Bloodline Evolution: I Can Choose Opposing Paths-Chapter 21: A Single Path

Luckily, they were able to secure some military vehicles.

Aren and Lily climbed on quickly and headed full speed, straight for Central Hospital.

Lieutenant Abby had one hand on the wheel and the other braced against the dashboard as the car swerved hard.

Streetlights flickered past in broken intervals, some already crushed, others hanging uselessly at crooked angles.

Demonic beasts were everywhere.

They crawled over abandoned cars, grouped at intersections, and dragged half-devoured bodies into alleyways. Some were small, skittering, insect-like things that clung to walls and ceilings. Others were massive, up as tall as a full two-story house.

"Hold on!" Abby snapped.

She yanked the wheel sharply as something lunged from the side.

A clawed mass slammed into the windshield, spiderweb cracks racing outward as its high-pitched screech pierced the cabin.

Aren didn’t hesitate.

Ether surged down his legs as he swung out from the car window, stepping onto the roof of the moving vehicle.

The wind tore at his clothes immediately.

He slammed his foot down, channeling ether through his calves and into the metal frame, sticking to it somewhat.

The beast reared back, mandibles snapping at his throat.

Aren twisted his body away and drove a punch straight into its head.

The impact cracked its outer skeleton and sent its limp body back onto asphalt where it belonged.

"Inside!" Abby barked.

Aren pushed off and rolled back into the cabin just as Abby swerved again, narrowly missing a larger beast that slammed into the road where they’d been a second earlier.

Lily gripped the seat, jaw clenched, eyes tracking the shadows outside.

"How are there so many...?" she breathed.

Aren didn’t answer.

Because he was focused on something else...a pressure that only came from strong monsters.

"Lieutenant," Aren said, voice tight. "Slow down."

Abby frowned but eased off the accelerator.

The closer they moved toward Central Hospital, the quieter the streets became. Lesser demonic beasts lingered at the edges of the blocks, but none dared to cross an invisible boundary.

They rounded the final corner.

The hospital loomed ahead, its upper floors dark, emergency lights flickering weakly like a dying pulse. And just beyond the adjacent park, where trees had been torn apart—

Something moved.

It stood on four elongated limbs, each joint bent wrong in a way that made Aren’s skin crawl. Its muscles wrapped so closely to skin that he could literally see its arteries pulsing underneath.

White fur framed its skull like a mane, matted and soaked through with blood. From its crown curved a set of branching antlers, not bone but something closer to crystallized flesh.

"...King-Class," he whispered. "The Blood Red Wendigo."

"Shit..." Abby cursed under her breath. "What’s a King-Class Beast doing here? Even worse, it’s Demonic!"

"If we alert it, we’re dead," Lily added. "If we drive any closer, it’ll hear the engine."

Abby nodded once.

"We abandon the vehicle here," she said. "Let’s go on foot."

Lily swallowed, eyes fixed on the monster.

"And the people inside?"

Aren looked past the beast, to the hospital doors barely visible beyond it.

"They can’t move," he said.

The realization settled heavily in his chest.

As long as that thing lived—

No one was leaving.

Abby checked her weapon, jaw set.

"Then we go inside first," she said. "See how bad it is."

Aren nodded.

Together, they slipped into the shadows of the hospital, thankfully without alerting the Wendigo.

The hospital doors stood half-open.

One panel had been smashed inward, glass scattered across the tiled floor, but there were no bodies in the lobby, no signs of struggle beyond the initial breach.

Emergency lights cast everything in a red glow.

Aren stepped inside first, readying his ether. The air smelled faintly sterile, probably of cleaners and antiseptics.

"Clear," Abby murmured after a quick sweep.

They moved in.

The main lobby was empty. Wheelchairs sat abandoned near the wall. A child’s shoe lay beside a vending machine, its laces untied.

Then Aren saw it.

A folded piece of paper, weighted down by a clipboard, placed deliberately at the center of the reception desk.

He crossed the space in three steps and picked it up.

ICU — UNDERGROUND.

Everyone who could move is here.

Doors sealed from inside.

Aren let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding.

"They made it," Lily whispered.

"Not all the way," Abby said. "But far enough."

They didn’t take the elevator.

The stairwell descended into darkness, the emergency lights growing farther apart the deeper they went. The sounds reached them before they saw the refugees—murmurs, coughing, and the faint crying of children.

The underground ICU doors came into view.

Barricaded by beds, supply carts, anything heavy and of use. A slit between the doors widened as someone on the other side peered out.

"—Aren?"

The barricade shifted.

The doors opened just enough for them to slip through, then slammed shut again, locks sliding into place with frantic urgency.

And suddenly—

He was surrounded.

People filled every inch of the space. Patients lay shoulder to shoulder on the floor, IV bags hanging from improvised hooks. Doctors and nurses moved between them, hands stained red.

"Brother!"

A familiar voice cut through the noise.

Aren barely had time to turn before someone crashed into him.

"Anna—!"

His sister wrapped her arms around him, shaking as she pressed her face into his chest. Lily was pulled into it a second later, Aren clutching them both as if letting go would make them disappear.

"I thought—" Aren’s voice broke. "I thought you weren’t going to make it."

Aren tightened his arms around her, heart hammering.

"I’m here," he said. "I’m here."

He barely had time to steady his breathing before a hand landed on his shoulder.

Aren turned.

His father stood there, hair disheveled, sleeves rolled up past his elbows, a streak of dried blood along his forearm that clearly wasn’t his.

"Dad..."

The word came out rougher than he meant it to.

His father let out a tired breath, relief flashing across his face for just a second before it was buried under exhaustion.

"You made it," he said. Then his gaze flicked to Lily, and he nodded deeply. "Thank you. Both of you."

"We’re not done yet," Aren said. "What happened here?"

His father glanced toward the sealed doors, then back at the crowd behind them.

"Some of the smaller ones tried to get in earlier," he said quietly. "Soldier-class. A few General-class mixed in."

Aren’s jaw tightened.

"We held them off," his father continued. "But a few got hurt badly."

Lieutenant Abby stepped forward.

"What’s the headcount?" she asked.

His father didn’t answer immediately. He scanned the room...counting faces, bodies, the living and the barely holding on, before exhaling.

"Just over a hundred," he said. "Civilians, patients, staff. Some can walk. Some can’t."

Abby didn’t hesitate.

"That’s too many," she said flatly.

Aren nodded grimly.

"A hundred people can’t move quietly," Abby continued. "Even if a King-class weren’t here, they still wouldn’t make it."

His father’s eyes widened.

"Ki—King-Class?

A few eyes turned as he said the word. Murmurs started, some started praying, while others cried.

Aren clenched his fists.

"...What’s the likelihood we can wait for it to move?" he asked. "If we deal with Soldier and General-class beasts, maybe—"

His father shook his head.

"A day," he said. "At most."

He gestured toward the supply stacks.

"A hundred mouths burn through hospital rations fast."

Silence settled over the ICU. Lieutenant Abby looked around once at the situation, then back toward the stairwell leading up.

"If we’re going to move them," she said, voice steady, "that thing can’t stay alive."

Aren didn’t respond right away.

He was already shaking his head inside.

She couldn’t kill it.

Not because Abby wasn’t strong. She was. Being Four Lines at her age was impressive. Against General-class beasts, she would tear through them without hesitation.

But a King-Class was different.

She’d have to take it down, pretty much alone, as both his own power and Lily’s would amount to little more than to annoy the beast a bit.

"Say we do kill it," Lily asked quietly, voicing the thought before he could. "Then what?"

Her gaze flicked to Abby. "You’d be badly injured."

Lieutenant Abby was silent for a moment.

Then she nodded once.

"It’s a gamble," she said evenly. "One I have to take."

Aren’s fingers curled slowly at his side.

Because he knew.

People who gambled like that rarely lived long enough to see the outcome.