ttznovel Chapter 172: Father
Chapter 172: Father
Nobody objected. They were exhausted, injured, terrified, and barely holding themselves together. Even if they wanted to help everyone, most of them no longer had the strength to do so.
Soon afterward, the plan was decided. Eugene, Robert, Eric, Victor, and four other physically capable men would act as bait while the remaining survivors escaped toward the nearest intact building.
Those too injured to run would be carried by the stronger survivors so nobody capable of surviving would be abandoned.
Some wives cried and begged their husbands not to go, but in the end, all they could do was say goodbye.
Just like Nelly. She tightly held both Eugene and Robert in her trembling arms as if trying to memorize their warmth before letting them walk toward death.
"I know both of you will survive," she whispered despite tears streaming endlessly down her face. "You two are strong. We’ll become a family again."
But nobody truly believed those words anymore. The atmosphere became suffocatingly heavy as the bait group prepared themselves. Eugene suddenly realized this might be the last time he ever saw his mother.
The last time he stood together with the traveling group he loved so much.
And it hurt more than anything else.
The moment the signal was given, the bait team immediately rushed out of the ruined building and sprinted toward the darker sands in the middle of the street.
Their footsteps echoed loudly against the silent desert while, behind them, the remaining survivors carried the wounded and ran toward the nearest intact building as fast as they could.
For several terrifying seconds, nothing happened. But then the ground shook violently beneath them.
"The Devourer!" Victor shouted.
The sand exploded upward as the giant aberrant burst from beneath the earth, its enormous body twisting through the desert like a monstrous serpent.
The roar that followed made Eugene’s ears ring painfully, but none of them dared stop moving.
"Keep running as fast as you can!" Robert shouted. "Let’s buy some time for the rest to move to a safe place."
The plan worked as the Devourer completely ignored the escaping survivors and chased after the bait team instead.
But the monster didn’t attack them right away, it just swam on the ground beside them and decided to eat the wounded people in the middle that tried to run.
Eugene didn’t know how long he had been running. The adrenaline rush was the only thing that kept him able to move.
Robert then gave them a signal, "Run to the right side! Our people are already inside the building! We did it!"
Eugene widened his eyes in relief, he could hear the screams from the other building as people desperately waved at them from broken windows, urging them to run faster.
But behind him, the sound of the Devourer tearing through the sand only grew closer and closer.
One of the men suddenly screamed. "AHHHH!!!"
Eugene instinctively turned his head and saw the ground beneath the man collapse before the Devourer’s jaws snapped shut around his entire body. Blood splattered across the sand before the monster disappeared underground again.
"Don’t look!" Robert shouted. "Just focus on saving yourself!"
But another scream followed almost immediately. Victor was dragged beneath the sand next, his hands desperately clawing at the ground before disappearing completely.
Eric tried firing his rifle at the moving sand to buy time, but the Devourer suddenly erupted upward right beneath him and swallowed half his body whole.
Everything descended into chaos. One by one, the bait team disappeared.
The survivors inside the building shout for them to hurry while Eugene’s lungs burn painfully from running. Sand slipped beneath every step, making it harder and harder to keep balance while the Devourer hunted them like prey.
Soon, only Eugene and Robert remained.
"We’re almost there!" someone shouted from the building ahead.
Eugene could already see the survivors reaching out their hands toward them through the entrance.
However, the ground behind him exploded suddenly. The roar was so close it made his entire body freeze.
Before Eugene could react, Robert suddenly shoved him forward with all his strength.
"GO!"
Eugene stumbled toward the entrance and crashed hard onto the floor right outside the building. The impact knocked the air from his lungs, but before he could even recover, a horrifying sound echoed right behind him.
Bones breaking, flesh tearing apart, and something heavy being crushed between gigantic jaws.
His breathing immediately turned ragged, yet for several seconds he did not dare look back because somewhere deep inside, he already knew exactly what happened.
The helpless cry that came from Nelly’s throat shattered the last bit of denial left inside him.
When Eugene finally turned around, the world itself seemed to stop moving. The Verdant Devourer had bitten clean through the lower half of Robert’s body. Blood sprayed violently across the sand while his father was somehow still alive.
Just one more step. That was all Robert needed to survive. One more step and the survivors could have dragged him inside safely, yet now half of his body was already gone.
"Eugene..." Robert’s voice came out weakly as blood continued pouring from his mouth. "Take care of everyone, son... your mother too... and the rest of them..."
"No..." Eugene immediately crawled toward him, his hands trembling violently as tears blurred his vision.
"No, you need to stay here with me." He grabbed tightly onto his father’s arm and desperately tried pulling him toward the building despite knowing how hopeless it was.
"I can’t do this without you! I’m weak! I can’t lead anyone like you can!"
Behind him, the survivors could only watch silently while Nelly cried uncontrollably, but Robert merely smiled faintly at his son despite his horrifying condition.
Slowly, his trembling hand reached up and rested on Eugene’s head one final time, just like he used to whenever Eugene failed at something as a child and felt too ashamed to face him afterward.
"What are you saying, son?" Robert whispered gently. "I’m already here with you. My soul will always stay beside you."
Then suddenly the ground shook violently once more.
The sand behind Robert collapsed inward as the Devourer emerged from beneath the earth again, creating a powerful suction strong enough to drag sand, blood, and debris toward its enormous mouth.
Eugene desperately tightened his grip and tried pulling his father back with all the strength he had left, his fingers digging into Robert’s arm, but it was useless.
Robert’s body slowly slipped away from him little by little no matter how hard he resisted.
"NO! NO! FATHER!"
Eugene screamed until his throat burned raw, but the Devourer’s jaws closed around Robert’s body once more and dragged him violently beneath the sand as though his father was nothing more than prey caught between the teeth of a monster.