Chapter 37: 37

“Sorry for the intrusion.” I said.

“No, it’s no problem at all, your American friend, Oscar, came here yesterday. He asked us to come to your compound but we said that we prefer to live here. Oh right, my name is Andrew Jr. That is my beautiful wife Isabelle and those are my kids: Jonathan, Esther, Madison and Billy. My parents are in their room sleeping but their names are Andrew Sr. and Estrella. You said your name was Sky, right?” he said as he offers his hand.

“Yes, good to meet you all.” I shake his hand and I introduced my group.

I made a quick glance at their place and they seem to be well stocked. There’s a lot of canned goods on their glass cabinet and they don’t seem to be famished. They are a middle-aged couple where their eldest is probably close to my age and the youngest close to Olivia’s age. They mentioned that Oscar gave his parents a small checkup yesterday and they seem to be doing fine. His eldest son Jonathan seemed to be interested in joining our scouting group but his mom is against it. Andrew is the only one who has a firearm and it’s an FN Five Seven on his hip concealed by a vest.

“That is a nice piece. Its bullets fly faster than the 9mm and the .45 ACP.” I said to myself.

“Well sir Andrew, we were just continuing our scouting of the place and I would like to share you a few pieces of information when I went outside. I…” I said as I tell him everything from yesterday. They seem apprehensive but I feel his daughter looking at me quite closely. Kaley saw it and she immediately sat closer to me to mark her territory.

We talked for a while and we decided to let Jonathan come with us for skill training, though they would just observe for now. Although their mother is against it, she relented after a bout of talking it out with her husband. She then decided to come to the compound now and she wishes to talk to the mothers there to ask to teach their kids school lessons. We found out that she was a school teacher so I agreed immediately. The world may have gone to shit but we still need our young ones to be properly educated.

We then said our goodbyes and Jonathan came with us while Esther and her mother Isabelle went to the compound while being accompanied by Andrew.

“Know how to use firearms?” I asked Jonathan that’s carrying a metal bat.

“Umm, sorry no, but I would like to learn how to.” he said.

“That’s good, stay at the back for now yeah?” I said as he nodded.

A few moments, we finally reached the second place. It has two houses in it where it was enveloped by a wall and a medium-sized gate. The houses are both two-stories and they are very symmetrical to each other. The place is housing four people, the house in the right is where an older couple lives at and the house on the left is where their daughter is living with his husband though they still have no children.

I knocked on the gate and no one answered. I tried the radio that Oscar gave them and still nothing. Two cars are still on their driveway and I checked the clock, It’s 9:22 AM. The door on the left house is open but after calling them a few times, no one seems to answer.

“They couldn’t still be sleeping at this time.” Kaley said with a worried face.

“Something’s off, get ready. Mark, give me a boost yeah?” I said.

He backed against the gate and he formed a foothold with his hands. I ran towards him then he pushed my foot upwards so I could vault over the gate. I managed to reach the top of it and I slowly readied myself for the landing. Like a cat, I made the smallest noise as possible then I opened the gate for them.

We then checked the perimeter first and we headed to the left house. It seems like no one has left and everything still seems to be here.

“Hello? Mrs. Luna? Are you here?” I called out. Still nothing.

We went upstairs and carefully opened each door, even the restrooms, still nothing. We finally headed down and we decided to go to the next house. I drew my wakizashi just in case something pops up and I slowly opened the door.

As soon as I opened the door, everyone gagged. We closed our mouths with our hands and I tried to stop myself from vomiting.

The whole living room was bloody. Two corpses on the floor and another two on the couch. We decided to open the windows and let it air out first. After a while, I walked inside and saw the scene. The older couple, Mr. and Mrs. Luna are on the ground while their daughter and her husband are in the couch.

I examined the body on the floor first. Mrs. Luna was near the door, bite marks all over her and a few bullet holes while Mr. Luna has none, but his mouth area is covered in blood and his neck is twisted in an awkward angle and has a head injury. I checked the couple on the couch they are both hugging each other while their heads are pretty close and it has a bullet hole that connected the both of them. I checked their hands and the guy has a pistol, a P226 with a suppressor on his right hand.

“Suicide?” I said to myself.

I looked at the girl and I saw that a part of her shoulder is missing but she didn’t have the lines from it protruding out yet. I nodded a few times and made a scene in my head on how this may have happened. I radioed Oscar and they came in a few minutes later. When Oscar saw the scene, anger was in his face and he kicked the nearest furniture around him.

“Dammit!” Oscar shouted.

“Mr. Luna must’ve turned, natural death perhaps?” I said.

“But his neck was broken, did he fall from the stairs? What’s with his head though?” Oscar asked as he also examined the scene.

“Maybe, but the head injury is different from where the angle of neck resulted in.” I said.

“Hmm, you’re right kid. Looking at it, the guy there must’ve bashed the head of Mr. Luna here, there’s a splatter here on the side. He probably turned at night and he made a feast of his wife. Then their daughter came and was bitten here?” he said.

We pointed to different locations where we think something might have occurred to piece the puzzle.

“Yeah, the husband must’ve come late and when he opened the door, his mother-in-law shows up at the door full of bites and he shot her multiple times. Then he saw Mr. Luna chewing his wife so he pushed him and he bashes his head on the wall here…” I said.

Oscar nodded and he concluded, “Probably saw his wife and they opted out. Damn shame, that guy there was a cop, his name is Gilbert. He should’ve radioed us first, f.u.c.k!”

“They really were a nice couple…” Kaley said.

We all gave a moment of silence and we carried them to the court to be burned. Everyone had solemn expressions while we’re watching them reduce to cinders. I looked at Oscar and I saw him the most affected of all of them.

I approached him and said, “Are you alright old man?”

“Yeah, all the deaths I’ve seen in the war and these things that I’ve killed made me think that I would’ve gotten used to seeing it, but seeing people that you have known even for a little while still makes you remember that you’re still human and you can still feel emotions.” He said.

“You a poet now old man?” I teased.

“You f.u.c.k.i.n.g… I was opening up there, you ruined the moment!” he shouted.

“Just cheering you up old man. Let’s continue the plan yeah?” I said.

We continued walking and then we reached where they left off yesterday.

To the right side are the single houses that each have their own large gates, there are two of them and there’s a smaller one after those two. To the left is the larger fishing area, there are four in all here and the first one is the one in the gravel road that we have passed before. It used to be five but the fifth one got mismanaged by the owner and now it’s just a dark muck of liquid. Good thing is that it’s on the right side after the second court so their water doesn’t reach the other three on the left.

These fishing areas are small bodies of water that has a net surrounding it. People here would breed fish for the market like Mud Fish, Milk Fish and etc. You can access the fishing areas by walking to one of the bridges towards the small house that is above wooden poles and there are small rowboats there in which you could ride to fish in the middle or just to feed most of them.

As we were about to enter one of the houses the radio buzzed.