Chapter 35 - The Bloody Carnival Event
The trio of deviants decided to take a different path to avoid the monsters. The road they passed through revealed something that shocked them to their core.
They proceeded in silence, not uttering a single word. Luke was trying to understand what he had seen and how it was possible.
How did that happen? How was that set up?
Who put that there? What is happening in this hellhole?
FUCK!
Many thoughts flooded his mind, and confusion was taking over. Logic was slipping away, and reality felt strange.
"What was that?" Anna asked, breaking the silence.
"I don't know…" Luke replied.
Alice remained quiet, but Luke noticed she was scared.
"It was a fucking circus. How the fuck was a circus set up in this place?" Luke exclaimed.
The blonde girl looked at them. "It's the Bloody Carnival…" she murmured.
The streets were decorated with flags and posters inviting people to an attraction. The posters featured a smiling clown, all smeared with bloody handprints.
"You told me only a human could have written those words because they were in our language, but these damn posters are in our language too. How was this put here? Who put this shit up? This whole place is decorated like a circus," Luke ranted.
He stopped, leaning against a wall, and sat down.
"I don't know…" Alice murmured. "This is new to me…"
Anna stayed quiet.
"What was inside that circus tent?" she asked.
"A Boss…" Alice replied.
The trio looked at each other.
"We're fucked," Luke said, standing up.
Circus music was coming from somewhere, and doll-like statues were positioned in various places. They walked, and toys were scattered on the ground. The toys were mechanical monkeys with instruments that moved on their own.
"We're so fucked…" Luke muttered again.
"We just need to find the others," Anna said.
Find someone? The damn reality was altered…
When did someone come to this place to decorate the streets? Who put these toys on the ground and hung these posters? Who is playing this music?
Logic was not being respected.
"If any human or monster had hung these things, we would have seen it. We spent days checking the surroundings of the Veil. How did this simply appear in a few hours?" he asked.
"It's the event. Like I told you… rain is a phenomenon that happens just like an Event," Alice said.
Luke thought about arguing, but it would only lead to emotional outbursts.
The last thing I want is to be guided by feelings again, but even I have a limit to what I can accept without questioning. How is this happening?
Alice signaled for them to stop.
"Better get inside this house…" she whispered, pointing to a street.
They peeked around the corner and saw monstrous clowns holding signs.
Holy shit…
They opened the door of the house and entered.
"Don't worry," Alice said, trying to maintain her composure. "We just need to get out of the event zone, and everything will be fine. The farther we go, the more things will return to normal."
Luke sat down and drank from his canteen. Anna sat and handed him a piece of dried meat.
Thank goodness Alice grabbed our stuff.
The trio always kept meat and supplies stored in case of emergencies. Luke passed the canteen to Anna, and Alice sat down in front of them.
She opened the map.
"We're roughly here," she said, pointing.
"Do we have to walk all that way?" Luke asked.
Anna handed the canteen to Alice.
"Better to walk outside than go through the Veil," the red-haired girl said to Luke.
Luke sighed.
"We need to keep skirting around until we're close to the false view of the Silo. Once we're as close as possible in a straight line, we'll enter the Veil," Alice explained.
Is that view we see really false? Luke wondered.
"We've never gone beyond where we are now. If it continues to be broken, we'll have to go even deeper into these houses," Anna said.
What they were doing was walking close to the wall, but in some places, it had openings where monsters from the outside entered. It seemed there was a kind of limbo between the outside and the Veil, forming a sort of boundary between the two environments. This place was the houses they were in. There weren't as many monsters here as on the outside, nor were they as dangerous as those in the Veil.
There aren't many monsters here yet, but soon this place will be overrun.
Luke peeked outside through the window and sighed.
The damn street is decorated like a circus…
He looked at the rest of the alleys.
At least the event scene is close to its end ahead, but that doesn't mean we're near the end of their threats. The monsters that invaded our camp, were they sent to take over the places outside the Veil by the event's command? Did the Veil generate the event? Was it the corruption? What is this Veil?
"We need to go…" Alice said, peeking out beside him.
The trio climbed out the window on the side away from the clowns. They could handle them since they seemed to be Peculiar monsters, but they didn't want to take any chances, especially during an event.
"We can't get too close to the Veil, or some of those things might sense us…" Anna whispered.
Alice nodded in agreement.
Damn it! We can't walk too close to the wall or the Veil…
The trio of deviants crouched through the alleys, weapons in hand, ready to fight anything that appeared.
I guess my cozy cave has gone back to being some creature's home…
Crossing the alleys of the city, the event's decorated scenery started to fade, but the trio of Deviants found something worse.
"A goddamn farm…"
"A cornfield…" Anna murmured.
In front of them was a large field of corn.
Alice approached the two.
"We have to cross this cornfield," she said.
"We're screwed…" Anna said.
The red-haired girl looked down and gripped her bow tightly.
"But it's the only way…" Anna repeated.
Luke took a deep breath.
The cornfield stretched between the Veil and extended beyond the wall into a large hole.
"We have no other choice. We can't enter the Veil, and we can't go outside," Luke said.
The trio gripped their weapons tightly and started moving. Alice took the lead due to her elemental power being more useful for dealing with creatures that might jump out. Anna stayed in the middle. Luke remained at the back, watching for any approaching threats.
The cornfield rustled as its leaves swayed.
I could try crossing this thing with my intangibility without making noise.
The cornfield was too tall for them to see how far it stretched. The only thing they could use to guide themselves was the sight of the Silo in the haunted city.
"I have my arrow ready," Anna said.
Luke looked around.
We can't see anything, even if something was close, we wouldn't know, but it's better not to say anything. Anna is scared, and I can't let her panic and freeze if a monster shows up. Her mind needs an anchor to keep her sane.
'CAW!' A crow swooped down to Luke's face and cawed.
"Fuck!" He fell back in fright, hitting something with his back.
The crow flew away.
"Are you okay?" Anna asked, approaching him.
The girl got closer.
"I'm fine…" he replied, scratching his back.
What the hell did I hit?
He noticed Anna started trembling and raised her bow high.
Don't tell me I hit a monster!
He quickly got up, gripping his hammer.
What Luke saw shocked him.
There was a cross with a terrifying scarecrow hanging on it.
"It's just a scarecrow…" he murmured, relieved that it was something ordinary from a farm.
"Hello, dear Deviant…" The scarecrow turned its head towards him and spoke.