Mutagen

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.