A technomancer's journey in an apocalyptic world

Chapter 27: The Village (Part-2)

The trailer finally came to a halt, as all those noises from gun firing and horn blaring out loud had drawn out a large number of zombies, nearing about a fifty strong, and Michalina had a gala time driving over them.

"So did you get a good haul, Ryan?"

Ryan beamed towards Nikita as he spoke, "I did, I got about ten Tier 2 zombies and those two evolved that I killed before were tier 3 as such I earned a hundred and sixty blood points in total and twelve souls."

"But at the same time, we learned something new."

Nikita nodded at that as Ryan continued to speak, "The evolution of zombies through cannibalism, I never thought I would see something like that."

Nikita frowned at that as she helped Ryan tie up his chest armour before speaking, "Our ideas of zombies come from various novels, movies and many other things, of course, something is bound to be different."

Ryan nodded as he spoke, "Well I will try to see if I could get you some paper or notebooks as well writing utensils since you are cataloguing everything new we find."

"Thank you and much appreciated Ryan."

"Okay everyone circle around and listen carefully, as I go over the plans."

"There will be two teams for this mission, the first team would consist of Angela and Nikita.", Michalina then looked towards Angela as she spoke, "Your job is to guard Nikita while she collects the samples, we might have killed the zombies, but we have no way of discerning if there are other threats out there or not as such be vigilant."

"The second group will be made by Jessica and Ryan they would go house to house searching, and gathering for various necessary items and I believe that you will be extra careful for while I can keep an eye out for Angela and Nikita you two will not have the same courtesy while inside a house."

The door was swung open as Jessica jumped out followed by Angela as they promptly kneeled on the ground checking for any creature that might be taking shelter, as they signalled Nikita followed by Ryan descended as they then left towards their objective.

Nikita began to perform an autopsy on the spot as Angela stood guard whereas the other two went towards the house the farthest away from their current location, their plan was simply complete house to house inspection from the furthest one at first and the nearest the last.

"Ryan, follow me and do not disobey my command okay."

Ryan nodded at that as he followed after her while Michalina was listening through the radio various updates her team was giving them, and she was incredibly tensed as was Nigella who was manning the turrets keeping an eye out for any potential dangers.

Since the arrival of the 'Village Heart Crystal', all of them had gained the use of inventory and just like Ryan they were happy to use it to fullest not to mention how incredibly helpful it was.

"Ryan, cover me."

Jessica slowly turned the doorknob as she entered the house with Ryan following closely after her like her shadow, the quake had broken and toppled most of the house, and even those that were still standing were not unharmed as they had to navigate through broken pieces of furniture or walls.

It took them a few minutes, but after it was deemed that they were alone Jessica spoke with a huff, "Start looting."

Their radio crackled as Michalina's voice came to their ears, "We are not looting but requisitioning items vital for our operations."

Jessica snorted at that as she took out her hatchet as she started to cut down curtains and tear of mattresses to gather cloth while Ryan made his way to the bathroom to find something useful whether they be medicines or toiletries.

"I have finished the bedroom grabbed sheets and clothes."

"I have gathered all toiletries, medicinal items and broken of woods and metal parts, dismantle various electronic units though the only food left is rotten."

"Well, maybe we will find some food that is still edible let us move on to the next house, Ryan."

It had been a few hours since they had begun their work, and Angela had joined the duo as Nikita had stepped inside the trailer as she had finished her work.

"Only a couple of houses left and then we can have lunch I am starving."

"Me too Angela, me too though I hope the lunch will be better than that of the base after all we found some good canned food that is still edible."

"Damn, Nikita can cook so well such a wonderful smell yum!", with a crackle their radio brought in Michalina's voice.

"Hey, sis that is so not cool.", Ryan shouted out in anger.

"Michalina enough this is not the time for jokes we are doing some rather serious work so stop distracting us.", Jessica spoke in a stern voice before she rounded Ryan as she spoke again, "And you pay attention to do not get distracted as it could prove fatal."

Ryan replied in a subdued manner, "Yes, Ma'am"

"Good now I will take front Angela you are in the middle, and Ryan watches our back."

Jessica once again opened the door as she stepped inside and then she stopped seeing her stopping so abruptly the other two tensed, "This place has a carcass and the blood on the floor indicates that something was dragged inside, so keep your eyes peeled and avoid making sounds as such no radio only hand contact, 'Alpha Raven' be advised we are entering radio silence."

"Ryan, do not worry, we are here."

Jessica's words alleviated some of his fears as he simply nodded as Jessica continued, "You remember the hand signals don't you?"

"I do."

"Then play close attention to any I give and be extra vigilant."

As they stepped inside Ryan found the entire room containing various carcasses, and floor seemed to have blood marks on them, he was sure if it were not for the mask the horrendous smell of death and decay would have assaulted them.

The wooden floor creaked a little making Ryan wince at that as they slowly moved through the drawing-room into a hallway when all of a sudden a pair of hands burst out of the floor as it grabbed Ryan's legs before pulling him down to what seemed to be the basement before anyone could react.

Michalina was sat tensed as she listening to the soft crackle of the radio because there was a radio silence she had decided to turn off her mike as not to cause accidental problems but her speakers were working at full throttle as she sat on the chair with her full combat gear ready to move at a moment's notice.

"RYAN!!NO!!!!!", the shout from the speaker followed by massive gunfire made her blood cold, she jumped from her seat as she dashed towards the door, "NIKITA, you are in charge."

With that, she jumped out of the trailer almost tearing the door off its hinges as she ran with electricity arcing around her covering her body completely.

Ryan was stunned for a moment as he fell on the hard floor only for his vision to be filled with world's worst unhygienic teeth he had seen not to mention the drooling mouth with red eyes glaring at him it took a moment that the being was a zombie that was about to take a bite off him, he jammed the muzzle of his gun into its mouth and pulled the trigger as it brain flew all around him.

Jessica did not waste any time as she jumped on atop of a zombie landing on its head hard killing him as she began to fire at the others making sure that Ryan would be free as Angela followed soon after as she pulled a few off him as she fired her gun to kill them.

With the zombies off of him Ryan jumped up as he hit another with the butt of his rifle before firing it again, 'Damn it there are so many of them, the bolt action is making it slow.'

He gritted his teeth as he shoved the rifle into the inventory as he fired his revolver, with the corner of his eyes he saw Angela struggling, whereas Jessica was fighting with all he had with dual hatchets.

Ryan swung his rapier as he cut off the head of one as he kicked another away before his revolver roared again, 'This is much better if my revolver runs out I still have a hatchet and knife to use, I have to go into automatic or semi-automatic bolt action is not good.'

Ryan never felt so glad about the fact that he was wearing the protective armour as he was sure that without them, he would be dead, he would have given a pat on his back, but unfortunately, his hands were too busy, 'Damn my revolver ran out, so hatchet time.'

The next few seconds were a blur as he became 'tornado of blades' as he hacked, slashed and pierced anything that came in front of him.

Lightning strike descended upon the group electrocuting the remaining zombies turning them into ash.

"Ryan, are you alright?"

Michalina's voice came to his ears as Ryan looked groggily at her, as Ryan spoke with a tiredly, "You are late to the party it is over."

Jessica let out an amused snort before she leaned on the wall as did Angela sat on the floor as she spoke with a pain-filled voice, "I sprained my ankle."

"Well I will help you to move but first let me catch my breath."

Ryan looked at Michalina as he spoke, "Big sis, can you find a way out of here."

"Do not worry, I will find a way out, and then I will help to carry Angela to the trailer."

"Ten I killed ten zombies here most of Tier two with a couple of Tier three."

"Same for me, I am glad the armour you created is good otherwise we would have become food already."

"Thank you, Angela, though the weapons did not seem to work well if only I had automatic or semi-automatic then it would have been great."

"It would have killed us, Ryan, the basement is narrow as well there is no light here as such if you had used automatic or semi-auto we would die from friendly fire, melee was the best option."

Angela decided to chime in as she spoke, "Jessica is right Ryan, every time you fired the gun I was afraid, I would accidentally get shot."

"Well Jessica if you say melee was the best option here, then I do not wish to suffer a similar situation ever again for a long long time."

Jessica snorted at that as she spoke, "Me too Ryan, me too."

Ryan opened the chamber of his revolver as he reloaded the bullets before putting it back into his holster as he patiently waited for his sister to return.

'Attaching the water straw with the mask was the best idea I had, otherwise I would have to wait until I was completely cleaned.'

"The rest of the building is cleared, we can leave."

"I believe since Angela is hurt we should let her retreat in the meantime Ryan and I would finish up with this and the last building, I so do not wish to venture forth again and dirty myself up."

"Negative we are all returning."

"Sister as much as I would like to return, I support Jessica's idea we do not know what we might find and if you are worried so much why don't you leave Angela in Nikita's capable hands and return, we will wait for you, after all just another house and this village will be over and we can leave or stay and put up camp."

"Micha please let us complete our mission and then we would retire, every bit of resource is vital."

Michalina sagged a bit before she spoke, "Well I will be carrying Angela back, but if you two decide to move on without me I will make sure that you will not be doing similar mission anytime soon."

Ryan raised his hand drawing attention towards him as he spoke, "I so do not want to participate in any mission anytime soon, I have had my fill with zombies."

"I thought you liked killing zombies."

"Big sis, I like to kill zombies when I am sitting on the other side of the screen of my PC, not like this."