Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

Irene quickly asked about what happened and Jared started to tell the story. At the middle of his reiteration, Kaley suddenly grabbed my arms. I looked at her but her eyes were fixated at the corpse lying on its back.

"What?" I asked.

"They're still moving..." Kaley replied.

Her words were not loud but everyone around the site heard her. Jared stopped mid-sentence and all their eyes shifted back to the corpse.

"What? No, that's impossible. I-" Jared was in disbelief but Kaley lifted the much bigger arms which I assume from adolescents with her wakizashi to the side.

"Ah, shit." I muttered.

A pair of discolored hands which belonged to an infant started to slowly rise up when the weight bearing down on them were removed.

*BSSHEW*

Jared fired another round to the corpse's head.

Nothing.

The little hands remain unaffected so he chopped the guy's head off with his cavalry sword.

"..." everyone was processing what occurred.

He swung his sword three more times before completely removing the head off but when we looked at those little hands, they were still moving. Everyone's expressions were hard to describe as we all stared at those hands.

"This is impossible bro! What the fuck?!" Jared exclaimed while Kaley and Tatiana were silent.

I'm still observing the corpse but I had an idea.

I started by pushing on the largest arms first if they would still move or not. If they didn't, I would start to cut the stitches around the base of the arm to remove each one.

"Hey! What are you doing?!" Irene tried to pull me away from the corpse.

"Just let me." I looked back at her and she took a step back.

I then found out from the first pair of arms that were placed on its pectoral muscles were deeply rooted. I found nuts and bolts forcibly connecting the joints of the arms right through its chest cavity. There's a few miniature cracks from where the holes were drilled and I couldn't simply pull the arms out without unhinging them. The only thing I could praise with this work is how clean the procedure was done. There's no tears from the flesh and you'll only know what's been done once you open it up. I removed each one while avoiding the little arms that are slowly flailing.

I already have an inkling as to why those little arms are still moving so when they were the ones left, I turned the corpse over.

Clear as day.

There's a huge seam at his back.

The people around are waiting for what I would do next so I used my knife once more. I carefully cut the stitches to reveal what's hidden inside. Almost everyone turned around when they saw it but the ones who didn't have a gruesome expression.

There's a baby stuffed inside who had its body cut in half.

It is placed from the back so that its arms would just be placed on the holes made on the abdomen. Most of the larger corpse's insides were removed to nestle the baby inside with a tight fit. The guard earlier who's vomiting on the side saw it and he quickly ran back to his spot.

"Jesus fucking christ..." Irene had an angry expression while both of her hands were clutching her brown hair.

Kaley's the same way and her rate of breathing in and out increased exponentially.

I made a deep sigh before I stabbed the back of its head with my knife.

I turned it over again and the slow flail immediately died down. It's now just a lifeless abomination like the rest of the arms earlier. Tears started to come out of Irene's eyes and she's trying to wipe them before it fell through her cheeks.

"Is it one of them bro?" Jared asked.

"One of them? You know the people who did this?! Where?!" Irene exploded.

"It's not one of them." I replied.

"How can you be sure bro?! Remember what they did at the front of Woodlands?! Those fucking effigies that they built to intimidate Mr. Gabriel and the rest?! That's their doing bro!" Jared exclaimed.

"Then how the fuck do you think they got here, huh?! Dude, they're on the other side and several hundred kilometres far! Unless they managed to clear the expressway or managed to get a hold of a helicopter, it wouldn't be them! Why do you think I'm against Nikolas and the rest driving outside our region to randomly look for Ilya and the rest? It's because it's still impossible! Besides, they were guards posted here 24/7, Woodlands before didn't. How do you think they managed to do that and made sure that it would walk straight at this place? Huh?" I retorted.

"But, they could have people from other places that share their cause, right? It's not like they don't have ways to communicate like us, right?" Kaley asked.

"That could be true but like I said, how could they be sure that this thing gets to this place? It's even a miracle that it followed the road. My only guess is that this thing saw the lights and pursued it. We've already confirmed cases of them still being able to see. Going here for those lights just might be them acting on something random. Like 'Oh, a light. I want to go there.' or something. I just hoped this thing was like the kid that could talk so at least we'd have some idea." I replied and we told Irene and the rest of that kid we encountered before.

"What if this thing is just released? That is possible too, correct?" Tatiana asked.

"Released?" Irene asked.

"Well making something fucked up like this would definitely take a few tries, correct?" Tatiana replied.

"Showcasing to the world, eh? Something like a fucked up sculptor?" I commented.

"So you're saying there would be more of this thing?!" Irene was disgusted.

"Maybe, but I think we'll find more parts than finished products basing it from that thing." I replied.

Silence followed but everyone's gazes would still point to the corpse that was played with. Bitter expressions were still the common sight and there's nothing left to do but drag it to the pile and burn it after a short documentation. I made sure to record every nook and cranny of that abomination for review later if I might have missed something. A mark or a carving would be the way to go about investigating something like this but our only clue is that it came from the direction where the city is and that's not something solid to point us in the right direction.

I turned to Irene to ask some questions.

"Irene, just to be sure, I need to ask this. Have you seen a group of people calling themselves the chosen ones? They're an overly religious bunch that has appeared near my place before and we managed to take care of a group of them. The reason why Jared thought that they were the ones that did this is that they left something similar to this but it's on a much grander scale." I looked at her.

"Chosen ones? I'm sure that we've never encountered a group calling themselves that before." Irene replied.

"But does that mean you've encountered other groups from your runs?" Kaley asked.

"Well, yes we have but we haven't seen them for a while now. This thing came from the road that leads to the city, right?" She looked at Jared and he nodded.

"Is one of them that guy? I know part of its head is blown off but could you find some semblance?" I asked.

"I-I'm not really sure about that. We haven't done much interaction with them and they tend to keep to themselves when we encounter them." Irene answered.

"Hmm, do you have any idea on where they might be staying at least? If they're staying close to where it came from, they would've encountered more of them in a good case scenario." I replied.

"Then what's the bad case scenario bro?" Jared asked.

"They're either the ones making them or they've already been made into one of those. She said that they haven't seen them in a while. They could be in the process of making one or the other thing." I replied.

"Does that mean we're gonna try to look for them and your group would stay here for a while?" Irene asked.

"We won't be staying here for a while but we'll do what we could tomorrow. And to answer your first question, we'll try and look for them to ask more questions to get to the bottom of this. The kinds of people doing this kind of thing for fun have a special place in where I'll put them. Unless those bloody figures learn how to use guns or evolve to something that has a higher challenge rating, people who are making things like that are one of the things that are more dangerous." I replied.