Chapter 972 Duck, Duck, Goose?!
It had been more or less a year since the world ended and it baffled me as to why I still came across people like these. From the shows I've watched or read, the government should've already abandoned their people, random strangers wouldn't even dare to have a normal conversation with another stranger, and— sure, there could be another type of 1% like these dumb shits, but it was still an experience seeing it in person.
What Seb did and I let happen could be a bit too much for these people but then again, even if his actual intentions weren't to do harm, how the fuck could we know that?
It takes less than a second to kill or even seriously maim someone so we wouldn't take the chance to figure out his real intention regarding the matter. They've just been in a fight where there was a chance that Seb could be the one injured instead so it was his own damn fault for waking up a sleeping bear, poking a tiger with a stick, or in a less figurative sense, fucking around and finding out.
With that said, they were eventually sent to this place's clinic of sorts, and as Rosie's attendant thought we'd finally follow her, I instead pulled out the sketch I drew and showed it to Terry.
"Hmm? What's this— Oh? Is this a gift? Thank you—"
I almost smacked the shit out of the motherfucker, "Look closely at the figure. I tried my best to draw her and this is a slim chance, but is she anything like the figure you saw last time?"
"Last time?"
"You know, when you were drunk as fuck and told me about this witch—"
"OHHH! I see now, yeah— Wait— Hmm~ I didn't actually see her face b-but I guess the clothes they were wearing was kind of the same?"
Logan cut in, "Really? A hood over rags? Kinda unique, I guess~ Shii…"
Terry apologetically scratched his head as he turned back to me, "U-Umm, how about the frog a-and the goose? Y-You found them, at least?"
I facepalmed as I remembered that specific detail, "N-No… No frogs or geese… Just a pit viper—"
"A pit viper?! A-A snake, you mean?!"
"Yeah, sure—"
"Hmmrgh…" Terry grumbled as he looked up, as if he was trying to remember something, "Umm~ I'm not exactly s-sure but t-the one you found was p-probably a different one… Sorry… We used to have a lot of them—even travelling ones—around these parts so it could be anyone… I-I doubt all of them survived though but be really careful though, they're not as kind as they were portrayed in movies…"
Nancy tilted her head from hearing that statement, "What kind of movies are you watching?"
"Hmm?"
"N-Nevermind…"
I then nodded a few times, "Sebastian did say he learned from different—"
'Wait… Something doesn't add up… No… It kinda does… I guess "learning" could mean a few things if it came from Sebastian….'
I was slightly deep in thought because I did remember Sebastian telling me that he "learned" from more than one witch, mountain doctor, healer, or whatever term best described them, but I figured that other than his first time—where everything was either fed, injected, or directly put in him, he learned their tricks of the trade one way or the other… like the weirdest version of the Honey Trap scam.
'So… So, so, much easier when people used to tell me shit straight…'
"D-Dude?"
"What? Ah— N-Nevermind…"
"Sure…" Terry just looked at me a little puzzledly because I did space out for a shot bit after cutting my sentence short.
With that said, it didn't take long before we sorted everything out in this place like thanking the Villegas Family for their hospitality and giving the people from the De Leon Family stationed here a few "goodies" for some brownie points.
However, right as we drove outside their gates, I saw this white speck from the distance that crossed the street—and it was actually this weirdly shaped goose whose neck looked more like an elbow.
'Is that— No fucking way…'
It had this weird bump of sorts that was making it position its head lower but it quickly made its way into the woods as we were about to come closer.
I wasn't the only one who saw it actually but as weird as that instance was, the general consensus was to just leave it alone because, from our current affairs, it wasn't our business and peace was still an option. Besides, who in their right minds would chase a goose down—if it was even the right one—in unfamiliar territory and possibly land themselves in the same situation Sebastian experienced before?
But yeah, as we put that thought behind our minds, I noticed that Seb was just looking out the window like he was filming a sad music video.
I was this close to cracking a joke but our peace was disturbed when Kuzma and Logan started knocking loudly from the back:
"HEY! HEY! WE GOT A SITUATION OVER HERE!/ THEY ARE POURING FROM WHERE THAT DUCK RAN IN! DO WE ENGAGE OR NOT?!"
Right as I looked at the side mirror, a horde just seemingly popped out of nowhere, and faint gunshots could be heard from the direction of the Villegas Family estate. They obviously came from Mauro's men but the issue here wasn't their walls keeping up—which I assume they will, but a horde should be cleared or thinned out as much as possible.
I instantly stepped on the brakes and barked orders loud enough for everybody to hear:
"KALEY! HOP ON THE BACK WITH KUZMA AND SEB WITH YOUR RIFLES WHILE LOGAN DRIVES THE RAPTOR—"
"GOT IT! I'LL HANDLE THE RUNNERS! DON'T MIND THE NOISE, KUZMA! WE NEED SOME OF THEM GOING FOR US TOO!"
"UNDERSTOOD!"
"WHY DO I GOTTA DRIVE?!"
"I KNOW HOW THEY SHOOT BUT NOT YOU! YOU ONLY BROUGHT YOUR SIDEARM, WHAT GOOD WOULD THAT DO?!"
"FUCK IT, BUT WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?!"
I waved him off as I jumped to the back with Nancy, "JUST DO AS YOU'RE TOLD BUT I'M CALLING FOR BACKUP!"
"WE HAVE PEOPLE MUCH CLOSER TOO!"
"THEN CALL THEM AS WELL! BUT WE GOTTA HAVE AN ESCAPE ROUTE!"
"GOT IT! GOT IT! WHERE'S MY— HEY, YO! WE GOT SHUFFLERS OVER HERE! A WHOLE HORDE AND SHIT! BRING EVERYONE!"
Logan managed to call his men a little faster than me because I had to explain shit to him and assure Nancy who was already scared to death, but it didn't take long before I connected with Jose.
He instantly understood our situation as he dropped the call after hearing the word "Horde", and I left my radio with Nancy as I stepped out of my Raptor with my rifle.
From my perspective, I was seeing dozens and dozens of the dead that already invaded the road and smelled like the worst kind of Rafflesia but there were still more coming from the woods where the goose ran in. And as I turned around, there weren't any coming from the opposite direction but if worst comes to worst, our escape route would be to drive into this open area—or the most optimal route which was to drive over blood and ashes after everything was over.
In any case, the AK Kuzma was using was ripping shit and making the most noise, but he did waste a full magazine just to attract almost half of the stragglers to our direction.
But yeah, Kaley was already making quick work of the ones that broke free from the herd with a lead bullet to their skull while Seb was taking careful shots to not waste any ammo. At the same time, Logan positioned our vehicle in a way that he could see both sides of the road while still barking endlessly at his own radio.
"I'LL CUT IN FROM THE FAR LEFT! KUZMA AND SEB! COME WITH ME! BRING ALL OF THE MAGS YOU COULD AND SOMETHING FUCKING SHARP!"
"UNDERSTOOD!/ Y-YES SIR!"
As it stood, we were facing a herd of regular deadheads with a mix of sprinters, so I decided to not burn through our ammo as much and let Kaley act as our backup. It was easy and safe to take them down from a distance but in an economic standpoint, it would be better to go through our pistol rounds first or take down as many as we could with our melee weapons.
On that note, I had already made my way to the far left as Kuzma and Seb took the middle road, but I still used my pistol to shoot "inside" the horde to attract their attention. Furthermore, it would benefit me if I had more room to move around so the more space I take without corpses lying around, the better.
And yeah, I just had the urge to use one of my fragmentation grenades to where they were most concentrated—which was to the far right—so I lobbed it in the right place, cut down three unfortunate souls, before rotting body parts flew out after the explosion.
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