Mutagen

Day 131 - 10:15 AM - Benjamin Frankin Bridge Plaza, North-South Freeway, Camden City, Camden County, New Jersey, United States of America

Almost three hours after Mark's group left Audubon High School, they finally arrived at the entrance of Benjamin Franklin Bridge. Before the outbreak, the distance they had just covered measured just around twenty-two minutes or thirty minutes if there was heavy traffic.

Even though they already expected the travel to be much longer than expected, it was still longer than that expectation. It was the case where expecting the unexpected ruled over.

There was quite a number of infected roaming the freeway. And by saying quite, it was actually around several hundred. Mark's group had to proceed with caution, and he and the others had to fight along the way, slowing their speed even more. Not to mention the increasing number of abandoned cars that were left, blocking most of the road.

Nevertheless, they were still considered lucky after encountering this number of infected.

Why?

"Boss, what are you looking at?"

Felicia asked as she saw Mark peering over the safety fences of the bridge. Since he did not answer, she also approached to see what he was looking at. There, she froze.

"They started to gather because of the sound from the car."

Mark said as he watched the thousands of infected that started to go out of the buildings they were confined in. Crashing the windows, falling from higher floors, and breaking weaker walls, there was definitely a lot of infected.

It was not surprising considering that this area around this side of the Benjamin Frankin Bridge had a lot of facilities like University campuses, libraries, museums, theater, galleries, business offices, and even a few hospitals.

These infected had been lying dormant here since the area had long been deserted by humans. Even survivors did not exist in this place. Without anything to attract their attention, they had only been shambling around almost everywhere. A lot of them got stuck inside buildings in the process.

Now, however, the sound from the vehicle Mark's group had attracted these infected and caused them to force themselves out of their confinement.

Fortunately, Mark's group had already made it past the area of the freeway that was accessible from the ground and was now traversing the bridge. If not, it would be a different story.

"Fortunately, real life isn't programmed like video games." Mark murmured. "If not, AI pathing will make all these infected run around the road and come chasing us from there."

Hearing that, Felicia shivered at the thought.

In video games, the enemies were programmed to chase after the players, allowing the AI pathing to find the right route to kill their target. Even if the way around was very far from the player, as long as the AI could reach it, the enemy would follow that path.

Fortunately, it was not the case. And now, since the infected below could only hear the sound of the vehicle and not see it, they started to cluster below the bridge, not knowing where to go.

"Boss! Let's eat!"

Roan shouted from outside the vehicle as the food had been prepared.

They were currently having an early lunch. It was something Mark decided before they go crossing the bridge and enter Philadelphia. Everyone agreed to it since they knew his reasons for suggesting this.

After they crossed the bridge and enter Philadelphia, it would be questionable if they would have any time to take a break. Now that they were in a safer area, it was better to take advantage of this chance.

Of course, eating here in an open area, even if it was already above ground, it was not entirely safe. That was why it was decided that everyone would take turns eating. While the first group ate, the other group would keep the dangers at bay and vice versa.

Being called back, Mark sat beside Mei as the cooked food was delivered to them. There was a bit of childish scuffle, though. Elise wanted to sit beside on the other side of Mark. However, the seat was already occupied by the [Queen Type]. Because of that, Elise had no choice but to sit beside Mei instead.

That scene made everyone watching almost burst out into laughter. Abraham and his wife were still sad that Elise lost her memories. However, seeing her being lively like this was better than her gloomy self in the past.

As for the [Queen Type], everyone except Mark, Mei, and Elise, who had no idea about the [Queen Type] was, was still wary of her. It was still kind of odd that they were sharing the same food with an infected, after all. However, that gap was loosening, especially when they saw how the [Queen Type] was trying hard on how to learn to use a spoon.

The splatter of food on her face as she failed and how she let Mark and Mei wipe her dirty face without resisting. The way she stared at her food that she could not eat properly and the way she enjoyed the food as if it was the best thing in the world.

It gave everyone the thought that the [Queen Type] was trying her best to become human again.

Everyone merrily ate, except for one person. She ate timidly, wishing that no one bother or notice her. It was no other than Feng Zhiruo, the female cultivator that Mark captured.

"Are you alright?"

Someone suddenly asked Feng Zhiruo, making her flinch. When she turned her head, a woman was smiling at her. It was no other than the woman named Mariella.

Being new to the group, Mariella was still in the process of knowing almost everyone. Thus, she decided to greet Feng Zhiruo, who was very quiet.

"I, okay."

And here was where the problem lay. Feng Zhiruo was not only keeping it quiet because she wanted to. One of the reasons was that...

Feng Zhiruo's English vocabulary was very shallow.

It was not like she could not converse, but she was very awkward-sounding, and her English sentences were not constructed properly. And as she was not used to speaking English, there were times that Chinese words could come out of her mouth instead, making it even more awkward for her.

It was not surprising, though. Although Feng Zhiruo was a cultivator, it did not mean that she needed to learn other languages without reason.

Even the trip here in America was not something she wanted to do.

In that group that the Elder led, Feng Zhiruo was not among the real members. It was more accurate to say that she was nothing but a tag-along to fill in numbers.

Mariella found it hard to respond after hearing Feng Zhiruo's awkward and broken reply.

Everyone that was eating saw what happened. 

They all wanted to fix the atmosphere, but it was kinda hard if Feng Zhiruo was not able to understand it.

Mark turned at Mei and nudged her. Knowing what he wanted, Mei nodded.

[Did the food not suit your taste?]

Mei started to speak to Feng Zhiruo using a language that the others could not understand. This made them feel a bit strange since they could not understand a single word that she said, and the whole sentence sounded like a single long word.

To Feng Zhiruo, however, it felt like that she saw the light in the darkness. Since when she woke up after being brought back by Mark, she spent time alone without anyone to talk to. After spending a whole day and night like that, it was not wrong to say that she started to feel lonely.

And now, she learned that the beautiful girl in front of her can speak her language, Mandarin, fluently. Come to think of it, Mei's appearance had qualities similar to a Chinese woman.

[No, it tastes good. I'm sorry if I can't speak English properly. I made things feel awkward.]

Feng Zhiruo bowed in apology.

[Then, there's nothing to worry about. If you need anything, just tell me. Just finish the food quickly since we still need to leave as soon as possible.]

Mei replied with a little smile.

[Yes, thank you.]

Feng Zhiruo bowed once more and continued eating her food. This time, however, she was livelier.

Seeing that things returned to normal, Mariella sighed in relief. She just wanted to greet the timid girl. Who would have thought that it would turn into an awkward situation? On the other hand, she looked at Mei in a new light. To be able to speak several languages, it was an amazing feat for many people, after all.

The others also looked at Mei with a similar expression. It made her quite uncomfortable, though.

After an exchange of lookouts, they finished eating soon after and left.

Traversing this side of the bridge was easy as there were lesser vehicles that blocked the road.

They reached the fallen military outpost at the center of the bridge. As Captain Morrison's notes had described it, the outpost did not even manage to finish barricading the bridge before it was abandoned.

Tall concrete barriers were set up to block the bridge. The layout of the outpost indicated that the military only wanted to keep a passage that would allow vehicles to pass through one at a time. It as reasonable since they would need to check the cars one by one and not let any infected pass.

SHING!

Mark's [Slicer] beheaded an infected as he jumped out of the vehicle.

He looked around with Arnold and Ernst, checking the place. After all, this was a military outpost. Even though it was already abandoned, there might still be some usable military equipment that was left lying around.

On the other hand, the vehicle continued to press on, as it paved the way between the abandoned cars blocking the path.

After seeing the place, it was definitely abandoned in a hurry. The welding equipment to affix the barbed wires and the crane trucks used to arrange the tall concrete barricades were left in messy positions.

The military vehicles were also left, though only a few in number.

"Looks like no one has been here since the outbreak started."

Ernst deduced, seeing how everything was left, evenly covered in dust. The only things different were the places on the floor where the infected likely stepped at while randomly wandering around.

"It's not surprising," Arnold replied, pointing his thumb at Mark. "Only our Boss there had the guts to go through places like this."

Mark heard that but had no reason to refute it. Besides, he could not, even if he wanted to. It was true, after all.

The three looked around the outpost as fast as possible. Unfortunately, aside from construction equipment that things that were commonly seen in places like this, nothing else was noteworthy. And since the outpost was abandoned before it was finished, weapon and supply storages were also non-existent. They only thing they managed to find and take back were the very few guns that were left lying on the floor to accumulate dust and rust.

There were some infected soldiers wearing armor roaming around. Although the bulletproof armors they wore would interest common survivors, it barely held anything in Mark's eyes. Furthermore, the members of his group right now were not that desperate to wear clothes and defensive equipment from these infected soldiers.

Still, Mark took two sets of armor and military clothes left in the outpost and stored it in his ring. It was just for the sake of collection and nothing else.

Soon, they left the outpost, passing through the border between New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Pushing through the traffic left on the remaining part of the bridge, they almost reached the exit of Benjamin Franklin Bridge. From their current position, they could already see the Bolt of Lightning. It was a tall, notable landmark, an artwork built facing the bridge.

Soon, welcomed by a large number of infected, they exited the Benjamin Franklin Bridge and entered the City of Philadelphia.

***

Day 131 - 12:02 PM - Rooftop, United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America

At the rooftop of the tall, rust-colored building of the Court of Appeals, a silhouette of a man stood. He watched over a black vehicle that exited the Benjamin Fraklin Bridge in the distance.

"Interesting..." The man murmured. "It's been a long time since the last time a human stepped into my territory."

"Right, Vagus?"

The man asked behind him where a two-meter tall hawk with yellow eyes and blood-red feathers stood.