kvmb Chapter 256
Chapter 256
“The gall of this serpent is mainly for clearing heat and poison. Some say it even cures piles.” Charlotte Renard watched Magnus Specter with a teasing grin. “They say nine out of ten men have it. What about you? Got that problem too?”
“No. Not yet, anyway.” Magnus shook his head, staring at the snake gall as if it hid some secret. Something in him kept whispering that this thing could do more than the serpent guts he’d seen before the world collapsed.
But he didn’t want to test it himself. It wasn’t like chickens or geese—things that, once tested, could benefit the whole Ice Regiment. This one was rare. Wasting it felt wrong.
So he turned to Kristina Jarvis. “Wrap this thing up. Keep it with the snake blood. When we’ve got time, we’ll run tests. See what it can really do.”
“Alright.” Kristina nodded and headed off to pack it.
Magnus chatted a bit more with Charlotte, then stepped out of the underground parking area. There was still blood to collect; the killing couldn’t stop. He climbed into Harper Quinn’s vehicle—right as a squad of women used a small crane to move those three massive eggs from the spot where he’d slaughtered that old hen earlier.
Three days passed.
In all that time, the Ice Regiment met no more trouble in Ridgehaven City. By the time the last convoy rolled into the community, they had stripped every meteorite from the city. Not one remained.
Magnus had barely slept. Three days of nonstop killing left his body stiff and his clothes drenched with dried and fresh blood layered over each other. Harper complained constantly, yet kept driving. When Magnus couldn’t hold on, he’d slump against some random corner in the underground lot, dozing for an hour or two before rising again—Harper driving him out to hunt more beasts.
In the parking lot, team captains and squad leaders unloaded sack after sack of meteorites. A sleeper truck would pull out, another would roll in. Orderly. Effective.
“Our team handled South Bright Road. Dug up ninety-seven meteorites total. Among them...”
A female captain murmured her report to Liana Jabbar. Liana’s eyes were bloodshot; she scribbled nonstop in her little notebook. When the woman finished, Liana patted her arm gently.
“You all worked hard. Go get some roasted meat later, let the team rest a bit. And...”
The woman laughed, exchanged a few more words, then went to fetch the food, refill water from the fire truck, and load up another sleeper truck.
From afternoon until eight at night, Liana kept taking reports. Finally, in one dim corner of the parking lot, she found Magnus—soaked in blood, layers of it dried, cracked, rewetted, and dried again. The cycle had repeated for days.
“Magnus, wake up. The meteorites are almost sorted. Get something to eat. Once we return to the main convoy, you can actually sleep.”
She gently shook his arm, a soft sigh rising in her chest. They couldn’t keep dumping all the killing onto Magnus. The women would have to learn too, danger or not.
Magnus woke with a jolt, standing automatically. His first instinct was to look for Harper’s off-roader, ready to head out for more beasts.
“No more hunting!” Liana exhaled, half helpless, half amused. She stood on her toes and lightly patted his cheek. “Wake up. Listen to me. We’re done. Every meteorite is gone. You don’t need to kill anything else tonight.”
“Cleared... all of it?” Magnus Specter shook his head, trying to force his thoughts back into place. Out of habit, he fished a pack of cigarettes from his pocket. The box was smeared with dried animal blood. Useless.
He tossed it aside, rubbed his eyes hard, and swept his gaze around the dim underground garage. In the center sat a towering pile of woven bags and burlap sacks, every mouth tied tight with rope, all of them stuffed with Crystal.
“All that... counted already?” His voice was rough, and he hesitated before looking toward Liana Jabbar.
“Counted.” Liana handed him a small notebook, her fingers brushing his knuckles for a moment. She let out a soft sigh. “Here. Everything we got these days. Look it over. And Magnus... go rest after this. You’re worn to the bone. Even I feel bad watching you like this.”
Still foggy, Magnus blinked a few times, then walked to a patch of brighter light. He flipped open the notebook.
Three days. In Ridgehaven City, the Ice Regiment had dug out 998 chunks of meteorite. Total Crystal haul: 22,482 pieces. Fire Crystal: 8,661. Water Crystal: 6,855. Metal Crystal: 5,881. Super Fire Crystal: 486. Life Crystal: 366. Earth Crystal: 221. Nature Crystal: 12.
These two pages held the new Crystal count. He turned to the next—new vehicles, animal blood, roasted meat, steel‑plate shelters...
Ridgehaven City vehicle additions: 37 long-distance coaches, 29 large box trucks, 69 trailers, 2 fire engines, 2 tankers, 1 camper.
Animal blood: 50‑liter and 80‑liter barrels, 2,461 in total. Nearly half packed into trailers and trucks, every gap stuffed with meteorite soil. The other half divided among sleeper coaches and regular trucks, three barrels per sleeper for immediate use.
Steel‑plate shelters—rushed out in these three days—125 new ones, all same size and shape. No small-car or off-road versions. Total shelters: 145. A hundred and forty already hanging on the new vehicles. Connector joints: 78, used to link two shelters and let them bend when the convoy settled down.
The last two parts were roasted meat and meteorite soil.
Meteorite soil—Ridgehaven City had proved rich with it. Far more than they could use. But the Ice Regiment could only load 45 trucks: 15 trucks, 30 trailers. Twenty tons each, roughly over 900 tons total. Some were scattered around other vehicles for heating and preserving, not included in the count.
Roasted meat—Magnus had killed 81 animals in these three days, all large poultry like giant chickens, ducks, geese. Teams in six underground garages worked in shifts, using meteorite soil to roast every piece. They distributed portions to each vehicle and every woman in the regiment.
Each woman received roughly ten pounds. The rest—wrapped in plastic sheets or whatever clothing they could spare—was kept fresh with meteorite soil and packed into five trucks.
Besides all this, they’d found 16 generators—large and small—and 5 small cranes.
Losses: 311 members. Three hundred ten lost during the serpent battle. One more taken by bats while sealing a vehicle. She had used a Metal Crystal, but two days had passed, and she still hadn’t returned.
Magnus finished reading and finally let out a slow breath, a vague outline forming in his mind. He handed the notebook back. Liana caught it with a bright, easy smile, then turned and pointed to a few fires still crackling behind her.
“And those ten or so giant eggs—didn’t even put them in the notebook. No one’s tried them yet. Come on, let’s taste them first...”