Mutagen

<strong>Day 154 - 1:09 PM - Reading City, Pennsylvania, United States of America</strong>

The abandoned city of Reading in southeastern Pennsylvania was currently bustling with activities.

While, without a doubt, most of the activities involved the infected, some of them were people. These people were none other than the survivors living in Mark's base, currently led by Odelina and Huey.

It would be unexpected if the American government witnessed survivors from the Philippines here to scourge for supplies. This place was basically on the other side of the globe. Fortunately or unfortunately, there was no one else to see these survivors except for the infected and the members of Auraboros.

As per Mark's orders, they scoured the city and other nearby areas for supplies and equipment.

Of course, it was not an easy endeavor.

The number of teams they could dispatch was limited, not to mention that they only had a few vehicles to use to transport the supplies they collected.

And before they could even transport the supplies, they needed to fight the infected every time. They took caution as their priority. Nonetheless, not everything would always go according to plan. While they managed to avoid casualties which were fortunate, they still had some people injured. And sadly, one of survivor that volunteered to join the teams lost an arm.

They were also under pressure. Everyone knew that they were preparing for the second wave but none of them knew when it was coming. Thus, they needed to move fast as they could and get ready if it suddenly came.

Despite the few bumps along the road, one could not deny that they were doing better, unlike most survivors in the apocalypse.

Well, that was until the other day.

***

<strong>ROAR!</strong>

A roar could be heard shaking the eardrums of anyone around. It attracted all the infected in the vicinity to chase after the source of the sound.

Along that very same street where the roar came from, a three-meter tall dog with golden fur ran across the road.

<strong>GROOOAR!!</strong>

Loud growling, roaring sounds followed the golden-furred dog as hundreds of infected, both mutated and not, chased after it.

There were different kinds of Infected present. Most of them were [Biters] since the slower [Eaters] lagged behind. There were a lot of mutated ones, however. There were large-bodied ones with thick muscles, bashing through the obstacles on the street. There were also thin-bodied infected, running and jumping across walls and roofs.

"Hahaha! Go! Laelaps! Attract more of them! We need to delay them from reaching the foot of the mountain!"

A girl's voice could be heard talking to the dog. A teenage girl was riding on its back.

The girl appeared to be around fourteen, with a very lively demeanor. Despite riding on a giant dog while being chased by the horrendous horde of infected, she still had the time to enjoy things.

"Annica, don't play around too much." A static-covered voice of a woman could be heard as the radio strapped on the girl's arm sounded. "If you're too careless and get injured, uncle and auntie will chew me off."

"Geez, Sis Alana! I know! I'm not a child anymore, alright!" Annica replied on the radio. "If there is someone you should worry about, it's Sis Karlene and Lil Sis Karla! Those two make more trouble than me!"

"Since you know, then don't make trouble too! Seriously!" Alana complained.

"Okay! Okay!" Annica sighed at Alana's nagging. "You really sound like my Mom, you know!"

As Annica said that, she told Laelaps to make a right turn at the next corner. They needed to gather and delay as many infected as possible. It was their mission here.

***

Atop the roof of Central Middle School a few blocks away from the foot of Mount Penn, Alana shook her head. Although Annica was doing a good job while being partnered with Laelaps, she loved to horse around. Being around the childish pair of Karlene and Karla did not help in relieving her stress either.

What was the source of their stress, and what was going on with the city?

Just the other day, the infected began acting weird.

***

So far, they had started to identify infected hordes into two categories, [Territorial Hordes] and [Wandering Hordes].

[Wandering Hordes] was self-explanatory. They were nomadic hordes that wander around all over the place. There were also two types of [Wandering Hordes], [Unorganized] and [Organized].

[Unorganized Wandering Hordes], also called [Leaderless Hordes], were groups of infected that gathered just by chance. They might have grouped up by coincidence and traveled together, or the infected in the horde shared similar traits. They tend to just continue traveling together but could also break apart at any time. Once they encountered another horde with a leader, they tend to get absorbed into the latter, however.

[Organized Wandering Hordes] were the opposite of the previous type of horde. They wander around with a [Leader Type], going to places that the leader of the horde wanted to go. They tend to grow larger as a [Wandering Hordes] were most likely to encounter each other. They would absorb [Leaderless Hordes] into their ranks.

The other category of infected hordes was the [Territorial Hordes]. Also self-explanatory, they were hordes that frequent a certain place without going too far from it. Unlike [Wandering Hordes], [Territorial Hordes] were not divided into sub-types, at least, currently. So far, [Territorial Hordes] tend to have one or more [Leader Types] within them.

Why was this information brought up suddenly? It was because it had something to do with the strange behavior of the infected.

A few days ago, they only had to scope and map the place, and they would be able to maneuver across the outskirts of the city without too much confrontation with the infected. [Territorial Hordes] tend to not wander off too far from their territory. As such, if those territories were avoided, they only had to deal with the infected that did not belong to any hordes.

But the other day, the [Territorial Hordes] they mapped began moving away from their territories. In fact, they started behaving like [Wandering Hordes]. The difference, however, was that the hordes were all moving towards Mt. Penn.

It was the worst thing, of course. After all, their base of operations here was The Pagoda, situated atop Mt. Penn.

Although they had countermeasures scattered across Mt. Penn, like the illusion magic of Tikbalangs and walls of vines made the Dryad, it would still be questionable if these defenses would be able to withstand hordes with tens of thousands of infected.

Thus, once the phenomenon started, they all considered pulling back the operations from this place. And today, they began to transport all the remaining supplies they gathered towards the portal Spera opened.

But, of course, it would be hard to do all of it quickly. They had little manpower, after all. Thus, they needed to delay the incoming hordes as much as possible. If it came to a point that they could not handle it any longer, they would have no choice but to abandon the remaining supplies.

Nonetheless, what was the cause of this strange phenomenon?

No one had a concrete explanation aside from one suspicion.

At the center of Reading City, one of the [Ground Zeros], a tower of flesh appeared overnight. At night, its tip would emit a red glow like a telecommunications tower. And at those times that it was lit, the infected across the whole city seemed to behave more aggressively. Without a doubt, it was some sort of infected mutation. Unfortunately, there was no way for them to check it as extremely dangerous.

***

"Another horde is spotted at the northwest near the high school!" Alana's radio sounded with Huey's voice coming through. "It's a horde with approximately three hundred infected! They are moving south in your direction Alana!"

"Should I go?" Alana replied to her radio. However, before Huey could give approval, another voice spoke.

"Leave this to me." The voice of a man spoke. "The road there is wide. It will be hard to keep them in place if anyone else came, but my ability can take advantage of the concrete road to block them."

"Are you sure?" Huey's voice sounded on the radio. "It hadn't been long since you woke up. You should concentrate on recuperating."

"I'll be fine." The voice replied. "I can recuperate all I want after this. I can't just stand to the side while the people that saved us were facing a crisis. Besides, I have Felicia with me. It's not like we are going to fight the horde to death."

"It's still far to be considered a crisis, though," Huey replied. "Okay, you're free to go. Just take care. Boss with hit me if something happened to you before he comes back."

"Don't worry." The voice confidently spoke. "I don't plan on going into another coma before I met the person that saved us that day. Alright, we're going."

Hearing the exchange on the radio, Alana shrugged. It seemed like she was still stuck here to babysit Annica. There was also Karlene and Karla not far from her position dealing with another horde.

"Seriously, why do I have to babysit children. I'd rather go fight too."

Alana complained.

***

"Let's go."

A man spoke as he rode a motorbike. On his back seat, Felicia sat worriedly.

"Is your body already fine?"

Felicia asked.

"Well, not really." The man replied. "But I have to earn my keep. If I don't work, I don't deserve to eat. I learned it at the time I'm still a refugee."

"Okay, just don't push yourself too much, Louis."

Felicia sighed with a shrug. Nonetheless, she seemed happy.

And there, the man pulled the gas and drove the motorbike to the location of the horde.

***

It did not take the two too long, and they arrived at the location.

The horde was slowly wandering towards the south, passing in front of the Reading Senior High School Campus. Once the horde spotted the motorbike and the pair that rode it, the infected all turned aggressive and rushed towards their prey.

Looking at the incoming horde, the man did not waste time. He jumped off while Felicia took the handle of the motorbike. Landing at the center of the street, the man bravely faced the horde.

<strong>ROOAR!</strong>

The fastest mutated infected rushed towards the man the moment he landed. It was too fast that it could likely chase the motorbike at top speed with ease.

However, when the mutated infected was about to claw the man into two, a huge chunk of cement hit the infected's face, crushing it into meat paste.

"<strong>None of you are going any further you bastards!</strong>"

The man declared as he lowered his body and touched the concrete road with both hands.

<strong>CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!</strong>

Loud cracking sounds were heard, but the infected were not intelligent enough to pay attention.

And as the horde thought that they were having a feast, they lost sight of their pray as something blocked their path.

What appeared in front of them was a wall made of stone and concrete. It looked as if the concrete road suddenly folded upwards to block their way.

"Alright!" The man roared. "As I thought, my powers grew stronger!"

The man then slapped the ground causing the concrete road he stepped on to rise up. Standing atop the tower of stone, the man looked down on the horde. Some of them were already trying to climb the wall he created. But before any of them managed to climb or jump over the wall, the man waved his hands.

<strong>BAM! BAM! BOOM! CRASH!</strong>

Different sounds echoed as chunks of stone and concrete flew to bash the heads of the climbing and jumping infected.

The chunks of stone floated around the man, ready to strike any incoming enemy.

This man no other than Louis Morgan, the Inheritor of the ability of General Gordilius, [Geo-Telekinesis].

A few days ago after the departure of Mark's group, he woke up from his comatose state. Instead of recuperating, however, the moment he managed to regain enough strength, he began to actively help in any way he could. He wanted to repay that debt that was saving not only his life but also the lives of the people with him back in Atlantic City.

And now, here he was, exhibiting his prowess that was strengthened after he used [Earthen Resonance], which far surpassed his limits and survived.