SHHOOM
Sebastian warps in the middle of a grassy smaller island, separate from the larger island which is supposedly the mission site—Poveglia Island.
The small island he teleported at, in the shape of an octagon, is only one of three islands comprising Poveglia. This eight-sided piece of land served as a fort protecting the island.
The second island houses the main buildings and abandoned infrastructure. Separated from it by a canal is the third island which is comprised entirely of vegetation.
Located seven kilometers south of Venice, Italy, the abandoned island that served as a quarantine station and eventually, a mental asylum, is considered off-limits to the general public with the Italian government enforcing this access restriction.
"Alright, where's the fuckers," he asks Benedict over his earpiece.
"I told you to pick up a radar and you said you didn't need it, you moron," Benedict replies. "Get back here and grab one."
Sebastian pauses for about three seconds, thinking about it.
"Eh, fuck it," he proceeds walking over to the edge of the octagon island.
"It's your funeral."
Joe effortlessly dodges a wooden spear flying at his face through a simple head movement. He grabs a tribesman's wooden club who was trying to attack him. He grabs its head and crushes it with his bare hand. He snaps the wooden club and uses end part which he snapped off as a stake that he then drove into the undead's heart.
He looks over to Ghost to see how his partner was doing amidst the flood of Sentinelese zombies and all he saw was Ghost in the middle of the crowd, gracefully performing his dance of death, body parts flying up in the air. He realized Ghost is the least person on the unit he should be worrying about.
"Hey!" he screams over to Ghost who has his blade deep on a tribesman's chest.
"The heart!" he reminds Ghost, concerned that the assassin might be having too much fun and getting his eye off the ball.
Ghost pulls his blade out, the zombie's heart sticking out of it. He gives Joe another thumbs up. Joe couldn't tell whether Ghost was asking for approval or telling him that he's got it covered. Anyhow, Joe smiles and returns the thumbs up. "Haha, sick fuck."
He notices another one running towards him from his side. As soon as the zombie tribesman entered his reach he kicks it up, sending it flying to the air. He catches an arrow flying towards him and redirects it to the falling zombie hitting it right at the heart. Bullseye.
Another arrow flies at him, same result. He catches it and looks around, trying to locate the persistent archer, wooden arrow in hand. He sees the primitive sniper hiding behind a thicket of bushes and returns his arrow. The archer receives the gift with his heart.
Like moths to a flame, both agents get swarmed non-stop by the Sentinelese zombies. One in front tries to run directly towards Joe without even any weapons. Like a bully, he places his hand right on the zombie's forehead preventing any further movement but still seemingly continuing to run at him. He finds it funny at first but eventually notices that the blue glow in its eyes are gradually getting brighter, its open mouth also starting to emanate a bright blue light.
"No way," says Joe with a small smile.
BOOM
"Oh, by the way," Sebastian hears Benedict's voice again.
"What," already on the other island, Sebastian looks at the old asylum building right in front.
"We didn't clear this with the Italian government so try not to be under the sun too much," warns Benedict.
"So I'm trespassing?"
"NOW you have an issue with trespassing??" Benedict subtly pointing out the irony in Sebastian's question.
"No, just asking. And it's an open island, you idiot, how do I NOT stay under the sun," he complains about the advisory.
"Don't say I didn't warn you."
"This is why you sent me alone, didn't you?" Sebastian looks up at the nearby bell tower, about twice the height of the asylum building.
SHHOOM
Sebastian warps on top of the bell tower.
"You are doing the complete opposite of what I just said," says Benedict, utter disapproval of whatever Sebastian is doing.
"I'm just trying to get a better view of the entire island. Calm down, sheesh."
"If a chopper or patrol boat comes and calls over to you, please try your best not to attack it."
"Depends if they attack first."
"Please tell me you're kidding"
"Jesus, you're awfully chatty today. Get the fuck off my ear already," Sebastian is still trying to memorize the island's landscape.
"Okay, but I'm not bailing you if you get arrested," Benedict's final words.
SHHOOM
Sebastian goes back down and proceeds inside the asylum. The old, crumbling building seemed peaceful and quiet at first but only a couple of steps inside and the sounds of loud shrieking started to reverberate throughout the entire ruined floor.
Greeting Sebastian are a couple of humanoid, gray and black-skinned monsters whose entire flesh had an ashy texture. The monsters were skinny, their upper head, somewhere around their foreheads, all had small to medium-sized holes. It was the only thing on their faceless heads.
Seeing the monsters instantly put him in a bad mood. Mainly because they were shrieking loudly and endlessly.
"What's up, boys," Cade and Marko who were just done with the tribesmen revival wave hears Joe's voice.
"Just a quick heads up, watch out for the bright glow," the two share a look.
"They can self-destruct," says Joe, completely unscathed, looking down on the suicidal zombie's ashes.
"Still don't know if every single one of these things can do that or this fella right here was just mega desperate. First time it happened and my boy Ghost must've killed at least 15 already," Ghost turns over to him and slowly nods his head up and down. The silent agent is extremely proud of his work. Joe smiles and nods back in approval.
"Is Ghost, I don't know, mentally challenged?" Joe whispers.
"We honestly don't know," answers Marko. "We don't even know if it's an actual human under that mask or just some cyborg."
"You've been working here longer than any of us and you're much higher on the ladder, shouldn't YOU be the one that knows about this?" Cade deflects the question back to Joe.
"Good point. Anyway, you boys take care."
Cade and Marko continue traversing the thick forest. Upon exiting the shaded forest in front, they stumble upon another forest filled with vegetation, but this time thinner. Over the horizon is a colony of zombies. Not just the hunters of the tribe, it was THE tribe. Or at least, one of the clans in the island. There were women and children, all reanimated and bleeding blue from every opening.
"Not the kids, too," Marko didn't hesitate as much in turning the previous attacking tribesmen into paste. They were hunters, hostile, and weren't afraid to draw blood. And so, he was the same. He had a wife and kids. He didn't know what to feel about doing the same to these members of the tribe.
"You think too much," Cade is still completely apathetic.
In the middle of the small settlement is a small, conical, shrine-like structure surrounded by a pit of fire. Its foundations and walls look like a bunch of bamboo, wood, and palm leaves scraped together. What's inside, they couldn't make out from the distance, but it must have been extremely important to the tribe if they would go to such lengths as building a shrine for it. Around it are makeshift homes and shelters made out of the same materials.
"Joe, we found a settlement," Cade updates. "There's some sort of shrine in the middle of it."
"Ah it's probably just part of some tribe practice or whatever. Still, check it out," he answers.
"We're hearing some noises nearby, probably some settlement, too," adds Joe.
"There's children, Joe," says Marko, perhaps trying to passively tell Joe that what was to come is wrong.
"I assume there are, it's a settlement," he didn't say it, but Joe had the same stance as Cade.
Cade looks at Marko, as if telling him that his plan failed. An "I told you so" look.
"Those aren't 'children' anymore, big guy," Joe sensed Marko's concern and attempts to ease his mind. "They're drugged-up corpses and you should look and treat 'em that way."
The clan of about 40 men, women, and children notice the two outsiders. The hunters of the tribe immediately run towards them, wooden weapons in hand while some went in position to shoot arrows. Even the women went and grabbed weapons of their own.
Holding the handle of his katana, Cade steps forward with no hesitation, running to greet the incoming tribesmen with his blade. Marko half-heartedly follows.
With inhuman precision, Cade is stabbing hearts left and right. The ones he couldn't, he would just slice the upper body cleanly in half, cleaving the zombies' blue pumping machine in half. There were no wasted movement or attack from Cade. Every time he winds his blade, he kills someone. And he does it with just one slash, giving the tribesmen a literal heart attack. Men, women, it didn't matter. They were all soulless prey in his eyes.
Marko's kill count isn't far behind, but it is mainly due to him primarily squashing the tribesmen. The armed women of the tribe that would come at him, he would simply kick away, hoping that his partner would deal the finishing blow. A loud thud echoes throughout the small settlement every couple of seconds. The sound of paste-making courtesy of Marko and Shelly.
In the midst of the skirmish, a small, male child runs towards Marko, completely unarmed. He paid no heed to it, it was an unarmed child, what it could do to him. He continued swatting its clanmates on the muddy ground. It continued approaching him, grabbing onto his leg like a regular child begging him to stop. He stops his assault and looks down on the begging mini undead for a brief second. Looking up at him, its eyes, mouth, and nose start glowing bright blue. Cade, from out of nowhere, kicks the small zombie away, down on the ground and proceeds to plunge his blade on its heart, pinning it down to the leafy mud.
"You—" Marko was left speechless, he could barely form a single word at the moment.
"Saved you and your leg. You're welcome," Cade proceeds to dash away to resume his onslaught on the tribe like nothing.
There were only nine armed tribesmen left. Three of which were the hunters of the tribe who bravely dashed at the two invaders. Marko swats away the first one, its crushed body flies away and plops down on the ground. The second and third one rushed at the same time, behind one another. Marko crushes both in one downward swing. Two birds with one stone. The one he swatted away is still alive but can no longer move with nearly all of its bones battered, writhing on the ground, desperately trying to get up. Cade ends its misery.
There were still a couple of women and children hiding away in their makeshift houses. Knowing Marko would never get close to them, Cade volunteers to do the job.
"You check out the shrine, I'll handle the remnants," declares Cade.
"Hey," Marko calls Joe. "We've cleared the settlement."
"Good, we're just getting started over here," Joe replies.
"Or Ghost is getting started. He went right in like a kid seeing gifts under the Christmas tree on Christmas morning," says Joe as he looks on Ghost, going on a frenzy on the 40-member tribe clan. Maiming men and women in a heartbeat.
"What's news on the shrine?" he asks.
"We're still checking it out."
"Yeah, well, don't get your hopes up. It's probably just an animal skull or something."
"Think there's still more settlements?"
"That's what I want to know, too. I asked HQ to send down drones and scope out the entire island so we don't have to walk the entire place blind. Probably gonna give us a report in a couple minutes."
Marko walks over to the covered shrine. He was too large for it and needed to squat down just so he could see what's inside the small, leaf-covered shrine. "Is this—?"
"What is it?" asks Joe.
"It's a black rock."