Danny knew that it was easier to accommodate the demon’s quirks than to keep fighting it. Given that, Danny started going over the things he witnessed during the last few days added by the information he already knew to see if he could formulate any sort of hypothesis that could explain why the dead were coming back to life.

However, no matter how much effort he put into unveiling the mystery, all his conjectures came out blank. Danny had no fucking clue.

Danny only knew that people started coming back as zombies after the quakes, and that it appeared to be irrelevant whether you had been bitten beforehand or not. But those tidbits of information were absolutely insufficient to draw any sort of meaningful conclusion. He had no idea what Tutu was expecting him to find out with just that. Thus, Danny could only shrug his shoulders after spending some time thinking.

“I have no idea.” Danny stated the obvious.

“That’s okay. That just means you had not been looking close enough. Go grab one of those bodies you left outside and bring it here. I will wait.”

“What? You mean now?” Danny asked dumbfounded, not at all expecting this.

“Of course I mean now, yes! What? Do you expect me to go get it myself? Should I also grab you something to eat while you wait for my return?” The demon lashed out in a mocking tone.

“That is not what I me-”

“Shush shush shush. Less talking and more moving!” The demon faded into the shadows after scolding Danny, not giving him a chance to talk back any further, disappearing completely from sight.

Without any other option other than to comply, Danny went downstairs in order to grab one of the corpses that remained outside as the demon demanded.

He grabbed his trusty hammer before going to the gate of the property and opening it. There were no enemies in sight. Even if there had been a couple of zombies roaming around earlier that day, Danny assumed that they had been either taken out by Carl’s group when they left or had been attracted to somewhere else. Either way, all the better for Danny.

He closed the gate behind him quietly without locking it. Afterwards, Danny approached the pile of corpses that were not far from the gateway to his place with soft but quick steps. Just because he did not see any enemies, that did not mean that he would not treat the situation with seriousness and caution.

Though it was not the most sanitary decision, the group had shoved all of their victims just a few tens of meters to the northwest of the property walls, leaving the corpses exposed to the open air.

As Danny stepped next to the heap of bodies, he could not help but raise his eyebrows at the peculiar strangeness of the area. It was not that Danny felt something particularly unusual about the looks of the place – if one could call a pile of bodies in the middle of the street normal that is – but there was a distinctive lack of smell.

There was definitely a stink emanating from the gathered bodies, of course, but Danny felt that it was way too mild for what it should have been. Some of those bodies had been there for multiple days now, so he should be by all means struggling with the discomfort, but that was not the case.

He had not realized the strangeness of it until now. The previous days Danny was always concerned about one thing or another, especially with the deadline for paying the demon up fast approaching, so he completely missed this small detail. After all, how often would someone inspect an unpleasant smell closely enough to figure out it was actually not as bad as it was supposed to be?

Every time he or the others came to the place to dump a new body, they would almost always hold their breath, hoping to get out of there as fast as possible. Why would they subject themselves to the unpleasant experience if they could avoid it?

Also, now that he thought about it, there was a distinct lack of rot in the ones that were still walking out as well, however Danny had no idea how long it would take for it to be visibly noticeable normally, much less now that the bodies were actually walking around as if nothing was wrong. Thus, Danny had not suspected a thing during these past few days.

Even if did realize the strangeness, so what? Wasn’t the fact that someone was dead AND walking also strange? Who was he to say what was normal strange and weird strange? Danny was just a man that got an early warning due to his personal haunt unknown intentions. He was no specialist.

Whatever the reason may be, Danny felt that it had to be related with what the demon wanted him to see. Thus – without wasting any more time on questions he had no way to answer by himself – Danny grabbed the ankle of the closest dead body and dragged it out of the pile.

After freeing his chosen cadaver, Danny threw it over his shoulder and retraced his steps back to the house carrying it. Danny then made sure to close the gate firmly and lock it before returning to the room he had last seen the demon.

After going through the doorway, Danny found a one-meter-tall pitch-black crab waiting for him there. It was undoubtedly the newest transformation of the demon that dexterously held the blood-filled chalice to its mouth in a display that Danny felt could almost be called elegant.

Danny dropped the body to the floor carelessly – heavily contrasting the graceful crab – making no comment on Tutu’s newest display.

“Good. You returned. I was almost bored to death waiting for you here. What took you so long?” The demon said in a snobbish manner.

Danny merely harrumphed at the demon’s obvious attempt at baiting him. If Tutu was in any kind of rush, Danny had no doubt the demon could have gone outside and brought back a corpse himself in the snap of a finger.

Danny had already witnessed multiple times how fast the demon could be. He also knew that Tutu was multiple times stronger than himself. Thus, it would have been way more efficient and less time consuming if the demon had done the task himself. Despite all that, Tutu still had sent Danny to do it instead. Why was that the case?

Obviously because Tutu felt it would be more entertaining this way! Whatever the particular reason Tutu felt the need to send Danny to fetch the body by himself may be, and then complain about it, Danny was sure it was intended as some sort of amusement for the demon.

There were many things that Danny did not understand about Tutu. Danny also did not comprehend the motives and reasoning behind a lot of the demon’s actions. However, he knew for a fact that Tutu was a prick, not to say something worse.

Tutu most definitely enjoyed messing with Danny, and took sadistic pleasure in his suffering. The demon was just like a cat toying with its prey, enjoying the desperate but futile attempts of the mouse trapped in between its claws until it got bored with it and ended its plight.

Danny just hoped that he did not end up having the same fate as the mouse of his own metaphor in the end.

Seeing that his criticism failed to elicit a more emotional response from Danny, the crab took one last sip from the chalice before approaching the body sprawled on the floor at the clacking sound of its ten legs making contact with the wooden floorboard.

“Well… since I am such a magnanimous crustacean, I will forgive your tardiness this time.” The demon prodded the corpse with its free pincer, enjoying his roleplay a little too much for Danny’s taste.

“Very well? What are you waiting for? Open it up! Take a look inside!” The demon said with a cheery voice.

Danny, on the other hand, merely stared at the demon’s crab form dumbfounded.

What did it mean by open it up? What did Tutu wanted him to look inside of? And to look for what exactly?

“Don’t just stare at me like an idiot! Open it up!” The demon chided Danny, clearly happy to have caught Danny on his backfoot this time.

Danny looked at the female cadaver at the floor unsure as to how to proceed. The corpse laid there immobile facing upward. The face that belonged to a woman in her early twenties. Her aspect was rigid and her expression woodened, as if she was resigning herself to whatever unspeakable acts Danny was about to unleash upon her.

Not that it was expected from a dead body to appear something other than… well… rigid.

Danny looked back to the expectant crab and asked the obvious. “What do you mean by open it up?”

“Exactly that foolish Danny! Crush it, slash it, mush it or grind it. Tear it open with your bare hands or teeth! I do not care!” The crab slowly circled around Danny and the corpse as it exclaimed, taking pleasure from Danny’s discomfort.

“Call it whatever you want and do it however you must as to avoid hurting your human sensitivities. Just do it.” The crab finished its monologue as it completed the circle, arriving at the same spot it had started from – right in front of Danny with the body resting in between them.

Danny frowned at the unnecessary chastisement and excessive suggestions on how to dismantle a body before repeating his previous question in another, clearer, way.

“What I meant to ask was, where do you want me to look into? Do I have to mince the whole body?”

The crab suspiciously responded without missing a beat, as if it had understood Danny’s puzzlement the first time around, but insisted on the misunderstanding anyway just for the sake of it. “Ohohohoho, you should have said so sooner! No, it isn’t necessary to make that big of a mess, just take a look here.” The crab said while patting the female’s cold forehead with its free pincer.

After hearing that, Danny realized that Tutu was referring to the zombie’s head all along. However, whereas the demon had said so in such an unclear manner on purpose just to mess around or not, Danny was not sure. It did not matter either.

This was hardly the last time he would have to get information from Tutu, so it was better if he started getting used to the macabre teasing early on.

Now having a clear direction, Danny went to retrieve some tools better suited to do the deed, as he only had his hammer available in the room.

A hammer was a good instrument if you wanted to smash a zombie’s head, but in order to inspect the insides of the deceased’s skull, a more contained approach was called for.

To perform a delicate and controlled operation such as opening someone’s head without splattering all of its contents all over the place, a hammer was a subpar tool at best and completely counterproductive at worst.

Besides, since he had better options readily available in this house, why would he settle for something inferior? Danny was not pressed for time despite the demon’s behavior.

Tutu also did not offer any protest as Danny went out of the room to get something more appropriate to work with. Very soon he found what he needed and came back carrying his chosen tools.

Danny then placed the corpse on top of a spare blanket he picked somewhere along the way and started the gruesome process.

Opening somebody’s skull is not an easy job. Without electrical tools, there is a lot of effort and strength needed in order to get through the thick bone plating that defends the most vital and vulnerable organ of a human being.

Smashing a zombie’s head to kill it was a lot easier by comparison. Danny did not have to concern himself with anything other than causing enough damage then. Even so, whenever Danny killed zombies in the past by hammering them to death, he didn’t need to actually get completely through the skull. Denting or breaking a part of it usually did the trick.

It was like a suit of armor during the medieval times. You did not need to destroy the armor to kill the knight, just deal enough damage so that the vulnerable and fleshy meat behind it cannot take it anymore until it succumbs.

Fortunately for Danny, he did not have to worry about his patient’s survival, so it made the chore a lot simpler, even if messier.

A few minutes later Danny was covered in all manner of fluids he tried hard not to think about, but he finally managed to do it. Danny cracked the hard plating open, splitting it into two and giving him access to whatever mysteries lied inside. Just like a coconut.

To be honest Danny was not impressed. He did not know what he was looking for, but he expected it to be something fantastical or, at the very least, astounding. Instead, there was just what one might expect from the inside of a person’s head – a human’s brain.

To be fair, it wasn’t as if there was nothing to be gained there. For once, Danny realized that there was no putrefaction there, even despite the fact that the woman had already died for some time now. Twice.

The coloration also indicated that there was no blood flow, though that was less surprising. After spending some time killing zombies and inflicting all sorts of wounds on them, Danny already suspected as much by watching the outcomes.

However, it was nice to know for sure that the zombies were actively moving even after the traditional human method of oxygen delivery – the blood – was cut short.

Even the brain had its supply denied. Danny had previously speculated that the blood flow could have been only partially stopped in some places and remained in other more critical ones, though that theory was now disproved.

Danny kept handling the pale and squishy organ looking for anything that jumped at him as being out of place, however he found nothing even after taking it apart in pieces.

Danny was about to complain to the demon about wasting his time on a wild goose chase when he caught a glint out of the corner of his eye. In a small neglected brain piece Danny had thrown aside, there was a tiny crystal-like substance lodged in between the flesh.