"I got your back."
"Alright," Daryl nodded, took a deep breath, and ran from the carrier they were taking cover behind.
Two men were peeking from the roof of the house opposite, sweating bullets at the sight of their friends' bodies scattered all over on the ground, dead by some fucking black knives.
They spotted a man in dark gear sprinting for the building that housed the last four of their group and immediately took aim—only for another masked man to emerge from behind the carrier.
And that was the last thing they saw before Ghost dropped both of them with two clean shots from his Colt M4A1 Carbine.
"Clear here. I'm flanking the east side—hold position till my mark." Ghost said into his comms, tapping the mic once before moving.
He opened the carrier's gate and glanced at William, who was hunched over the Raven drone terminal, watching the live feed and controlling the drone.
"Stay inside; I'll go to finish the mission."
"Sure," William nodded, and Ghost sealed the carrier then broke into a sprint.
His speed had grown showing clear progress, as it was much different than his old self.
The benefits of consuming soldier-pills from the shinobi world and repeating the drills all over again multiple times a day.
Daryl was already waiting by the time his brother circled to the back door of the building.
"In position. We breach in five. Prioritize your left in case of multiple targets in between us," came Ghost's voice over the comms not long after.
"Got it."
After the silent count, both kicked in their respective doors their M4A1s raised.
The place looked like a building for storing stocks or something close.
Daryl moved forward with steady steps, eyes locked at the only entrance to the next room. He scanned the place, cleared the closet, the corners, and once he was sure no one was hiding, he advanced to the next room, exchanging brief updates with Ghost.
"I passed the 100-foot mark, did you?"
He tapped replying to his brother "70. I'm at the door, ready?"
"The next room is the last; they must be there. I'm in position. Three… two… one." Ghost dropped his heat goggles and kicked the next door open.
Aiming his weapon forward at the same time that Daryl tossed two smoke bombs that erupted instantly, blanketing the big room in white fog and startling the four people inside who didn't expect that.
He moved forward and shot three short bursts, hitting their legs making two of them drop.
Daryl also moved, shooting one man on his shoulder, and leaned back as he caught movement on his left, evading the machete coming for his head.
He stabilized his stance fast and kicked the woman hard into a table, then moved pointing his gun at her head.
The smoke began to thin while Ghost bound the two injured men, he tapped his CB.
"Reporting, site secure. Five tangos detained, awaiting orders."
Sasuke's voice came through the CB not long after.
"~zzz~ Good job, bring them to the cart beside the one Carl and others were holed up in. I'm on my way; keep your eyes open.~zzz~"
"Sure," Ghost replied before glancing at Daryl, smirking beneath the mask.
"Well, that was somethin', you're coming up good and steady lil brother."
And Daryl grunted seeing him switch to his jerk part. "Know what? I'm starting to prefer your other persona; it feels much less punchable."
Merle laughed and took a good look at the place; now that the fog had cleared, they both saw how freakish this room was.
There were many candles lit all over the place, many names were written in the ground, and he glanced at the walls, where there were three lines written in black paint.
[[ Never again ]] [[ Never trust ]]
[[ We first, always ]]
"Gotta admit, cool mottos."
Ghost shrugged at Daryl and grabbed the rope binding the two gagged men, then walked out dragging them with one hand, his Beretta ready in his other hand for any hidden danger.
While Daryl just shook his head, cursing, and pulled the third man along.
The bound woman tried to crawl away, but he caught her ankle and followed after Merle not giving a damn whether her head was dragged across the road.
What he saw in this place made him just the more confident in his choice of following Sasuke; this world became too dark too fast the moment the necessity of hiding the true nature of humans was no longer needed.
Three fucking months, and people are already eating the flesh of their kin.
From what he and Merle got, according to the blabber of the first man they caught, he knew that those people suffered, but...does that really make someone just point his madness at unrelated people who had nothing to do with that suffering?.
Just the thought of what would've happened to the people they caught if Sasuke didn't know about this made him gnash his teeth in anger.
There were innocent women and a kid with them.
He wasn't that attached to Rick and others, sure...but he spent the first two months surviving with them.
That was a long period to consider them acquaintances, even if Merle's intention to stay with them wasn't pure at that time.
He shook those thoughts from his head as they took a turn on the corner and then blinked, a disbelief chuckle escaping his lips as he turned to Ghost.
"Of fucking course, another one? Wasn't she a suspect? I guess he was serious about restoring his clan; he's got a damn lineup already: a fucking blonde, a brunette, a black-haired blue-eyed, and now an Asian pretty face just like him. What next? Redhead?"
"Jealous?" Ghost's altered voice reached him, and Daryl looked at him unamused.
"It's how things are now; there are very few good and strong men left, and as it happened, those few men rescued many women along the way. Kinda natural, huh? I mean, you pretty much got two women taking care of ya..."
"Two? The fuck are you on?" Daryl didn't even understand what shit Merle smoked before coming here to say that.
"Hahh, sometimes I wonder if staying in the woods for that long had scrambled your brain and made your interest shift to something inhuman...a little advice, Darline: don't disappoint me. I don't want to kick yer smelly ass for making a woman wait for ya to make the move."
Their little brotherly talk ended there with Daryl confused.
They dumped the prisoners at Sasuke's feet, who was taking his silverballer back from the pouting Ada who seemed to like it.
"William?"
"I'll go back to escort him and the last man we caught," Ghost stated and turned to leave.
"Alright."
Abraham, who was whispering something to Eugene turned to the two men who walked to that devil in glasses; he already saw them dragging bound people behind them, who he realized were...the ones who caught them.
The masked man turned and left without a word, but the single side glance made him instinctively straighten.
'Military, special forces?' he thought and shook his head as he felt the nudge from Rosita.
He then turned to Sasuke. "Ahem, may I say something?"
"Can it wait? I got a word with those." Abraham frowned seeing the dismissal, but he closed his mouth seeing Sasuke grabbing the ropes binding the four people, and with a casual shove...he hurled them inside the fucking train cart.
Those weren't damn rice packs; each of those must weigh at least 50 kg, meaning that kid had just tossed +200 kg from the ground up inside the train cart casually like they were sacks of grain.
'No way that's human.' Abraham stared dumbstruck.
He started fearing what this one is.
Sasuke simply entered the cart, and Daryl closed the door behind him, glancing briefly at Abraham before ignoring him, though...the woman with the sword picked his interest; for a moment he thought she was another Anbu, but he dismissed that thought.
Haku, that crazy Anbu girl would've likely cleaned this place alone with ease, just like Sasuke.
The difference was quite big, so he figured it was someone really playing the samurai this time.
Ten minutes later Sasuke walked out wiping his hand.
His thoughts wandered to the interrogation. Those people, they really secured the Terminus and put up the welcoming signs with pure intent to help, but he wondered, why was there none from the 30+ people here with...logical vision?
Showing your location and inviting strange people was all good, but it required muscles to defend your place, not fucking hope.
They were truly unfortunate, as some of the newcomers weren't good people; they took over the place and locked all of them in the carts, taking the woman from time to time to rape them and killing every man who might've looked wrong at them.
Gareth and others fought and reclaimed their rightful place, and because the food was already consumed by the rapists, they...turned to cannibalism.
But they kept the leader of the rapists imprisoned, and Sasuke had zero interest in freeing him, dying with hunger seemed like a good end for him.
That all happened two weeks ago.
'Like always,' Sasuke thought, 'if you stare too long at the abyss, it stares back at you.'
If only they'd chosen differently, he might've helped them. But that chance was long gone.
Sasuke wished he knew more about this world, from the show and all, but the addition of the monster had already threw his initial plan out the window.
Ultimately, he realized that there was only one thing he could do to be sure he emerges as the winner… every time.
And it's simple: grow stronger, much stronger than he currently is...it was time to do the right thing now.
Sasuke turned to the people gathered.
Rick, Lori, Shane, Carl, Hershel, Beth, Maggie, Otis, Patricia, Gloria, T-dog, Jacqui, Michonne, Abraham, Eugene, Rosita, and another woman they didn't know who was rescued alongside them.
Ada was leaning on the cart, looking at her manicured nails with interest, her thoughts wandering to what Sasuke might do next. She met him for two days, and one thing was clear: he was unpredictable.
Sasuke turned to Ghost, who was dragging back another bound man, and William who was holding a suitcase and walking beside Ghost with some unease because of the bodies on the ground.
Sasuke tilted his head just so—and Ghost nodded, aimed the barrel of his silenced gun at the bound man's head, and pulled the trigger.
There was no need for him anymore.
The action made several people flinch, but they were no longer the same; you won't feel an ounce of pity seeing the man who was about to feed on you and your family killed.
'Those brain-dead-in-suits are really messing with the wrong man.' Ada seriously started thinking about cutting ties with that organization.
It was simple, really; there are two sides now, each knowing little about the other but both vying for eminence.
And she decided to side with the apex predator out of the two.
On one side there were many humans, possibly an army too, having big and dangerous monsters with them.
On the other side, there was a single man with red eyes.
Who slaughtered the said monster and killed 14 armed persons with a single sweep of his hands the moment they stepped through the front gates.
And to this point, she didn't see him even sweating despite all the fights he went through just today, from slaying a monster to fighting her to slaying a bunch of humans...
The logical part was siding with numbers and modern guns, especially since she had just suffered a humiliation from Sasuke...but she trusted her guts as she wanted to dig deeper.
All those thoughts ran by the time she glanced from her thumb's nail to her pinky's.
Sasuke, who saw the man drop dead, turned to Daryl.
"The gates are open?"
"Yeah, they should be here soon. We drove here by bikes, so I guess the trucks should be close by now." And just on cue, an engine sounded, and they turned toward its source seeing two military trucks closing in on them. Both halted, and from them emerged a group of armed men.