Mutagen

Day 4 – 9:16 PM – Our Mother of Perpetual Help Church, Lakeville Subdivision, Molino VII, Bacoor City, Cavite

At the basement area of the church, almost everyone was asleep already. Because of the lack of rooms, the two bedrooms beside the basement parking was occupied by the females and children while one of the utility room was emptied and a bedding was placed for Carlo and Rollan.

After several days of just using wet cloth on their bodies to clean themselves, everyone finally managed to take a bath. It was not because there was running water on the church. Just several lots to the east on the other side of the street, the subdivision's water tower was located. They managed to fetch water from the water tower and managed to take a bath.

As the water line of the water tower was private, Mark was not worried about contamination. Though they would sure not try to use this water for cooking.

For the look out, everyone would take shifts the whole night. At this moment, it was Carlo and Sundra's shift and they were on the balcony of the church. It was not really necessary because of Laelaps' existence but they still did so for the sake of feeling secure. It was also because Mark knew that Laelaps' breed was not of a guard dog but of a hunting dog. It did not mean that Laelaps would be unreliable but her skill in this field was lower.

Mark on the other hand was currently inside the vehicle with Mei, Abbygale and Odelina. If she could be considered as their member, Janette was also inside the vehicle. Strange enough, she was sleeping. Mark did not make her sleep and rather, she slept on her own volition. Abbygale was also asleep on the other sofa. It seemed that the long journey had worn her out.

Sitting on the floor of the vehicle, Mei and Odelina was helping Mark prepare for the next morning. They were loading the assault rifle magazines with ammunition while Mark was arranging the things he would bring in his back pack.

"You two should sleep already."

Mark said to the two as he examined the M79 Grenade launcher he would use later.

"Gege, I'm fine. You're the one who should sleep already."

Mei replied as she put away a magazine she just filled.

"That's right master, you should be the one to sleep already since after you leave later, we still have time to rest."

Odelina agreed with Mei.

"Well, I'm fine too if you two ask me."

Mark looked at the time in his phone that was currently plugged and charging.

"It's just past 9PM. It is still early for me."

"Early? Master, just what time do you sleep normally?"

"Hmm… Around 3 or 4 in the morning. My clients on my freelance work were always from the US so my work time was usually at night. If I'm not working, then, I'm watching anime and playing video games."

The two females were speechless. It was fine if it was work but to spend almost the whole night at unnecessary things.

If Mark was to know what the two were thinking about, he would sure reprimand the two.

In front of Mark, he laid down the weapons he planned to use, the M16 Assault Rifle and the Machete. The usual shotgun was not present though as he replaced it with the grenade launcher. There was also the USC Sub-machinegun. He planned to do a stealth mission and did not plan to confront the infected if possible. However, if the latter situation really happened, the shotgun would not help a lot. Even though the shotgun had a stronger punch than the assault rifle, its accuracy, range and reload speed was too slow. Furthermore, the grenade launcher was more suitable due to the large number of infected around. As for the sub-machinegun, he thought of using it replacing his pistol. Though it was a little heavier than the pistol, the additional weight should not hinder his movements.

For the plan, Mark wanted to go alone and stealthily make his way towards his house. Confronting all those infected was surely suicide and as such he thought of going over the roofs of the houses as the infected could not climb up. His house was also not intruded by the infected yet as it was inside an alley and the gates was securely locked. Unless one could climb up the over two meter gates and walls, no one would be able to get inside.

Finishing all the preparations they needed, Mark and the rest finally decided to sleep at past eleven in the evening.

Mark did not manage to sleep peacefully though. While his mind was filled with thoughts keeping him away from sleep, he was also being plagued by his premonition for some reason. It was the first time for him to have a lingering dream like this that would appear in two consecutive days.

***

Day 5 – 4:02 AM – Binga Lake St., Lakeville Subdivision, Molino VII, Bacoor City, Cavite

Early at this time, Mark had already reached the back streets of the subdivision approaching the street where his house was located several blocks away.

Even though he slept quite late, he still woke out about three in the morning and prepared to depart. Even though the darkness of the night could impair his sight range, it should be the same for the infected as he observed back in the mall. Furthermore, with his all black attire, it would be hard for anyone to make out his existence from a distance. It would be different for the Mutated infected though but the possibility of him encountering one at other locations aside from the area around his house would be close to none.

As such, he was now three blocks away from his house. He was careful in his movements and was not making any noise despite the fact that he was moving fast. He was still not as fast as Odelina and Abbygale but still way faster than a normal person and even than a Biter.

SWISH!

Mark creeped behind a wandering Eater and beheaded it with his machete.

He prioritized in eliminating Eaters than Biters at this point. It was because he started to realize that the Eaters were more adept at detecting people in the dark than Biters. While the Eater he beheaded had already fallen down. A Biter nearby could not even make out Mark who was standing beside the dead Eater because of the darkness of the night. It also helped a lot that the moon had already set at this time.

Maintaining his pace, he reached the corner of the street before his home street, Mainit Lake St. Here, he could finally see the large number of infected. The number of the infected here was smaller compared on the street he intended to go but it was still too many for him to handle alone.

Not wanting to get spotted, he jumped over the wall of the nearest house several lots away as the corner of the street was nothing but a vacant lot. Feeling that there was some that saw him, he immediately jumped off the top of the wall and unto the terrace just above the gates of the house. He then lied down on the floor of the terrace hiding from anyone's sight below. There were several infected that noticed a shadow moving over the wall but and immediately ran towards the shadow's direction but they did not see anyone and went back to their idle behavior.

As he managed to shirk away from the sight of the infected, he felt relieved. It would be a problem if the infected started banging on the gates of the house he entered. Crouching, he saw the infected that saw him walk away. He immediately propelled himself towards the rooftop terrace of the house without anyone detecting him.

High up the rooftop of the second floor, he could barely see the infected at the distance but he could make out the large number of infected at the close vicinity on the next street behind the house.

Seeing his next stop, he slowly hung himself off the rooftop unto the roof of the one floor house beside. He did not jump off and slowly made his way as to not make any loud noise. Jumping unto roofs of houses was one of the noisiest things to do in a stealth mission due to the roofs being made of metal sheets. It was not like in some movies where the characters barely made any noise after even falling off unbalanced unto a metal roof.

Making his way over three more houses, he was getting closer and closer to his goal. The problem now was how he was going to cross the infected infested street. Looking around, could make out the van crashed unto one of the houses near the end of the street. He saw it before using the drone and was looking for the right place to reach it. It seemed that whoever the owner of that van tried to flee but failed miserably. Mark then made his way several houses further away from his house.

When he could finally see the van, he saw how the van was damaged. The door of the driver's seat was flung into the street while every single window of the van was entirely broken. He could also make out several large dents on the body of the vehicle making it obvious that the one that attacked the van was a Mutated Infected with super strength.

Luckily for Mark though as this vehicle would be his ticket to get on the block where his house was located. The van was after all crashed unto the wall of the house in front and its body was almost blocking the entire street. With a single jump from the roof of the closest house, he could make it onto the roof of the van and unto the house on the next block.

TSST! TSST! TSST! TSST! TSST!

Lying prone on the roof of the house, he waited for the right timing. He also took the opportunity to shoot several Dozers that were idling far away riddling their bodies with holes. The Dozers became agitated as they could not find where the attacks were coming from and due to the pain they were feeling in their bodies. The noises the Dozers made also attracted the attention of the infected around.

Mark finally had the right timing.

He stood up before making a running start and jumped onto the roof of the van in a swift manner. The jump was about three meters away but he made it safely. After landing on the roof of the van, he did not stop and continued running until he jumped off to the wall of the house in front of the van before propelling himself to the roof. Many infected around saw him as a moving shadow but what could they do? They could only make noise as he strayed away from their sights.

Mark started to feel a bit elated as he was going closer and closer to his house. With all the infected around, it would be unlikely that there would be any looter that managed to get into his house so, he was not worried about his things being stolen.

With his house being at the innermost side of the alley, he managed to make his way without making his presence known to the infected at the main streets. Furthermore, the disturbance made by the Dozers he shot earlier strayed the attention of the infected further away from him.

Finally, he reached his house. Stepping on the roof of his home, he checked the yard for any odd change but did not find any. The gates and walls were fully intact and the doors were the same. The house looked the same as he left it days before.

Fetching he jumped down from the roof and unlocked the door. He then entered the loneliest home he could ever have. A home where there was no one to welcome him back. He lived alone under this roof doing his best at everything he could do. But no one would praise him for anything that he had done right.

It was because he was all alone.

The only things he had with him were his hobbies. His collection of goods that was very few in number and his collection of soft copies that had accumulated over the years. He did not have a collection of manga or light novels displayed on a shelf and did not have a large display of action figures. It was overly expensive for him to buy those things from overseas. What he had was a few robot models he painstakingly saved money for and a few anime figures that he won from several conventions before that he painstakingly attended and bought from surplus stores by luck.

He wanted to bring them all with him or else, he would feel that his existence for the past several years was nothing but a lie.