Kapitel 75: Found Her

Day 3 – 6:35 AM – Niog Road, Mambog IV, Bacoor City, Cavite

While Mark was observing the perimeters of the target location, Odelina and the others also went out of the vehicle.

They were looking at the huge tree in the distance with amazement. Odelina though thought the same as Mark.

"That looked dangerous is it not?"

She stood beside him and asked Mark. It was not just the tree that she was talking about but also the number of infected in the area. As the City Hall, there were many people in this place before the apocalypse. Among all those people, everyone knew that the Majority of these people already turned into Z-types. They could even see some of the infected wandering aimlessly at the entrance of the compound.

"Just get back in the car first. I have a plan."

When everyone was back inside the car, Mark remained outside and opened the back of the car. He pulled out a large box and brought it inside.

The box contained the camera mounted drone Mark brought. He immediately set up the drone with the help of the others and connected the video feed into the large monitor mounted on the back of the car along with the entertainment system.

It took them about half an hour to set it up and Mark went out to launch the drone. He then went back in the car to see the feed while controlling the drone.

***

Day 3 – 7:10 AM – Bacoor City Hall, Molino Boulevard, Bayanan, Bacoor City, Cavite

A white quadcopter with a camera mounted beneath it was circling the perimeter of the tree while checking if there was any danger in approaching it.

After the quadcopter finally figured that the tree did not seem to be dangerous, the drone went closer and went to check the city hall in a clearer view. As the quadcopter was creating noises, it could not be helped if that it attracted the Z-types around. To evade the pursuit of the infected, the drone flew up and descended in another area to continue the reconnaissance.

The traces of devastating events that happened within the past two days were left in the open. Rows of vehicles were left in the parking lots while the glass walls of the mail building were broken into pieces. The government vehicles were left in the middle of the roads. It was obvious that they tried to escape but the traces of blood on the vehicles showed how they failed to do so.

Around the compound, a large number of infected gathered. Many of which were wearing uniforms of government workers while there were also quite a number of infected in police uniforms. But what stood out among the infected were those odd looking ones. Their movements were very slow, even slower than the Z-Type b which was the Eaters. What made them very noticeable was their skin that looked like the bark of a tree. The eyes of these infected were also green colored compared to the normal counterparts which had pure white pupils.

***

Back inside the car, Mark and the gang were watching the monitor. Even the docile Biter they brought along and was tied in the very last seat at the back was looking at the monitor. When they saw the infected that had tree bark skin, they all thought that the reason for this mutation was that huge tree in the middle of the compound.

Mark controlled the drone and the scene at the back of the main building was revealed on their eyes. It was then that they saw it. It was an eight or nine foot humanoid that had a body made of a tree and was even shaped like a tree. It even had leaves on its head and hands and roots for its foot. Rather than a zombie, it more looked like a treant from fantasy stories. If not for the figure of a person plastered on the center of its body, Mark would have really thought so.

The figure looked the same as the tree bark skinned infected at the previous location. The person's back was connected and was hanging on the wooden body and arms through root like veins. When the figure moved, the wooden body also moved mimicking the movements of the figure. As the wooden body was stiff, it walked like a penguin swaying side by side as it moved.

The huge mutant then stopped and the person looked up to the drone monitoring it. Then it decided to ignore the drone and looked up to the huge tree as if it was waiting for something.

The people inside the car gasped at the appearance of the mutant. It was fortunate that Mark decided to scout the area using the drone first rather than blindly driving into the compound.

Looking at the figure, a sudden thought entered his mind and it even made him mutter.

"A Level 2."

"What did you say, Gege?"

Even though he muttered the words softly, Mei who was always sticking close to him heard his voice.

"Nothing."

Mark decided to not say what had just entered his mind as it was not confirmed and he did not know where the thought came from either. It was as if someone whispered the idea to him.

As the Mutant was behaving strangely, Mark decided to control the drone and look at what the mutant was looking at. There, he saw a single nut shaped fruit on a branch of the huge tree. The fruit seemed to be the same size as a baseball and was emitting a faint golden glow.

Seeing the fruit on the monitor, Abbygale and Odelina gulped for some reason.

"What's wrong with you two?"

Mark noticed the abrupt change in the mental fluctuation of the two and asked.

"Papa, I want to eat that."

Abbygale directly said without any thoughts. Odelina on the other hand explained what she felt briefly. She was red in the face though as she knew that she lost her composure in front of everyone.

"Master, I don't know why but something tells me that that fruit is edible and highly beneficial to us."

Hearing what she said, Mark looked at the screen. He controlled the drone once more and looked at the huge mutant that continued to stare at the fruit.

He then decided.

"All right, we'll try to get that later."

With what he said, Abbygale and Odelina felt delighted.

While Mark was controlling the drone, he noticed some commotion on the highest floor of the City Hall.

Mark made the drone fly closer to the windows and saw people inside. The people were also watching the drone with hopeful expressions. The drone flew across the row of windows and stopped at a certain spot.

"Found her."

Mark said.

What was shown in the monitor was a twenty-four year old female. Her looks were above average and could be considered beautiful to certain standards. Now however, she looked really dispirited, thin and weak. She noticed the drone flying by the window and she only stared at the spot she was sitting and did not bother to stand up.

Looking at her, Mark felt his heart being torn. Was it really the lively girl he treated as his little sister before? It was then Mark remembered. This girl had type-2 diabetes and she had been taking medicine ever since the time he knew her and her older sister. Since she was trapped here, it was likely that she had not been able to take her medicine in the past two days! It was also possible that she had not been eating well these previous days!

"Is she who you were looking for, Master?"

Odelina asked and Mei also had the same question. Their eyes were filled with pity. If that woman was who Mark was looking for, then, they should take her as soon as possible. Looking at her figure, her condition was not looking good.

'I need to contact her.'

That was what filled his mind. Mark made the drone look around through the window once more. The number of people inside was about 30 or lesser. There were also a few men wearing police uniforms. Among the people, he saw someone familiar. It was the current congresswoman of the district-2 of Bacoor. Along with police and a few men that looked like her bodyguards, she tried to approach the window the drone was peering through.

Mark felt that he should not be bothered with these people and made the drone fly away. He needed to scout the place thoroughly and find the entrances and exits before going in for the rescue. He also planned to lure the infected away using the drone to make the rescue easier.

He made the drone enter the Main building from the broken glass windows of the second floor. Luckily, the ceilings were high or else, the drone might have already been caught by the infected. The whole place was a mess. The tables were overturned, papers and office wares littered the hallways and rooms and there were bloody mess in every place.

He soon found the stairs which was the main access to the all the floors. He then found out the reason why the infected was not able to enter the higher floors leaving the third and the fourth floor fully intact. It was because the large roots of the huge tree were blocking the stairs going to the higher floors. This meant that they would also not be able to use the stairs to pick her up.

Mark made the drone leave the building and find another way. The camera then panned towards the sides of the city hall. Both the northern and southern part of the third floor had a suspended pathway that connected the city hall to the Gymnasium at the north and the Bacoor Police Command Center at the south.

These places were the only ways they could find in order to enter the third floor of the City Hall. Mark made the drone fly to the entrances and saw the doors which were locked. It was no problem for Mark as he could just bust their way in as long as he manage to access the buildings.

Circling the City Hall once more, he finally found an entry to the into the building for the drone. It was a large open crack at the ceiling on top of the building where the huge three had grown.

Mark made the drone enter the building. It was kind of tricky but Mark's years of accumulated experience in playing games came in handy as he used the controller skillfully.

Soon, he found the area where the survivors gathered.

It seemed that the people inside were alarmed as they heard the buzzing sound coming from the propellers of the drone. The police and the bodyguards had even drawn their guns and were ready to shoot at any moment they notice something wrong.

***

The people inside panicked as they heard the sound coming from the hallway and was entering their resting area. Even if they said that it was their resting area, it was actually the waiting area in this floor and could be openly accessed from the hallway.

As they heard the buzzing sound, the non-combatants started to scurry away while the police and the congresswoman's body guards were ready to fight.

There was one exception though. It was the 20 something year old woman who was far too weak to move. She was just by the entrance and if any danger was really in the hallway, she would be the first to be implicated.

The woman was also frightened when she heard the sound but she was really weak to move and it seemed that the people around did not even bother to help her. She was about to cry. She just came to this place to renew some of her papers for employment when the outbreak happened. It was lucky that she was able to escape and survive until now. Right at the moment, she was feeling the full brunt of her illness as she was not able to take her insulin shots since the outbreak started. She actually brought some when she came to this place. She always brought a bottle everywhere she goes. Unfortunately, she lost her bag along with all her belongings when the apocalypse came.

Without any energy to move, she resigned herself to her fate. She heard the buzzing sound stop in front of her as she closed her eyes. However, she waited but nothing happened after a few seconds. She then heard a voice.

"Geez, you already managed to survive this long. Don't you dare give up on me."

It was a familiar voice but she could not remember whose voice this belonged to anymore. She opened her eyes and looked up and saw the thing that was creating the buzzing sound and the voice. It was the drone she saw from the window. Underneath the drone, there was a camera which was obviously filming her. Just behind the camera, there was a small radio taped on the drone.

"I'll land the drone so take the radio underneath it."

She heard the voice once more and the drone slowly landed in front of her. In her confusion, she followed the instructions and removed the radio from the drone.

"Good."

The voice said coming from the radio.

"Uhm, who are you."

She spoke on the radio. There was no answer.

"I can't hear what you are saying. Push the button at the side of the radio when talking."

She followed the instruction and asked the same question. Then the answer came.

"I'm hurt. Well, it's been a long time. About seven years I think?"

'Seven years?'

She thought. Then the image of a person entered her mind. He was the person who cherished her at those times. Due to some deep reasons, he avoided them and they lost connection with him.

Tears welled up in her eyes, as she asked on the radio.

"Big Brother?"

Then a snicker came from the radio.

"It's good that you still remember me. Anyways, I came to pick you up, Charm."

AUTORENGEDANKEN
Exallion

Hmmm. A very tricky mission.

First and Priority objective was to get Charm.

Second was to get the Fruit.

Third would surely be about these guys as they had a politician with them.

Anyway, thanks for Love2Read26 for the first suggestion in the game I started. Your mutant had appeared so I report! Using the mutant tree's bark as catalyst, the woodmen infected came to existence!

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Kapitel 76: Starting the Plan

Day 3 – 7:43 AM – Bacoor City Hall 4th Floor, Molino Boulevard, Bayanan, Bacoor City, Cavite

Charmaine looked at the radio in her hand, shocked.

'He came to pick me up? Why? How did he find me?'

Those questions echoed in her mind but she did not have much thought to voice it. She also wanted to get out of this hellhole.

But then she remembered why they were trapped in here in the first place.

"Big Brother! Don't come here, it's dangerous!"

She shouted her concern. What a good girl. She already felt weak and did not have the ability to escape this place without the help of others but she still did not want to implicate anyone. Especially since this Big Brother of hers who did not have contact with them in the past years actually came to look for her.

There was a lot of infected outside the building and around the compound. There were also those tree people and the larger tree person roaming the street.

Charmaine then heard his reply.

"I already saw the situation and I already thought of a plan to pick you up. I'll be there in several minutes. Keep the radio with you alright?"

The drone that landed in front of her then started to fly up with buzzing sounds coming from its four propellers.

***

Mark controlled the drone to fly while he saw Charmaine watching the drone as it took off. However, the drone just managed to take flight to a certain height when someone snatched the radio out of Charmaine's hand and even pushed her away.

Mark frowned. He was furious.

The person that snatched the radio was a man. The man stared at the camera on the drone and spoke at the radio.

***

"Hey! What about us! You have to help us!"

What a thick face. After what the man did to Charmaine, he was actually looking hopefully at the camera. Unfortunately, the reply he received was enough to give him chills in his spine.

"When I arrive there, the first thing I will do is kill you."

The voice was calm and detached but that just added to the threat factor of the reply.

The man stepped back in fear but he soon regained his composure. He actually got scared of a threat? He felt shame and then the shame turned to anger. He smashed the radio to the floor in front of the camera and ran off.

Charmaine, teary eyed, crawled towards the broken radio. The tried to put the radio piece by piece but of course, it could not be fixed just like that.

***

From the scene in the monitor, everyone in the vehicle looked furious. Even the always silent Abbbygale looked at Mark and ask.

"Are we going to kill that bad man Papa?"

Her Papa did not answer but the furious look on his face surely judged the fate of that man later.

Looking at the pitiful appearance of Charmaine in the monitor, Mark could not hold back anymore and wanted to charge to that place as soon as possible.

It was then that a woman approached Charmaine in panic and pulled her back to spot where she was resting before. The woman looked like she was in her late twenty's and was wearing a nurse uniform. Mark did not saw this woman from the window earlier.

Looking at her panic at Charmaine's pitiful appearance as she tried to fix the radio while glancing at the Drone warily, it looked like she did not know what happened just now.

***

Under Charmaine's stare and the nurse's wary glances, the drone turned around while remaining in place. It looked like whoever was controlling the drone was checking the place. It then stopped while looking at the man who stood behind the congresswoman's group.

The congresswoman had a complicated look on her face. She also had the notion to ask for help from the person who was controlling the drone. She was waiting for the right timing and to politely ask the man on the radio for help. Since the weakened woman on the floor was still talking to the radio, the congresswoman patiently waited.

However, before she could make a move, the man just now turned the situation awry. Still, she could not do anything to the man.

That man was the owner of a known private-owned enterprise here in Bacoor and had large dealings with the local government. Furthermore, the man had relatives within the government and their position was higher than what she had as a congresswoman.

The congresswoman sighed. She knew that the chances of getting help now were very slim. Even the people around them had complicated faces as they looked at the man. If he wanted to dig a grave for himself, why also drag them into it?

The policemen and the bodyguards of the congresswoman were also boiling inside as they glanced at the man by the side of their eyes. If the congresswoman were to order it, they would not hesitate to shoot this aggravating person.

The drone then flew away back to where it came from under everyone's gazes. They all knew that the person behind that drone would come here sooner or later.

The man who smashed the radio had a different opinion though. With the number of infected inside, the person behind that drone would surely die before he could even enter the building. He was hoping that it would happen. He did not want to admit or show it in his face but there was something that gave him fear when he heard the voice from that radio making him disoriented and act without thinking.

***

Back inside the vehicle, Mark was getting ready. The others were also helping Abbygale ready herself.

For this operation, Mark was going with Abbygale. For sure, he needed to carry Charmaine and his fighting capability would be hindered severely. In that case, he needed to bring someone and the only possible person to bring was Abbygale. Still, she might just be a little girl but her physical fighting prowess might even be higher than her Papa.

Odelina was in charge of driving the vehicle of course and Mei was in charge of luring the infected away from the extraction point. How? She will be using the drone.

Right now, Mei was the one controlling the drone back to the car. It was a form of practice for her as they needed someone to take on the role. Mei was also eager to do it as she wanted to help even just with a little thing. She did not want to be just a baggage for the group.

Mark wore a black jacket as always but the one he was wearing right now had several pockets on the chest, abdomen and the sides. He was still wearing the security belt and he put several things on the open pockets of the belt. On his arm, Mark wore a metal forearm guards locked with a buckle. These armguards was something he made using the same materials they used in refitting the vehicle.

On his head, he wore a skate helmet and a pair of clear goggles for his eyes. He also had his mouth covered with a motorcycle face mask.

Abbygale on the other hand was wearing a frilled dress. Even back in the mall, this girl did not really want to wear anything else other than this style of clothes. She said that her mommy always bought her clothes like this before. As the little girl would not relent about it, her Papa just decided to make her several kinds of equipment suitable for her.

As Mark observed about Abbygale, she did not really use her arms when fighting. What she mainly used was her legs. He also saw that even if her physical strength was high, it was not her forte but her speed. With these traits, Mark modified a pair of shoes for her and added metal fittings around the sole with a rubber inner side lessen the force of impact received by her feet. He also made sure that she the fittings were sturdy but would not hinder the little girl's movements. He also made a pair of metal fitted gloves and a pair of smaller metal armguards for the little girl.

For her head, she wore a skate helmet designed for children. She did not want to wear anything on her face for some reason so Mark did not force her to do so.

For the weapons, Mark was bringing his machete, a silenced assault rifle and a silenced pistol while Mark made Abbygale bring a pistol just in case. Even if the little girl was not trained for it, it would sure come in handy.

Mark also brought a backpack with ready to eat high calorie but low sugar food and drinks. He could at least feed Charmaine before bringing her out.

He wanted to prepare some molotovs but he had no gasoline to use to fill the bottles. Diesel could not be used as it was combustible rather than flammable. He could only bring two spray canisters of butane he brought that was supposed to be used to refill lighters.

About the fruit that Odelina and Abbygale wanted, he decided to bring it up for later. Right now, getting Charmaine out of there was the priority.

It was now time to move out.

***

Around the compound, a quadcopter drone was flying low, about 8 feet from the ground, while slowly moving around the street. It started to gather the attention of the infected. Those who were attracted to the drone were mostly Biters while the slower Eaters did not seem to care. It was just like how Mark observed these infected. The Biters were sensitive to any kind of sound but the Eaters would only have reaction towards human voices. That was why…

A radio was attached under the drone and was turned into full volume. Voices of two children were heard from the radio attracting the Eaters around the drone. The two voices came from Odelina's children. They were in charge of making more noise around the drone.

The pace of the drone was slow but it was effective to some extent as the Eaters were slow moving in the first place.

***

Inside the City Hall, the one of the survivors noticed the commotion outside and called the attention of the other survivors. When the others looked at the road in front of the City Hall, they saw a large procession. No, it was not a procession but actually dozens of infected being led by a very familiar drone.

They all watched as the drone led the dozens of infected away. As the crowd grew larger and larger, there would be stragglers. It was also obvious that some of the infected noticed that the drone was something that they could not bite and left the crowd.

Still, most of the infected followed the drone and most of them were the fast running infected. They all watched the drone led the infected away until they could not see the drone anymore after it went behind the building through the northern side.

Then, they saw a vehicle coming from the direction of the boulevard. It was a large black van with metal fittings around it. The solar panels on the roof of the vehicle and the wide V-shaped ram in front of it could also be seen. They could not see the inside of the vehicle though. It was not because they were high up but because the windows of the vehicle were heavily tinted.

The remaining infected on the way rushed towards the vehicle but they were decimated as the vehicle mercilessly crashed on their frail bodies. The V-shaped ram pushed the zombies to the side with great force leaving their bodies with injuries worse than before.

Under the gazes of the people watching by the windows, the vehicle followed the same route the drone took but stopped in front of the gymnasium.

When it stopped, two people came out of the vehicle, a man and a small girl. The man was armed with an assault rifle and was accurately shooting the infected rushing towards them.

The two ran towards the office building attached to the gymnasium and entered it. When the two entered, the vehicle made a U-turn and went back the way it came from.