These figures looked as if terracotta warriors and descendants of Frankenstein made dozens and dozens of babies before bathing in a hot steaming poop bath, though I took advantage of their cinematic sequence as I cheesed their entry with my .22 pistol.
The distance between us and them was very short and since their earlier batch had already walked the same path, bridging the distance in an instant would definitely not spring any traps.
And since Kaley was the only one who had the same suppressed .22 pistol that I had which was a Taurus TX22, she was the only one I didn't stop when everyone else tried to come in guns blazing.
It was because we might very well be by the entrance of the witch's lair that was located behind this waterfall—which tickled me as a gamer—so we needed to be as quiet as much as possible even if we fired off a few rounds in the distance and made a lot of noise by the road earlier.
But yeah, I saw Kuzma and Tatiana jump over the other side from the "floor" or level we were in as a catch-all for stragglers though a couple of cadets followed after them while the rest either secured the path we came in or were ready to fuck shit up when things didn't go our way.
In any case, with the words of Mr. Devito—or should I say, Mr. Frank Reynolds, "So anyway, I started blastin'."
Kaley and I picked a side—the right or the left—to start with, and so that we wouldn't accidentally aim at the same walking corpse, but it went even easier than we initially thought.
These fucked up deadheads were already having a hard time with their motor skills, how much could they freely move around while they were also covered in shit, dirt, and clay?
The answer was that there were actually a select few that we chose to avoid because their heads were still covered in thick dirt or they were still encased from that huge blockage and needed more water to rinse them from the substance.
However, it didn't take long before another "blockage" popped out of the same hole, but instead of the smell of just decay and rot, it also now had a mix of rotten eggs and compost.
'I'm beginning to doubt that this is the place...'
With that happening, the ones we were picking off got pushed to the level below, but everyone else took it upon themselves to end their misery with their axe, machete, or the melee weapon they brought with them.
We were still following the protocol of being mostly quiet and what Kaley and I did was just switch our targets to the ones who were still in the process of separating from their brethren and struggling from the added weight to their bodies.
And yes, I've said plenty of times before, even a suppressed .22 LR round was loud even without wearing ear protection but there was a stark difference to it compared to firing a shotgun load or an unsuppressed rifle round.
It wasn't exactly "silencing" it or suppressing it but the person that would hear the sound would have a harder time figuring out the exact distance or location it came from.
And in much simpler terms, imagine playing Marco Polo with someone who was deliberately altering the volume of their responses.
But yeah, as much as I'd hate to do this—and since I'm on my last mag on my TX22—I pulled out my katana while Kaley switched to our Maxim 9 which to those of you who forgot was an internally suppressed pistol chambered in 9mm.
"Just shoot them when they're clumping up, alright?"
"Sir JP, I'm aware that tattoos are pretty commonplace as you've stated but you have to understand that there are specific tattoos that belong to particular tribes in this area. However, I'm not well-versed in all of them so I could only identify a few. It's just that some of them were from the tribesfolk the Madam unleashed her wrath upon..."
JP tilted his head, "And that means?"
Sebastian shook his head, "This... I don't know the exact reason but a tribe's healer isn't supposed to cause harm to their own."
I interjected, "Didn't you also say that there are tattoos from different tribes?"
"Ah. There are exceptions such as that but who would make an enemy out of all the mountain people just to further their research?"
"Eh~ It could be a different thing altogether too."
"W-What do you mean, my lord?"
"Well, they have their own set of beliefs but they do be crazy sometimes. What if they did it to themselves or made their only doctor find a way to take revenge? Not all of these witches live alone, right? They do in a way but they belong to an org or something..."
"I guess so but I-I don't follow the revenge part..."
I pointed at some of the corpses I examined, "See those bullet holes? Those aren't fresh."
"That's—"
I nodded as I looked straight at Sebastian, "I dunno about you but the unleashed wrath you spoke of must've been a little sloppy. I doubt that the people Sal used to raze this mountain took into account every one that they've shot down so this must've been a few corpses a survivor of them made use of in order to get back at us.
You've also said that you're not familiar with this side of the mountain so how could Mauro's people do better than you?"
"That's true..."
"Also, there could still be survivors from what Sal did and they could be hiding in a cave system and this was one of the exit holes, literally. I doubt we'd find anything useful if we go inside nature's butthole but it could lead to where some of them are... or aren't anymore..."
"Hmm?"
"Because it looks to me that their revenge was cut short."
Sebastian's ears perked, "My lord?"