“Damn, you weren’t kidding when you said you were enough to deal with them. Now I feel like we are kind of unneeded here.” One of Wallace’s team members said, patting Danny’s back as he returned victorious to the group.

“Holy cow, Danny! You are a beast! You didn’t miss a single strike. It was like I was watching a dance or something. They never came even close to touching you! Anytime a zombie stepped out of line, BAM. Dead with one hit to the head. Where did you learn to fight like that?” Another one, a woman, asked.

Shrugging his shoulders, he responded with a grin, “Practice. Lots and lots of practice.”

After spending some time joking around with Wallace’s team and trading a few jabs back and forth, it was as if the uncomfortable awkwardness caused by no one volunteering to take care of the zombies other than Danny himself had never happened.

“Okay, okay. Let’s give him some space. Let him rest. We still have to set up camp before nightfall, so let’s get down to it.” Putting an end to the group’s joyous mood and banter from witnessing the simplicity with which their helper mowed down the undead threat, Wallace started pushing his subordinates around and took charge of the situation, leading them away to prepare for the night and assigning the respective jobs and chores while Danny was left to rest. Though he was not at all tired given his improved constitution, the others didn’t know that and he enjoyed his down time all the same.

Pulling out his tape player - his mother’s memento - from inside his backpack, he let himself be carried away by the cheerful songs contained within as he watched their camp slowly take form. The buzz of activity from his companions rushing from one place to the other, affixing tents, lighting a fire and preparing the food felt oddly calming to his eyes.

Soon, they were all gathered at the center of the impromptu camp, the vehicles forming the outer perimeter and doubling as a barricade in case they came under attack. They had divided themselves into five groups of two, which would be responsible for the night watch successively.

However, Danny was vehemently excluded from the division. It seemed that the others still harbored some shame from backing away from the previous fight, so, in an effort to make amends, the group decided to deal with the mundane tasks all by themselves, freeing him from the responsibility.

He didn’t think it was necessary to do so as he truly wasn’t bothered by what happened, but he gratefully accepted the sentiment for what it was anyway – an olive’s branch.

Walking away under the guise of taking a leak, Danny surreptitiously ate his fourth crystal of the day. The close proximity to others all day long made the process of progressing his cultivation, his soul power training, incredibly annoying and filled with deception. Still there was no circumventing the issue as during most of the day they were bundled up together inside the cars.

On the bright side, however, it wasn’t very hard keeping up with his consumption without revealing what he was actually doing.

The small size of the soul gems meant he was able to hide them pretty much anywhere he wanted. He had rations sneakily stuffed with the stones. There were also small pockets of the resource spread all over his clothes. He even had a separate aluminium water bottle filled with a dozen of them, just in case. All it took was one swig and voilá, done with no one the wiser.

Feeling the energies coursing through his veins, muscles and skin, he groaned softly with pleasure. By now, the discomfort of handling four crystals a day had pretty much vanished already. He could hardly feel any pain, only the pleasant stimulation that accompanied the process.

Once the energies finally dissipated after a while, Danny looked down to his hands, opening and closing his fists as if to test his new power.

“I should probably bump up my training to five pieces a day soon.” He mumbled under his breath. Now that his body’s tolerance to the strain had increased once more, it was time to pick up his pace again.

Shelving his thoughts for later, Danny turned around and walked back to where he had left the others. After a hearty meal and spending some time mingling with his allies, he went to bed and let himself be taken over by the sweet embrace of unconsciousness.

It took them a while, but at some point during the following day, they finally came across a place they were confident enough to say that it was, in fact, the location they were looking for. As they stared at the small rural buildings with thatched roofs and clay walls, the group felt this was almost assuredly where the strangers came from.

However, the place was completely silent. Eerily silent.

A place such as this should be filled with the sounds of children running around, adults talking and working and many other noises inherent to human habitation. However, there was none of it at the moment.

From their distance of a few hundred meters, they could see smoke rising from within the village, indicating that the place wasn’t deserted. Be that as it may, they couldn’t spot any movement. No silhouettes at the windows. No shadows on the streets. No nothing.

It was awkward and it was unsettling.

“Where is everyone?” One of the squad members asked. “Didn’t they spot us? Why isn’t anyone coming out to greet us?”

“There’s no way they didn’t see us. We are plain out in the open. Our vehicles aren’t exactly stealthy.” Wallace countered, looking back to the red reinforced bus they used to transport the diplomatic team. It wasn’t discreet at all.

“Maybe they are scared of us?” The same squad member who had spoken previously speculated. “Do you think they might be hiding somewhere and waiting to see what we’ll do?”

“That’s possible.” Wallace nodded.

Turning his head towards Danny, the captain asked, “What do you think we should do? Should we wait a little more to see if anyone comes out to greet us, or should we head in?”

After spending some moments to consider their options and scanning the rustic village with his gaze, Danny shook his head. “I’m not sure what’s going on, but I don’t think anyone’s coming out to receive us.” Frowning his brows, he added ominously, “We have to get closer to find out more, but I have a bad feeling about this. I think we should proceed carefully.”

Noticing the seriousness in the younger man’s face, Wallace nodded solemnly. Given all he knew of their mercenary helper and what he saw of his capabilities, the captain took Danny’s opinions and instincts very seriously.

“Let’s leave the non-combatants back for now and approach carefully on foot. If it goes south for any reason, we’ll turn tail and regroup here.” Danny suggested.

“How many men should we leave behind to guard the diplomatic team, then?” Wallace asked.

“I think four men should be more than enough. I don’t think they will see any combat while we are away. Our surroundings are completely clear, with no places to hide other than the village itself. If there’s any ambush waiting for us, it’s there.”

“If they’re only staying back to maintain order, shouldn’t two men be enough?”

“Probably, but let’s err on the side of caution. It’s not as if two people will make that much of a difference if we are up against an entire village either. I’ll rather have our backs and escape route secured.”

“Very well. Let’s do it like you proposed then.” Wallace relented before heading back to his team and organizing their forces.

After separating those who would go to the village and those who would remain behind to protect the non-combatants, the small group of eight containing Wallace, Danny and other six armed men and women marched ahead.

As they approached the oddly silent place, it was as if they were jumping headlong into the waiting jaws of a slumbering beast. The empty streets looking more and more like a waiting trap with every step that brought them closer to it.

The discordant feeling of the idyllic village that, by all means, did not look abandoned and its current quietude tested the nerves of the eight men and women as they walked forward. It was as if a nefarious secret was waiting for them in there, just waiting for them to come close enough to spring upon them a nasty surprise, claiming their lives and forever entombing them within.

However, as they finally reached the first building, nothing untoward happened. Wallace signaled for one of his men to kick the door open, and after storming the place, they did not find anything out of the ordinary. In fact, the room looked untouched, as if the villagers simply disappeared in a poof of magic.

There were still a couple of plates set on the table and bowls filled with soup. Though the food wasn’t warm - which meant it had been sitting there for some time already -, the fact that it didn’t smell bad meant that it couldn’t have been left there for too long. Probably a couple of days or less.

“What the hell is going on?” The man who entered the house first mumbled perplexedly, but a glare from his captain immediately caused him to shut up. Until they knew for sure what was going on, it was best to remain quiet.

The next few houses they inspected revealed more of the same. No people in sight. Things left as if the inhabitants just vanished. The streets were clear and there was no hint as to where everyone went either.

Abandoning their investigation method of exploring each house one by one - since they wouldn’t get anything out of it apparently -, Danny gestured to the captain and after receiving a nod of confirmation, they made a direct beeline towards the center of the village, where he hoped to find a clue about what was going on.

Soon, however, things started to change.

The initial normal but desolate outlook of the village slowly but surely took a turn for the violent and the macabre. With each passing step, the scenery grew bloodier, darker.

At first, it was just a few scratches here and there. Nicks, cracks and gashes on the surroundings and blood splatters covering the dirt and walls sporadically. However, with each passing moment they came closer to the village center and with every meter they travelled, red grew all the more common. Soon enough, there were more places covered in blood than not.

Whatever it was that happened there, considering what they were seeing, things were not looking good for the people they came here looking for. The tale told by the view in front of them was grim indeed.

The strangest thing through it all, however, was that they couldn’t spot a single body. For all the blood they came across, enough to fill at least a hundred bodies, not a single corpse was to be found on their way. No discarded limbs either.

By now, the tension was tangible in the air. As the group of eight marched forward with gritted teeth and taught nerves, not a peep could be heard from them. Maybe they were too scared to utter a sound and attract whatever was responsible for this macabre display. Maybe no one wanted to be the first to break the silent spell that befell them all.

In any case, they pressed on. Motivated by duty or by the sheer impulse of herd mentality, it didn’t matter. They pressed on all the same.

And then… they saw it.

Right there, at the village center, all the missing bodies were gathered in what could only be described as a pyramid of flesh. Corpses stacked atop one another with no rhyme or reason to their disposition towered above them all. Hundreds of motionless bodies were simply piled like firewood, puddles of blood that didn’t dry properly yet lying at the base of the gory monument to death. The air thick with the smell of iron and the rot that was already starting to take.

Behind him, Danny heard someone start to gag, followed immediately after by puking sounds which were mirrored by a few others. The disgust and visceral reaction infectious, travelling from one squad member to the next with only a few able to stomach the overpowering sensations.

Wallace stood to his side, wide-eyed and his expression pallid, as if he himself had also contributed his own blood to the gory spectacle in front of them.

While his companions went through a wide array of emotions, each sporting a different reaction. Danny only had eyes for a single thing. A single detail.

All the heads were cracked open. The crystals had been removed.