Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

I immediately halted our advance as we took a few steps back and I instantly called everyone back to gather in front of our vehicles. A small perimeter was created around it and Bogdan just dropped the body who almost ended Natasha right in front of them. It was just a torso with a dismembered head while the rest of its limbs was left in place.

"Looks familiar?" I said to the group.

Their eyes scanned the body for a few seconds but once they got to the hollowed-out head with a smidge of black goop from the spillage, they immediately recognized it.

"Where did you find it?" Tatiana asked.

"At our side, almost killed me." Natasha replied, glancing back at me.

"I'm guessing you haven't encountered one in here yet?" I continued.

The group just shook their heads but one question was on their minds. The ones we encountered before did something entirely different and posed no threat, but this one actually tried to take one of us down.

"Wait, bro. Where's the rest of its team? You know, to pile up and drop dead? And to add to that, why did it attack in the first place?" Jared finally asked.

"That's what we're going to find out. My guess is this didn't come from Monumento because if we're following my theory, it's supposed to follow a set of instructions, and attacking someone was entirely different from traveling a certain distance and dropping dead to form a wall. Did you notice that there are no walls here?" I replied.

"But it still doesn't explain why it attacked her and why it is alone." Artem chimed in.

"It's not apparent but look closely at its mouth and ears." I replied, pointing to the points of entry.

As they looked closer, they noticed the same black substance present in those places and some of them deduced that it might have just come from its head when it all spilled out. However, that could only be said for its right ear because it was the only thing that was smeared all over as the substance spilled out while the rest just had traces of it deep inside, impossible for a spill to reach those places.

"This doesn't give me much..." Bogdan scratched his head, the same as a few of them listening in.

"This 'hollowed-one' was recently created and if we're talking about those fucking lickers or whatever, it seemed to be just only one and maybe just recently turned. If you look deep inside, you wouldn't notice it but the few traces on its skin is still fresh. It should've been dry or at least flaky right now but it isn't. Aside from that, our ears don't just expand like that as if something was shoved inside." I explained.

"So, that thing that made this thing is inside the public market?" Kaley asked.

"Bingo. What we need to do is make a proper perimeter around the public market but we need to take care of the bodies in this road and clear the rest of the ones still roaming around. Be careful though, it could've made a couple or a few more before this one so to be on the safe side, shoot it on the head first and then ravage it if it still moves. Only continue to engage it in melee distance if you're confident enough or sure it is the only one in front of you. No gambling with your lives, everyone goes home." I said to the group.

It took us a while to do the initial plan and we even encountered one hollowed deadhead freshly walking out of the public market, confirming my theory. It also tried to go for us but as soon as my Maxim 9 bored a hole through its head and did nothing, it almost wished that it had fallen down after we were done with it.

We lopped its head off and detached its limbs and as we examined the head thoroughly, the same marks were present with the first one, giving more credit to my idea.

'Is it possible to take that one alive? We'll just see depending on the situation...' I thought to myself.

Instead of heading inside once we were in position, I decided for my group to stay put for a few minutes just so we could camp for the ones still coming in our direction, especially from the public market. We already know that they would be coming towards us, we just needed to wait for a bit, allowing us to fight them in a place we were comfortable with.

After 30 minutes, the deadheads lessened significantly and we only ever encountered one more hollowed deadhead fresh from the public market, telling us it was now the time to look for the slurper inside. Well, we would do it but no one would be coming in, yet.

"Fly it on that side, everything came from that place right by that butcher shop." I said to Jared, controlling one of the drones.

Jared just nodded at me while he continued to fly it further forward but he was flying a little high, looking for a dangling tongue slathered with the black and sticky substance. The rest of my group was guarding around us while I was looking at the feed and we eventually did find something literally hanging about.

"That is it, right bro?" Jared commented.

"Seems so. Wait, don't fly it too close. You know what happened last time." I commented, glancing at Tatiana to try and get a reaction from last time.

"You guys found it? Let me see..." Kaley leaned over to the tablet as I turned it towards her.

A few crowded as well but their looks of curiosity immediately changed once they saw the hanging figure.

"That's… that's a child..." Bogdan sighed heavily.

"Not anymore..." Kristoff just went back to his position.

The 'hanging' slurper Jared and I located had the features of a child, hanging from a meat hook, driven through its shoulder. What was left of its body was severely discolored because a lot of deadheads seemed to have feasted on its lower extremities, only leaving half of its torso and a fraction of its arms. The only thing it could use to fight off the ones feasting on it was its elongated tongue, dripping with the same black substance dangling from its tiny mouth.

Its hanging tongue wasn't as long as what we saw from Monumento but it seemed to be in standby mode, waiting for its next victim.

I was actually contemplating the words we heard from the people we eavesdropped on before, telling us that the slurpers could jump down and walk but regarding the one we found, it seemed to be impossible regarding its circumstances. It seemed like the situation was perfect to try and capture it because we wouldn't have another chance like this. The only question left in my mind was who in the fuck was so fucked in the head to impale a child in a meat hook and left it for dead.

"We're taking it back. Let's find a small unused freezer to put it in. We could gain more favors with the president if we send them home with a live special even though it's only a fraction of its small size." I said to my group much to their surprise.

"What? How about its tongue?" Jared asked.

"And that sauce?" Bogdan added.

"Hngh… please don't call it sauce..." Natasha shook her head in disgust.

"I'll cut it off or shoot it off, it's easy enough but I would prefer it to be intact. The black substance isn't corrosive and it's just sticky with unknown properties. C'mon, let's get on it." I explained as I was the first one to walk inside the public market.

Finding a container was easy enough due to the number of freezers available in this public market and the only thing that posed a bit of challenge was capturing it whole, relatively speaking.

What I did to accomplish that was a little bit of computation with the help of a few people.

"On three..." I signaled Mikhail and Katya.

"Okay, wait- on three or after three?" Mikhail asked.

"He just said it, 'on' three, right?" Katya shook her head as they went on position.

After the countdown, they pushed the first freezer on the flooring, making it slide right under the special we were trying to capture. I could compute the amount of force needed to get everything right but there was always the human factor that could make mistakes so they had to send freezers in a line, making them push against each other right until it reached their destination.

It took ten large freezers lined one after the other but the flooring filled with blood and muck acted as a lubricant to make everything slide down easily.

"Okay, your turn." I tapped Kaley's shoulder as she aimed at the sights.