Day 5 – 4:55AM – Taal Lake St., Lakeville Subdivision, Molino VII, Bacoor City, Cavite
TSST! TSST! TSST! TSST! TSST! TSST! TSST! TSST! TSST!
The moment Mark saw the Muscled Infected suddenly appear on the roof he did not dawdle and rained bullets towards the direction of the infected. Nevertheless, the shots failed to hit its target with the Muscled Infected immediately kicking the roof with a loud bam and disappearing into the interior of the house.
Mark frowned as this was getting troublesome.
Still, Mark did not plan to leave yet. If he was not discovered, he would have continued moving undetected but with all the infected that was now climbing onto the roof and chasing him, it was impossible to do so. Thus, he planned to attract the attention of all the infected into this area before fleeing towards the main road. If he succeeded, there would be no infected that would block his way as he flee and all the infected should come from behind.
However, the existence of the Muscled Infected was posing a threat to him in addition to these abnormal infected. He could be even make out Dozers and other oddly looking infected trying to climb the walls but the shapes and weight of their bodies were preventing them from doing so.
BAM!!! CRUSH!!!
Mark heard a loud sound below making him look down and saw the wall of the house were the Muscled Infected enter crumble into debris. From that hole made on the wall, the threatening figure of the Muscled Infected appeared looking at him. He immediately shot but the target immediately ran off towards the area that Mark could not see.
TSST! TSST! TSST! TSST! TSST! TSST! TSST!
Knowing that he would not be able to shoot that cunning infected, Mark released a barrage of bullets towards the Biters that were now running towards his direction after climbing the roof.
"Annoying!"
Mark voiced his irritation.
More and more infected started to climb up the roof. Mark estimated that the infected that was affected by the crystal should be around half a thousand with most of them being the Biters. The Eaters that were affected did not matter much as they were not able to move too fast. Still, the Eaters also started to climb up the roof at their own pace.
Mark looked around the street and saw that the infected further away the direction he intended to run towards started to move towards this direction. Now, he just needed to wait a little bit more time while trying to evade the assault of the infected on the roof.
Releasing the Assault Rifle from his hands, he readied the Grenade Launcher. It pained him to use this weapon due to the number of the ammunition he had being limited with just around fifty 40mm grenade shells and he could only bring twenty of the shells with him due to the bulky size of the shells. It was everything of what he retrieved from the gang back in Firenze. Still, it was no wonder that the number of ammunition they carried for the Grenade Launcher was limited. It was because it was not a gun to be used by beginners. The gang members did not even try to use it back then and relied on their semi-automatic and automatic guns.
It also looked like that the gang members did not know that the grenade shells they were carrying were the highly explosive ones or else, they would have easily won against the police by using it.
Mark retreated away as he aimed the Grenade Launcher on the part of the roof where the Biters were climbing. It was where the highest concentration of the climbing infected was gathered.
THUMP! BOOM!
Then launched shell flew in a small parabola and fell a little bit off to his target. Even if Mark was used to using this kind of gun in simulation games and FPS games, it was still different in using it in real life. Still, the explosion created on the roof blew away some infected climbing and heavily damaged the roof leaving a large hole.
After shooting, he immediately opened the chamber and removed the empty shell and threw it away. Though the shell casings might be able to be reused, Mark did not have the capability to recycle them. Reloading the Grenade Launcher, he aimed once more on his target and adjusted his aim. However, he suddenly turned his aim down to the ground and fired.
THUMP! BOOM!
The grenade exploded just to the wall of the house in front of him.
ROOOAAR!!!
The explosion was immediately followed by a loud painful roar.
It was the Muscled Infected that was about to attack once more but was met with the explosion of the grenade that landed in front of it.
Mark had been noticing that this Mutated Infected was dodging every single shot he made towards it. He also noticed that before he could even fire the first shot, this infected was already on the move to evade. What bothered him was that the infected obviously had no capability to think and was obviously all relying on their instincts. This meant that it should not be able to realize that he was going to shoot it. Yet, it was evading his attacks.
Then it dawned to him while he was shooting the other infected.
Animals and insects could recognize things that could threaten them and the Muscled Infected seemed to be displaying the same behavior to his weapons. And for the Muscled Infected to predict when he was going to shoot, it was also similar to animals and insects. The moment that they feel threatened, they would immediately flee. When does that happen? Even though animals and insects would always flee no matter what most of the time, there was a time that they desperately do so. It was when they feel killing intent from the opposing party.
Noticing that the Muscled Infected could feel his killing intend towards it, Mark turned his attention to the Biters climbing on the roof redirecting his killing intent towards the new target. When he was about to shoot for the second time, he saw that the Muscled Infected below started to move and as such, he changed his target and shot before his killing intent was felt by the Muscled Infected. For the result, Mark finally injured the cunning guy.
BAM!!! CRUSH!!!
Another sound of concrete crumbling down as the Muscled Infected destroyed another wall of the opposite house and entered the house in a hurry. As it ran into the house, Mark saw a glimpse of the Muscled Infected and saw its body riddled with bloody wounds and with its right arm charred and bleeding heavily.
Since the threat lessened, Mark reloaded the Grenade Launcher once more and fired at the area where the infected were climbing.
THUMP! BOOM!
Several painful roars and screams echoed afterwards as the ladder made of the bodies of the infected crumbled down with many Biters severely wounded.
Mark looked back at the street and saw that most of the infected was now gathered around here with just Eaters lagging behind. He then decided to move as the Muscled Infected had already retreated.
He ran from roof to roof and jumped from gap to gap. He was now using his Sub-machinegun as it was inconvenient to run around while firing and reloading the Grenade Launcher. He continued to shoot the numerous infected behind that still managed to catch up due to their never ending stamina and speed.
Even though Mark's body had evolved and was enhanced due to the Mutagen in the air, his energy was not inexhaustible. As such, the continuous running and jumping was starting to take a toll on his body. Furthermore, he was carrying his things and his weapons adding the weight to his expended stamina.
Reaching the roof of another house, Mark stopped. It was because the next area was a vacant lot being used as a pathway midway the block. The next house was two lots away and there was a lot of infected that was still wandering the vacant lots.
TATATATATATATATATA!
Mark rained all the remaining ammo in the clip of his Sub-machinegun towards the infected chasing him. With the infected closer behind him dying, he hung the Sub-machinegun back to his side after reloading it and pulled out the Grenade Launcher once more. He also took out two grenades stored in the pockets on his belt.
He pulled the pins and threw the grenades on the vacant lot in different distances before taking cover.
BOOOM! BOOOOM!
The grenades exploded amidst the infected creating a gap in the center of the infected on the vacant lot.
Mark then aimed the Grenade Launcher on the area further where the grenades exploded and fire it with the same time he jumped down from that roof.
BOOM!
The grenade shell exploded before he could even land stretching the gap between the infected further. Mark could smell the gun powder and smoke and feel the heat that had yet to dissipate from the radius of the grenade explosion as he landed. He then pulled his Sub-machinegun once more and started shooting the infected that were now trying to attack him around.
Using the gap left by the three explosions, he managed to reach the end of the vacant lot almost immediately. He then jumped up onto another wall and towards the roof of the next house.
Mark continued running on the roofs aiming for the end of the street towards the main avenue.
While he was running halfway of the whole block, he noticed that the Biters on the street were starting to catch up. Even though Mark was faster, he had to avoid a lot of obstacles on the roof such as cables, too slanted surfaces, antenna posts and the gaps between houses making him reduce his speed. The infected running on the street however only had some parked vehicles and the straggling Eaters blocking their way.
Still, Mark could not jump down towards the street as he was still the area where a lot of infected was still wandering around. The area of the street that was already cleared of the infected was still further away.
As he neared the final alley separating the inner and outer area of the block, he noticed something making him look up to the sky.
He could feel an unusual fluctuation. An emotional fluctuation he had never felt before. Obviously it was not human and also was not an animal. As the sky had already started to brighten, he could make out a number of shadows flying in the sky about seven meters from the ground.
There was one leading the shadows and behind it was several shadows following it.
After Mark got closer, he heard buzzing sounds that immediately made the hair on his nape stood up. It made him conclude what are those shadows and he could not help but frown.
However, something was not right. Mark could feel the fluctuation from the leading shadow in the sky but not on the shadows following it.
Another roof closer, Mark could now make out the appearance of the shadows. The leading shadow was actually a beetle that was blackish red in color. Looking at the shape, Mark concluded that it was a Coconut Rhinoceros Beetle common in this country. However, its size was huge, about the size of a full grown adult's torso and it had four horns on its head and thorax.
The ones following behind the beetle however, was something that could give anyone goosebumps and was the main source of the sound Mark was hearing at the moment. Mark could not help but aim his gun seeing that group. The group of shadows behind the beetle was actually human head sized cockroaches! There were about fifteen of them and they all could fly!
Despite the disgust Mark was feeling towards the cockroaches, the beetle however made his eyes gleam. He wanted to catch that beetle! Now that he was closer, he could now make out the fluctuation from the beetle more clearly. The fluctuation was kind of bizarre maybe because it was an insect but what made Mark interested was the fact that it has the same pattern of subconscious thought to Abbygale and the Mutators in his group.
It meant that the Rhinoceros Beetle was Mutator and a successful one at that!
However, Mark could not help but also feel a bit disappointed. It was because he could detect the reigning emotion in the subconscious of that beetle and it was no wonder why such an aggressive kind of insect seemed to be running away from a group of infected cockroaches. It was because it was actually afraid! The reigning emotion on the mind of the beetle was fear!
Nevertheless, it would make it easier for Mark to tame that beetle. Despite the fact that Mark was being chased from behind by the infected, his gamer instinct still kicked in.
He wanted to catch it. It was a pity that balls that could catch monsters did not exist in real life!
Mark jumped off the roof across the alley reinforcing his feet with adrenaline to jump further and faster. He wanted to catch up to the flying insects and tame the beetle before he escape this place.
With that, Mark readied his Assault Rifle and aimed at the cockroaches as he ran on the roofs.
Well, he chose to do another quest before he could even finish his main quest!!!
Mark really have a gamer quality and behavior.
RPG players would understand it the most!
>.<
Day 5 – 5:08 AM – Taal Lake St., Lakeville Subdivision, Molino VII, Bacoor City, Cavite
It was already past five in the morning and the surroundings started to get brighter with the sunrise coming closer.
From the sky, hundreds of silhouettes could be seen chasing behind Mark who was still running from roof to roof. The sounds of the metal roofs being stepped on and the deafening hungry growls could be heard behind him. Yet, Mark was not bothered by them anymore as his attention was more focused at the insects flying in the sky. The fact that infected insects were still able to retain their ability to fly entered his mind but he decided to pass on the problem for now.
What mattered to him at this moment was to catch up to the flying figures.
As Mark started to circulate the adrenaline in his body, he started to move faster and faster making the infected chasing behind him lag too far behind. Still, it seemed that he was now not able to maintain this ability for too long. Since he had never used his self-induced adrenaline rush to this extent after he evolved for the second time, he did not realize this problem. Now however, he was made aware because of the situation. It was not that he was feeling the backlash of using the adrenaline in his body but it was that, the amount of adrenaline was not enough anymore for his evolved body. It looked like he needed to increase his sugar intake in the future once he passed this danger.
Nevertheless, with the short time of his adrenaline rush, he was able to make a large distance between him and the infected behind. With this, he had enough leeway to shoot the cockroaches.
Finally closing in to a certain distance as the flying insects were also flying slightly parallel to the direction he was running towards, he started to aim his Assault Rifle. Given the distance of the insects from him and the distance of the insects from the ground, only his Assault Rifle could shoot the flying cockroaches with greater accuracy.
TSST! TSST! TSST! TSST! TSST! TSST! TSST! TSST! TSST!
Bullets rained upwards to the sky with all the bullets soaring towards the cockroaches.
TSHK! TSHK! TSHK! TSHK! TSHK!
Not all the bullets hit the cockroaches but it was no doubt that most of the cockroaches in that group received damage. It was because Mark saw the cockroaches sway in the air before plummeting downwards. There were those who still remained in flight despite getting hit with the bullets. It was because their bodies were hit and not their wings. The first ones to fell actually did not receive many wounds on their bodies but their wings were damaged by the bullets and the fast pace of their flapping wings further tore their wings into pieces causing their fall.
PANG! PANG! PANG! PANG! PANG!
Eight of the cockroaches created metal sounds as they fell onto the roof of a house further away before their bodies bounced off everywhere. Due to the speed of their flight, the height and direction of their fall, the cockroaches ended up bouncing off the roof and scattered towards to the street. Nevertheless, cockroaches were cockroaches. Even after falling like that and their bodies being drilled with holes, they were still alive.
The cockroaches that fell upside down immediately propped their selves up by holding unto anything around them while some flapped their wings wildly. The cockroaches that managed to recover from the fall immediately saw the numerous infected and Mark the infected were chasing on the roof. Obviously, the cockroaches immediately went towards Mark's direction climbing over every obstacle in a very fast speed. Five of the fallen cockroaches went towards Mark while the three remaining cockroaches however went haywire in the middle of the street. It looked like their heads were damaged, if not by the bullets, it should be because of their fall.
Mark saw the fallen cockroaches running his way and frowned as the direction they were coming from was the direction he was going to. The cockroaches were moving even faster than the infected behind him and were surely hard to shoot due to their sizes.
BUZZ!
Mark heard a loud buzzing sound making him look up. Even without looking up, Mark knew where that buzzing sound came from. The sound was from the wings of the Coconut Rhinoceros Beetle that was being flapped in supersonic speeds. What was wrong however, the Beetle was now flying towards him madly.
While Mark was dealing with the other things and running, he was racking his brains for any method to catch this oversized beetle. Who knew that it would turn out this way and the beetle would flew towards him on its own? Furthermore, it had no intent to harm him and instead, it seemed to have found its savior. Nevertheless, despite the fact that the beetle was flying towards him, he did not dare stood on its way.
Mark side stepped and the beetle passed by swiftly where his body was before. The beetle was flying at a very fast speed. With its size and the horns on its front, if Mark tried to clash with it head on…
TSHK!
His body would turn out like the head of the Biter a few meters behind him on the previous roof he was on that tried to catch the flying beetle. Squashed like a watermelon.
The beetle was not an infected and was surely become a target to the infected behind. Seeing that the infected started to chase it, the beetle came to comical stop midair and flew back towards Mark's direction.
Now that its momentum was slower, Mark grabbed its longest and topmost horn without hesitation as it got near him. With its horn being grabbed like that, it tried to protest but Mark was not in the time to bother with it. The goosebumps inducing buzzing sounds was getting near making Mark grab his Sub-machinegun. He then emptied half of the clip to shoot the incoming cockroaches that went flying after the beetle.
TATATATATATATA!!!
The loud sounds of the gun echoed once more as the Sub-machinegun was not equipped with a suppressor.
The gunshots were soon followed by the cockroaches plummeting in an angle towards Mark's direction.
Mark ran with the beetle on his left hand while dodging the falling cockroaches. The beetle struggled to break free swinging its legs as wildly as possible but it could only give up with a pitiful look. The horn Mark grabbed was too long for it to reach with its legs and with Mark's strengthened arms, it would not be able to break free. Not to mention that the beetle was already tired flying after getting chased by the cockroaches for who knows how long. If it was in its best condition, it would surely be able to escape from Mark's grasp just by flapping its wings. Still, it did gave up struggling not because it could not escape but because it did not feel any ill intent from Mark.
TINK! SWWISHK!
Mark swung his machete towards the cockroach that jumped in front of him. The blade of the machete felt some resistance but it still managed to tear through the exoskeleton of the cockroach. White blood splattered as the cockroach was slashed in half. At that moment, another cockroach jumped towards him and he attacked it the same way.
As Mark swung his machete towards the second cockroach, another one suddenly jumped towards him at a faster speed. Without much choice and with his machete halfway swung, he could only smash what he was holding in his left hand towards the cockroach. Unfortunately, the thing in his left hand was the pitiful beetle and it was swung downwards with great momentum!
PIGSHK!
The infected cockroach was smashed into meat paste. It was too unexpected that Mark reflexively jumped away to avoid the white blood that splattered away from the body of the squashed cockroach. Mark also missed his attack towards the other one.
Mark did not dawdle and continued running away but could not help but glance at the beetle on his hand with incredulity. It had such a strong exoskeleton but it was actually afraid of these cockroaches?
On his hand, the Coconut Rhinoceros Beetle was on the verge of crying. It was a pet beetle and was not afraid of people. It had been a pet ever since it came out of its pupa. It got infected because it was swallowed whole by its owner that had already turned submerging it with saliva and stomach acid. It was too afraid after that happened. Nevertheless, it mutated almost immediately tearing the body of its owner apart due to its size.
Due to its abrupt mutation, it gained a bit of sentience. It knew that something dangerous was happening and as such, it buried itself under the ground these past days. However, last night, it was found by a group of large cockroaches that dug the place where it hid. Because it was afraid, it immediately flew away in the middle of the night but the cockroaches followed behind it.
When it saw this person shooting the cockroaches behind it, it was elated and flew straight towards that human. But the human dodged and it impaled the head of the scary people making it rush back. When it was grab, it gave up soon as it felt no danger from the person holding its horn. But it never expected that the person would use its body as a weapon.
The beetle was really about to cry. Another time and it really would.
SQUEEEK!!!
Mark was about to swing the beetle once more towards another cockroach when it squeaked in protest while wildly swinging its spiny legs.
Due to its protest, Mark used his Machete against the incoming cockroach. It was the first time that Mark actually felt an emotional fluctuation coming from an insect so he could not guess what it was thinking aside from the faint similarity of its fear to how human and animal fear was. However, it was not hard to guess its protest from being used as a weapon.
He was now approaching the end of the street. Mark tightly hung his sports bag around his shoulder and jumped off the roof. Now that he was running in the middle of the street, he pulled out the radio with his right hand.
"Mei'er! Are you all ready?"
Almost immediately, a reply came from the radio.
"Gege! We are already waiting! Are you returning already?"
"I am! Prepare the vehicle and I'll be there soon! The large horde are just behind be so we need to leave immediately!"
"Should we fetch you?!"
"No! I'll still be able to make it there but if you guys fetch me, the car still needs to turn around so the infected will manage to catch up!"
"Y-Yes!"
Mei'er faltered. It seemed that she had the urge to fetch Mark as soon as he called but her idea was immediately denied.
"Don't worry about me! I also found something interesting to show everyone. Just be ready to leave, I'll be there in a moment!"
Mark ended the call and slashed the remaining infected blocking his way along with the cockroaches that easily caught up to him due to their fast speed.
***
With the exception of Cielo and Anna, every adult inside the two vehicles was kind of worn out. It was the first time they fought the infected making them tired both physically and mentally. Cielo did not participate due to her having panic attacks every time the infected closes unto her while Anna was still not in good shape emotionally. The children also did not participate with the exception of Abbygale and Emika who were Mutators.
They all heard what Mark said in the radio and were now anticipating his return. Upon knowing about the crystals Mark spoke of yesterday, they were also interested to see the crystals. But they also heard that Mark was being chased by the horde and felt tense about it at the same time. What made them confused however was the happy tone Mark had when he said that he found something good to show them.
Soon enough, they could see Mark running towards their direction in fast speed. He seemed tired and his speed was slower than before. Nevertheless, he was still faster than the infected. Everyone became wide eyed however seeing the infected chasing behind him several meters away.
The whole street and sidewalk was filled with infected running at full speed!
Due to the overwhelming number of infected that they did not notice the struggling oversized beetle on Mark's hand.
"Go!"
Mark yelled after he jumped into the door of the MB Sprinter. The two vehicles immediately drove off in full speed. Everyone felt tremors inside their vehicles as the road had broken and uneven parts due to being unmaintained but they just ignored the tremors. What they needed to do now was leave the place as soon as possible. If the infected behind them managed to catch up, they would sure be overwhelmed.
In less than three minutes, they reached the entrance of the subdivision. The traps they set up became very useful. Even though the ropes only tripped the first few infected in front of the horde, it was enough to cause a chain reaction and made the ones behind fall.
They continued to drive out of the subdivision and heard a loud explosion behind them. The final trap was triggered causing the grenades to explode. Dismembered bodies and blood flew into the air causing the horde an abrupt stop. The sound and smoke from the explosion impaired the hearing and sight of the infected making them lose track of the two vehicles. During that moment, the two vehicles made an abrupt turn to another street and sped off getting away from the horde that lost their targets.
The chapter for today!
Mark finally finished his main and side quest altogether! The beetle was quite pitiful though being used as a hammer unintentionally...
>.<
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GOT IT