Ch: 23 The possessed

Edited

Chapter 23

The Possessed

Lily held back her spell as she realized at the last second that they would set the forest on fire. The spell was designed to only set living things on fire. The forest in front of her was definitely alive. She dropped both spells as everyone in the truck started shooting except for Jules, who started pointing her stick and shouting nonsense words. While Lily couldn’t see the magic from the spells her friend was shooting, she certainly could feel the mana coming off of them. The gunfire was surprisingly not as loud as she thought it should be. Jules was yelling louder than the sounds coming from the guns. As everyone in the truck was shooting, she cast Cut Earth and a Chain Lightning, but before she could set them off Blanchet yelled for them to stop firing.

“Ok Lily, I know you got some mana left. Can you cast that scout spell again?” Blanchet said into the silence.

Nodding, Lily started casting her Area of sight spell. As she did so, she looked at what the tier 4 team had done. The forest, that had been so thick with trees and brush only seconds before, had been devastated. The light that was shining down on a field of twenty feet of what used to be forest was the most startling thing about it. It had been very dark, but now there was nothing stopping the sun from shining. There was nothing but stumps, trees that were on the ground facing away from them, and pieces of vegetation everywhere.

The gunfire and the spells that Jules had set off had chopped down all sorts of trees and torn through the brush like it was paper. There was some white smoke coming from different areas in the field, but there wasn’t any fire that she could see. Three trucks were now visible because the brush and most of the trees in the area were just gone. The trucks seemed strangely unaffected though. There was some vegetation on them, but from where she was sitting Lily couldn’t see any damage on them that came from Jules’ crew.

Looking at the clearing she knew one scout spell wasn’t going to be enough. Seeing this, she started in on a second spell with her other hand. She finished her first spell and launched it without any delay into the cleared field. She immediately started on a third casting of the spell.

The first spell went off and Lily mentally saw two of the four-legged things were still moving. She was too busy casting her two spells to warn the people around her. Not that it mattered all that much. Less than a second after the first spell went off, one of the four-legged things stopped moving and died. That left only one of them still moving, and it was laying on the ground with only its front two legs moving. Even then they were only moving very slowly.

She set her second spell off to the left where the people were buried. The area was revealed over a second or two, but she didn’t see anything but trees until the spell penetrated the ground. She had noticed what she thought were bodies were actually bodies filled with tons and tons of bugs. There were so many it seemed like the bugs were a single organism, in the shape of the body. The bodies were there and she could see them, but her spell showed just how many bugs there were inside the dead. It was hard for her to separate the dead bodies and the bugs. It was like the bugs were overshadowing the bodies, at least from what she could see through her spell.

The spell also revealed that the bugs were moving in a very unbug-like way. It was like a bunch of them were moving as one unit. If she didn’t know better she thought it was almost like the dead body was moving and the bugs, who were stuck inside, were moving with them. It was hard to see, but it looked like that to her.

She didn’t have time to say anything as her third spell was ready to be set off. The third spell flew above the trees on the far side of the clearing. It didn’t show anything of note but the far edge of the third truck. The tires were flat. Asides from that, there was nothing out of place on that side of the new clearing. Lily turned her attention back to the bodies only to see them wiggling near the surface of the ground when her spell faded away. Confused, Lily started casting the spell again, but Blanchet grabbed her arm, stopping her.

“What do you see?” He asked her, not looking at her, but out the window.

“Three of the four-legged things are dead. The last one is still moving, but it’s on the ground and not getting up.” She told him. “Over there, I see bugs in the dead bodies, but some of them… they’re moving wrong.”

“Moving wrong, how?” Blanchet asked.

“I was going to cast another spell to see.” Lily told him, annoyed.

“Are the bodies moving?” Jules asked from behind her. Lily turned to the other woman and nodded.

“Kind of, but it looks like the bugs are moving the body.” Lily replied, frowning.

“Zombies.” Toussaint said, speaking up. “Frickin’ zombies. I hate zombies.”

“Demons.” Blanchet said, sounding like he was cursing.

“Might be a necromancer.” Jules replied quickly.

“This close to a nest?” Blanchet asked, making it sound like Jules was stupid for speaking out.”

“I hate zombies.” Toussaint repeated, making a face like he smelled something bad.

“Get out there and check it out. Be careful, there is still one hostile besides the zombies still moving.” Blanchet told the zombie-hating ranger. “Garnier, keep him covered. Real Lily, get on the wheel. We might need to run if it’s demons. The rest of you, on the windows. Other Lily, make sure you do something other than standing there looking stupid. Just don’t kill Toussaint. He’s useful.”

The others started moving. Toussaint, who had been standing by the first window behind the front cab’s passenger seat, moved back to the driver's seat. There, he got out and closed the door. As he did, Lily noticed that the driver’s side window had a little gunport-hatch-thingy in the middle of it. Lily watched him step out of the truck and simply fade away. One second he was there then, quick like a snake bite, he faded away until she couldn’t see him. All in all, it took less than a second for him to vanish.

Corbin, the one Blanchet kept calling the Real Lily, sat down in the driver's seat after Toussaint had left and closed the door. She pulled out a handgun, but placed it down in the butt-holder between the driver's and passenger’s seats. Blanchet, the crew’s leader, moved back to his seat in the passenger side of the front cab, opened the gunport in his window and stuck out his gun barrel. He had gotten up and walked to the back to tell them to stop firing.

Lily felt someone pushing her. Turning, she saw it had been Jules. The witch nodded her head at the open window beside Dubois, the Rabbi.  Lily nodded in return and moved into the empty seat. She recast Cut Earth and a Chain Lightning  and held them as she waited.

“How do I know where Toussaint is?” She whispered to Jules, but Blanchet must have heard because he answered instead.

“Cast the scout spell. He can’t hide from that.” He told her, sounding annoyed.

Lily frowned at the man’s comment, but dropped her Chain Lightning spell, as it would be too dangerous to use with the ranger out there. She took a few seconds to cast Area of Sight over where the zombies were. She immediately found Toussaint. He was just a few feet from where the bodies were buried, not that far away from the four-legged things.The last four-legged thing was motionless, but the bodies still under the dirt were still moving. She watched Toussaint creep up on the bodies as her spell faded. It also showed him turning around and running as the spell completely died away.

“He’s running back.” Lily said a little worried. That worry was slowly turning to bone-chilling fear. Something felt off and very very wrong.

As if to make her last statement unnecessary, Toussaint dropped whatever spell or skill he had been using and ran full tilt out of the forest. “Zombies!” He yelled. “They’re breaking through!”

“Light them up!” Blanchet yelled, as the zombies raced out of the forest hot on Toussaint’s heels. Lily had just enough time to notice that the zombies looked like normal people if those people were covered in huge purple, almost black, bruises. And they had white, filmy eyes that she could see even from her seat in the truck. It was the eyes that creeped Lily out the most. They looked like normal eyes, but they had a white covering over them. The lead zombie opened its mouth and Lily saw a dark black tongue in its mouth. She set off Cut Earth, reacting like someone seeing a bee and trying to swat it.

Her spell cut the zombie right down the middle, starting from the left side of its neck to the right side of its hip. One second it was running, the next it fell in two pieces. All sorts of disgusting stuff fell out, including a giant wave of maggots. The maggots came out of the dead body by the thousands, spilling out like water. Lily gagged.

Trying to push past her gagging and cast another spell, Lily watched helplessly as the bullets from the others did nothing to the already dead bodies. Jules, on the other hand, said a nonsense word and one of the zombies dried out like a timelapse video of an apple decomposing. It got very dark gray all of a sudden, then its skin shrunk against its face before its white eyes dried up, leaving two dark holes where its eyes should be. The zombie took two running steps before its legs collapsed under it and it crumbled, falling to the ground in one big pile of dirt.

Then there was an explosion. It came from the last zombie. Lily felt the heat from the explosion even fifteen feet or so away and through her window. There was a dark gray cloud over where it stood but that cleared up pretty fast, letting Lily see where the zombie used to be. There were only pieces of it left. Lily heard Garnier cheer from above her.

“Cease fire!” Blanchet yelled, and the gunfire died off. “Other Lily, send out another Scout spell.”

Lily nodded and started casting her spell. “Jules, you need to get that spell.” Blanchet said, almost too calmly, as Lily painted the air with spell balls.

“It’s expensive, but doable. It’s a tier 3 neutral spell.” Jules replied as Lily set her spell off. As the spell dropped she didn’t see anything out of place.

“God bless the Lost Sage.” Corbin said with feeling from the driver’s seat.

“Amen.” Dubois replied in an oddly-accented French. Lily felt it odd because every other time the rabbi had spoken he hadn’t had an accent. In fact, she hadn’t heard anyone speak with an accent while they spoke French. It was odd, as well as something that glaringly stood out when he did it.

“It’s clear. The last four-legged thing is not moving. I think it’s dead.” Lily told them, returning to her spell.

“Toussaint…!” Blanchet yelled out, but Toussaint interrupted him.

“Here, boss.” Toussaint said from the other side of the truck, slapping on a window just behind the driver’s seat. Lily turned around and saw him waving at them through the window. He had a smirk on his face. “Someone want to let me in?”

“No, we are getting out.” Blanchet said, shaking his head. He stopped for a second and looked at her, giving her a look she couldn’t read. Still looking at her, he spoke again. As he did so, Lily was unable to look away from the man’s stare. It was too intense.

“Other Lily, you’re with us. Real Lily, stay here and keep Garnier covered. Garnier, cover us. Everyone else, out of the truck. We are going to check out those zombies. Jules, bring the tracking spell.” He said, giving everyone orders. Much to her relief, he stopped looking at her when he gave Garnier orders. Lily turned her head away when he did so, glad she was able to look away at last. She hated it when people did that to her.

They left the truck out the back. Lily looked around as soon as she was out and noticed she was the only one who had her hands free. Jules had her wand. Toussaint had his rifle. Dubois had his pistol out and ready while Blanchet was holding his shield that looked like a metal plate in one hand and his rifle with the other, pointed around his shield. He also had his ax strapped to his side. It didn’t move loosely and, after looking closer, Lily saw that the bottom of the leather sheath was tied to his leg with a thin string.

“Toussaint, you got point.” Blanchet called out to them, looking at the new clearing in front of them. “I’m next, followed by Other Lily, Dubois, and then Jules. Keep your head on a swivel. If attacked, fall back on me, but don’t crowd me. Other Lily, don’t burn all your mana, but keep that scout spell up as much as possible. I want some warning if something comes at us, but you still need to be able to fight. Jules, do what you can to keep her from burning out on us.”

“On it.” Jules replied after he was finished talking.

Lily rolled her eyes. Area of Sight wasn’t that costly in mana. She could cast it for hours, and not be in any danger of running her mana out. She was not sure about other people, but her mana refilled pretty fast. After she drained herself, she knew it would only take a few minutes before she would be able to cast again. Fifteen minutes or so tops, and she would be right as rain.

It normally took her about four seconds to cast the spell, but she could rush it and the cast time was somewhere around two or so seconds. Two or three seconds if she cast it with her left hand. She was a bit slower with casting from her left hand versus her right. Not much slower, but enough that she noticed.

The problem with rushing was mistakes. The faster she went the higher the chances she would make mistakes like painting the spell ball wrong, or putting a ball in the wrong place before she set it off. It was the same with all of her spells. The mistakes got worse the longer the spell chain. The only spells she was really good at, to the point where she didn’t really have to worry, was her barrier spell as well as most of her combat spells. Those she could cast in her sleep. Her Area of Sight had a longer spell chain than the rest of her normal combat spells, so she wasn’t as good with it yet as she was with the rest of them. She was still better at rushing through it than any other non-combat spells.

She rushed the Area of Sight spell and, to her frustration, screwed a spell ball up. It didn’t backfire or anything like that, but she did have to let the spell fade before she started again. She got it right the second time, but she had taken her time with it. By the time she got the spell off, Toussaint had already disappeared and Blanchet was walking up to the closest zombie, not waiting on her. She set the spell off and followed him.

The zombie smelt beyond gross. It smelled like burnt hair and, oddly enough, spoiled chicken. She only knew what spoiled chicken smelled like because she had a bad habit of ordering chicken from the store when she lived in Woburn, and almost never cooking it. It would spoil in the refrigerator all the time. Luckily, the smell never lasted after she got rid of the spoiled meat. A quick cleaning session and everything was back to normal.

This zombie, or what was left of the zombie, was torn to pieces. The thing didn’t have any legs, both of them were gone from just above the knees, and it had only one arm. That one arm was bent and torn. The head, right around the forehead, was dented. It looked like a tennis ball had hit it and made an impression in the thing’s skull. Its lower jaw looked pushed inwards and slightly sideways, leaving the thing with a very prominent overbite. Lily couldn’t get over how weird it looked.

“How many bodies did you say there were?” Dubois suddenly asked.

Lily shrugged, not remembering how many she saw, but Toussaint apparently did because his voice came out from nowhere with the answer. “She said seven.”

“I see only three, here.” Dubois told them, sounding worried.

“Not all of the bodies were moving. There were still four more over there.” Lily said, pointing to the other gravesites.

“Toussaint…” Blanchet called out sounding hesitant.

“On it.” His voice called out from somewhere in front of them, on the other side of the dead zombie that they were looking at. He had already disappeared.

“Other Lily…” Blanchet said, looking at the area where she had pointed at. “...Set a scout spell off over the graves.”

Lily did as he asked and cast her spell over the gravesites. She frowned when she did so. The bodies were gone. She could see where the graves had been, but the bodies were missing.

“Toussaint, get back here!” Blanchet yelled after seeing Lily’s confused expression.

Lily jumped as several loud booms went off behind her. She turned around to see Garnier shooting at something on the other side of the truck. He was yelling like a madman, but the noise from the explosions were much louder than he was. She could see Corbin through the front windshield firing her green-colored rifle through a gun portal in the driver’s side window. Looking in the direction where they were firing she found the missing bodies.

“They flanked us.” Blanchet yelled from behind her. Then he grabbed her arm and yelled for her to shoot.

They were only ten feet from the truck and Lily’s body reacted automatically. She found herself pulling mana from her core as she looked on as the zombies were drawn to the open gun portal where Corbin’s gun was firing uselessly at them. Lily automatically went with her go-to spell, Greater flamethrower. She didn’t think about setting the woods on fire, or anything for that matter. The only thought she had was that Real Lily was in danger. She set both spells off and sent two rivers of purple fire at the truck.

Corbin must have seen her cast the spell because the artificer pulled back and slammed the small see-through hatch. On the other hand, Lily thought to herself that it might have been that the zombies had reached her window. The fire swept over both the hood and roof of the car, and rolled over the zombies on the other side. The fire hit the first zombie and, to Lily’s shock, turned green around its body. The odd green fire illuminated the zombie for a second or two then the fire turned purple again. The purple fire consumed it, leaving nothing behind.

The fire didn’t stop there; it swept through the rest of the zombies. The fire turned green once more before turning back to its normal color and consuming them. Then it was over. Lily shook her head, frowning, as she let her spells fade away. She couldn’t look away from where the woods were on fire behind the unmarked truck. She could see the fire deep in the forest burning those trees which hadn’t turned to ash in seconds after being hit. She could see Corbin and Garnier, who had ducked into the truck at some point, were unharmed.

But that wasn’t why she was shaking. Her spell shouldn’t have worked. She hadn’t thought about what the zombies were when she selected her spell. She did it on instinct. The problem with her Greater Flamethrower was that it only burnt living things. Zombies weren’t living things. Her fire shouldn’t have been able to touch them. Yet there was nothing left of them. On top of that she had never seen her fire turn another color.

“Good job, other Lily.” Blanchet said, clapping her shoulder.

“No.” Lily said, shaking her head. “That was Greater Flamethrower.”

“Oh shit.” Jules said, sounding very worried.

“What?” Blanchet asked, looking past Lily to where she assumed Jules was standing.

“It shouldn’t have worked.” Lily said, shaking her head.

“They weren’t zombies.” She heard Jules say behind her. “They were possessed.”

“Demons. Fuck.” Toussaint said, appearing out of nowhere beside Lily. He was gazing off in the direction of graves where the possessed had come from. Lily looked at him, a little weirded out that he was ignoring the forest fire behind him.

“That’s it, we're leaving.” Blanchet said, sounding scared. Lily looked away from Toussaint and looked at him.

“Mike, wait.” Jules said.

Lily turned to see her friend rushing toward him holding the brush. Looking down, Lily saw that the thing was pointed behind them. In the same direction where the possessed had come from. The white line was still visible to her, pointing off into the forest towards where the river had to be.

“She’s still alive!” Jules told him, holding the brush like it was the most valuable thing in the world. “It’s still tracking. It means she is still alive!”

“No.” Lily told her friend, shaking her head. “It just shows where the largest part of her body is. If she’s dead, then it will lead us to her dead body.”

“That’s not what you told me it would do.” Jules said, turning towards Lily. Lily shook her head, confused. She knew that was not what she told the other woman. She opened her mouth and clarified her statement.

“I told you it would track Amber and it will. It will still track her even if she's dead.” Lily corrected.

“Fuck you.” Jules said, setting into Lily’s personal space. “She’s alive.”

Lily took a step away from the enraged woman.

“Jules…” Blanchet said in a quiet tone of voice.

“No!” Jules said, turning towards him. “We didn’t leave you behind back at Saguenay. We hunted you down, and found your half-dead ass. We are going to do the same thing for Amber. Do you understand? You owe me.”

“Okay.” Blanchet replied softly.

“You…” Jules said, turning back towards Lily. “You lied about the spell so you could come. Well, you’re here now, and by God you're going to help me.”

“I didn’t lie to you.” Lily said, getting angry. “The crystal shouldn’t be able to move. That’s not how the spell works.”

“I don’t care.” Jules said, leaning towards Lily’s personal space again. Lily hated how the other woman kept doing that. She leaned back, and away from the other woman. She could see that Jules knew it as well, yet she kept doing it,

“You are here now. You wanted an adventure, well here it is. Now, pack your shit. We’re leaving.” Jules said, taking a step closer to her.

Lily reeled back, feeling an odd pain in her chest. It wasn’t fear, but a profound sadness. Jules  remained where she was, staring at her so closely that she could see droplets of sweat falling off the other woman’s forehead. After a very uncomfortable few long seconds, Jules turned, and stomped toward the truck, and started to talk to the others.

“She’s normally not like that.” Toussaint told her softly, making Lily jump. She had forgotten he was there. “She’s just scared about Amber and lashing out. You can stay with the truck if you want. This is going to get ugly before we are done here.”

“We could use you, though. We could use someone with a demon-killing class with us.” Blanchet told her, looking at her with sad puppy-like eyes. Lily felt her will crumble. It wasn’t his eyes. It was because she hated confrontation. Even though she wanted to help for Amber’s sake, she was starting to see Jules with different eyes now. She was not sure who the other woman was, now. She wasn’t sure if she ever really knew the other woman at all. With a frustrated sigh, she nodded, and turned towards the truck. There she spotted Jules inside the truck tossing their bags out of the back.

“What is she doing?” Toussaint asked, taking the word right out of Lily’s mouth.

“Packing.” Blanchet replied.

“The river is not that far away.” Toussaint said in a normal tone. “We aren't going to need all that.”

“Who said we will stop at the river?” Blanchet asked, as the three of them continued to watch Jules toss stuff out of the truck. Behind the madwoman, the forest fire was slowly dying down. Lily absently wondered if the forest was too wet to keep burning or if the trees had some kind of magic that made them hard to burn. Either way, there was a whole ton of white smoke flowing upwards from the trees as the fire slowly went out.

“How much storage space does your backpack hold?” Blanchet asked her, pulling her attention away from the slowly dying fire. “I assume it’s one of those new bottomless backpacks, right?”

“It is, and I have no idea. We can just stuff things in it until it overflows.” Lily told him, shrugging.

“You really are rich aren’t you?” Toussaint said, shaking his head. “What the hell did you do to get that much credit?”

“Invented a few things.” Lily said evasively. “What is a possessed, by the way? I know it means someone taking over someone else's body, but is that it?”

“It’s a type of low-tiered demon. They are super hard to kill, but thankfully if you destroy the body it takes them forever to find a new one. It’s normally easy to stop them from possessing you if you have any tier 2 class or someone with a priest class around. Well, as long as you’re awake. They can sneak in if you’re asleep, but as long as you have someone watching over you as you sleep you’ll be fine.” He told her.

“It's painful to kick them out if you do it yourself, but it's relatively easy. I suggest having a priest do it, if there is one on hand. Less painful that way.” Blanchet explained. “What I’m worried about is the fact that they were waiting on us. Possessed aren’t normally this smart. It’s why they’re ranked as a low tier. There is no way they can’t make plans like this.That means that someone is creating plans for them. That scares me.”

“How are they different from a zombie?” Lily asked, turning her head around to look at the dead possessed behind her.

“For the most part they are the same.” Blanchet told her. “They both have a bite that can infect you with diseases. They take a mid-tier healer to cure, or a mid-tier cure potion. They are mostly dumb, but hyper aggresive. They are also faster and stronger than most non-warrior or soldier classes. The best way to kill both of them is to destroy the brain. It’s harder than you think because you have to completely smash it. Guns can do it, but it takes a lot of ammo. Shotguns are the best weapons to use, outside of big melee weapons.”

“The biggest difference is that the possessed are alive. If they successfully possess you then they will drive your body like a car. A zombie is a dead thing that is animated by some type of magic. The possessed will escape if you kill the body, but that is where priest classes come in handy. Any tier 1 priest can bless the ground and kill them once outside a body. It also prevents other possessed from taking over while you sleep.”

“The problem with possessed is that higher-tiered demons can order them around. The little bastards get smarter when their big friends are around. The stronger demons also use them to spy on us. They’re sort of like drones with some low level intelligence.” Blanchet explained.

“So they know we’re coming.” Lily said, as Jules stepped out of the back of the truck.

“With the way they were acting. Oh, yeah.” Blanchet replied, nodding his head slowly. “Come on. Let's get packed up.”

“Can we take them?” Lily asked him as they slowly walked back to the truck. “If it’s just one and if it’s a tier 2 or lower? Maybe.” Blanchet replied, understanding what she meant when she said them.

Lily let Blanchet and Toussaint get ahead of her as they walked up to the back of the truck. She had a lot to think about. Lily found her backpack on the ground about five feet from the tuck and picked it up. It still looked like it was empty. She walked silently towards Blanchet who was holding a large duffel bag.

“So how does this work?” He asked, holding his bag up and looking at her backpack.

“As long as it fits into the backpack it will hold it.” She explained. “That is, until it’s full. I guess.”

“Okay. Let’s try this.” He said opening his bag as Lily opened hers.

His bag contained mostly clothes, but he did have a bunch of bags of bullets along with his food. They were able to fit everything in her backpack without a problem. Toussaint was next. He had a lot of camping stuff in a really big backpack. Unlike Toussaint, he didn’t want to put everything in her bag.

“If you lose your backpack, then we lose everything.” He explained, keeping almost all of his food, and two sets of clothes. He also kept his tent and sleeping bag tied onto his own backpack.

“Good point.” Blanchet said with a nod.

He reached into Lily’s bag and pulled out his now empty bag, a set of clean clothes, and a few packages of food. It wasn’t much, but Lily knew it would keep him safe for a couple of days. The others came over and did the same thing, leaving out a few things just in case. Jules was the last one to put her thing in. She gave Lily a sad look, but didn’t apologize. Lily didn’t say anything, but closed her still empty-looking backpack when the other woman was done.

“Just how much did you spend on this thing?” Toussaint asked after Jules was done. “I know it can’t have come cheap. The Lost Sage created the runic spell, and tailors are going crazy finding people to cast the spell.”

“Yeah, heard you casters are going crazy trying to figure it out. Something to do with an unknown rune.” Corbin said beside them. Jules said nothing, but she had her head down. Lily looked at the witch, then looked away.

“On me.” Blanchet called out. When they had all gathered around him, he started speaking again. “This is a volunteer mission only. Jules, shut up.”

Jules opened her mouth, but didn’t say anything because Blanchet had turned towards her and raised a finger towards her.

“Who’s going and who’s staying behind?” Blanchet said after a few seconds of looking at Jules.

Lily was the last person to say she was coming. Jules gave her an angry nod after she finished speaking. Lily held her mouth shut, but she felt a flash of anger towards the witch. Blanchet sighed and nodded, before he started speaking again.

“Toussaint, you’re on point, like always. I’m next, then Corbin, Other Lily, Dubois, and Jules. Garnier, you got the rear. Corbin, keep your bird in the air. Yes, I know it won’t see much because of the trees, but do your best.” Blanchet told them.

“We are going to follow the tracking spell. Those possessed were being directed. That means demons. That means there’s a nest near here. If it gets too bad, we leave.” Blanchet said, looking at Jules. “This is not a suicide run. We head to Montreal and get some rare classes and come back. Is that understood?”

No one said anything for a few seconds, then Toussaint spoke. “Anyone else want to check on those four-legged things that Other Lily saw in her scout spell? I mean, why didn’t the possessed attack them? Anyone else think they might be possessed as well?”

“Good point.” Blanchet said, with a nod to the ranger. “Garnier, take Corbin and Jules, and rotate to the left and flank them. Toussaint, you take point, and lead me and the rest right up the middle. Everyone, keep an eye out and stay quiet. Other Lily, I know you have to be running low on mana, but if you have some left and can set another scout spell off over them before we head out, that would be great.”

Lily did as he asked and saw the four things still laying on the ground, not moving. “They’re still there, not moving.” She told him.

“Okay, now we move.” Blanchet and the group broke up.

Toussaint disappeared almost immediately, but Blanchet held them back until the other group went down the road for a few yards. He had both groups head into the forest together. A few feet in, they came across the first abandoned truck. The one with the dead body in it. As they passed it by, Blanchet looked through the very dirty passenger window first, then everyone else who passed the window looked at it. Lily was no exception.

It was hard to see, but she could make out the skeleton, which was mostly in a pile on the driver's seat. The bones were mixed in some raggy clothes.Lily looked away, not sure what to think. It didn’t seem real to her. It was like the dead person was just part of the scenery. Like it was a prop. She didn’t want to see it as what was left of a person, but questions kept popping up in her head. She started to question herself on whether it was a guy or a girl. That made her think about how they had died. Did that person have any family members waiting for him or her? And finally, that last question popped up. She wondered if there were any other survivors. She shook her head and tried not to think about it. The only thing she was sure of was it wasn’t Amber.

They kept on moving and passed a very rusted-out truck. It wasn’t as bad as the ones in her hellhole, but the truck had spent a long time in the forest there. Like before, Blanchet led the group up to it, and looked inside. He didn’t spend a lot of time looking in, but everyone looked in as they passed it, just like the first truck. The last uncovered truck looked very different from all the other trucks. It didn’t look old or rusted. It looked fine to Lily’s eyes. The windshield wasn’t dirty at all.

Not that Lily could get a closer look because Toussaint appeared before them about ten or so feet in front of the truck. He was looking down with his back to them. Lily’s attention was suddenly drawn to her right as something snapped a stick. It took her a few seconds to see past where the gunfire had cleared the forest, but she saw the other group coming up from her right.

She turned back and found what had captured Toussaint’s attention. The four-legged things lay dead by his feet. Lily’s mind froze as she looked at the things. They kind of looked like dogs, but their torsos were too long. Their heads were also much bigger than what she thought their necks could support. The biggest attention-grabber had to be their snouts, which were filled with wide triangle-shaped teeth. The edges of the teeth weren’t smooth. They had small, sharp edges on them.

“Demon spawn.” Toussaint said in an uncharacteristically serious tone of voice.

“Calm down, everyone. We already knew that they were involved.” Blanchet said, staring at the dead dog-things.

“Not demon spawn.” Dubois said into the silence. “Changelings.”

“Oh, thank god.” Corbin said, coming up with the second group. Her relief was very evident in her tone.

“How can you tell?” Toussaint asked, still sounding serious.

“It still has tufts of fur.” The rabbi told him.

Lily looked at the closest thing’s skin. It was mostly skinless, but he was right. Here and there were a few patches of golden-blond fur. She didn’t need to ask what a changeling was. Looking at the fur she knew this used to be a dog.

“Toussaint, you taking pictures?” Blanchet asked the ranger.

“Yup. I got pics of everything. The possessed, the trucks and now the changelings.” He replied. Lily looked up in surprise. She hadn’t seen him carrying a camera. He looked up from the changelings and looked at Lily. He gave her a smile then tapped his eye and winked.

“He can take pictures with his eye?” Lily asked herself silently. “How is that possible? Class skill? The Nanos?”  Lily didn't know nor did he tell her. He disappeared a few seconds later.

“What direction is that thing pointing, Jules?” Blanchet asked after Toussaint vanished.

The witch pointed and Blanchet started walking. The other group fell in with Lily’s group. Soon they were walking towards the river and following the tracking spell that Lily had built. Lily took one last look at what used to be dogs and shivered before she started following Corbin.