Chapter 540 (2/2)

He crouched down next to her, his eyes bright. He seemed somewhat bemused. “So, what did I just walk in on? A lovers’ spat? I understand sometimes there is a palpable connection from the first glance but isn’t this a little soon?”

Sighing, Tatiana leaned back on the ground and looked up at the sky. “Please leave me alone for a minute. I just thought I was about to die, and do you know what I thought, right at the end?”

“What were you thinking?”

After a pause, Tatiana said. “...that I wished the ball was a little smaller, so it would destroy my body but leave my face for an open casket funeral.”

That got a laugh out of him, at least.

*****

Randidly looked at Dinesh with a frown. They were currently in a small tea room on the farm compound. As it turned out, Dinesh and company had encountered a strange bunker on their way South to find Randidly and had liberated the 4 women and 2 men that the people of the farm were now caring for. While the more conscious 5 were being helped into buildings by the women who lived here, Tykes had brought up the rear carrying the blonde girl.

She was a light thing, probably only weighing 120 lbs, but he had taken his time. Even Randidly’s meager social skills could discern that Tykes was smitten with the girl. Which was fine, but then Tatiana came over and demanded that Tykes release the girl. He had been somewhat slow to comply, and Tatiana, understandably concerned with the girl’s safety, took exception to it.

Of all the details of the story, the most shocking was that Tatiana lived and ran the farming compound. The same compound in the forest under which Randidly had a secret base. He shook his head, almost helpless. Life was weird, sometimes.

Clearing his throat, Randidly gestured for Dinesh to continue.

“Heavy resistance, for the Zone. But it was strange. These were people who behaved like monsters: high Stats, but their Skills were haphazard at best. All wearing these black cloaks. They wore crosses around their necks too. From the little we’ve learned of the Zone, we suspect they were a… less than savory arm of the Unity Church.”

They were alone in the room. Bruya had come up to Randidly and touched his shoulder briefly, but after that, the rest of the crew headed out to camp with the farmers. That was all it took to reinforce the illusion around him, which took one of Randidly’s worries away, at least. Once Tatiana recovered, she had to go check on the new arrivals and left Randidly to his own devices, without even questioning his presence.

He admired her commitment to these strangers’ wellbeing, at least. But Randidly had intuitively known that about Tatiana. She was rough but kind. A total cliche, in a way.

“Do… do we know what is wrong with them? They were all…” Randidly began slowly.

“Weak. Yes, they were.” Dinesh glanced towards the door. “Perhaps their doctors will have a better idea. I can only guess at the specifics.”

Randidly snorted. Knowing the small group living here, he doubted they had anything like a true doctor, with System related Skills. “A general guess then?”

“Organ harvesting,” Dinesh said, closing his eyes. “A lot of metal tables in the inner parts of the bunker. Large glass containers, filled with flesh. And there were a lot of empty cells that we found.”

Randidly breathed slowly out, his eyes narrowing. There were two bits of information here. First, that the Unity Church really was involved in some very dark things. From the first time he had run into them, he had suspected it, but he didn’t want to let his atheism color his opinion. But so it was.

The second thing… was that there was a trace around them. A hint of the scent of a familiar Aether.

The Creature.

“Unity Church, huh…” Randidly said, almost to himself, thinking over his scans of their area. Nothing of note that he could remember. But a lot of bodies.

Dinesh nodded as if it had been a question for him. “They responded quickly too. We hit the bunker hard, Tykes going wild on the cave fortifications they had to guard, and Karlito and I following to mop up the rest. They put up a good fight, but they did more damage to themselves in the fight throwing themselves against us than we actually inflicted. Within 10 minutes, a team of 20 had arrived, and we had to slip past with illusions.”

Randidly grinned and saw Dinesh shiver slightly. But he couldn’t help it. Because at that moment, Randidly finally found a target for his focus.

But even though he caught the scent, it was still extremely faint. Just passed along through several intermediaries. Perhaps the upper levels of the church?

But even more confusing… why was the Creature involved in organ harvesting?