Reyes Albert, Prisoner, Ch. 43, "Slavering Hound"
As soon as he returned to the prison island, Reyes crafted more spikes. He figured that next time he returned to the Hound, he would pull some more metal frames from the truck nearby, and use those to repair the damaged parts of it.
He loaded some sheet metal from his storage onto the Lowrider. This could reinforce some of the more easily damaged parts, such as the corners.
He remembered that he had seen some more heavy-duty vehicles in Barnet, which was a coastal town just to the east. It was the closest town to the prison island, and was entirely clear of zombies last he checked. Reyes hopped back onto the Lowrider and headed out.
Near the shores of Barnet, he spotted something very horrible. A small, mutated body with giant black eyes and claws for hands.
He avoided the creature for now.
Barnet was quiet, aside from a single undead roaming the west side. He found the wreck that he had remembered, which seemed to have a number of durable parts. Steel plating, heavy-duty frames, and even a couple pieces of spiked plating.
Most of it was dented and damaged, but it was easy pickings. He figured he could use his acetylene torch to repair some things after they were installed on the Hound.
He backed the Lowrider’s forklift up to the wreck, and lifted the metal into the air. From here, it was much easier to remove the heavy duty frames that were within.
Reyes removed a mounted machinegun, a M249 from the wreckage. It was dinged up badly, and out of ammo, but he figured it would be a nice addition to the island prison’s armory.
In total, he salvaged three heavy duty frames, one steel plating, one steel frame, two spiked plating, fifteen chunks of steel, nine lumps of steel, and over seventy scrap metal. It was a giant bounty of metal, and would go a long ways towards improving the Hound.
Reyes left Barnet and traveled to the eastern end of the lake, where one of the lighthouses he’d explored previously was, which he’d noted on his map to have lots of food stored. The Lowrider was running low on food, and he figured he would stock up on more before he went back to Ludlow to work on the Hound.
He navigated onto the shore. Last time he was here, it looked like he had been working on the Lowrider. The docks were disassembled, and some project was left abandoned there.
After looking through the larder, he cursed himself. He must have already looted this place, but forgot to remove the note on his map. The last months had been a blur of fear and violence, and he neglected to remember that he had already been through here. He needed to find food elsewhere.
He replaced the note with one that read, “No more food”.
Reyes heard smashing from outside. It was coming from the Lowrider! He rushed over.
It was a horrifying monstrosity, covered in kelp and dissolved by the lake water. Reyes needed to escape, immediately. It was between him and the Lowrider, but he risked it.
He climbed in, the thing just two steps behind him. Slamming the throttle, he turned away from the wretched island. The thing fell back into the water, and he seemed to have escaped.
Reyes returned to the prison island, to plan his next move. He needed food, and looked over his map for grocery stores. The sun went down as he arrived.
He’d considered hunting, but that was only good for eating the day-of. He had no way to refrigerate meat, and it went bad quite quickly. He needed canned food.
He slept, and woke up around 6:00 AM. After scrounging through the last of his cooking supplies, he made some deluxe cooked oatmeals, and a bunch of deluxe scrambled eggs from some powdered egg and pickled fish.
After thinking about it, Reyes decided that the best way to find food would be to continue with his killing in Lurlow. There were a number of houses that he was making good progress on killing the zombies around, which could have some canned food inside.
He approached Lurlow and the Hound carefully. He considered that his scent may have led the undead to it. But it seemed clear.
He set to work repairing the spikes and re-enforcing the frames where they had taken damage.
Reyes replaced the front spikes, which had been thoroughly mangled, with brand new ones. On the corners, he installed durable spiked rams. He added heavy duty quarterpanels to the sides which had been destroyed when he was careering through the streets.
The front of the Hound had become very menacing. Spikes were reinforced, stronger than before. Reyes was ready to do a second trip, this time targeted around the homes nearby. He wanted to clear the streets out, so that it would be safer to explore the homes for food.
There were zombies all over. He rushed through, increasing speed as he saw more dangerous ones ahead.
The zombies were transformed into clouds of gore, and puddles of blood.
The streets were paved over with entrails, chips of bone, and streams of gore. Reyes passed through crowds of the undead and removed them from existence.
It was a haunting trip, but soon the city of Ludlow would be much safer.
Reyes ran over a gigantic bloated corpse, and purple bile rained over him and the Hound. He was blinded, but could hear the sound of the Hound bouncing over the dead.
He could barely see the streets, and tried his best to navigate to safety. He needed to get the bile off of his face somehow. He frantically wiped at his face with his sleeve, while he slowed the Hound down to a manageable pace.
Finally he could see again, but the goo was still all over him. It glowed, and he was a bit worried about whether it would affect him.
He looked over the Hound, and realized it was missing most of its spikes now. A pit stop was in order.
Reyes replaced the missing spikes, and made another pass. He wanted to keep going until the spikes were destroyed.
He spotted a fairly intact military vehicle, which he noted. He could scavenge it later to add on to the Hound.
Once again he pulled the mangled Hound up beside the Lowrider. He quickly crafted spikes to fill in the gaps, and set out for yet another rampage.
