348 Huge mess with nothing to show for it
“The closer we get, the harder it is not to worry,” Mathew muttered when he stomped down on the skull of a zombie he just deprived of all limbs.
“I wholeheartedly agree,” Nadia chimed in, cutting down yet another zombie that stood on their path.
The rest of the group couldn’t really give their opinion on the matter as they were too damn busy killing the zombies that blocked their way.
It wasn’t like in the area where Mathew’s initial detachment took their fight. There, not even a single zombie managed to escape. Even despite Mathew’s injuries, he made sure to finish all those that dared to stand against him while Nadia took care of both her own group and those that Norbert managed to stall.
The situation was only slightly worse at Daniel’s place. Not because people there were less competent than Mathew’s initial detachment… but simply because they were still in process of cleaning up the horde when Mathew came to pay a visit.
Yet…
Mathew’s now strengthened group didn’t even need to reach anywhere near Peter’s base when they stumbled into the free-roaming zombies.
A few days ago, it wouldn’t be something strange. Such was the nature of the zombies, to roam around in search of prey. And yet, even since something made most of the zombies vacate the area, one could encounter them only around the places where a horde would come to siege.
The situation far away from Peter’s base was already worrying, yet as they got even closer… things only took a turn for worse.
“Did they even try to face the horde?” Mathew muttered once he had to strain his recovering body to clean up another group of zombies by himself due to how literally everyone else in his group, save for Norbert, was busy doing the same.
pAn,D a-n0ve1,c-o-m
“I wish I could say I understand,” Mathew replied, gritting his teeth as he focused his attention back on the task at hand.
Thankfully, they only encountered the mob zombies. And while Norbert wasn’t really reliable at this point, given how he could tell the precise locations of the mob zombies around them, there was a huge chance they didn’t need to be wary of a high-evolved one roaming around as well.
Bit by bit, Mathew’s group managed to force their way closer to Peter’s base. Ultimately, the mob zombies were just that. An annoying obstacle on their path that wasn’t worth being called a threat.
And then, after nearly reaching their destination, Mathew’s group stopped.
“What the hell is this?!” Mathew couldn’t hold his annoyance back.
His reaction was nothing out of ordinary. Any normal person would react like that if not worse at the sight of an entire street covered in guts, blood, and pieces of human flesh and innards alike.
But, the gruesome sight wasn’t the reason behind Mathew’s shock and disbelief. Or rather, it wasn’t the gruesome part of the sight that shocked him.
There were only a few corpses of the zombies left on the street. Fifty of them tops. Far less than what one could expect from the site of carnage before their eyes.
And not a single one of those zombies had its core plucked out!
‘Are they trying to groom evolved ones or what?’ Mathew asked himself, squatting down over one of the nearest corpses.
‘I can feel mana lingering in those corpses as well,’ he realized a second later.
“Mathew,” Nadia called out. Her face showcased that her feelings weren’t all that different from what was going on through Mahtew’s head. “I know how shocked you are, but we don’t have the time for this,” she said before turning her head and looking over the nearby block. “Not yet.”
‘So let’s leave all those cores for zombies to harvest, consume and evolve on their own,’ Mathew thought, gritting his teeth.
Yet, he stood back up and nodded his head to his first wife.
“Carol,” Mathew then called out, looking to the side.
“What’s up?” Carol replied, jumping up a little to make herself more visible and to showcase her eagerness.
“I will leave cleaning this place out of cores to you,” Mathew ordered before turning his head towards his second wife. “Daria, keep her company just in case. And unless you really think it’s necessary, stick to your human form.”
They were a throw of a stone away from Peter’s base. Unless the unrest inside took over everyone’s attention, Peter’s men likely spotted them already.
And even though Mathew came here with the idea of unification, that didn’t mean he had to reveal all of his cards.
“Will do,” Daria replied with a relaxed smile while cutting down yet another stray zombie with her blade.
And from the look of elation that then appeared on her face when she drew her eyes to her blade, the girl was quite content with the idea of testing that new weapon of hers.
“Well then, let’s crack this nut,” Mathew then muttered to himself, putting on a tough look as he stepped toward the base.
With Nadia always on alert to keep him safe, Mathew approached the garage doors of what used to be the mechanical workshop without any further delays. And then, after a short moment of fighting with his own disgust, he reached out and knocked against the metal of the doors, ignoring all the blood that covered it.
A face flashed in one of the barred windows nearby, before the garage doors started to pull up.
“It’s you, guys,” one of Peter’s officers whom Mathew still remembered from only a few hours ago appeared in the gap between the doors and the ground before pulling the doors all the way up.
“I would rather have my wife greet me,” Mathew said right away while squinting his eyes and putting his hand on the handle of his own blade.
“She’s inside,” the man replied and stepped to the side, inviting Mathew’s party in. “Get inside before some zombies will take this chance,” he requested before his face darkened. “We already have enough problems at hand, there is no need to invite even more of them.”
‘More of problems, or more of zombies, I wonder?’ Mathew thought as he stepped inside the building, followed by the rest of his group.
“They are not coming inside?” the officer asked as he threw a quick glance at the two girls busying themselves with fighting the zombies outside.
“Someone gotta finish the job,” Mathew shortly replied before ignoring the man and pushing deeper into the building.
The young man only managed to make a few steps and take a single corner before the true scale of the problem revealed itself to his eyes.
It seems as if every last man of Peter’s group was gathered in the open space of the former workshop. And as of now, all those people were divided into one of the three groups.
A few of them stood by Leila’s side. And out of a total of five of those who stood with her, quite noticeably, three of them lacked one of their limbs.
The great majority of the crowd stood in opposition to Leila’s group, clearly out for blood.
And only Peter and two of his officers stood in the middle, trying to keep the two groups apart and keep things calm.
“You are finally here,” Leila said, looking over her arm the second Mathew appeared from beyond the corner. “Right on time. As you can see,” she said, before turning her face back towards the group conflicted with her, “your presence is highly appreciated.”