My drone had only flown a few feet above the air as I saw Kaley turn her head and scan around for unwanted stragglers, and she basically made everyone else involuntarily take cover in fear of being flagged. It was one thing to get flagged by a random gun barrel but it was fucking something else if you somehow got flagged by a gun barrel that rarely missed its shot.
'I guess shooting well above 100 meters is already godly for them… But yeah, it is impressive though…'
And at that point, we only heard a short exhale before three suppressed shots came one after the other, and I didn't even need to check if the victims were alive.
But the same couldn't be said for Jose's case because the ones he was aiming at had already ducked for cover—though he still made some shot that either hit or made him curse in his breath.
I decided to give him a little bone, "Green dumpster. The black bag with a straw poking out."
Jesus turned to me confused, "Huh?"
"Do you see it or not?"
"I do, but—"
"Shoot the bag—"
I thought we'd have to go back and forth for a bit but I was cut off mid-sentence as Jose pulled the trigger and shot through the bag and the cowering deadhead behind it. It seemed like the degree of trust he had in me increased a little bit more because any sane person that didn't know me as well would almost always question my actions—or in this case, my order.
With that said, I was the only one who saw a splatter made up of fast-food and grey matter that was obviously in various states of decay, but it didn't take long before I pointed out a few more spots that he could use a wall hack—me and my drone—to do terrorism.
"Fruit stand that had the banana logo—"
"You nailed it."
"Public bathroom door that's ajar by the—"
"Hold right— you got it."
"The butt part of that inflating thingamajig that would flail around—"
"You got that? Good on ya—"
Jose turned to me briefly while trying to hide a smirk, "Where else?"
"Getting cocky now, huh?" I chuckled as I said, "Alright, 2nd window to the right of that chewed-up holiday tree—"
Right as I was cut off in the middle of my sentence again, I for sure thought that Jose would nail the target but the sound I heard at that moment didn't come from his rifle. Turns out, Kaley had run out of targets to put down without aiming upwards, so she started to join in our little activity.
Kaley had a faster time locating the spots I was pointing out but I suddenly stopped relaying information when I saw the ones we put down come back to life. Not necessarily come back to life like come back to life but like— you know, you probably got the picture.
My group had already encountered this bunch before so we didn't say much as we packed up and got ready to storm the capitol.
I was happy that my group caught on to what I was trying to do because looking at Jesus, Quinn, and their crew's reactions, it seemed like it was the first time they saw a group of deadheads that needed more than a long-range lobotomy.
Granted they probably did already—unbeknownst to them—because the Stitcher/Slurper would almost always be close and be put down immediately or the body would almost always get ripped to shreds, rendering it unable to move, they never had the chance to see them get picked off from afar and be given the time to activate the effects of the green mushroom.
Jesus' eyes lit up, "We're finally leaving?"
"Nope."
"Then—"
"We're going in. Our bullets can only do so much if we're facing that type so it would be better to dismember a few limbs so anyone that passes by that place is safe. You guys could probably help us with that, right?"
Meg spoke up and tried to protest, "Hey! It's not like—"
But Quinn cut her off, "That's much better. It's getting old watching someone shoot something I can't even fucking see. I'll have a great workout before I soak in the springs."
I waved them off, "Alright, alright… Here's how we deal with them…"
After a brief explanation, we drove only a few meters away from the main entrance of the rest stop before Tatiana jumped down with me. Kaley and Jose will still be required to hold their rifles and watch out for outside interference while I ordered Isaac to man the drone and be our eyes from above.
Quinn obviously will be coming with us with Jesus and some of his crew, leaving a few people to watch their cars. This time, we all turned off our engines because no one was allowed to leave this place until everyone inside this stop was laid to rest.
'3… 2… 1—'
Right from the get-go, I rushed in with my blade drawn and I liberated a zombie of its head and its right shoulder—along with its right arm—before I lopped off what was left of its counterpart, and everything else that came with it.
It was in the process of turning around when I came down on it so right when its upper body fell to the floor, I had enough time for a third slash to bisect what was left of its torso and separate its legs.
With that said, my blade easily passed through its creaky bones and tainted bits though I had to pull straight instead of redirecting the flow back or else I'd hit the concrete floor. However, I used the same pulling motion to ready my body for a lunging thrust that was aimed at this lanky deadhead that was trying to get away.
In a split second, I was several feet away from my original position but as I moved from one place to the other, I twisted my hand that was holding my blade to perform a change-up from a thrust to the back of its head to a low chop aimed just above its right knee.
It was because even if it wasn't one of the deadheads that stood up after taking a shot to the head, I'm pretty sure it would still get up even if I lopped its head off. So, I opted to disable everything and everyone I'd face inside this area, and chopping off 90% of its right leg made it stumble and fall down.
At this point, this deadhead was a sitting duck but I drew my .22 pistol and shot its head while it was trying to cover its face with its arms. I should've aimed for the back of its head to disable its movement for a few seconds earlier but we'd just chalk it up to experience.
But yeah, it had never felt so off to off a deadhead that looked like it was begging for its life—nasty fluids leaking out, skin rotten and discolored, and random organs missing from its body. Furthermore, I didn't think that I'd ever cut down deadheads that were trying to get away from me because most of the time, their chewed-up fingers and their fucked up teeth were racing to get a little pinch or nibble out of me, and we all were practically looking like the bad guys after this initial advance.
It didn't take long before Tatiana offered to dismember the bodies with her axe because Quinn and I were already doing most of the grunt work. I was clearing bodies in a methodical manner while Quinn was basically wreaking havoc with her rush.
Even Jesus opted out of our advance and he insisted on just collecting the limbs and torso we left on the ground so he could make the most cursed bonfire with flesh logs and sticks.
But right as I turned the first corner, I saw more deadheads trying to get inside the buildings that they had access to—even if their bodies were getting sliced up by the broken glass shards or getting caught up between the barricaded entrances—but to our surprise, there were actually deadheads that tried to stand up against us.
'Oh?'
Those deadheads were actually the few who were wearing ragged security uniforms—though there were also a handful who looked fairly "decent" or the ones who were wearing the pants in the family—but they were still regular ol' deadheads as regular deadheads go, so they just made our job easier for us, even though this situation was still weirding me the fuck out.
But yeah, Quinn couldn't give much of a fuck about the dead as she swung her huge-ass weapon at full force, be it something that was trying to take her down or something that was trying to block her way toward an entrance because like we said before, they were already dead.