Shrouded Seascape

Chapter 581: Inside

Regardless of what had happened to 068, Charles had to continue with his exploration. He approached the front door carefully and looked outside through the peephole.

The streets outside were empty, appearing quite desolate. However, Charles' keen hearing allowed him to hear strange movements from the nearby houses, making it clear that there were people inside of them.

Our target isn't the city up above but the shelter beneath the city. The humanoid figures outside can't communicate, so we must find that computer, which is the consciousness of 068 itself.

Charles stepped away from the peephole and turned to his crew members, saying, "Try to be as stealthy as possible. Do not raise the alarm." Charles said.

The crew members nodded quietly and tightened their grip on their weapons.

Just as Charles and the others had finalized their infiltration plan, an audible crack echoed as the bird folk on the sofa abruptly stood up and peered over the sofa, staring straight at Charles and his crew.

"Quick, follow it!" Charles exclaimed. He had pulled out his eye and had hurled it ahead of them to scout the road up ahead. The others followed closely behind the eye, walking nervously along the wall.

Whenever they found themselves near a house with noises coming from the inside, they made sure to walk carefully so as not to disturb the residents inside.

Just before they were about to turn at an intersection, Charles abruptly came to a halt. His eye had spotted a man standing at the far end of the intersection. The man was in a squatting position, and he seemed to be smoking a cigarette.

It wouldn't have been a strange sight if it hadn't been for the fact that the man had a crow's head rather than a human head. After a brief contemplation, Charles' figure vanished.

A trash can next to a distant road sign suddenly made a noise.

The crow-headed man didn't stand up in response to the noise. Instead, he slid toward the trash can as if there were wheels beneath his feet.

Seeing that the bizarre crow-headed man had been successfully lured away, Charles' figure reappeared at the next intersection. He signaled with flag semaphore, telling his crew to catch up.

Charles moved in large strides while looking around vigilantly. "We're going this way. The garage leading to the shelter is in this direction, and it shouldn't be that—"

Charles stopped mid-sentence; the scene before him forced him to freeze in place.

A visibly pregnant woman with a half-cat, half-human face was staring at Charles with her vertical pupils. The pregnant woman was stuck in the wall just ahead of Charles.

Charles was familiar with the pregnant woman. She was the pregnant captain who had found and brought back the grotesque amalgamation of machinery and flesh that resembled a primitive propeller plane not too long ago.

It seemed that she was the captain of the twisted ship they had encountered prior to their arrival here.

Just then, the pregnant captain opened her mouth, but Charles saw neither a tongue nor teeth but what looked like a pitch-black hole in her mouth. The next moment, a noise similar to radio static emerged from her mouth; it seemed like the pregnant captain was summoning her companions.

A vine covered with red thorns shot out of Bandages' hand. It wrapped around the woman's head and tore her head off her shoulders in one quick twist.

Blood splattered onto Charles' face, but before he could even take a sigh of relief, a shrill cry reverberated from the severed head, and the noise was so shrill that it shattered the windows of the nearby houses.

"Damn it!" Charles cursed. He kicked off the ground with his right foot and took to the sky. His steel hand snatched the screaming head out of mid-air and smashed it into the nearby wall, silencing it.

Unfortunately, it was too late. Multiple figures with a variety of bizarre appearances emerged from the windows of the nearby houses; they all stared at Charles with their multicolored beast-like pupils.

"Run!" Charles roared, and everyone sprang into action, running frantically away from the intersection.

Clop, clop, clop!

The distinct noises of hoofbeats echoed from behind, prompting Charles to command the spider to jump onto Linda's shoulder.

The spider then looked back and saw that, at some point, a dozen police cars had appeared on the road. The police cars had no wheels but had horse legs that moved tirelessly, chasing after Charles and his crew.

It was an absurd sight, and their speed was absurd as well.

Dipp whipped out two grenades, yanked out the safety pins, and threw the grenades behind him.

Boom!

The two grenades tore some of the police cars into pieces, but the remaining police cars were undeterred. In fact, they even picked up the pace.

Once the police cars were close enough to their targets, the bizarre-looking policemen inside the cars pulled out their weapons and stuck them out of the car windows before squeezing the trigger.

A hail of bullets chased after Charles and his crew. Charles was struck in the right shoulder, and the bullet created a hole in his clothes.

Charles knew that this couldn't continue; the line of police cars behind them would only grow longer at this rate. They had to find a way to shake off the police cars.

It seemed that Bandages had an inkling as to what Charles was thinking, as he came to a halt and said, "I... will..."

The ground beneath Bandages swelled rapidly, and the asphalt road cracked, revealing green thorny vines that spread in all directions, creating a sturdy barricade made out of plants.

The police cars jumped over the barricade with their horse legs only to find that a pit full of thorny vines was waiting for them on the other side. A chaotic scene ensued as the police cars found themselves stuck in the massive pit.

By the time they managed to get out of the pit, Charles and his crew had already disappeared.

Unbeknownst to them, a spider with a red pattern resembling an eye was hiding beneath a car. When the police cars had cleaned up the scene and had dispersed, the spider crawled toward a nearby basement.

"All right, they've left. Let's go and be careful. This place is getting stranger by the minute," Charles said, stuffing the spider back into his eye socket.

The crew members nodded and moved as carefully as possible. It could not be helped, as they did not want a repeat of the incident just now.

We'll do our best to hide from those residents, but if an encounter is unavoidable, then we're going to deal with them as quietly as possible. Charles thought.

Unfortunately, the bizarre residents of Island 68 were on high alert after being alerted to the presence of Charles and his crew. After two hours of hard work, Charles and his crew safely reached the massive underground garage that led to the shelter.

Upon arriving at the farthest end of the garage, Charles took a moment to recall his experience at the time. Then, he reached out with his finger and tapped rapidly on the wall, eliciting a series of chimes in response to the taps.

Moments later, the wall split open, revealing an elevator.

Charles breathed a sigh of relief. The crew members rushed into the elevator and waited patiently for the elevator door to close.

The massive underground garage was empty; they had seen neither cars nor anyone outside. The elevator chimed, and the doors started to close when a hand dripping with black tar reached out to stop the door.

The elevator chimed, and the door opened, revealing a hunchbacked woman with her head lowered. The woman was holding her belly with both hands as she walked into the elevator. Her figure and limbs were misshapen; her fingers even appeared to have been rotated several times.

The woman pressed the elevator button with her tar-covered finger, and the elevator door closed with a chime. Then, the elevator descended slowly toward its destination.

The grotesque and bizarre-looking woman stood frozen in the middle of Charles and his crew. She made no movements whatsoever after pushing the elevator button, which made it hard for Charles and his crew to deduce her intentions.

A tense and oppressive air pervaded the elevator. Everyone gripped their weapons tightly, ready to defend against any sudden attacks.

Dipp quietly pulled out a black spike, but Charles pressed it down with his hand.

Charles believed that the entity before them was most likely not in league with the bird folks up above. Otherwise, she wouldn't have stayed silent upon seeing them. Charles deduced that she might not be a native entity on 068.

It did not matter whether the entity's identity was clear or not, as it was best to avoid confronting entities that were not hindering them on their way to their objective.