After an hour or so, everyone had finally gathered by the gate where I torched a certain professor's precious ride—but just to himself—though the friends I'd be leaving in the meantime were present except for a select few: Chloe, Dr. Lopez, Ron, and Allyssa.
The first two had solid reasons for not sending us off but we did a proper goodbye when Dr. Lopez treated the few scratches I sustained from throwing myself on the ground. And for the other two, they had their own issues to deal with but I did leave my school ID to Mimi which she clutched like her life depended on it.
She was in tears as I was saying goodbye, "S-Stay safe, a-alright? Y-You better come back! You promised!"
I smiled as I ruffled her hair, "Yep! Just don't forget about the things I just told you about, alright? If anything happens, give me a call—but if I don't answer, call the numbers on the sat phone I gave you, and don't hand it over to Ben because he'll definitely sell it for a slice of cheese—"
Ben cut in while shaking his head, "C'mon, dude~ You're not gonna let me live that down, huh?"
Cass added, "Cut him some slack, alright?"
"Nope! Well~ This is it, yeah? These goodbyes are pretty stupid because we'll definitely see each other in a couple of weeks—or maybe even earlier, so just be ready to drop anything and everything in a drop of a hat, alright?"
But as we were about to set off, Andy creepily slithered in and whispered like he was dealing drugs, "Bro..."
"What?"
"The thing uh... You know, the thing you promised me?"
"What thing?"
He couldn't believe what I was saying, "Y-You know! T-The thing!"
"Ah~ Right. Clean your fucking mess of a room!"
"W-Wut?"
I rolled my eyes as he didn't get it the first time, "Clean. Your. Mess. Of. A. Room.
And. You. May. Find. Some. THING.
Over. There! Get it?!"
"Oh— OHHHH! LOVEYADUDESEEYOULATERBYE~!"
Completely ignoring how Andy beat Eminem or Ez Mil for a second there, I gave everyone a farewell upward nod as I waved them goodbye before I rolled up my windows and asked the guards to open the gates for us.
And as they did, the guard who assisted me earlier gave me a subtle nod as well but I bet he'll be shitting his pants when he discovered that I gave a sneaky deposit into his account.
With that said, Jesus and his crew were the first ones to head out before we followed, and we all adjusted our radios to the same frequency as each other's.
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*bzzt*
"Mic check, mic check... Everyone on Channel 777?"
*bzzt*
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*bzzt*
[C'mon, are you making fun of me or what?]
*bzzt*
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*bzzt*
"Hey! I'm honoring you, don't you like this number? You had it tattooed on ya!"
*bzzt*
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*bzzt*
[HAHAHAHAHAHA! Jesus, just admit that—]
*bzzt*
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*bzzt*
[Hey! 777 is another one of ours! I'm just number 7, alright?!]
*bzzt*
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*bzzt*
"Don't you believe in the Holy Trinity?"
*bzzt*
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*bzzt*
[The what now?]
*bzzt*
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*bzzt*
[Fuck you, I wanna be mad but that's clever.]
*bzzt*
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*bzzt*
[What are you two talkin' about? Are you not hearing me?]
*bzzt*
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*bzzt*
"You know, the father, the son, and the holy spirit— Read the fucking bible if you want to learn—"
*bzzt*
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*bzzt*
[Where would I even find one?!]
*bzzt*
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*bzzt*
[I've sent some of my men in these parts and they'll probably recognize me once I switch over to our designated frequencies—]
*bzzt*
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*bzzt*
[I believe you, Baron, I do. But sometimes, some of your soldiers do interpret your orders differently and in a different radio frequency than what you told them. I know we're cool with some of them but vigilance at its highest, alright?]
*bzzt*
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*bzzt*
[A-Alright... I'll keep that in mind...]
*bzzt*
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With that said, we drove into this small township of sorts where its biggest highlight was a huge mall that was barricaded to shit where some people were standing above wooden platforms to see over their deterrents.
Some of them were even present on the roof but we can see another group searching corpses for supplies and whatnot while another was lounging atop a couple of buses where music was blasting from a crappy stereo.
It looked to be an area occupied by mostly civilians but luckily enough, they just watched us drive past them without any issue.
In any case, after going a few blocks forward, we passed by several bus stations and smaller general stores but the undead we were seeing were the only ones stuck among the barricades or under crashed vehicles.
I could clearly see Jose scanning around with his rifle in hand at the back, while Kaley and Tatiana were ready to roll down each of their windows in case anyone tried to get the jump on us.
'Seems chill, so far...'
But yeah, for some reason, the public markets were always the source of infestations and in regard to this area, their public market had two stations for public transportation vehicles namely: for jeepneys and for tricycles.
I didn't mention that particular detail without reason because since these stations needed a lot of space to operate, it made the public market a much bigger area to contain the dead. Not to mention, they were located further in and there was now a ramp-like wall of undead keeping most of them in, trickling a few here and there to bother the survivors in the immediate vicinity.
If I was living close to such a den of potential specials, I would've mobilized several groups for this disaster waiting to happen but I'm guessing they weren't as armed as us to clear the whole area. However, JP's voice had once again echoed through our radios and he sounded more pissed than usual.
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*bzzt*
[These fuckers...]
*bzzt*
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*bzzt*
[What got your panties in a bunch this time?]
*bzzt*
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*bzzt*
[I've sent groups to clear this place before and I was told it was done but—]
*bzzt*
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*bzzt*
"It's gotten worse?"
*bzzt*
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*bzzt*
[Y-Yeah... I've given them rewards too and— I gotta send a report to my dad—]
*bzzt*
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*bzzt*
"You could do that now or WE can do it later."
*bzzt*
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*bzzt*
[What do you mean?]
*bzzt*
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*bzzt*
"I mean... It's a few hundred zombies—700 tops. We can do it in an hour or so if we don't burn them but if you're so inclined to tell your father about the mess you made—"
*bzzt*
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*bzzt*
[Mess I made? Excuse me?]
*bzzt*
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*bzzt*
"You're in charge of the people who told you that this place is clear and if you handed them the rewards without definite proof, that's also on you. I know how your place works. But wouldn't it be better to send two reports of what you discovered and what you did to take care of the mess?"
*bzzt*
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