In less than a minute, we were on a steep climb with our vehicles on Ligaya Road—that meant Happiness Road in English—but considering what happened around this area, it was the complete and total opposite.
The immediate vicinity looked like an aftermath of a protest or a rally. And instead of garbage or whatever signage they brought littering the ground, it was replaced with headless corpses that were either getting feasted on by flies and maggots or slowly turning into the most fucked up jerky due to the heat of the sun.
Despite that, the view on this climb could still be immaculate if we looked to our left because the Taal Volcano and its lake were still present in all its glory. I even went there once in one of the field trips we had at school but that was a story for another time.
'It's one of the few things left untouched though... Still beautiful...'
With that said, our ascent had been pretty much uneventful but seeing the place we'd end up in if we're careless could already get our hearts racing. It was because the road up this hill wasn't just a steep climb, but it also came with tight corners and uneven passages where one mistake could be fatal.
But yeah, there was only one thing more dangerous than climbing this hill and it was descending it.
'And those heads rolling down are— Huh?! Why is—'
While I was still trying to monologue, close to a hundred heads just started rolling from a tight curve and down into the ravine, though a few managed to get bumped randomly, roll safely, or something that can't be explained properly and somehow "survived". However, what came after those heads were a small group that looked like they were between the ages of 16-25.
They were frantically trying to save every single head that was still in the process of rolling down, but they had the same look I had when I dropped an overloaded stuffed-crust pizza, an XXXL chocolate shake, and a bucket of fries on the floor on my "bulking" days.
Then our radio buzzed.
-
*bzzt*
[Geez, those cadets are fucked.]
*bzzt*
-
*bzzt*
"You know them?"
*bzzt*
-
*bzzt*
[Not personally but I know the military has their own clearing group roaming the streets and they also have the collecting group—which is mostly composed of cadets—to gather the spoils for them. And as I said earlier, they're fucked. Literally and figuratively.]
*bzzt*
-
*bzzt*
"Is there anything we can do to help? We're stopping by their place later, I should try and get some reputation points while we're at it."
*bzzt*
-
*bzzt*
[Hah! You're too fucking honest, you know that? Can't you just say that we're gonna help them from the goodness of our hearts and just think what you said earlier to ourselves?]
"Hmm?"
"It's that gorgeous man over there with the harem of ravishing beauties left, right, and center. The god among men, the bringer of light and darkness, the unshakeable— Ow! What the fuck— How'd you throw this rock from over there?!"
I stared him down as I stepped out of my vehicle, "Physics— No, because I can."
The moment I approached the group, they looked a little wary of me even though I looked to be in their age group. It could be because I was carrying a much, much, different loadout compared to theirs or I was the one that looked to be in charge of this small convoy and the guy they were revering.
I continued, "Hey, I'm Sky Ishiyama, I was a local here a few years back and since you guys are in a little bit of a pickle, why don't we offer some help and you'd just owe me a small favor?"
"..."
"Hello?"
"..."
"You guys hearing me?"
"..."
"No? Alright then, I guess you guys aren't as fucked as Jesus mentioned—"
One of the cadets who seemed to be their leader of sorts cut me off, "Wait. Our group's listed for 300 heads a week and we probably lost half of our quota from this mishap... We'd need all the help we can get but I want this 'small' favor to be concrete."
I chuckled as I looked him in the eye, "I haven't caught your name yet but do you have the luxury to negotiate right now?"
"..."
"The silent treatment again? C'mon, it's just—"
He cut me off again, "It's Seb and no, we don't have the luxury to negotiate. But, at least give us the courtesy of knowing the shit we have to do for you instead of making us guess. No offense, but you guys don't look like the goody-two-shoes type. I don't want to get fucked for the rest of my life if I could survive this day. It's kind of a respect thing, you know?"
Hearing that, I was happily taken aback but I took some mental notes about this Seb guy.
I briefly smiled as I sighed, "Bruh, you're too fucking deep in the juice, lighten up a little bit."
"Excuse me?"
"I'm just saying not to worry too much about it. But since you insist, I need some lore— you know, POVs from the people who are in these parts since it all started... and you can tell me an hour's worth of lore each and I'll take it as the 'small' favor. With that said, I'll help you gather— what was it? Three hundred, no— 150 heads by the end of the day. Deal?"
At this point in time, Seb looked to be mulling over the deal I handed over to him while everyone else in his group seemed to be checking me out. At first, they were checking out my facial features and the small bit of my tattoo that was sticking out then they started to check my gear from afar, drawing their own conclusions.
And almost immediately, I found a weeb among their group, and it was either a "That's so freakin' cool!" dude or an "Actually, a katana is blah, blah, blah..." moron.
It's just that the glint in his eyes already revealed his true nature but Seb cut him off before he tried to strike up a conversation.
"Alright, that's a good deal as any but where do you suggest we get more heads?"
"You're the guys down here, right? You should know where we can—"
"We're not equipped to take down infestations the size of hordes! We can't—"
"YOU guys can't. WE can. I would've pointed you to a rest stop we cleared pretty recently but we burned all of their remains to cinders, and you probably won't accept charcoal— So, you either point us to where we can help you the easy way or I have climbing gear in my truck and we could do things the hard way."
At this point, the order of which we should've followed had already gone to shit but the hot spring we had to visit first wouldn't go anywhere. It's much better to form relationships with the locals—even though they probably have zero power in their community—because if they had nowhere else to go, we pretty much have extra space to take people in.
Besides, the information they have on the inside was fucking valuable and if worst comes to worst, I could easily contact the head, head honcho and get everything straightened out.
With that said, Seb, for the first time, turned to his group to discuss some things concerning their quotas but a quick eavesdrop told me that he was leading his group with an iron fist.