Chapter 28: Leaving the Premise
"That was a f*cking dream!" Should I shoot him?
Obviously not. That would be a great overreaction. Still, I was quite angry. If it weren't for having been exalted my body would be anything but athletic.
"A dream?" He blinked confusedly.
"I think that at some point the professor had started to mutate and we got stuck in some sort of nightmare or illusion" I begrudgingly explained while rubbing my cheek. He would definitely have to pay for my food later.
"Mutate…? Where is the creature?" Seamus asked before noticing the pooled up black blood and the dark grey humanoid cadaver.
He was shocked.
And it was only natural. To encounter mutants inside of Termina would be a rarity. Otherwise, what is the point of having all of those checkpoints? No wait I actually got through those fairly easily…
There has to be another reason as to why mutants rarely infiltrate the underground city. Like, maybe these ghostly creatures only appear on the surface...? The flies and maggots would definitely be noticed if they tried to cross.
Another point worth noting is that the specter-like creature is afraid of the light. Why would it try to enter Termina in the first place?
"This…" Seamus was still in a state of disbelief.
"How do we prove this thing is the professor?" Seamus turned to me and asked. Turns out he was only concerned about the really important questions.
"I obviously don't know" I replied. Most of my knowledge came from him and Kaiser, there was no way I'd know.
"I think our best bet is to try to somehow take the corpse to Kaiser. Even if we can't get the bounty we can get the materials. He might be able to sell them through his channels" Assuming such channels exist. He might end up selling it to the government.
"That's great thinking, hahaha you can probably see why I am just an errand boy" Seamus laughed awkwardly but seeing my disinterested expression he immediately got to work. He studied the corpse a bit before pulling out a butcher knife.
The bloodied corpse was rather large as well as attention-grabbing. Truth be told, we already wasted more than enough time. The government's officials were likely not pushovers and would investigate any small clue.
In their minds, a commotion at this time could only happen for one reason. Someone or a gang found the professor resulting in some infighting.
They are unlikely to consider the option of the professor mutating since they wouldn't expect the smart professor to take in such a dangerous potion. I do think it's likely that they considered the possibility but it wouldn't be the first thing that comes to mind.
Seamus started to dismember the body.
"I heard from the boss that if you ever need to dismember a mutant it's best to just split it apart. I don't know what's valuable and should leave it to experts" Seamus spoke as he hacked away at the body. Evidently, it wasn't his first time doing something like this. The only difference this time was that the target is a mutant instead of a human.
The black blood splattered all over him but he continued to hack away the limbs. Eventually, he stuffed them all into separate bags and tossed me a two of them.
"I always come prepared" He said with a smile while splattered in black blood. That smile seemed like a devilish grin. The seemingly normal and friendly Seamus seems to have his own demons.
That was when I finally realized I was surrounded by lunatics. This alternate world was a dangerous one for sure.
"Let's leave quickly" I said after picking up the bags. It reminded me of buying raw chicken in those dubious markets. They would stuff them in black bags and the blood would pool at the bottom of it. Nauseous.
"Alright" Seamus grabbed three bags and we made a run for it.
There were still a couple of things that I found to be odd but we needed to leave. Like, why was the professor banging on a wall saying to open up? There wasn't a trace of people or even a door. There was definitely no response either.
Was it lunacy? Was he close to losing his reasoning and mutating? Or was there a deeper meaning?
I took a final glance at the normal alley wall as we sprinted around the corner. Unassuming.
I left it at that. I could perhaps investigate at another time but… did it really concern me?
I was quite interested in keeping the professor alive to interrogate him. I would have loved to learn more about this world and its mutants through him rather than slaving away for Kaiser but…
This happened. I was carrying his mutated and dismembered corpse in bags. The empty streets made it all the more creepy.
"Over here" Seamus interrupted my thoughts as we turned into an alley.
"What are we doing?" I asked to which Seamus didn't respond.
He instead pushed aside a large dumpster. With his strength as an altered, he didn't need my help.
There was an inconspicuous hatch under the dumpster. It almost blended in with the floor. Seamus brought out a black duffel bag before throwing the monster bags in.
The hatch was apparently a medium-sized hidden compartment. Just enough to fit a slightly tall human body. I fear that isn't a coincidence.
"Give me those" He said looking back at me. I quickly handed them to him. I mean, why would I want to keep those anyway?
He tossed the two in and closed the hatch. He pushed back the dumpster and quickly took off his clothes. He changed outfits in a flash and stuffed the old ones into the duffel bag.
He then threw me a jacket.
"Just in case" He said with an amicable smile. I couldn't look at the errand boy the same as before though.
I put on the jacket and we both left that alley. All that we had to do now was head back to the base and tell Kaiser.
"Hey, you two" We were however called out by a voice before we had the opportunity to get very far.
We both glanced over towards the origin and saw a man wearing a military uniform.
"Do you know anything about what happened near here?" The soldier asked.
I looked past him and saw that other soldiers were still heading towards the suspected area of the shoot out. This man was probably in charge of stopping any suspicious individual.
Sensing my gaze, the man tried to scrutinize my face past the cap.
"Cough Cough" I coughed and cover my face as to not implicate him. The man didn't take a second glance.
"What's in the duffel bag" The soldier asked Seamus.
"Nothing much, just some clothes. We were planning on selling these, get some quick merits you know?" Seamus played it off.
"That's illegal. Allow me to check your bag" The soldier didn't buy it. It was indeed illegal but it was only a pretext to check the bag.
"Hahaha… Well, I am sure you have better things to do respected sir than arrest a man trying to feed his family, right? Check the bag and let us be on our way. I won't forget this favor." Seamus continued until the end. He unstrapped the bag and held in front of the soldier.
I was getting slightly nervous. If the man really checked the bag we might just be screwed.
The soldier scoffed and checked the bag. He rummaged quite a bit, to the point of dropping some of the clothing inside.
"Looks like you are clear. I'll let you off this time" The soldier rudely threw Seamus the bag and turned around to leave.
Just as I thought, Seamus was a meticulous man.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Pwnzer
Pwnzer Seamus isn't so simple :0
Then again, I don't think any member of an underground mafia would be a simple character. I mean, it takes a certain amount of courage to go against the law when it is your only sanctuary in the nuclear fallout.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone