Surviving Zombies Was Easier Than Raising Beast Cubs

Chapter 45: Chapter 45: Why do you look less dead the closer we get?

She tore a cloth strip and tied it over the cub’s nose.

”Do not breathe too much.”

Her voice sounded calmer than she felt.

Inside, Swanly was already breaking into pieces. The cub was too small for this place. Too warm. Too alive. Every time his little fingers clutched her clothes, guilt pressed harder into her chest.

The second cub nodded quickly.

His hands clutched her clothes as if she was the only solid thing left in the drowned forest.

Swanly tore another cloth and tied it over her own nose.

Kael copied her at once.

Raku copied her too.

Soren did not.

The closer they walked, the more the rotten sweetness seemed to gather around him. It curled around his pale body like something greeting him home.

He did not look better exactly.

But his steps grew steadier.

Something in the Rot Nest answered his blood.

Something old.

Something buried.

Swanly noticed and hated that she noticed.

She did not want to pay attention to Soren. She already had Kael’s fear pressed against her back, a cub in her arms, and a forest trying to swallow them alive. She did not need to wonder why the snake looked less dead the closer they came to the worst place in the world.

But she saw it anyway.

”Why do you look less dead the closer we get?”

Soren glanced back.

”The seed is close enough to stir old power.”

”Does that mean we are close?”

”No.”

Swanly’s patience thinned.

”This is taking too long.”

”It will take longer if you die.”

”I noticed.”

Kael’s hand tightened near her back.

He hated that Soren kept looking at her.

He hated that Soren’s tail kept sliding too close to her feet.

He hated that one cub was here.

He hated that this place had already stolen the way back.

The thought burned through him, hot and helpless.

If the snake touches her, I will tear his throat out.

Soren’s head turned slightly.

”You think loudly.”

Kael’s golden eyes went cold.

”Good. Hear this one too.”

Swanly tightened her arm around the cub.

She did not have the energy for two males measuring murder while the trees clicked above them like teeth.

”Can both of you stop flirting with murder?”

The second cub hid under her arm.

”There is a child here.”

Raku’s mouth twitched once.

It was not quite a smile. No one had enough courage for that here.

Then the clicking started.

Click.

Click.

Click.

It came from the trees above them.

Swanly stopped walking.

Kael moved in front of her so fast his shoulder almost struck her chest. Soren lifted one hand. Raku raised his weapon.

The clicking moved from one tree to another.

Too fast.

Too many.

Swanly’s skin tightened under the wet fur on her body. The sound reminded her of bones knocking together in the dark.

A small voice called from the left.

”Mama.”

The second cub jerked in Swanly’s arms.

Swanly covered his ear with her hand.

”No.”

Her own heart had already jumped once, stupid and painful. She knew the smallest cub was not there. She knew it. But the voice had his softness. His tiny fear. His little broken way of calling for her.

The voice came again.

”Mama help.”

The second cub began to tremble.

Kael’s eyes turned savage.

Another voice came from the right.

”Swanly.”

Swanly froze.

That voice belonged to someone from her old world.

Someone who should never be in this forest.

Someone dead.

For one breath, the Rot Nest disappeared.

She was not standing in black water with a cub in her arms. She was somewhere else, hearing a voice she had buried with the world she had lost. Her chest tightened so hard it hurt. The dead should stay dead. They should not crawl through trees and call her name.

Then the smell of rot crawled under the cloth over her nose.

The clicking above them grew louder.

Her fingers tightened around the bow before she remembered drawing it.

The black bow had appeared in her hand from her space.

A dark arrow formed against the string.

Swanly’s throat felt tight.

”Do not answer anything.”

Soren looked at her.

She kept her eyes on the trees.

”Infected learn the sounds that make people stupid.”

Her voice did not shake, but her hand almost did.

The voice from her old world whispered again.

”Swanly, help me.”

Her face went pale.

Then her eyes hardened.

Pain could wait.

Grief could wait.

If she answered that voice, the cub in her arms might die.

”You are not him.”

She released the string.

The arrow vanished into the leaves.

Something screamed.

A thin infected beast dropped from the branch and hit the water.

It looked half monkey and half beastman, but its jaw was split to the side. Its arms were too long. Its fingers scraped at the mud as if it still remembered how to climb.

Its throat clicked as it tried to form the smallest cub’s voice again.

”Mama.”

Kael snarled.

The sound tore out of him before he could stop it. Hearing his cub’s voice from that rotting mouth made something in him turn black. He wanted to rip the thing apart with his bare claws.

Swanly shot its chest.

The arrow punched through.

The thing crawled forward anyway.

The second cub watched with huge eyes.

Swanly turned his face into her shoulder.

”Do not look.”

She did not want that image living in his little head. He had already followed her into a place that ate grown beastmen. He did not need to see a dead thing wearing his brother’s voice.

She shot again.

This time the arrow sank into the swollen black knot under its ribs.

The infected stiffened.

Then it collapsed into the water.

No one moved at once.

Only the rain kept falling.

The second cub’s small claws dug into Swanly’s shoulder. His body shook against hers, but he did not cry. Maybe he was too scared. Maybe he understood that crying here would only call more things from the trees.

Swanly breathed out slowly.

Her hands felt cold now that the danger had fallen.

The bow was light in her hand.

Too light.

The arrows did not run out.

They appeared the moment she reached for them.

Fast.

Accurate.

Almost eager.

Swanly swallowed.

She did not like weapons that felt eager.

”Hehe, but it helped you right?” She heard her system’s voice say.

”Fine,” she whispered. ”Thank you half-heartedly.”

The system did not appear.

Coward.

Soren watched her in silence.

He had seen hunters freeze before infection.

He had seen strong males run when dead things spoke with living voices.

Swanly had gone pale, but she had not frozen for long.

She knew where to aim.

She knew the first arrow would not be enough.

She knew infection better than anyone in Riverbone.

For the first time, Soren did not simply think she was useful.

He thought Riverbone might truly have been waiting for her.

That thought should have pleased him.

It did not.

It made him look at her differently.

Kael saw Soren watching.

His hand slid to Swanly’s waist.

It was not gentle at first. It was instinct. A claim. A warning. A desperate need to remind himself she was still there, still warm, still breathing beside him.

Swanly felt it and did not push him away.

That made Kael’s chest ache worse.

The second cub lifted his head.

”Mama kill bad beast.”

Swanly’s heart twisted.

”Yes.”

”Bad beast no come?”

”Not that one.”

The answer was not comforting.

It was honest.

For a moment, the cub only stared at her.

His little nose brushed the cloth over her face, and his ears flattened as if he wanted to understand why Mama could kill the bad beast but could not promise safety.

Swanly held him tighter.

She wanted to lie. She wanted to tell him nothing else would touch him. She wanted to promise the world would become small and warm again, just cave walls, cooked meat, soft fur, and his brothers breathing beside him.

But the water around her knees was black.

The trees above them had voices.

So she did not lie.

Kael looked at her hand on the cub’s back, then at the trees above them. His jaw worked once. He wanted to say they should turn around. He wanted to say he would carry both of them and fight the whole forest if he had to.

But the water behind them was gone.

The path was gone.

Wanting did not matter here.

They kept moving.

The water rose from their ankles to their calves.

Then to their knees.

It was cold and thick.

Sometimes it brushed their legs as if fingers were testing them.

Sometimes bubbles rose in small neat lines.

The first time Raku stepped near one, Swanly grabbed his arm.

”Do not step on the bubbles.”

Raku froze.

He was bigger than her. Stronger than her. A crocodile beastman with jaws that could tear flesh and bone.

But in that moment, he stopped because her fear sounded certain.

Soren looked down.

The bubbles pulsed.

Swanly’s voice dropped.

”They explode.”

Kael’s face turned hard.

”How do you know?”

Swanly looked at the bubbles, not at him.

A memory flashed through her mind. Rot spreading under skin. Someone screaming after stepping wrong. Flesh opening where it should not open.

She pushed it down.

”I know rot.”

That was all she said.

Kael heard what she did not say.

His claws flexed once beneath the water.

The bubble line moved toward them.

Swanly shot the mud beside it.

The arrow sank deep and burst with a dark pulse.

The bubbles collapsed inward instead of outward.

A gray mist leaked from the water and died low against the mud.

Raku stared.

”That would have opened under my leg.”

”Yes.”

”What was inside?”

”Spore rot, probably.”

The second cub clutched Swanly’s neck.

Swanly kissed the side of his head without thinking.

”You see why Mama told you to stay home?”

The cub sniffed.

”Cub bad.”

Swanly’s chest hurt.

”You are not bad.”

She glared at him even while holding him tighter.

”You are disobedient and terrifying.”

The cub rubbed his cheek against her.

”Cub stay.”

”Yes,” Swanly said through her teeth. ”You are very much staying now.”

Ahead, the water narrowed around a fallen tree.

A drowned beastman floated there with his face down.

His arm was stretched toward a root.

Raku moved first.

Swanly’s stomach clenched.

”Stop.”

Raku stopped at once this time.

The drowned body drifted with the current.

Its fingers twitched once.

Kael’s claws slid out.

Swanly noticed the vine tied around its wrist.

The other end disappeared under the mud.

Her mouth went dry before she spoke.

”That is bait.”

Soren’s eyes sharpened.

The corpse jerked.

A sharpened bone spear shot from under the water toward Raku’s thigh.

Soren’s tail snapped out and caught the spear before it struck.

The force made the water slap outward.

Raku’s face darkened.

For the first time since entering the Rot Nest, anger pushed through his fear.

”Infected set a trap.”

Swanly’s mouth went dry.

”They are using tools.”