TWD - Zomboid - Chapter 302: Luke the Skull-Crusher (Patreon)

Shane grabbed Alpha by the jaw and forced her mouth open. With a quick twist of his hunting knife, he cut out her tongue.

Luke paced back and forth in front of the Whisperers with the baseball bat resting on his shoulder.

Every time he stopped in front of someone, they shrank back and trembled.

“My rules are the rules!”

“First rule. When it’s not your turn to speak, keep your mouth shut. Otherwise, don’t blame me for taking away your ability to talk for the rest of your life.”

Luke pointed the bat at one of the Whisperers.

“Anything you want to say?”

The woman hurriedly shook her head, keeping her lips tightly sealed for fear that Luke would cut out her tongue too.

“Good. Now that’s someone who knows how to behave.”

Luke crouched beside her, placed a hand on her shoulder, and leaned close to whisper in her ear.

“Tell me. Were you here last time?”

“N-no!”

[Deception]

“Ooh! That’s fantastic!”

Luke stood up, stopped in front of her, then smiled at Joel in the crowd.

Without warning, he spun around.

The baseball bat came crashing down.

One blow split the Whisperer’s skull open.

Luke’s strength was downright inhuman. Half of her skull caved in before she could even let out a groan, and she collapsed to the ground.

Only after making sure she was completely dead did Luke rest the bat on his shoulder and move on to the next person.

“I have a magical pair of eyes. I can tell exactly which one of you is lying and which one thinks I’m stupid enough to fool!”

“That one had something wrong with her head, so I helped fix it!”

“Anyone else?”

Every Whisperer Luke looked at lowered their head, their nerves completely shattered.

Their reactions almost made Luke laugh.

These Whisperers had used walker hordes to massacre plenty of their fellow humans. They had even killed survivors who came here hoping to find safety.

Not one of them was innocent.

Every last one deserved to die.

Luke carried the bat toward the next prisoner.

Bang!

Bang!

Now that was a satisfying crack!

Luke didn’t waste his breath.

With every step he took, another body with a shattered skull appeared at his feet. The baseball bat grew slicker and redder with blood, and cracks began spreading across the wood.

The Whisperers were remarkably obedient.

Not one of them said a word.

Speak, and they lost their tongue.

Stay quiet, and one swing of the bat would probably make sure they never spoke again anyway.

The people watching reacted in different ways.

Even the camp veterans could tell Luke was genuinely furious this time.

He normally wasn’t this vicious, but sometimes blood had to be spilled to make sure everyone understood the rules.

Merle rested his rifle on his shoulder and licked his lips.

Shane crossed his arms and swept his gaze over everyone present.

The four from Zombieland kept backing away in alarm.

Even Tallahassee swallowed hard.

He never would’ve guessed Luke could be this brutal.

And he’d spent the entire trip casually throwing an arm around the man’s shoulders.

Ellie stood behind Leon.

She had killed plenty of people before, and severed limbs barely fazed her anymore.

But even she had rarely witnessed people lined up on their knees and executed one after another.

And Luke wasn’t even using a gun.

He was doing it with a baseball bat.

This was the man’s true nature.

Once someone crossed one of his lines, he really would resort to bloody methods.

Ellie quietly glanced at Joel.

Joel had watched the whole thing from beginning to end.

His own hands were covered in plenty of blood, but he had always killed either to protect himself or to protect Ellie.

Luke was different.

He carried out each execution as though it were perfectly natural, almost as if the entire spectacle was meant for everyone watching.

“Damn, my back’s actually getting a little sore!”

Luke rubbed his waist.

He had saved the two hardest cases for last.

Beta and Alpha.

Even with death staring them in the face, both of them continued glaring at Luke.

Completely beyond saving.

Luke moved the baseball bat back and forth between them.

“Eenie, meenie, miney, moe! Whoever I land on gets to go! So, which one of you wants the first swing?”

The bat stopped in front of Alpha.

Beta immediately tried to lunge forward, but Crane planted a foot on him and forced him back to the ground.

“You’re that eager? Fine, you can have it!”

Luke raised the bat and slammed it down on Beta’s head twice.

Beta really did have a hard skull.

Everyone else had only needed one hit.

Beta needed two.

Not only did Luke have to swing twice, the second impact cracked the bat.

“Look at this! Now you’re damaging public property! Can’t even die without costing me a baseball bat!”

Shane removed his baton and offered it to Luke.

Luke gave him a crooked smile.

“Put that away. We recycle around here. Even a broken bat can still kill someone.”

His smile turned cruel.

“It just means you’re going to die a little more painfully.”

Luke deliberately directed those last words at Alpha.

Under Alpha’s murderous glare, he swung the broken bat down.

The first strike shattered what remained of the bat, and a spray of blood burst from Alpha’s head.

But she still didn’t fall.

Luke kept striking her with the broken handle until her head was reduced to a bloody mess.

Only after Alpha’s body stopped moving did Luke toss the broken piece of bat onto the ground.

Rosita immediately handed him a white towel.

Luke took it and wiped the blood from his face.

“Wash your hands.”

Rosita had someone bring over a basin of water as well.

His own woman really did know him best.

“What are you all standing around for? Shane, take your men and clean this place up. Everyone else, get back to whatever you’re supposed to be doing!”

The moment Luke gave the order, everyone moved.

After what they had just witnessed, quite a few people were going to behave themselves from now on.

Luke looked toward Joel.

Joel was already staring back at him, and there was now a trace of fear in his eyes.

Those twenty-something shattered skulls had been left there for everyone to see.

Here, Luke’s rules were the rules.

The four from Zombieland still hadn’t recovered.

“You four did well. Consider your tickets earned. Go find a man named Leon. He’ll handle the rest of the process for you. Welcome to the Commonwealth family!”

Luke spread his arms and hugged Tallahassee.

“As for whether the Commonwealth has Twinkies, I honestly haven’t bought any before. But if you like them, my wife can make something similar!”

“N-no, that’s okay!” Tallahassee was sweating buckets.

“No, no, no. You’ve earned my goodwill, and I always treat people who know how to behave especially well!”

Luke patted him on the shoulder, smiled, then turned and walked away.

“Joel, from now on, just be a normal person and stay alive,” Ellie said as she passed him.

Joel’s face immediately brightened, thinking Ellie had forgiven him.

But Ellie simply followed Luke from a distance and handed the shotgun back to him.

“Not bad. I saw how you did through my scope.”

Luke worked the shotgun’s action. There were still a few shells inside.

Then he tossed it back to Ellie.

“The situation with Joel isn’t over. His debt isn’t settled until I say it is. Until then, you’re also free to leave whenever you want. I won’t stop you.”

Ellie shook her head.

“This is the best place there is.”

Luke’s methods were certainly brutal.

But when she thought about it carefully, his brutality was always directed at enemies.

The Whisperers had brought it on themselves.

Those things were neither properly human nor walker anymore. If they had simply kept to themselves, no one would have bothered them.

Instead, they had come looking for trouble.

Today’s battle had also shown Ellie just how powerful the Commonwealth really was.

A walker horde that size barely gave them any trouble.

If anything, they had dealt with it almost effortlessly.

Luke left Leon and Crane in charge of the post-battle cleanup and headed toward the room.

Ada seemed to still be waiting for him.

The air around the outpost really was terrible.

The thick smell of blood mixed with the stench of rotting walkers in the distance, creating an unbearable odor.

Anyone who didn’t know better might have thought the outpost had been built on top of a landfill.

Luke opened the door.

Ada was leaning back in a chair.

She had watched the entire thing.

“Been in a bad mood lately?” Ada asked.

“I’m alright.”

Luke glanced above her head.

Several buffs immediately caught his attention.

[Pregnancy - Early Stage]

[Life Being Conceived]

[Morning Sickness - Mild]

“There’s something I need to tell you.” Ada’s expression turned serious.

“You don’t have to. I already know.”

Luke stepped forward and pulled Ada into his arms.

Ada: “???”

You bastard. How the hell do you already know?

“Now that you’re pregnant, stay home and take care of yourself. What the hell are you doing coming all the way out to the front line?”

Luke suddenly remembered something.

“Shit! You watched the whole thing while I was executing those animals?”

“Wait... how did you know?” Ada stared at him in shock.

She had originally planned to test Luke’s reaction.

If he didn’t want this child, then she...

But before she could even say anything, Luke had somehow figured it out at a glance.

Was he psychic or something?

How the hell could he tell just by looking at her?