Mutagen

Day 3 – 2:35 PM –Molino Boulevard, Bayanan, Bacoor City, Cavite

The convoy had already left the gas station and at about fifty meters away from the gas station, every single person inside the cars was looking at the left side of the road. It was the location where the explosion occurred several minutes ago. What they could see was a large number of burned bodies with two still burning trees in the middle. Everything within the ten meter radius around the trees were charred and burned.

The police who remembered what Mei said to them could not help but swallow their own saliva. It was good that they had been warned or the consequences could have been grave. They did not even want to imagine what could have happened if they shot that fat mutant infected near the convoy.

This scene was nothing to joke about and yet, the person who was the root of this scene went back to them like he just did some exercise.

Inside the MB Sprinter that was leading the convoy. Melissa and Charmaine were staring at Mark with incredulous expression.

"Big Brother, You did all this right?"

To Charmaine's question, Mark who was tuning one of his radios to the frequency the police behind them was using just glanced at the scene outside and nodded while shrugging his shoulders.

"There were too many infected chasing me that time. I had no choice."

Charmaine felt irritated at his expression. She did not know that Mark was really feeling tired at the moment and was not in the mood to talk too much. Since this morning, too many things happened after all. If he could actually sleep at this time, he had already done so.

Unexpectedly, it looked like someone noticed his accumulating fatigue.

"Gege, you can rest if you want to."

Mark faintly smiled hearing that and shook his head.

"Maybe, later."

However, it seemed that Mei was not taking a 'no' for an answer. She pulled Mark towards her and made him lay down on the sofa and at her lap as a pillow. Mark who was feeling tired was caught off guard and did not manage to resist. The two women in front of them were speechless at the scene. The two of them were there sitting but the couple in front of them kept on flirting.

"Gege, you should rest."

Mei said in a stern voice leaving Mark with no way to decline. Knowing that, Mark did not say anything and just let Mei do what she wanted. She them removed his helmet and started to gently caress his hair. As Mark was looking the opposite direction of Mei, he could not see what her expression looked like.

It did not take long for Mark to slowly close his eyes and fell asleep. Mei did not know that she just found one of Mark's weak points. This weak point was the reason he fell asleep easily. The proof of this was because it was hard for Mark to fell asleep easily even if he was tired since the emotions of other people that he was continuously absorbing was actually keeping him from sleeping deeply. Right now however, he comfortable slept with Mei's help.

Melissa and Charmaine who witnessed the whole thing looked at each other and understood each other's meaning. They both fell silent and did not disturb the two. It was because of the satisfied face Mei was making while watching Mark sleep on her lap and caressing his hair.

The rest of the way fortunately went smoothly. There were a few roundabouts and bumping on the way but it could still be considered as smooth since the numbers of danger they could encounter in the time of apocalypse were enormous.

***

Everything was white and Mark could see two shadows waving at him. He could not see their faces but he could hear their voices saying gratitude and goodbye. The voices were familiar and he was sure he knew them. However, he could not remember for some reason.

The shadows soon walked away after saying a few sentences to him. Strangely, he could not speak. He wanted to ask who they were.

"Ge…"

"Bi…"

When he could not see the shadows anymore, he could hear two females' voices.

"Geg…"

"Big Br…"

He tried to listen closer,

"Gege, wake up…"

Mark opened his eyes. He could see Mei's worried face looking above him.

"Mei'er what's wrong?"

"Big Brother, you're having a nightmare."

It was Charmaine who answered his question. He looked towards her and saw his younger sister kneeling in front of him. She also looked worried. Behind her, he could see Melissa also watching his situation.

He lifted his body up and sat beside Mei under their gazes. Mark noticed that he was actually drenched in sweat even though the air-conditioning of the car was on. Looking at their worried faces, he spoke.

"Don't worry, I'm fine."

He patted the heads of the two girls. Their worry finally eased.

"How long did I sleep?"

"About 15 minutes I think."

Melissa answered his question. Mark looked outside.

"15 minutes, Charm, we're not there yet?"

"There are a lot of cars abandoned in the middle of the road. We're already past Citta Italia now."

"I see."

Looking outside the window, Mark could see the familiar vacant lots used for farming. Their destination was already close by. The only problem he expected would be the possibility of encountering a huge number of infected since they would go to an area where four malls was actually located near each other. Before the apocalypse, competitions between companies owning mall franchises were very high. This was the result that could be found in many places in the Philippines.

Unfortunately, the fast food branch owned by Carlo's grandfather was actually built outside one of the mall which was the furthest one of the four from the direction they were coming from.

Mark just wished that there would be no heavy traffic blockade on the road. The next intersection they would go through was frequently prone to heavy traffic.

Fortunately, Mark's wish was granted.

When they arrived at the vicinity of the first mall before the intersection, they were greeted by a large number of infected. It was a large horde and enough to overturn everything into demise. The thankful thing was that there was still a traffic blockade but not blocking the direction they needed to go. The traffic blockade was on the southern side of the intersection and their destination was on the left turn which was the northern side.

"Odel."

Mark called while looking at the horde further away in front of the vehicle.

"Yes, Master?"

"Mow those guys down."

"Yes. Everyone, please hold onto something."

Odelina said before stepping on the gas deeper, shifted the gear and started to accelerate the vehicle.

On the vehicles following behind, the survivors' faces were looking grim. They could see the large number of infected at further in the distance and for some reason…

Their vehicles had no signs of stopping.

Inside the Multi-cab which was the police were riding, Chief Mallari's radio started crackling.

"Chief, keep up with us. We're going to drive through this horde."

Hearing that, Chief Mallari's eyes and the policemen around him dilated.

'What a bunch of lunatics!'

They could see the number of infected further on the road and it was nothing to joke at. Their cars will be overturned if they tried to charge through that!

Chief Mallari immediately replied.

"Are you sure about this? Our cars can't go through that unscathed. We could get stuck there or worse, overturned!"

"Is that so?"

The Police Chief felt helpless hearing the indifferent voice in the radio.

"Let's do this. We'll stop and drive back. We'll wait for your group back there near the farming lots."

The chief suggested.

"Hmmm… Alright, that could also work."

Hearing that reply, the Chief felt relief until…

"You guys won't be much of help even if you guys tried to go with us anyway."

Chief Mallari felt spitting out blood. However, he could not refute it either. There were two monsters riding that vehicle after all.

Disregarding that last remark, the Chief informed the other vehicles through the radio. The vehicles then stopped and then everyone watched the black armored vehicle sped off unto the horde decimating every single infected blocking the way. They soon turned around and drove back to the vacant lots where they could easily see the perimeter of the area and watch out for incoming threats.

BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!

Back on the MB Sprinter that was driving through the horde, the wipers of the vehicle was already turned on. The wipers wiped out the blood on the front window as the bodies of the infected splattered blood on it. The V-shaped ram of the vehicle played the huge role of decimating the infected, throwing everything aside due to the strong impact and the shape of the ram. The shape of the ram also lessened the shaking of the vehicle for every infected it hit.

While the vehicle was decimating the infected outside, Melissa, Charmaine and Odelina's two children looked pale as they hold onto their seats for the sake of living. Looking outside, just how many infected was flocking towards their vehicle? If not over a thousand, it should still be in several hundreds!

Yet… They looked at Mark, Abbygale and Mei's faces. They actually looked fine! As if it was just nothing to them!

Just like how Moses parted the red sea into two, the Black Armored MB Sprinter mowed down the infected splitting the horde into two and even kept going. The vehicle did not slow down even a little and even accelerated further. The vehicle left a whole lot of gore and blood behind.

This could be said a suicidal attempt but Mark decided on this approach after thinking deeply. One of the factors was the weight and speed of their vehicle. It would not be easy for the infected to overturn it and the V-shaped ram would keep the vehicle from decelerating too much. Another was that they would just check their destination and look if there was anyone living inside. For other people, it would take some time but for Mark, it would just take seconds.

If luckily that Mark found a survivor in there, depending on who the survivor was, he would either save or abandon them. And they will do it as fast as possible. Mark was also confident that this horde would not be able to catch up with their vehicle. In his estimation, the number of Biters remaining was far lesser than Eaters and that was to his favor.

Mark was right about that. Biters numbered more than Eaters and the ratio between the two was also very in favor of the Biters. It was just that most of the Biters went after the fleeing survivors like he said before leaving just a smaller fraction behind, that went for the hiding survivors.

The blockade was just ahead and Odelina drove the vehicle towards the opposite lane making their way out of the horde. Behind the vehicle, the Biters kept chasing on their tail but failed to get close too much due to the higher number of Eaters wandering around the area.

The four nervous people inside the vehicle finally felt relieved. They actually made it through! Odelina who was looking at the dashboard mirror could not help but let out a bitter smile seeing the pale faces of her children. She decided to spoil them a bit later to make up for their fright.

Finally, they arrived in front of the WCRonalds branch after pushing some vehicles aside. They parked the vehicle at the front parking.

Upon entering the vicinity of the fast food restaurant, the scene that could tell everyone that there would be no survivors was present. Most of the glass walls of the restaurant both on the first and the second floor were decimated and broken glass pieces was scattered everywhere. The red blood splashed on walls and floors stands out on the while paint inside the restaurant premises.

However, to Mark's surprise, he actually detected living people. He looked at the left half of the second floor. The restaurant was designed with the second floor dining area only having half the size of the floor. The other half was where the airconditioning, ventilation and other rooftop equipment were installed. And at that half was actually where he detected people. There were four of them and every fluctuation was weak. It seemed that all of them were not in the good condition.

"Gale, let's go. Odel, Mei, defend the vehicle. I found people on the second floor."

Together with Abbygale, Mark jumped off the vehicle and ran into the restaurant with his weapons ready.

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