Shadow Slave novel Chapter 945

Somehow, almost everyone in the convoy was still alive. Looking at it from the roof of the Rhino, Sunny felt both burdened and surprised. He had not really expected to get this far into the mountains without suffering severe casualties.

Was he supposed to feel proud of himself?

'...Let's try to keep it this way, then.'

By now, his shadows had already climbed the nearest peaks, allowing him to observe the surrounding area. The tunnel they had escaped from might not have been endless, but as it turned out, it was actually quite long. More than that, it cut straight through the mountains instead of meandering its way around the gorges and canyons. As a result, and due to the previous days of travel, the convoy had managed to cover a lot of ground and was more than a third of the way to Erebus Field.

Sadly, the good news ended there.

'That... is troubling.'

Sunny glanced at the screen of his communicator, then climbed back into the interior of the APC and opened the map of the Antarctic Center as a projection in the command suite.

They had reached the edges of the section that he had marked back in the abandoned bunker. From here onward, all Sunny had to go on was the stock map, which was not very detailed, and outdated on top of that. The battle between the Saints and the Titans had changed the topography of the entire region, and there were the effects of the Chain of Nightmares itself to consider, too.

Of course, he could always repeat the process and update the map with the help of his shadows again. Which was exactly what he had been planning to do...And why his mood was currently so foul.

With a sigh, Sunny started to put new marks on the projection. Soon, the position of the convoy was surrounded by a sea of red lines and symbols that stretched far to the north, with barely any green in between.

'Damnation.'

The path ahead... was going to be rough, to say the least. They must have been relatively close to the place where the three Saints of the First Evacuation Army had battled the Winter Beast, the Goliath, and the Whispering Legion, eliminating the latter Titan. The resulting earthquake had destroyed a good chunk of the mountain range and made a mess of the surrounding area.

Sunny was trying to come up with a way to get the convoy through that mess, but it seemed all but impossible.

Most of the roads were destroyed, and those that remained were buried under heavy debris. Avalanches, landslides, and rockfalls were everywhere, reshaping the landscape. The damage was much worse here than Sunny had expected.

And there were Nightmare Creatures, of course. The whole area was seething with them, and he had already spotted at least two dozen active Gates, with more probably hidden from view by the overturned terrain.

Sunny was not sure if the Rhino would be able to make it through, let alone the civilian vehicles. No matter how hard he tried to find a safe route, there seemed to be none to be found.

His mood turned dark.

After a while, Sunny decided to get a fresh pair of eyes to take a look at the map, or better yet, several. He ordered the Irregulars to gather in the APC, and invited Sergeant Gere as well. Professor Obel was already there, so Sunny simply asked the old man to join him in the command suite.

Soon, everyone arrived, and an improvised strategy meeting started. The result was about as disturbing as Sunny had expected. No one seemed to have a good idea on how to proceed. Dorn was currently pointing at a certain point of the map:

"... if we can use our Echoes to lead the Nightmare Creatures deeper into the gorge, we might be able to drive past this Gate without being swarmed by enemies. From there, we can follow the auxiliary road to the pass and get some breathing room."