Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

These figures looked as if terracotta warriors and descendants of Frankenstein made dozens and dozens of babies before bathing in a hot steaming poop bath though I took advantage of their cinematic sequence as I cheesed their entry with my .22 pistol.

The distance between us and them was very short and since their earlier batch had already walked the same path, bridging the distance in an instant would definitely not spring any traps.

And since Kaley was the only one who had the same suppressed .22 pistol that I had which was a Taurus TX22, she was the only one I didn't stop when everyone else tried to come in guns blazing.

It was because we might very well be by the entrance of the witch's lair that was located behind this waterfall—which tickled me as a gamer—so we needed to be as quiet as much as possible even if we fired off a few rounds in the distance and made a lot of noise by the road earlier.

But yeah, I saw Kuzma and Tatiana jump over the other side from the floor we were in as a catch-all for stragglers though a couple of cadets followed after them while the rest either secured the path we came in or were ready to fuck shit up when things didn't go our way.

In any case, with the words of Mr. Devito—or should I say, Mr. Frank Reynolds, "So anyway, I started blastin'."

Kaley and I picked a side—the right or the left—to start with, and so that we wouldn't accidentally aim at the same walking corpse, but it went even easier than we initially thought.

These fucked up deadheads were already having a hard time with their motor skills, how much could they freely move around while they were also covered in shit, dirt, and clay?

The answer was that there were actually a select few that we chose to avoid because their heads were still covered in thick dirt or they were still encased from that huge blockage and needed more water to rinse them from the substance.

However, it didn't take long before another "blockage" popped out of the same hole, but instead of the smell of just decay and rot, it also now had a mix of rotten eggs and compost.

'I'm beginning to doubt that this is the place…'

With that happening, the ones we were picking off got pushed to the level below, but everyone else took it upon themselves to end their misery with their axe, machete, or the melee weapon they brought with them.

We were still following the protocol of being mostly quiet and what Kaley and I did was just switch our targets to the ones who were still in the process of separating from their brethren and struggling from the added weight to their bodies.

And yes, I've said plenty of times before, even a suppressed .22 LR round was loud even without wearing ear protection but there was a stark difference to it compared to firing a shotgun load or an unsuppressed rifle round.

It wasn't exactly "silencing" it or suppressing it but the person that would hear the sound would have a harder time figuring out the exact distance or location it came from.

And in much simpler terms, imagine playing Marco Polo with someone who was deliberately altering the volume of their responses.

But yeah, as much as I'd hate to do this—and since I'm on my last mag on my .22, I pulled out my katana while Kaley switched to our Maxim 9—to those of you who forgot was an internally suppressed pistol chambered in 9mm.

"Just shoot them when they're clumping up, alright?"

"Yeah! I'll watch the above levels too!"

With that said, my whole approach to the dead in front of me was slightly different because instead of bringing them down with one flowing slash after the other, I opted for angled thrusts that avoided whatever the fuck they were covered with.

My blade was fucking ductile and I don't mind it getting grime-y but I sure as hell tend to avoid dipping it in feces.

But yeah, the one I pulled up could've been a famous influencer if the shit on its face was replaced with makeup because god fucking dammit they were as thick as humanly possible.

I had to move to its side before I plunged the tip of my blade into its exposed earlobe before pulling out and stabbing the one next to it right under its chin. And right after that, the next entrance I made use of was its eye socket but I just had enough when I had to push through that thick layer of dirt they had just to get on their only weakness.

I would very much prefer lopping their head off but the ones who were left that were literally covered in shit who somehow managed to stand up? I either poked/pushed them with my scabbard or kicked them back on the stream with my boot because there's no fucking way I'm touching that shit again.

Cynthia and her rapier would've flourished in this situation but looking over at the other side, Tatiana and Kuzma were doing more than fine.

I applaud their candor for not giving a fuck whether the sword or the axe they were using was getting super dirty or some of it was getting on their clothes or their skin because if the deadheads—god forbid didn't get them, fucking E. Coli will.

Hearing myself say this was making it sound like I had a problem with getting dirty—which I honestly am—so I was just glad to high heavens that my blade was long enough to avoid most of the splatter or the blowback from making contact with them.

It didn't take long before we put all of them down but the most difficult thing to do was drag all of their bodies from the stream to a few feet away so that we could examine them and then let them dry off for a while and possibly have other people visit and burn them in the future.

But yeah, it was pretty obvious that almost all of them were experimented on—not only by putting things in their bodies or attaching limbs that weren't their own—but also by harvesting from them what was "useful" or any other bullshit purpose they could serve.

Because not everything that came from the "blockage" was whole or even an undead.

Furthermore, if we somehow performed a proper autopsy on all of them, it would be like buying several sets of puzzles only discovering that more than a quarter of the pieces were missing or even the frame we'd assemble them on was also MIA. There were spare parts, to put it bluntly, and it would be a heyday for a stitcher to come upon these.

'One could mistake that the Garcia Family did this too instead of a witch doctor…'

"Hmm…" Sebastian let out a long sigh after looking closely at one of the corpses.

"Something wrong?"

He pointed at a patch of skin that had what seemed to be a tribal tattoo, "Look at that, my lord. Seems familiar to me… Most of them had it, even the ones that are separated…"

JP cut in, "Isn't that a normal thing for people nowadays?"

A few others nodded but Sebastian shook his head before he replied:

"Sir JP, I'm aware that tattoos are pretty commonplace as you've stated but you have to understand that there are specific tattoos that belong to particular tribes in this area. However, I'm not well-versed in all of them so I could only identify a few. It's just that some of them were from the tribesfolk the Madam unleashed her wrath upon…"

JP tilted his head, "And that means?"

Sebastian shook his head, "This… I don't know the exact reason but a tribe's healer isn't supposed to cause harm to their own."

I interjected, "Didn't you also say that there are tattoos from different tribes?"

"Ah. There are exceptions such as that but who would make an enemy out of all the mountain people just to further their research?"

"Eh~ It could be a different thing altogether too."

"W-What do you mean, my lord?"

"Well, they have their own set of beliefs but they do be crazy sometimes. What if they did it to themselves or made their only doctor find a way to take revenge? Not all of these witches live alone, right? They do in a way but they belong to an org or something…"

"I guess so but I-I don't follow the revenge part…"

I pointed at some of the corpses I examined, "See those bullet holes? Those aren't fresh."

"That's—"

I nodded as I looked straight at Sebastian, "I dunno about you but the unleashed wrath you spoke of must've been a little sloppy. I doubt that the people Sal used to raze this mountain took into account every one that they've shot down so this must've been a few corpses a survivor of them made use of in order to get back at us. You've also said that you're not familiar with this side of the mountain so how could Mauro's people do better than you?"

"That's true..."

"Also, there could still be survivors from what Sal did and they could be hiding in a cave system and this was one of the exit holes, literally. I doubt we'd find anything useful if we go inside nature's butthole but it could lead to where some of them are… or aren't anymore…"

"Hmm?"

"Because it looks to me that their revenge was cut short."

Sebastian's ears perked, "My lord?"