Surviving Zombies Was Easier Than Raising Beast Cubs

Chapter 170: Chapter 170: I liked that rack

Content Warning: Graphic violence, gore, blood, and child peril.

The earth exploded.

Not cracked.

Not shifted.

Exploded.

BOOM!

Packed soil blasted upward beside the rear storage caves.

A male screamed.

Something pale and clawed shot out of the ground, seized him around the ankle, and dragged.

"HELP!"

His fingers carved lines through the dirt.

Another warrior caught his wrists.

"PULL!"

The ground beneath them split wider.

A second creature came through.

Then a third.

Soren’s face changed.

"THEY’RE INSIDE!"

Everything went to hell.

"ARCHERS DOWN!"

"PROTECT THE CAVES!"

"GET THE FEMALES AWAY FROM THE FLOORS!"

"WATCH THE FUCKING GROUND!"

The warning came too late.

Ironwood had prepared for attacks from the gate.

From the walls.

From the forest.

From infected rushing downhill.

Nobody had prepared for the fucking earth to start vomiting enemies into their bedrooms.

A scream erupted from inside one of the sleeping caves.

Then another.

Soren spun.

"Raku!"

"I heard it!"

The crocodile beastman vaulted from the platform.

He landed hard enough to shake the path, huge armored tail whipping behind him.

"Half with me! Half to the cub shelters!"

Arion roared from above:

"SUNMANE, SPREAD OUT! TWO TO EVERY OCCUPIED CAVE!"

Warriors scattered.

Another section of soil bulged.

Soren saw it.

His silver pupils narrowed.

"MOVE!"

Three males jumped aside.

CRACK!

A Veilkin punched through.

Its beastman face twisted horribly as it emerged, half wolf, half something else because apparently it had stopped caring about keeping the disguise perfect.

Soren’s white tail snapped forward.

CRACK!

The creature flew sideways.

Before it hit the ground, Soren was there.

His claws tore straight across its throat.

Black-red blood sprayed.

It grabbed him.

Soren caught its wrist.

Twisted.

SNAP.

The bone came through the skin.

The Veilkin screamed.

Soren shoved his venomous claws beneath its jaw.

"Wrong settlement."

He ripped upward.

The creature dropped.

Another lunged behind him.

Raku hit it from the side with his entire body.

They crashed through a drying rack.

Meat flew everywhere.

Raku pinned the creature beneath one knee.

It opened its mouth.

Raku punched it.

Once.

Twice.

Three times.

Its face stopped resembling anything.

Raku rose, blood dripping from his knuckles.

"I liked that rack."

Tovan screamed from across the settlement:

"I JUST BUILT THAT!"

Raku looked at the broken wood.

"Build another!"

"YOU ALWAYS SAY THAT!"

A Veilkin burst from beneath Tovan.

Tovan screamed much higher.

"NEVER MIND!"

He ran.

...

The attacks were everywhere.

A female screamed from a shelter.

One of the mimics had broken through directly beneath her sleeping hides.

She rolled away before its claws reached her throat.

Three months ago, she might have died.

Three months ago, most females in Ironwood had waited for males to fight.

Swanly had changed that.

The female grabbed the stone knife beside her bedding.

The Veilkin lunged.

She drove the blade into its eye.

"GET OFF ME!"

It screamed.

Her neighbor burst through the entrance carrying a spear.

Together, they forced it back.

Outside another cave, Sari slammed a wooden pestle across a creature’s mouth.

"You picked the wrong old woman!"

"I am not old!" another female shouted while stabbing its leg.

"This is not the time!"

The settlement had become madness.

Children screaming.

Warriors roaring.

Blood on the paths.

Broken baskets.

Arrows flying downward.

Roots ripping through soil.

The smell of dust, blood, smoke and fear became one choking wall.

And still the creatures kept coming.

But Soren noticed something.

They were not spreading randomly.

Not anymore.

Some attacked whoever stood in their path.

Some killed.

Some wounded.

But others?

They ignored food.

Ignored female shelters.

Ignored storage.

Ignored fleeing people.

They were moving inward.

Toward the old stone sections.

Toward Druun’s forbidden ground.

Toward what lay beneath Ironwood.

Soren’s eyes went cold.

"The door."

Raku looked at him.

"What?"

"They’re trying to reach the sealed door."

Another Veilkin rushed past two screaming females without even looking at them.

Straight toward the deeper basin.

Raku saw it.

"Fuck."

Soren turned.

"DO NOT LET THEM REACH THE OLD GROUND!"

His voice cut through everything.

Druun heard.

The giant looked toward the direction the creatures were moving.

Then understood.

His face transformed.

Whatever gentleness existed in him vanished.

He roared.

The sound shook dust from the roofs.

One Veilkin looked up.

Too late.

Druun’s foot came down.

SQUELCH.

The creature disappeared beneath it.

Another tried to run past.

Druun grabbed it.

The Veilkin screamed and clawed his fingers.

Druun looked at it.

Then slammed it into the ground.

BOOM!

Again.

BOOM!

Again.

The third impact stopped the screaming.

Miko would have thought it was the greatest thing he had ever seen.

Thankfully Miko was nowhere nearby.

Hopefully.

...

Buttttttt...

Miko was currently stuck in the ceiling.

"Miko."

Tilla stood directly beneath him.

Her brown mink tail was puffed so badly it looked twice its normal size.

"Miko, come down."

"I CAN’T!"

"You climbed up there!"

"Yes!"

"Then climb down!"

"I SAID I CAN’T!"

He was wedged between two thick wooden support beams near the top of the cub shelter.

His tunic had caught around a projecting branch.

One tiny black panther leg dangled.

Then the other.

His tail swung furiously.

Kairo stood below with both hands on his hips.

"I told you not to climb."

"You did not!"

"I did!"

"You said, ’Mama said do not climb.’ That is different."

Kairo stared.

"How?"

"I don’t know!"

Lumi pointed upward.

"You look stupid."

Miko gasped.

"I do not!"

Tavi covered his mouth.

His small mink ears trembled.

He was laughing.

Even Nilo had turned his face away.

Miko’s eyes narrowed.

"You are all terrible family."

"We are not family," Lumi said.

Miko looked offended.

"You always here. Same thing."

Lumi opened her mouth.

Closed it.

Apparently she had no response to that logic.

The shelter was packed.

Not only Swanly’s cubs.

Lumi.

Tavi.

Several younger Riverbone children.

Two Sunmane cubs.

A tiny goat child already crying because of the noise outside.

Tilla was there.

Mora stood near the entrance, broad bear body blocking almost the entire opening.

Ena sat with the smallest children gathered around her.

Two other females had joined them when Soren ordered more adults to the cub area.

One was Sari.

The other was a younger lioness from Sunmane who had taken up a spear with shaking hands.

They could hear everything.

Roars.

Screams.

Heavy impacts.

Something enormous crashing outside.

Lumi’s ears drooped.

"What is happening?"

Ena pulled her closer.

"Nothing you need to see."

"That means something bad."

Ena looked toward the entrance.

"Yes."

Kairo immediately straightened.

"We should help."

Every adult said:

"NO."

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