Chapter 387: 387
The inside of Oscar’s SUV was silent for a moment but we soon continued with light conversation.
In our small convoy, the ones in the front and back were the military jeeps that came with us. Right next to the military jeep in front was the 8-wheeler, the cargo truck, Oscar’s SUV, and lastly the other military jeep.
If Unc Zeidrick and the rest have extra time, they would also add a few modifications to our other vehicles. Some soldiers even took interest in mechanic work so they were learning and adding modifications on their vehicles themselves. However, the plans they would write up needed to be approved by Raphael or Anthony first so they wouldn’t waste materials and the design could be improved with a touch of an engineer.
On our military jeeps, they never forgot to add the modification for the bumper and switching out the tires for tubeless ones.
On the 8-wheeler and the cargo truck, aside from changing out the tires for better ones, they added metal grates on the windshield and all the other glass parts of it for extra protection. Doing that reduced visibility by a certain amount but it was easily counteracted by mounted cameras. Not only that, but my group also reinforced the doors and the cargo bed with metal sheets in case a shooter tried to shoot through them.
Speaking of shooting, Jared and Lois were firing at the dead nonstop and I could almost feel the ones sitting next to them were experiencing.
Bodies littered the road and since we couldn’t stop every time to pile them up and burn them, we just drove around and avoid them most of the time. However, there were times we needed to make a complete stop if a herd was spotted.
Especially when a herd was doing something a little special.
It didn’t take long before I saw a drone flying from the 8-wheeler and my radio buzzing a few moments after.
–
*bzzt*
“Bro, we saw something weird and I asked the soldiers upfront to stop. I already told Lois to send his drone over.”
*bzzt*
–
*bzzt*
“Good, you’re not planning to replace me, right?”
*bzzt*
–
*bzzt*
“You? Not a chance.”
*bzzt*
–
*bzzt*
“Heh, you could try at least. Okay, everyone, let’s drive a little forward to that express remittance outlet right before the bridge so I could see more besides these tall buildings. Let’s make a small perimeter and I want Jared and Kaley on top of the cargo truck. ”
*bzzt*
–
*bzzt*
“Roger.”
*bzzt*
–
*bzzt*
“Great, once we’re parked, honk for five seconds straight so the sleeping roaming deadheads could be put to sleep.”
*bzzt*
–
We drove a few meters forward and then everyone quickly went into position. Our soldiers helped us to clear the dead and half of them were using the prototype goedendag that was presented in the meeting last time. It was kinda ugly because it looked like a baseball bat with a metal spike on top but it got the job done. The reach it provided made poking holes on the dead much safer.
However, in our case, making parts of their head fly off or just simply nicking their brain was the go-to solution.
Intentionally making noise made the encounter dangerous but the time to set a perimeter was quicker. I faced three at a time and having Mikhail and Tatiana on my sides gave me assurance.
The one closest to me had its skin almost falling off its body so I made a horizontal slash where my blade entered a few centimeters forward just by the side of its right eye, exiting the side of its left eye. The slash didn’t lop off the upper half of its head but I cut the part of its brain where the frontal and temporal lobe were located.
The skin of its nose plopped to the ground first before its whole body followed. The tip of my katana was stained with blood and brain matter but I was already rearing up for another slash.
I took a step to the left first before I slashed from below, going diagonally towards one wearing a basketball jersey. My blade cut through the side of its left ear and continuing until it lopped off a part of its head when it exited, leaving its brain matter spilling on the floor.
The last one in front of me was close so I brandished my blade just to chop its head sideways. It entered its right ear just before its nose and it fell limp when I pulled the blade out of its shaved head.
Surprisingly, not much came and I only killed five more before I went to check the display on Lois’ drone.
“Weird, huh?” Lois commented.
“How many are they?” I asked.
“Hmm~ 28? They never moved but looking at one closely, they don’t seem to be the sentries we found before.” Lois answered.
“Yeah, who could blame them? The jackpot is already Php 387 Million, I would’ve bet on it myself.” I joked.
“Hmm, I thought you don’t believe in that?” Unc Zardon interjected.
“Heh, you got me. Jared, take one down and we’ll see what happens next.” I shouted to Jared after turning around to face him.
What we saw in the live footage earlier was more than a couple dozen dead heads just standing in line from a lotto outlet. Their bodies were torn apart, flies were buzzing around them, and even maggots were feasting on their rotten bodies but they still wouldn’t move a muscle. Other zekes would approach them or even feast on them but they weren’t even trying to react or even defend themselves.
Jared took a knee before lining up his shot. I heard his breathy exhale before a round was sent to the one carrying a grocery bag.
It was hit dead on and its coagulated bits sprayed on the white counter of the lotto outlet. However, the ones behind it finally moved.
Well, not the move we were expecting though.
As the body fell to the marbled tiles, the others in line just took a step forward and they stopped moving again. Lois even tried to boop the ones with his drone but there were no movements whatsoever. We were perplexed at what was happening but with nothing left to do, we used them as shooting targets because they were 400 meters away.
“I hope this is all the weird I’ll see today.” Oscar commented when we rode the truck to see what was going on.
It was fairly easy to walk the shot, especially on a target not moving and getting replaced by a new one on the same spot. There was also no wind so all they needed to account for was the gravity. It took Jared and Kaley a few minutes to clear the ones on the lotto outlet from across the bridge. Kaley didn’t bring her Delta 5 but her AR-15 is enough for the job.
While they were sending bullets, we cleared a few more that came late and we drove away after setting them on fire. I only found wallets and cheap jewelry from some of the bodies but Mikhail found a plastic bag with a few boxes of cigarettes inside the remittance outlet. He gave me all of them for trading but I pulled out a pack for him because he was the one who found it.
“Thank you, I’ll only smoke when we get home and when the kids are not climbing over me.” Mikhail placed the pack inside his pocket.
“It would be better if you stop smoking altogether.” I replied, smiling.
“Well, I’m smoking less now. I used to smoke once a day but now I’m only smoking a couple a week. This thing could probably last me a couple of months.” Mikhail tapped his pocket.
“Wait till ya get a taste of Cuban cigars, heh.” Oscar chuckled.
“You don’t smoke, correct?” Tatiana asked me.
“No, the only smoke I inhale is the smoke from gunpowder after firing a shot.” I chuckled.
“Heh, that shit’s too real kid.” Oscar tapped his knees laughing.
It took us a total of five hours just to reach the Intercity not only because of the distance from our place but also from the stops we made along the way and because we used another road to travel. It was to scout out the remaining places I haven’t laid my eyes on.
When we reached the border of the Intercity, the first thing I noticed differently was the smell.
The Intercity used to have this smell of grains getting milled and if you stay too long without a mask, you would sneeze and a little dust cloud would appear. The smell before was a bit smoky and musky but this time, it was the same f.u.c.k.i.n.g smell from everywhere the dead were present. It was the putrid smell coming out from decaying bodies that would make anyone wince if they caught even a small whiff of it.
However, the upsetting thing was that I was slowly getting used to it. Not only me, everyone still alive was inhaling it every single day, but our nose was also slowly getting accustomed to that horrible smell.
We finally saw the arched stone entrance like in Batangas, almost enveloping the whole metal gate barring everyone from coming inside. Huge bold letters were in the sculpture and it says:
‘WELCOME TO THE INTERCITY OF WAKAS, BOCAUE, BULACAN.’
I saw this sculpture painted over several times when I was a kid but I wouldn’t even guess that I would come here to trade goods for my people’s use, not for retail.
I looked around and I immediately saw a familiar face.
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