Chapter Twelve: Stinging Pain

"Everyone, wait a moment." After the group had been walking for another hour, Dunn couldn't help but call out to the others.

Lily and the rest turned to look at Dunn, who was at the back of the group, a hint of confusion on their faces.

"Look at the cars by the roadside, the billboards, the streetlights, the walls of these buildings—don't you think something is off?" Dunn asked the group.

Lily immediately glanced around. The silent, rolling mist still churned twenty-four meters away, and everything within sight—the ground, the streetlights, the walls, the billboards—had grown corroded, the paint peeling, the surfaces pitted and rusted from neglect and lack of maintenance.

"Did you notice something, Dunn?" Lily hadn't spotted anything particularly wrong, so she turned the question back to him.

"Oh God, I mean, it's only been three months since our first venture outside the 'Wall' till now. Is it really possible for everything around us to have decayed to this extent in just three months?" Dunn explained quickly.

"Maybe... maybe it's the fog," Stephenson ventured.

"Then why are the orphanage's fence and outer walls untouched? We all saw them before we set out. The freshness of that fence is on a completely different level from what we see here." Dunn sounded a bit exasperated.

"There’s... definitely a problem," Aiden offered his view.

It was worth remembering that when the orphanage had first formed the exploration team, the streets were deserted but the shops and vehicles still appeared freshly abandoned—there was dust, but no significant damage, no signs of corrosion or the wear of years.

Now, with Dunn's prompting, Lily looked again at the shop signs and painted walls along the streets, and at the vehicles that clearly hadn't been driven for ages, and she saw it too.

None of this looked like it could have happened in just four or five months!

As she pondered, Lily suddenly recalled the shocking news John had brought back after his first contact with the exploration team beyond the "Wall"—the world outside had already passed through ten years.

Yet, these things didn’t look as though they’d suffered a decade’s worth of decay...

Lily shared her thoughts with the group, but Dunn only shook his head—he couldn’t determine the cause either.

"We... should... start... marking things," Aiden broke the silence, pulling out chalk and a marker from his pack. He left marks on corners of walls and shopfronts along the way.

He also examined the surroundings for traces, trying to discern whether anyone apart from their group had passed through.

After another ten minutes of walking, Camille, who had been silent, suddenly pointed to a bakery at the corner of the next intersection, its sign half-gone. "I used to love their milk; it was low in fat but high in protein."

Stephenson glanced at Camille, baffled. Sister—no, brother—what exactly are you trying to say?

Aiden nodded in agreement and offered a bit of trivia. "Skimmed... milk." He, too, was a devoted fan of that bakery.

Listening to her companions' idle chatter, Lily did not relax her vigilance. It had already been three days since John disappeared. If he’d gone missing shortly after setting out, it was nearly five days—almost a week.

The only controllable variable was that she herself had gained some new abilities.

Suddenly, Lily felt a sharp sting on her right cheek. She instinctively turned her head and saw a black shadow dart past her eyes, bouncing several times on the ground before vanishing into the depths of the mist.

From the moment Lily felt the pain to when the shadow vanished, not even a second had passed. Sandro, walking beside her, hadn’t noticed a thing, but Aiden, who happened to be looking over from a distance, caught a glimpse and hurried over to ask what had happened.

Lily, rubbing her cheek, was shaken. If she hadn’t instinctively turned her head at that sharp pain, the shadow would have struck her face. What might have happened then, no one could say.

"I don’t know. Something black just flew past, but I didn’t see what it was," Lily answered, still rattled.

"Something... black..." Aiden repeated, his expression growing grave.

Lily also had a guess. She glanced at Dunn, who considered for a moment before saying:

"Throughout our initial exploration and John’s later 'patrolling,' we forgot to consider one thing over these past few months."

Lily nodded and added, "Animals."

"Animals?" Sandro repeated, confused.

There weren’t any large animals in Dunnington, apart from those in the city zoo.

"What I mean is, while everyone besides our orphanage has disappeared, stray animals and smaller rodents are still roaming the city," Lily explained to Sandro.

"We don’t know... the dangers of the fog..." Aiden said, glancing at Lily.

She continued, "But whether the fog affects animals is something we have to consider now."

"If the fog makes these animals more aggressive, or worse, causes physical mutations or growth, it could bring serious danger and complications to our search for John."

"I have a bad feeling about this. Stephenson, Dunn, you two move to the center of the group. Aiden, you and Camille take the left and right flanks. I’ll be at the rear, and Sandro, you’ll lead," Lily quickly arranged the formation.

"Understood," the others replied in unison.

"Stay alert, everyone. I think this search has already become something beyond hellish. Or as Ander would say, the abyss," Dunn said, his usual smile gone, leading the way with a touch of self-mockery.