The Slingers of Slaughter

Chapter 2: Not So Secret Now

////WARNING////
The following content is not made for those who are squeamish and faint of heart. If you do not enjoy gore, guns, violence, depressing topics, or any of the above put down this fanfiction IMMEDIATELY. There are characters in this fiction that do not belong to me. I will list them in the description of this fanfic. Please give these people all the love and attention they deserve and be respectful of them and their content. Keep in mind there are 18+ comments in this book, but no content to be had.
Thank you for choosing my fanfiction and enjoy!
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April 29, 2019

It's been an interesting first month at the Barricade in Gateway Cavern. It's changed so much since I last visited my Slugterraean home. Crazy how fast change can be and how far it can spread in such a short period of time. It can go viral just like the virus that caused it. Speaking of viruses, who knew one scratch can be so catastrophic. The surgery sucked, but at least I'm a live. It takes up like half my face, my lips and cheek are gone. Luckily it was small and spread slowly. Easier to hide too, even though everybody here already knows about it. Being one of the new members of one of the head squads, I guess it makes it easier to spread gossip about. I'm not a celebrity, but it feels like I'm treated as one. Attention isn't normally my preference, neither is the being under the spot light. Eh. At least they have something to talk about besides whether they'll get to eat that day or not.
I got to go. The captain's calling for me.
Catch ya later partner.

-Diamond RoughBack
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    Mathew didn't know how long he stood there, listening to the silent engines that now raced away from him. He didn't know how long he watched as Gloria used her Smuglet (ghoul) to make them silent and invisible to all those outside of her bubble, despite the many twigs they trampled and the engines that roared on limited fuel. He stared at the spot where he last saw her for a few more heartbeats as he thought of what to do next. He reached up and scratched the little crown like translator device on his head.
     "You alright?" Jewels, his Tazerling, asked as he hopped a little more forward on Mathew's shoulder. Mathew came out of his trance and looked at him.
       "Oh. Uh. Yeah. I'm good," he said, looking at Jewels briefly before looking back at the overgrown path before him.
        "Are you sure? You seem a little distracted," Jewels said. Mathew shrugged.
       "Come on. You can tell me! What's on your mind?" Jewels said.
        "Not much. I'm just trying to figure out what to do now," Mathew said casually. It was true, but not the whole picture. Jewels raised a lightning shaped eyebrow.
         "Alright... well. So do we head to the next cavern as planned? It's only a couple miles from here. And it should have better food to loot then here!"
          "No. I'm going to go that way," Mathew said, nodding towards the direction that Gloria races off to.
           "But we just came from that direction. And we're trying to get to the barricade as soon as possible remember?" Jewels said, a little surprised towards his slinger's response.
         "She had a mecha. Yeah it was beat up and a little rickety, but it had a running engine and quick acceleration. She might be able to help us get a ride there or at least lend us some more ammo or some shelter for the night. Maybe we could have a cooked meal that it isn't out in the middle of the woods," Mathew said, "We're going to go find her."
      "Alright. Let's hurry up before night falls," Jewels said. Mathew nodded and began to jog after Gloria, following the tracks left in the mud and leaves.

       Mathew pushed deeper into the forest and out of the toxic jungles. The place was in a lot better shape then the rest of the wilderness and was free of brain eating monsters. Even the smell of rot and death seemed to have lifted a little. This gave Mathew reason to believe he was on the right track.
     He found a well trodden path with new overgrowth trying to cover the well tuned length of dirt pathways. Someone had been using them, which was odd since it was in the middle of nowhere. He followed it as it slowly went from plain dirt, dirt with weeds poking through the cracks, to full on grassy path that was separate from the rest of the woods. He pushed through the shrubbery and the low mushroom branches and came to a clearing. The clearing had grass that reached up to his ankles and was lush and green and surprisingly soft. The clearing was a semicircle and turned into a rocky hill with tufts of vegetation here and there. The grass had been trampled slightly and was springing back up into its natural position. Patches of it were low or gone. He surveyed from the trees before stepping further to continue to push through the trees. His foot sank into something soft and slimy. He looked down to see he had sent his shoes straight through the chest cavity of a zombified corpse. Maggots squirmed out of the edges of the rotting skin and tissues of the rib cage that he just crunched through and attempted to climb onto his foot and wriggle into his filthy socks. The sudden stench that sprung from the corpse hit his nose and instantaneously summoned buzzing insects from the shadows to swarm around the new opening in their fermented meal. He wrinkled his nose in disgust.
      "Ewwwwwww!" He said, pulling his foot out with a disgusting shhhhhhhhrrrrrrgloop! sound. A festering, ooze like soup of organs stuck to the sides and soles of his shoe, bringing along all the maggots and grubs that we're eating away at the black, jelly like soup of rot and puss. Jewels covered his nose and struggled to keep his lunch.
       "Oh.... great," Mathew said, his tone thick with sarcasm, "Just what I needed."
        He shook off his foot and used a nearby stick to scrape off the remaining mess before the warm bodies of grubs and maggots could crawl into his socks. He stepped away from the corpse and entered the clearing. After encountering the first corpse, he realized that the missing patches of grass were actually the resting places of many zombies, all massacred in a thirty foot radius of the center of the clearing. He avoided stepping into anymore of those corpses, wanting to keep the smell trapped inside their chest cavities rather then being shot up his nostrils. It seemed suspicious that it was only this one clearing where zombified corpses lay in such large numbers in the entire forest. The trip here was quiet and peaceful and free of virus infected plants. It was so quiet and nice here, peaceful. Something wasn't right.
    "Weird," he thought.
     The soft sounds of grinding metal and the almost invisible click...click...click of tiny gears reached his ears, pulling him out of his train of thought. Something moved on the hill, so he carefully looked up, slowly and calmly. When he looked, he didn't see anything, but the sense of multiple eyes trained on him was strong and hard to miss.
      "Double weird," he thought, warily keeping an eye on the tufts of tall grasses on the upper ledge of the hill. A different sound caught his attention. A rustling in the grass. He looked down to see a small creature by one of the corpses. A small and sickly green creature with no mouth, slit like nostrils and fly like eyes. A slug of some sort, and none that he has ever seen before. It's little nose twitched as it sniffed the air and looked at him.
     "Hey there little guy," Mathew muttered. The slug shied away and bolted towards the hill and through the grass. Curious, Mathew followed the little creature. The slug stopped and looked behind it to see if Mathew was still there and moved another few feet towards the hill, it's nose twitching and it's antenna pinned back in fear. Mathew followed it. The slug had to live somewhere right? Maybe a crack in the rocks that lead to its little hidden lair. Maybe it knew something about the corpses that he didn't, or could lead him to a clue.
      The slug hopped up the rocks and looked back at him one more time. Mathew still following. The slug watched him wearily as he reached out a hand.
       "Don't worry. I won't hurt you," Mathew said softly and kindly to the slug. Not buying it, the slug leaped towards a mass of rocks and squeezed through the narrow bottom of a wide crack in the hill. Mathew walked up to the crack and peered inside. The slick and slimy green form of the slug squeezed through the crack and into a larger space in between the windy tunnel of rock. A little pocket lay just in arms reach from the entrance of the crack. The slug looked up at the stone wall before whirling around to look at Mathew with big frightened eyes and a twitchy nose. It looked cute and scared. Something else was within the crevice. A large pipe like object jutting from the rock. It gleamed a dull bronze shine when Mathew shifted his head to see in better, letting a sliver of light peak through. It looked bent and beat up and was very well hidden. Like someone didn't want anybody to find out....
      Mathew looked at the slug, "Is this what you wanted to show me?"
     The slug didn't answer, not moving from its place. Mathew began to weave his hand through the crack and the slug backed away deeper into the shadows and to the side, now hidden from view. Maybe to slip through another hidden crevice or burrow. Mathew continued to reach in. He grasped for the rod and pulled it down with a soft click. The slug suddenly opened its mouthless face into a huge fanged maw and sank its teeth into his thumb.
      "OW! Hey!" Mathew yelped, pulling his hand out to examine the blood beads forming on his skin. He put the wound into his mouth to suck away the blood before the sounds of rusty gears and clicking mechanics reached his ears. He looked in at the rod, which he now realized was a lever, when the side of hill began to shake. He and his slugs looked up at the rocks as a large section of the hill began to open up like the back trunk lid of a car. He watched in amazement as the authentic plants and rocks of the hill opened up into a garage. The screeching of rusted pistons and joints were not as loud as the realization dawning in his head as the slivers of dying daylight shined down on a familiar, busted, and rusty gold hide of the mecha from earlier. It was hooked up to multiple thick wires, DR4-K3. He was in sleep mode and stood motionless despite the commotion being made by the rusty gears revealing the hidden room.
      The insides of the garage were scratched and dirty and had a strip of cracked tiles with a two row checkered pattern. The floor was just as dirty and grimy as the walls and popcorn ceiling and the shelves and bookshelf like, rusty red toolboxes lined the walls. A table with blaster pieces and slug tubes both red and blue scattered its surface and pictures of building layouts were pinned to the cork board where tools where kept hanging from hooks or on wire shelves. A door was in the far left corner of the room and near a stretch of wall where two light switches were, one free and one taped over. The white and baby blue walls were illuminated as flickering, dying overhead lights came on and a generator began to sputter and whir to life in the corner, putt-putt-putting away merrily as it coughed out a puff of smoke and rose to be of service. The whir and purr of the generator made the space a little more inviting to the wandering mechanic and made it seem a lot warmer.
       The garage door began to close and Mathew rushed inside just in time before the thing could close on his head. The lights flickered again and shook as the giant locks of the rock plated door clunked into place with a heavy thud and shake. The mecha didn't wake as the wires shook with the walls. He walked towards the only door in view and heard the distant groan of a zombie or zombies in the wall to his left, but it was faint and distant, almost like it wasn't there. It must have been his imagination, right?
       The click and cocking sound of a hand held pistol suddenly announced the presence of a familiar figure. He held up his hands slowly and slowly turned to see her standing in the doorway.