Mutagen

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.