Holding a bag of chips that he grabbed from the pantry, Sebastian makes his way to the lobby to enjoy his snack, arriving to see Ghost and Marko who are part of the Sentinel Island mission.
"What's up," greets Sebastian.
The sitting Ghost doesn't respond. Instead, he turns to face Sebastian and reaches out his closed fist, a good ol' fistbump. Sebastian obliges and proceeds to take a seat beside the silent assassin on the lobby couch.
Sebastian leans back on the couch, raises his feet on the low table in front, and opens the bag of chips. He slightly reaches it out to Ghost but he declines, nodding 'no'.
"This is a weird lobby," Sebastian referring to Ghost and Marko sitting alone together. "What's up?"
"Sentinel Island," Marko gives a brief, vague answer.
"I thought you guys were already deployed?"
"We were supposed to, Joe said he wanted to drop by Benedict's office first," answers Marko.
"Thought Cade is going?"
"He's in the jet."
"Let's pop some zombie cap, boys," says the arriving Joe.
"Too bad you're grounded," he says to Sebastian, smiling.
Known across the world as a small, isolated island, the North Sentinel Island is part of an Indian archipelago in the Bay of Bengal. Inhabited by an indigenous, uncontacted tribe called the Sentinelese and estimated to have a population of about 200, the tribe is known to resist contact with any and all outsiders.
The Indian government is one with this sentiment, reinforcing strict regulations and ensuring that the tribe and island is protected from any outside interference. However, the Indian government has decided to temporarily lift this restriction, making an exception for what they know are "Pentagon's" special unit.
The four-man unit consisting of Joe, Cade, Ghost, and Marko arrive at the island's coast somewhere around 2:00 in the morning. This time wasn't ideal as this means that they would have to do the mission in the dark with only the moon serving as the source of light.
Even from the coast, they are greeted by a thick forest of trees. It was evident that traversing the island on its own would already prove to be difficult.
"Alright boys, we're working in pairs," says Joe.
"We have no confirmation that Crowe is still lurking around, but he was. And given that he went through all this trouble turning this entire place into a test site, chances are he's still here somewhere."
"And because of that, we will operate by partner. Vanderwood, you go with Pius. Ghost, you're with me," Joe lays out the plan.
"Even so, our primary goal is exterminating the zombies. Everyone has a tracker and a radar, we use it to keep track of one another in this god-forsaken place."
"Also, keep your ears open at ALL times," says Joe, pointing at his earpiece. "Communication, people. We are a team."
"We take equal halves of the island. Now, enough yapping," Joe about to end the briefing.
"Happy hunting, boys."
Both two-man units separate ways, opposite from each. Joe and Ghost were to take the entire right side of the island while Cade and Marko were to take the left. Equal distribution.
"Hey," Sebastian gets a call from Benedict, still rotting inside HQ three hours after the Sentinel Island team left. He still hasn't gone on any mission up to this point in the day and is just walking around the building, moving places every half hour.
"You wanted an island mission, I'm giving you one," says Benedict.
"What is it," Sebastian asks despite the audible disinterest in his voice.
"You're really expecting me to tell you over a call?"
"Kind of, yeah."
"Get your dumb ass over here, it's not like it takes effort for you to teleport around."
Sebastian sighs.
SHHOOM
He warps right inside Benedict's office again, right where the chair he usually sits at.
"For the record, THIS," Sebastian says, referring to his ability, "DOES require effort."
"Sure, just teleport right inside my private office every single time. Forget manners, right?" Ben's sarcasm.
"What? You're the one that wanted me here," says Sebastian as he sits down.
"I said 'come here', not warp right inside unannounced," Benedict reasons out.
"Come here, don't come here, jeez. I'm like THIS close to smacking you with your shitty glasses," says Sebastian while making a gesture with his fingers indicating an inch.
"A-rank, horde, it's an island near Venice," Benedict shifts the topic of conversation to the business at hand.
"Who's coming?"
"Who do you want?"
Sebastian looks at Benedict, surprise written all over his face before asking, "Am I solo?"
"I could slap together a unit if you want"
"Nah, I'm good," Sebastian gets up. "I'll take it. Give me the numbers."
"How's things over there, boys," Marko and Cade hear Joe's voice.
"Tame. We've only encountered three so far," Cade answers, putting his blade back in its sheathe after decapitating a blue-blooded Sentinelese zombie.
Like Sebastian, Cade is an expert swordsman. The only difference being their preference. Sebastian prefers the more aggressive dual-wielding technique whereas Cade prefers the more traditional and more precise single-wielding, his weapon of choice being a jet-black katana with the same fragment and essence-enhanced obsidian blade as Sebastian's.
The two used to spar with each other all the time prior and briefly after joining Eden. Although, not once seriously. Both were just at 30% capability and neither looked like they had an advantage. No one would "win" as well as the sparring partners would always just abruptly end the session when one or both feel like they've warmed enough already. In these brief sessions, neither one was sparring to win. It was simply to get the juices flowing and they would do so by clashing blades with the person whose combat prowess they respected and deemed as worthy of their own skill.
"These things are weaker than I expected," Marko comments.
"They hunt nothing but pigs and deer in here. They're capable but only to a degree. If they don't get some sort of boost from the apparent overdose, they're not gonna stand a chance," shares Cade.
The two continue making their way deeper into the dark and damp forest.
"Hey," Joe's voice again.
"Is Ghost here really like this?"
"What do you mean?" asks Cade.
"We've encountered about 10 so far and he just goes and jumps at every single one without a thought," answers Joe.
"Make that 11," he says as he watches Ghost rush and rip out a zombie's intestines and stick his hidden blade right up its chin all the way to its now non-functioning brain and taking his blade out by slashing his way across the front of the zombie's face.
"Man's an artist," despite the gruesome display, Joe was slightly impressed. "I haven't even laid a finger on a single one. Ghost here is on an absolute tear."
Marko smiles. Joe didn't reveal any details but he could and was picturing Ghost going on a controlled frenzy.
"Yeah, that's just how he is," says Marko. "Man loves his job."
"Speaking of psychopaths," he looks at Cade. "You seem awfully comfortable chopping people's heads."
Marko's observation was true. They have encountered three zombies so far with Cade killing two. Even though they were zombies by definition, the walking Sentinelese corpses didn't seem like the textbook, brain-eating undead. Their behavior and movement was still the same as a regular human, the same as their previous before they were resurrected through a lethal overdose of ancient essence. Marko wasn't hesitant, he knew full well that these were no longer people. But even so, part of him still felt some unease in crushing a tribe member's skeleton with Shelly as despite what they currently are, the Sentinelese still felt human.
"These aren't people anymore. They're Crowe's toys now. No reason to hesitate," Cade has zero reservations. This made it easy for him to slice off the undead tribe's head swiftly and cleanly.
Marko understood Cade's point and actions clearly. He knew of it before. But even so, seeing his comrade take human heads without a second thought still bugged him a little.
"By the way," Joe follows up. "If either unit encounters Crowe, let the other know IMMEDIATELY."
"If that happens, drop EVERYTHING and head for the unit with Crowe."
"Crowe's definitely here somewhere," Cade blurts out.
"No way he goes to all this trouble setting up a playground only to ditch it."
The duo hear faint sound of rustling leaves in front of them, a couple of meters away, hidden in the thick bushes and trees. They immediately stop, observing what was hiding, coming.
From the shadows, a bone-tipped wooden arrow comes flying right at Cade, between his eyes. Cade effortlessly catches the arrow with his bare hand. He was used to dealing with much faster projectiles. A wooden arrow is nothing.
A second later and they are bombarded with the same wooden arrows from all sides which they easily avoid. Cade and Marko run in opposite directions to take out the tribesmen attacking from the shadows.
Every swing from Shelly topples a nearby tree. A loud thud reverberates in their part of the forest every two seconds — a stark difference to Cade's side which remained silent apart from the short and faint sound of a sharp blade cutting through flesh.
The zombies were uncharacteristically smart, having attempted an ambush on the duo. Several archers and tribesmen wielding wooden spears were hidden behind the thicket of trees. Despite being undead, the tribesmen seemingly retained their instincts and behavior from when they were still alive.
However, this didn't change anything for Cade. He'd hop from one tribesman to the other, slicing their heads off. Heads rolled to the ground one after the other. The archers' arrow were nowhere close to hitting him. He would have to try to get hit by them.
From his side, a spear tribesman tries to flank him, failing miserably. He turns around back slightly, enough to get in position to grab the attacker's weapon. He catches the spear with his left hand and forcefully pulls it forward, sending the attacker right to him. Falling forward due to the momentum of the pull, Cade stops him by plunging his sword in front of the flanking tribesman's neck and slashes sideways, leaving its head only half-attached. Its helpless body falls down on the ground, blue blood spraying on the muddy ground. Cade looks down on it and kicks the head only hanging by a thread, away. It was the last zombie on his side.
He turns to the side of the forest that Marko is bulldozing and a tribesman whose bones Marko turned into smithereens comes flying towards him. Cade catches the corpse projectile with his katana, impaling it right in the middle of its chest. He pulls his plunged sword from its chest and slices its head off as it falls to the ground.
"SORRY!" the apologetic Marko screams at him.
Cade grabs a handkerchief from his pocket, wipes his katana clean of the zombie blood, and sheathes it.
"Need a hand?" he asks Marko who still had tribesmen zombies on his side.
"No! I'm—" he smashes a zombie lying on the ground, "—good!" he swats another one away.
Cade hears and feels subtle movement from one of the headless zombies. He approaches it to verify whether the zombie really is still moving. The headless corpse on the ground confirms his suspicion as it its entire body starts moving, attempting to get up.
Despite the unexpected scenario, Cade showed no signs of panic or hesitation. He immediately stabs the zombie's heart, knowing that there are only three guaranteed ways to kill a monster — cutting its head, heart, or demolishing its entire body. The first and third methods were guaranteed for non-humanoid monsters. The second method is very rarely used as its only applicable to animals or humanoids. Given that the "monster" is really just a human, he figured this was the way to go.
The zombie crashes down on the ground for the second and presumably, last time. Cade's theory is correct. Like Wendy the Deer, the Sentinelese zombies are only still able to "live" because of the essence coursing through their veins. Take out the pumping system and you take the monster out.
Every single one of the decapitated and crushed corpses start gradually getting up one by one.
"These things are still alive?" asks Marko.
"The heart!" Cade tells Marko the secret, wasting no time and breaking Sentinelese hearts literally.
"Joe!" Marko immediately calls the other unit to inform them. "The heart is the weakness, they'll get up if you don't do something about."
"'The heart is the weakness', it sure is. We got it. You fellas stay safe there," Joe responds.
"Hear that, Ghost?" Ghost who was down on the ground, sitting on top of a Sentinelese corpse and endlessly stabbing its face, looks back at him.
"The heart," says Joe, pointing at his.
Ghost gives him a thumbs up and proceeds violating the corpse with his blade, this time stabbing holes in its chest.
"How do I crush just the heart, Shelly is too big," Marko wonders.
"Crush the entire body, you crush the heart," says Cade, still stabbing zombie hearts.
Marko smiles.
"Why did I even ask," he kicks and breaks one of the zombie's legs in front of him. The off-balance zombie tastes the unfiltered power of Shelly as it turns into a smudge of blue blood on the ground and flattened flesh.