wonder if there were more corps' here than there were living people back in Mary's Garden, and Mary's garden was known for its cheer size and population, or at least, that's what he was told. And the longer he looked, the more dead came. He had to look away, he's never seen so many (former) people in one place before ever in his life, and the fact that all of these 'people' wanted to kill him was just too overwhelming.

"Almost there!" Gale said, whipping the rope a few more times to speed the horse up a bit. "C'mon, c'mon!"

A few hundred feet away from the gate, one of the corps had managed to wrap itself around the neck of the horse and repeatedly bit into its flesh, sending sprays of crimson blood splattering all over the ground below. The horse started panic as it slowed, allowing more undead to cling to the horse and tear it apart.

Eventually, it had tripped over one of the undead and sent Gale and Elson flying off from its back. The horse screamed in terror as the undead tor into its flesh and a fountain of blood gushed out in every direction.

Elson nearly hurled at the sight of the tormented animal as he tried to scramble to his feet. The undead all stopped looking to Gale and Elson and turned their sights to the helpless horse before diving in to get their share of meat.

Not far from the growing pile of corps on top of the now silent horse was Elson's satchel, having to must have flown out of the basket when the horse tripped. The boy ran towards the bag, dodging a few undead on the way. He could hear Gale yelling at him to turn around, but Elson needed to get his bag back.

He bent down and grabbed the bag, but as he turned to run back, his body was jerked back as one of the undead clung to his bag, snarling and snapping with bloody jaws. Elson tugged on his bag, but the corps would not let go, it was stuck to the satchel with no chance of letting go.

He looked around, seeing some of the undead start to notice his presents. He tugged harder but to no avail. "Elson!" Gale's panicked voice called.

Finally, Elson lifted his hand toward the clinging corps and shot a few thin spears into its head, making its grip loosen enough that Elson could pull his bag free. The corps immediately started to get back up to chase him again when he felt a hand grab his arm. He turned to see Gale as he pulled him though the few incoming undead as they sprinted for the gate.

~*~

Elson and Gale both gasped with exhaustion as they slowed from running to a stop when they felt they were deep enough in the woods. From what Elson could guess, they were headed in the same direction that the road was, but he wasn't sure. This was his first time being out of Mary's Garden's outer walls (and he defiantly wasn't liking it). For the longest time, he dreamed that he could see what it was like outside of his father's city, now, he longed to go back.

He looked over to Gale, whose tongue was lolled out as he sat at the base of a tree and panted. Elson felt nothing but anger for the wolf up until now. The wolf didn't have to save him, in fact, he could have just left Elson to the corps and stayed completely out of the way, but he didn't, instead, he risked his life to save the prince.

Once his breath was back, Elson stood up straight and combed the hair out of his eyes with his fingers. "Th-... Thank you, for saving me..." Elson choked out.

"What in the hells where you THINKING?!" The wolf yelled back, standing up to his feet with surprising speed, considering that they had just ran a mile away from the Godforsaken city. "Everyone knows that Haulburry has been overrun with the Dead for YEARS!! What made you think that you'd be any safer in there than you are with me?! Huh?!"

Elson shrunk back. For the short day and a half that he knew the wolf, he's never raised his voice to such a degree. "I-I didn't know..."

"What do you mean you 'didn't know'?!" the wolf continued, fury in his eyes as he looked down at the smaller male. But as he looked into the human's eyes, something in them made his start to calm down as realization sunk in. "... You really didn't know... did you?"

Elson shook his head.

Gale's shoulders relaxed, not knowing that he had tensed up so much. He sighed and scratched his neck as he looked away. "How long have you been in that city?"

"All my life..."

Gale was quiet for a moment. "And no one's told you of what's been happening?"

The boy shook his head again.

The wolf huffed. "Well, sorry you had to find out THIS way..." they were quiet again. The wolf didn't really know what to say and Elson looked too shaken to be thinking of much other than how grateful he is to be alive.

"This is what my father meant by 'healing this world'..." Elson mumbled to himself. He looked up to Gale. "Will you please take me back home?"

Gale scoffed. "No way, besides, there's a reason why my employer wants you. He said that he can change the world with you at his side, no more running for our lives, no more outcasts or militias or pain or suffering. I'm looking forward to that world and you're the key."

"But my father has the same goals!" Elson argued.

"And what has your father done for this world? Huh? All he's done was keep his gates locked with you inside, not once thinking to use your abilities to help people, whereas my employer has been fighting the undead and terrorists for years in attempt to drive them back!" Gale folded his arms. "So tell me what your father has done to help this fight, when you yourself didn't even know it was going on?"

Elson was quiet. The wolf was right, he knew that, but didn't want to except it. He always knew that something was wrong with the world, he just had no idea it was this awful. And his father really was doing nothing to stop this. The more Elson thought about it, the more greedy his father looked; always keeping his locked up from everyone else, never letting him have friends or contact with anyone outside the castle. And the doctors, why was there always doctors when Elson never felt sick? Could it be that his father hired them in attempt to extract the gifts that Elson bore for himself?

He turned that thought over in his head a few times, finally starting to make sense of it. Ever since that day when he showed his father what he could do, there was always a hind of jealousy in his father's eyes, but Elson was too young and clouded to see it. Now, with this near death reality check, Elson felt as though he could see the world for the first time for what it really was.

He thought about the dead back in Haulburry, thinking about their life before death and the family that they might have had. The people killing each other, only to come back and kill more people. The rotted faces of men women and children flashed in the young man's mind. How horrible, and what made it worse was that he knew that his father wasn't doing anything to prevent this from spreading.

He looked up to Gale, who was waiting for the boy to say something. "I'd like to meet this employer of yours..."

Gale chuckled. "What makes you think you have a choice?"

"My powers are back, and though they're not at full capacity, I have enough to kill you without much effort." He said, crossing his arms to match the wolf's gesture. "I'm coming with you because I want to, not because you tell me."

They stood there for a moment, glaring at each other, wondering if one will attack before the other, but no one moved. Finally, Gale huffed and turned on his heel. "This is gonna be a looooong trip...." He mumbled to himself.