diff --git a/src/main.rs b/src/main.rs
index e4ce5aeca..2d3cda946 100644
--- a/src/main.rs
+++ b/src/main.rs
@@ -19,8 +19,9 @@ use rayon::prelude::*;
 use sdset::{SetOperation, SetBuf};
 use slice_group_by::StrGroupBy;
 use structopt::StructOpt;
+use zerocopy::{LayoutVerified, AsBytes};
 
-use self::codec::CodecBitPacker4xSorted;
+// use self::codec::CodecBitPacker4xSorted;
 use self::bp_vec::BpVec;
 
 pub type FastMap4<K, V> = HashMap<K, V, BuildHasherDefault<FxHasher32>>;
@@ -44,7 +45,35 @@ struct Opt {
     files_to_index: Vec<PathBuf>,
 }
 
-fn union_bitpacked_postings_ids(
+fn bytes_to_u32s(bytes: &[u8]) -> Vec<u32> {
+    fn aligned_to(bytes: &[u8], align: usize) -> bool {
+        (bytes as *const _ as *const () as usize) % align == 0
+    }
+
+    match LayoutVerified::new_slice(bytes) {
+        Some(slice) => slice.to_vec(),
+        None => {
+            let len = bytes.len();
+
+            // ensure that it is the alignment that is wrong and the length is valid
+            assert!(len % 4 == 0, "length is {} and is not modulo 4", len);
+            assert!(!aligned_to(bytes, std::mem::align_of::<u32>()), "bytes are already aligned");
+
+            let elems = len / 4;
+            let mut vec = Vec::<u32>::with_capacity(elems);
+
+            unsafe {
+                let dst = vec.as_mut_ptr() as *mut u8;
+                std::ptr::copy_nonoverlapping(bytes.as_ptr(), dst, len);
+                vec.set_len(elems);
+            }
+
+            vec
+        },
+    }
+}
+
+fn union_postings_ids(
     _key: &[u8],
     old_value: Option<&[u8]>,
     operands: &mut rocksdb::MergeOperands,
@@ -53,20 +82,21 @@ fn union_bitpacked_postings_ids(
     let mut sets_bufs = Vec::new();
 
     if let Some(old_value) = old_value {
-        let old_value = CodecBitPacker4xSorted::bytes_decode(old_value).unwrap();
-        sets_bufs.push(SetBuf::new(old_value).unwrap());
+        let old_value = bytes_to_u32s(old_value);
+        sets_bufs.push(SetBuf::new_unchecked(old_value.to_vec()));
     }
 
     for operand in operands {
-        let new_value = CodecBitPacker4xSorted::bytes_decode(operand).unwrap();
-        sets_bufs.push(SetBuf::new(new_value).unwrap());
+        let new_value = bytes_to_u32s(operand);
+        sets_bufs.push(SetBuf::new_unchecked(new_value.to_vec()));
     }
 
     let sets = sets_bufs.iter().map(|s| s.as_set()).collect();
-    let result = sdset::multi::Union::new(sets).into_set_buf();
-    let compressed = CodecBitPacker4xSorted::bytes_encode(&result).unwrap();
+    let result: SetBuf<u32> = sdset::multi::Union::new(sets).into_set_buf();
 
-    Some(compressed)
+    assert!(result.as_bytes().len() % 4 == 0);
+
+    Some(result.as_bytes().to_vec())
 }
 
 fn union_words_fst(
@@ -167,11 +197,7 @@ fn index_csv(
     // We compute and store the postings list into the DB.
     for (word, new_ids) in new_postings_ids {
         let new_ids = SetBuf::from_dirty(new_ids.to_vec());
-        let compressed = CodecBitPacker4xSorted::bytes_encode(&new_ids)
-            .context("error while compressing using CodecBitPacker4xSorted")?;
-
-        db.merge_cf(&postings_ids, word.as_bytes(), compressed)?;
-
+        db.merge_cf(&postings_ids, word.as_bytes(), new_ids.as_bytes())?;
         new_words.insert(word);
     }
 
@@ -184,6 +210,7 @@ fn index_csv(
     db.merge_cf(&main, "words-fst", new_words_fst.as_fst().as_bytes())?;
 
     eprintln!("Finished merging the words-fst");
+    eprintln!("Total number of documents seen is {}", ID_GENERATOR.load(Ordering::Relaxed));
 
     Ok(number_of_documents)
 }
@@ -195,8 +222,8 @@ fn main() -> anyhow::Result<()> {
     opts.create_if_missing(true);
     opts.create_missing_column_families(true);
     // Setup the merge operators
-    opts.set_merge_operator("main", union_words_fst, Some(union_words_fst));
-    opts.set_merge_operator("postings-ids", union_bitpacked_postings_ids, Some(union_bitpacked_postings_ids));
+    opts.set_merge_operator("main", union_words_fst, None); // Some(union_words_fst));
+    opts.set_merge_operator("postings-ids", union_postings_ids, None); // Some(union_postings_ids));
 
     let mut db = rocksdb::DB::open(&opts, &opt.database)?;