Plan of action

Leaving his mind, Maddox was troubled to find more of those glitched memories in a few of the girls.

From what he had gathered based on the limited memories he had taken from them, it seemed like Angella and Susan had more than the rest of the girls tracking three or more memories that had this issue, and going based on his gut reaction, he could tell something good was not happening with the glitches.

He would have to view their minds; however, doing so would take time and raise questions about why he was meeting with them.

Simply put, Maddox didn't want to deal with having to constantly lock specific memories within their minds since it would take time and might lead to unforeseen consequences.

Playing it safe was Maddox's only game now, so being wary of those around him would hopefully benefit him.

Leaving his room, he was glad to find no one else was awake save for Dog, who was dutifully waiting for Maddox to leave his room once she heard him wake up.

Maddox glances at her before starting to make something to eat.

"Alright, Dog, today you will go into the city with me." Maddox casually says as he throws some bacon onto the frying pan heating up on the hotpot

Hearing Maddox's words caused Dog's tail to start thumping on the floor as she was so happy to help her master and prove her worth to him however necessary.

Maddox only glances at Dog for a moment before resuming making breakfast for the two of them to eat.

Dog got herself a plate full of bacon which was soggy with grease and a bit undercooked, with some scrambled eggs for variety. Maddox had the same, with less bacon and more eggs, with the bacon being edible for himself.

The smell of food acted as a wake-up call as two of the girls had walked on in half asleep with them, practically floating towards the scent like a cartoon character; Maddox makes enough food for everyone to enjoy now or whenever they wake up.

An hour later, Maddox was waiting outside the chainlink fence that surrounded the warehouse where the infected were that he found in that guy's memory; with all the information he had been going through now, Maddox would not spend it remembering the names of someone not important.

Currently, he was sitting in the truck with Dog looking out the window, observing the outside world, with her attention being drawn every so often by something unseen to Maddox.

The two of them had been sitting inside the car for the past ten minutes, waiting for anyone or anything to leave the warehouse in the hopes that Maddox could snatch them up and take their memories.

Still, it looked like it was not going to happen anytime soon, so Maddox had the AC running for now, and until something happened or he gave up, he would not be leaving anytime soon.

Some jackass drove by and threw an empty soda can as they drove by, and that bounced off the side of the truck, causing Maddox to grunt in mild frustration as he made a quick mental check to make sure the car was still invisible to the naked eye.

*Bling!*

A text message notification pops up, taking Maddox's attention away as he sees who is trying to talk with him.

After dealing with some reporter getting a hold of his phone number, Maddox puts down his phone to see some movement coming from the warehouse.

It was a tall man wearing a hoodie walking out of the warehouse, which caused Maddox to instantly pin him as someone to follow since there was no way someone would be wearing a hoodie in +100-degree weather.

So starting up the car, Maddox follows the guy for a bit to see where he can snag him.

Eventually, he stopped at a four-way stop and looked down at his phone, where no one was around, and it seemed like a suitable spot, so moving the miasma camouflage off the truck and around the area, Maddox stopped the car and got out.

Feeling something is off, the person looks around to see Maddox and Dog walking towards him, staring at each other as they both register what they see.

Maddox was right; it looked like the guy he was following was an orc wearing the hoodie.

A subconscious smirk forms on Maddox's face, which causes the Orc to start to flee.

Maddox raises an eyebrow as he looks down at Dog, who had her eyes dead set on the fleeing Orc, lips curled upright with her sharp white teeth showing as her ears angled back.

Dog was like an arrow in a bow right now, simply waiting for the command to chase and kill her target.

"Fetch," Maddox says in an almost inaudible whisper

Like lightning, Dog bolts off, and before the Orc even knew it, he was hit from behind by what felt like a sack of bricks and smacked the ground face first.

Before they can even think of getting up, pointy objects touch his neck with a small amount of liquid running down his neck while soft, rugged panting is heard as Dog closes her open jaw over the Orc's neck.

"I said to fetch, not to kill," Maddox calmly says as he casually walks over to the now deathly still Orc and looks down at them.

"Hmm... hold him still for a second," Maddox says as he crouches down.

Maddox places two fingers on the Orc's temple and stays still for about a minute before removing them and standing upright.

Maddox glances at Dog slobbering on the neck of the Orc while her eyes are looking up at him, looking for him to give the word.

Maddox saw her eagerness and wanting to have nothing more than squeeze and tear this Orc's throat in her mouth to take its life. Then again, what else would you expect from a wolf?

"Up to you," Maddox says as he turns and walks back to the truck.

Soon a loud snap and crunch are heard, followed by the muffled noise of the tearing of flesh, causing Maddox to look back at Dog to see her happily trotting over to him with black blood dripping from her openly hanging mouth.

Maddox raises an eyebrow at this before he grabs a paper bag from the backseat of his truck and tears it into pieces before wiping off Dog's muzzle.

"Don't want you getting blood in my car now..." Maddox says while Dog happily thumps her tail on the ground at the attention

Once Dog is cleaned up, she hops back in the car while Maddox gets in the driver seat and drives off, leaving the corpse of the Orc lying at the four-way.

It was okay if Maddox did this since he was confident enough that he would not be tracked back to killing some low-standing orc within the warehouse's infected community, in fact from the glimpse of the memories he had gathered, he could see it was sometimes plausible to find one of them died due to infighting amongst infected.

As for how this was happening without regular people finding out about the infected, there had to be some city government or government intervention to prevent mass hysteria.

Maddox would learn more from the Orc's memories later tonight, but for now, Maddox had something else to do today that he felt would be stupid and risky, but he knew it would be worth it if he could pull it off.

Parking the car once again outside the chain link fence with it camouflaged once more, Maddox gets out of the car, but before Dog can hop out as well, he closes her in with the AC running for her.

Dog whimpers a bit, and her ears droop as she feels sad that Maddox is not taking her with him, but he shakes his head, signifying that he wouldn't be hearing it from her.

After sticking the illusion on the truck, Maddox walks to the warehouse area's fencing and the personnel entrance. Maddox casts another illusion on himself to look like the Orc that lay dead at the four-way intersection since it was easier to maintain, and at most, he could do what he wanted to before leaving.

Walking up to the warehouse was scary, to say the least since Maddox had a rough guess on the amount of infected that lived underneath the building since he had been able to roughly skim through most of the Orc's memories since there were not that many and he had some time to take a peek.

Right now, there are roughly two hundred infected living within the warehouse underground, and those numbers will only rise as the group is set to receive a new shipment of breeding women in the coming days.

Now, what was Maddox doing trying to infiltrate such a place where if found, he would probably be brutally killed at the hands of various infected?

Recon and extraction.

Maddox had decided to pin this place as the first infected nest that he would wipe out within Vegas since he had a sort of personal vendetta against this place.

This place would act as a stepping stone for him to cleanse Vegas of the infected presence within the city, as he felt it would effectively allow him to grow in strength and influence, which he lacked.

Power is apparent, but influence? Influence is something he will need as connections will be able to secure him items he may need, information, and other important things, so by cleaning up Vegas, he would be sure to build that over time.

Now entering through the underground was easy since there was a specific storage container with its bottom cut open to give access to the underground. Thus far, Maddox had not seen any infected, which was expected since most of them slept during the day due to a nocturnal nature and the fact that it would be easier for them to move around at night.

Still, guards were deemed unnecessary because the infected here were confident enough in their numbers to ward off any intruders with acceptable casualties to their ranks.

So Maddox could walk on in with the confidence that he should be able to avoid bumping into some infected.

*Thump*

Like just now.

[Slightly shorter than usual chapter however, I'm tired and also getting back into the flow of things so hope you enjoyed]