CHAPTER 158: 158-WALK OF SHAME

Clementine:

The tiny creatures started attacking us from everywhere. At this point, we didn’t have time to think about what happened, what we had done, or how we ended up in this mess. All we knew was that we needed to get out. The once perfect land was crumbling. The gnomes had turned into goblins, and they looked ugly.

I turned my head while running with Haiden, who held my hand tightly to keep me from falling behind. Then I saw their twisted faces. The one that had broken earlier had probably died, or whatever happened to it, I had no clue. But these couldn’t be killed as easily. Or so I thought.

One of them climbed onto my leg and I screamed, stopping in my tracks. Yorick rushed over, yanked it off me, slammed it to the ground, and stomped on it. The moment he did, it made a squeaky, awful sound, and gooey stuff spilled out of it. It was probably Bush.

Then Billy screamed. I saw Billy’s eyes filled with anger over Tilly’s death. And then it was chaos. But now we knew how to kill them. Haiden lifted me by the waist and set me aside while the others stomped on the goblins. One jumped at me from ahead, but Ian shoved his arm in front of me, caught it, and hurled it to the ground before trying to crush it.

Troy struggled with a few, jumping from one to another, but they wouldn’t die right away. The same happened with Yorick, Haiden, and Ian. I had to join in too. For the next few minutes, we were busy squishing heads and killing them.

When the last one died, the ground shook with the biggest earthquake yet. The place that had cracked with just one goblin’s death was now collapsing completely. And we understood why. It was the gnome’s garden, and once the gnomes died, the garden couldn’t exist.

"Oh shit!" Ian grunted, pointing toward the mountains. They were collapsing onto the land.

"We need to get out of here!" Troy yelled.

"But where?" Haiden shouted back.

"Do you hear that?" I turned my head as a familiar sound hit my ears, the choo-choo of our train. Just as expected, the train somehow knew we had finished the mission.

"Come on, we need to find it. We need—" Haiden stopped, remembering we had to return to the place we came from.

We ran back, dodging bricks and falling walls. Huge stones from the mountains would have crushed us if we hadn’t been alert. Still, I noticed they kept me in the middle to protect me.

Finally, we saw the train. It stopped, and the doors slid open.

"Come on!" Yorick shouted, charging ahead.

But then I stepped on a rock and twisted my ankle. I fell, and Ian, who was right behind me, scooped me up before the others could even panic. Tossing me over his shoulder, he sprinted forward. From there, I saw the disaster behind us. Souls poured out of the houses, and it hit me, we were on a mission. This was an affected area of the North.

Ian leapt, and we landed inside the train. The doors shut, but before it could move, a huge rock came crashing toward our carriage.

We all screamed in unison, Ian and I covering our eyes against the incoming rocks while Haiden and Yorick hit the ground behind us. Troy stood by the door, staring outside with nothing but worry in his eyes.

As soon as the rocks neared the window and we shut our eyes, the train lurched forward. Suddenly there was no impact. We stopped screaming and took deep breaths. Slowly, we looked around and began getting up from the floor. Troy stepped closer and offered me his hand. I took it, then noticed the look on everyone’s faces.

We paced anxiously in the small carriage, but I had to stop. Everything came rushing back—the garden of gnomes, what we did, every little action, every touch. Hugging myself, I walked over and sat down at the table, still wearing their clothes, which only made things more awkward.

"That was weird," Yorick muttered, not even looking at me.

Everyone kept their eyes down in shame, and I, more than anyone, felt the worst. "I don’t know how it happened," I whispered after clearing my throat, but no more words came out.

It was the most awkward twenty-minute train ride. Finally, we reached the station. The doors opened, and I stepped up with the others. My squadmates faced the exit too. Outside stood the ringleaders, the headmaster, and the lurkers.

I drew a deep breath. We were in trouble.

"Squad Black," the headmaster grunted, his presence even stranger in all black with a wide round hat and a mask covering his face.

He had his hands tied behind his back, and since we couldn’t see his facial expressions, all we focused on was the tone of his voice. It was harsher than usual. With the ringleaders behind him, we could already guess they were all angry and disappointed in us.

Miss Rue kept her head bowed so low we could barely see her face. Ms. Lenora stood with her arms crossed, a frown carved on her forehead. And Mr. Rick, he was the only one smiling, hands tucked in his pockets.

"You are all under arrest for breaking the rule," the headmaster announced. Our bodies tensed.

The lurkers stepped inside with silver handcuffs. I don’t ever remember feeling so guilty, not just because we broke a rule and were getting arrested, but because of what happened in the North. They came straight toward us. Ian lifted his hands on his own, letting them cuff him, while the others stood in front of me as they were chained too.

I gently tapped Haiden’s shoulder to let him know I deserved to be arrested as well if they were. The lurkers came over and locked my hands behind my back.

Now we were about to take the walk of shame, and for me, it truly was. All the squad, the ones still alive, stood and stared as we passed.