Chương 32: Max And John

"Halt…" A menacing figure with a tall, burly frame commanded. His body was a canvas of ink, covered in a labyrinth of intricate tattoos that told the story of his tumultuous life. The tattoos covered his muscular arms, chest, neck, and even parts of his shaved head, giving him an intimidating aura that made people think twice before crossing him.

The most distinguishable tattoo however the swastika embedded on his neck gave a glimpse of his past life association. He was easily in his early thirties.

The man looked terrifying with a pistol in hand but he wasn't the only one.

There were two others with this man and they looked a lot less intimidating than the first,

They stopped in their tracks the moment they heard this as the man stepped forward.

"I see…" The tattooed man muttered under his breath as he looked to the ground.

His eye caught sight of a corpse, the head had all but been severed yet he was still 'alive'.

It was Randy's head and the men observed a moment of silence for him.

"They got Randy, Max!" One of the men that was under Max's wing blurted out.

"I can see that, John," Max responded. John had a knack of stating the obvious and this was one of those cases.

Like Max, he had the swastika tattoo but it was embedded on his upper arm, he was barely wearing any clothes as he had on a singlet and shorts.

He was bald and had quite the average face, he didn't have a gun in hand like John but instead, a machete.

"We need to report this back to the main camp," The second man with them said, he was a lot calmer than his partner, John.

He had a similar appearance to the rest of them, it seemed to be their signature look.

He had the swastika tattoo but it was somewhere that couldn't be seen, it was on his chest.

"Alex, return to the camp and bring it to their attention…" Max commanded as he looked over at the other man with him.

"John and I will investigate further. Bella is still missing," Max said.

Alex nodded and returned to inform the others.

"Damn! He looks even better as a zombie!" John looked disgusted as he began to poke the head with the hatchet while laughing at the reaction.

"Hahaha! You can't eat me, buddy!" John joked, he was in his early twenties and had a twisted sense of humour.

"Hey Max, I call dibs on Bella," John said sternly and Max's indifferent face creased into a sadistic smile.

"Bella? Bella was found dead too, wasn't she?" Max said in a suggestive tone and John couldn't contain his laughter.

"But not before having her coochie marinated by two very large dicks.." John responded in an equally suggestive tone. The men knew that Bella was alive or she would have been found by now, Bella was the kind of girl that always chose her survival above all else.

The men soon heard a growling sound, it was the sound of the dog that had killed their mate.

Unlike Randy, Max didn't feel the need to run away and didn't even look intimidated by this zombie variant.

The dog charged at Max but suddenly took a sharp tone and headed right at John but the machete in his hand proved to be more than enough,

"W-Woah! Go for him! Not me!" John joked; he played too much even in dire situations but this was because of his overall lack of fright.

He swatted the dog out of the air with the back side of his machete, sending it tumbling back but the dog didn't feel any sort of pain.

It got right back up and charged once again but this time. John severed the head with one swing, this showed an unusually high level of skill and the dog's limp body dropped to the ground.

And like Randy, the head was active as it gnawed away into the thin air.

"Hahaha! Look Randy! You have a pet now!" John joked as he carefully picked up the head of the dog and placed it right beside Randy. They had no intention of putting Randy out of his misery but instead, this gave John an idea.

"Quit messing around John, use your tracking skills and find a trail," Max blurted out.

"On it boss!"

Bella briefed the boys about what was discussed in their absence, of course leaving out how good Jason was in bed because that was strictly girl talk.

They had all eaten their fill and their stomach was a bit bloated to show it but the beverages were what did wonders, to say the least.

Jason couldn't help but think that he would soon have to take more lives, there was no escaping it because the world was becoming increasingly dark.

Bella also added a new piece of information, and that was that these men would most likely come for her. This was why she stuck so closely with Jason and co, it increased her chances of survival as anyone would mistake Jason as a threat due to his size despite him being seemingly harmless even though he was slowly losing that title seeing as he had just killed a man.

Sam was the man that this information was useful to, not Jason because Sam was a military man and the fact that they might have potential pursuers was troubling as they haven't exactly been covering their trail.

"Bella, why did you keep this information from everyone?" Sam asked but Bella remained mute, she knew that there was no excuse.

She had to take accountability for her action, she had no excuse for keeping it away from them.

"I have no excuse, I was scared I would be abandoned if you all found out. I planned to skip after we left town but then you guys came along. Actual soldiers, I knew that sticking around was the best chance I had to survive," Bella said.

"This has gotten a lot trickier…" Sam muttered with a frustrated sigh.