Roan forced his legs to run as he ate up the distance. He had been running for minutes now. His chest burned and his eyes blurred but he held on, forcing his body beyond its limits. He was close. He could feel it.
And a couple of minutes later, he could see the wall. It was close, only a couple of hundred metres away. He just had to cross it and he would be back in the outer district. And in no time, back at his ramshackle hut. That was all he had in his mind as he ran.
But then a whistling sound tore through the air. An abnormally loud shrill whistle hurt Roan's ears as it seemed to shoot in numerous directions.
"Who the heck is whistling at night? " Roan muttered but he didn't stop to look around. He couldn't afford to waste time. If any of the soldiers patrolling saw him, then he would be in deep trouble. He continued running and arrived near the base of the wall.
But as he approached the wall, Roan noticed something. Soldiers were lining up at the wall, armed to the teeth and bows in hand.
What the hell was happening? Soldiers weren't supposed to be this many numbers. There should at most be ten soldiers patrolling the wall.
"Why? " Roan wanted to cry out and question the soldiers but he just sensibly hid behind a house. Fortunately, they hadn't seen him already. But it was dark and hard to see. So, they couldn't have spotted him from afar.
Roan looked around and all he could see were soldiers atop the wall. Not a single inch was left out. They were alert and walking around while turning their head left and right, searching for something.
"Why are they doing this at night? They can't be waiting for me. That's ridiculous. I didn't even do anything to them." Yes, it was ridiculous. He had been kidnapped and now after finally succeeding in running away from his kidnappers, he was surrounded by soldiers. He hoped that they weren't here for him. After all, this was his first time in the Inner district. So, why would they come after him? And how would they know he was even here or who was he? That couldn't be true.
Roan was confused and very much in need of help if he wanted to get out of there.
He sat there, hidden behind a two-storied house around a hundred metres away from the wall, helpless. He racked his brain as he tried to think of a solution to get out of there.
The soldiers made it impossible for him to scale the wall. He would be discovered before he even got near it. But there were no other paths to take to get to the outer district.
His head hurt as he brainstormed ideas. There were no solutions. His new ability like Time Deceleration was just too short to be able to cross the wall. And there were too many soldiers. They would definitely spot him before he even got near the wall. If only he could distract them and pull them away from here.....
Roan's eyes landed on the zombies that had been following him. He hadn't ordered them to. So it was probably an instinctual thing to follow the one that had created them but now, it would help Roan tremendously. Zombies were tenacious so they were the best at fighting for prolonged periods. The best individuals to act as bait and distract the soldiers.
Roan smiled as a plan formed in his mind. It was going to be risky but he had no choice. It was now or never. And if he was caught then he would be doomed even if the soldiers weren't lining at the wall to search for him. Not everyone could enter the inner district. So if the soldiers found him, a slum dweller inside the inner district then he would probably be labeled as a thief and executed without a question. Not a fate that Roan wished to experience.