Chapitre 122: The Odd Infected Around His Home

Day 5 – 4:32 AM – Lake Ave., Lakeville Subdivision, Molino VII, Bacoor City, Cavite

After Mark had left under everyone's worried eyes, they started the task they were assigned with. It was to set up traps along their escape route in case the worst scenario happened. The traps were not that complicated. Most of the traps only consisted of ropes that went across the street to trip the infected once they ran over.

The only complicated and the most deadly one was the trap Mark prepared before and was to be set up at the exit of the subdivision. It was a nylon cord with both ends of the cord tied unto the pins of three pairs of grenades. The grenades were to be tightly stuck on posts at the side of the exit of the subdivision and once the nylon cord was pulled, the grenades would surely blow off along with everything near it.

Once they were done with the traps, they would be ready to pick up Mark on call.

While some of them were installing the traps, Odelina was training the others how to use weapons. It was obvious that they would attract unwanted attention during this activity and it was also the same chance for them to train fighting the infected. As most of them were just beginners in wielding weapons and fighting, Odelina, Mei and Abbygale would eliminate the Biters that were more dangerous in close quarters while Emika would regulate the number of Eaters that would approach the trainees. Laelaps on the other hand was guarding the whole group alerting everyone where the infected would be coming from especially with the tall grasses around them.

SHINNG!!

Wielding a katana, Carlo begrudgingly beheaded the Eater he was confronting. It was obvious that he was not proficient in using the Japanese Sword as his clumsiness was showing in his attacks. He also looked squeamish as the blood of the infected in front of him splashed on the ground.

The katana he was wielding was a sword that his grandfather received after killing a Japanese general during the world war two. The evidence that the katana belonged to a general was the ornamental gems embedded on the hilt of the katana. This sword was one of the things he retrieved from his abandoned house. The katana was left for him along with the letter as he would need a good weapon in order to survive.

***

Day 5 – 4:43 AM – Taal Lake St., Lakeville Subdivision, Molino VII, Bacoor City, Cavite

Mark was almost done with packing the things he wanted to bring while the important things he would leave behind were all put inside the bedroom. Even though the chances of it happening were very low, he would take back these things if the outbreak settled down in the future.

He took all his "prized" possessions into a sports bag. What he brought with him was his favorite black hooded jacket, three robot plastic models, a nendoroid figure and four different sized stuffed toys. As for other things, he brought all the compact disks he had in his case, his several flash drives and the hard drive of his laptop and computer. He could not bring his laptop anymore as it was too bulky and it had lower specs compared to the laptops he took from the mall. It was the same for his computer.

Unfortunately, there was no way that he would be able to bring his only console. It was a bulky play station 3 that he luckily bought in a surplus shop at a very large discount along with several game disks. If the infected outside were not around, he might have a chance to bring this away but unfortunately now, he would not be able to.

Now, the last and the most important thing…

The jar with the crystals in it that was stored inside the closet. He removed everything he put above the jar to hide it before the item was revealed. This was why Mark was confused as to how that flash of light happened. The closet was tightly sealed and the jar was covered with clothes and thus, that light should not be able to escape out of the house.

After Mark finally took out the jar from the closet, he froze. It was because he could see that the double terminated crystal was emitting a faint glow continuously. It was not like this before. Furthermore, there was an additional marble sized crystal floating around it. What was stranger was that the color of the newer crystal was a way lighter compared to the others.

He was not that confused as he knew nothing about the crystals in the first place but it still felt odd. However, he had no time to ponder about it now. He started to hear loud noises outside the house the moment he moved the glass jar.

Mark hurriedly covered the jar with a thick blanket and stuffed it inside his backpack and not together with the other things he brought. The things inside the sports bag could still be tossed about to some extent but not this one. He put the cloth covered jar unto the bottom of the bag moving away the grenade launcher shells stored in the middle of several handkerchiefs to prevent the shells from making noise as he ran about.

BAM!!! BAM!!! BAM!!! BAM!!! BAM!!!

Mark subconsciously turned his head around towards the direction where the entrance to his house from the alley was located. It was because that loud sound was actually, the gates of his house. Someone was banging the gates of his house in a violent manner!

He hurriedly finished everything and ran out locking his door once more. Using the hidden corner of his house, he tried to peek on the gates and there, he saw the whole width of the gates was blocked with infected that was trying to get in. He could even see the gates shaking and hear the hinges creaking. It looked like that his act of taking the jar containing the crystals made the infected aware of its location.

'I can't stay here any longer!'

Mark thought as he immediately propelled himself kicking on the corner of the walls simultaneously and jumped off onto the roof like a kung fu artist. He arrived on the roof of his house in an instant. However…

BAM!!!

He was not alone.

A Biter suddenly appeared in a curve through the air falling onto the same roof he was standing on in an unsightly manner.

"WHAT?!"

Mark blurted in shock.

SWISH! SWISH! BAM! BAM!

It was followed by two more landing on the roof in a random direction. Looking at the direction of the curve they fell, it seemed that these three were thrown up here.

SWISH! SWISH! BAM! BAM!

While the three were recovering from the fall and Mark was in his thought, two more infected landed in front of him with one infected even hitting the first one that appeared.

Mark did not try to think anymore, he immediately bolted off. He knew that he had been discovered and the one that was throwing these guys should be a Mutated Infected with super strength. It must be the same infected that mutilated the van he saw earlier.

Jumping off from the roof of his house, he went towards the opposite direction he came from. Since he was now escaping, he needed to use the shortest route as he could. Furthermore, he was already discovered and would not be able to hide anymore. No… Rather, he would not able to hide even if he wanted to.

Running across the lot of the house behind his where he jumped off, he intended to climb unto the next roof.

He then noticed some movements…

Above the walls he just jumped over.

To his horror, he saw more than half a dozen heads popping over the almost three meter wall followed by arms and then their torso. One by one, the infected fell off over the wall. The damn infected were actually climbing up the walls!!!

PLOP! PLOP! PLOP! PLOP! PLOP! PLOP! PLOP! PLOP!

Bodies continued to pour down from the wall just behind him.

He did not try to dawdle and hurriedly jumped towards another wall, jumping over it and then unto the roof of a class room inside a small private school located just one lot away from his house continuing towards the roof of his neighbor. As he was now in an open area, he could finally see what was happening nearby. The Biters on the vicinity was climbing over every obstacle they could climb over to reach him while the Eaters were behaving the same as normal but also following the direction the Biters were going.

He also saw the creature that was throwing infected at him. It should be a Biter that mutated as it was moving fast. Its body was bulky. Different from the large hulking infected he saw before, this one was not tall but it had firm looking muscles and there was not a trace of fat that could be seen from its body. What Mark was surprised about this infected was because he knew the person. He was one of his neighbors that did not frequent gyms but still had a body filled of muscles for some reason.

Mark thought before if that neighbor of his had a myostatin related disorder and now, it really seemed to be the case. The Mutagen even strengthened that characteristic of his neighbor further.

As it was almost five in the morning, the sky had started to brighten. As such, Mark was looking at the scene below while the infected was also looking at him.

BAM! BAM!

Two more infected was thrown onto the roof he was standing on. Furthermore, the Biters were also starting to climb unto the same roof. They were even making a ladder made of their own bodies like how it was in a blockbuster zombie movie that aired in theaters several years ago.

"Well, the situation is just getting worse and worse."

Mark helplessly muttered.

TSST! TSST!

Mark put down his sports bag and shot the two infected that had just been thrown onto the roof with his Assault Rifle. He then faced the muscle packed infected and shot it with several bullets.

However, before the bullets could hit the Mutated Infected, it pulled an Eater beside it and used it as a shield avoiding getting hit by the bullets Mark fired. It then threw the infected towards the Mark making him dodge to the side and stop shooting.

Mark frowned.

The Mutant Infected he was facing right now was smart for sure. No, not just that Mutated Infected. The normal Biters in the area seemed to be smarter too. Furthermore, the Biters and Mutated Infected that were behaving strangely were only the ones in the close vicinity of his house. He could see that the infected further away were still behaving as usual.

He then remembered the crystals inside his backpack. Every time he's at home, he would feel his mind relaxed ever since he found these crystals and it even aided him to be able to concentrate on his freelance online work and with playing video games. The infected gathered here could have been affected by the crystals for sure. There was no doubt about it.

Turning back to the Muscle Mutant, Mark's eyes dilated. He immediately picked up his sports bag on the roof ignoring everything else. It was because he saw the Muscle Mutant picking up a Dozer intending to throw it at his direction.

Mark jumped off the roof onto the roof of another neighboring house.

BLAAMMM!!!

A loud sound echoed behind him as the two meter tall Dozer slammed onto the roof after being thrown. Mark glanced behind and saw the roof where he stood before was dented with the Dozer sunk at the center of the dent struggling to get out. On the further side of that roof, he could see the Biters finally managed to climb up to the roof and started running towards him. Due to the roof Mark now stood on was about two meters away from the previous roof, he expected the Biters to fall off but he was gravely mistaken.

The infected that reached the edge of that roof started jumping towards the roof he stood on. Most of them still fell off due to the wrong timing and being pushed by ones behind but there were several ones that made it and continued running towards him.

Mark then shot the Biters that managed to jump over the gap between the roof of the two houses without panicking.

But that was not the end of it…

BAAAMMM!!!

With a loud sound, he saw the Muscled Figure landing on the roof of the neighboring roof he was previously on.

L’AVIS DES CRÉATEURS
Exallion

Welcome to the new volume!!!

Expect more fights against the infected as the infected grow stronger. The wave is also starting to come back and add to their struggles!

Well, considering the effect of the crystal to the infected, Mark would probably do something in the future...

>.<

commentaire Commentaire 24

Voter

ENVOYER LE CADEAU

Chapitre 123: Fleeing on the Roofs

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.