Mutagen

Day 131 - 8:17 PM - Gulph Mills Golf Club Service Compound, Gulph Mills, Upper Merion Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States of America

In the middle of the Gulph Mills Golf Club, there was a small compound made up of four buildings. There were two large sheds, equipment storage, and a large bungalow office that was mostly used by the employees of the Golf Club.

Of course, since the apocalypse started, there was nothing here, but some lost infected randomly wandering around. Among them were few employees that never left the premises since the day they turned.

Now, however, the large bungalow was occupied.

With the strange black armored vehicle now parked in front of the bungalow, it was clear that it was Mark's group that stopped here for the night.

After Mark unleashed that tornado and they fled from the City of Philadelphia, they traveled through Schuylkill Expressway that traveled alongside the Schuylkill River.

At first, they were tense with the thought of the Infected King chasing after them. But later on, they calmed down when no pursuit happened. And unexpectedly, going through this expressway was quite a good idea.

The expressway had five lanes on both sides. Furthermore, the amount of traffic was lesser than the smaller main roads going through the city. There were also a lesser number of establishments on the roadside. It became the reason that lowered the number of infected to roaming the expressway.

And thus, after leaving Philadelphia, and the threat of the Infected King passed, they had a pleasant ride.

Abandoned cars still littered the road, but the number of lanes gave enough space for the vehicle to go through without much problem. Although, of course, some areas had accidents which caused some traffic build-up. Aside from those, there was not much they could complain about.

And because of that condition of the road, they managed to travel quite a distance from Philadelphia.

They actually managed to travel fifteen miles for the rest of the day. It was rather unexpected considering how they had to deal with several kilometers a day in the past days because of the unpleasant road conditions.

When the sun was about to set in a few hours, however, finding lodging for the night was proven difficult.

They could not continue traveling by the riverside as Schuylkill Expressway parted with the river after reaching West Conshohocken. And also, at that point, the expressway started to travel across more populated areas. There was a lot of business establishments, suburban communities, and other places frequented by people before the outbreak.

And now, the infected population was quite large in some parts of the township.

Finding a house was not difficult. However, finding one that suited to sleep in an apocalypse was highly lacking.

In the end, when they already had no other choices, Mark chose this small compound surrounded by golf courses.

The bungalow was not secure in any way. There were a lot of entrances and windows. Some of it was even broken. One good thing, however, was that it had a good view of its surroundings. Golf courses barely had any contraptions to block the view, after all.

At this moment, everyone was having a sumptuous meal. Everyone deserved it because of the stress and fatigue Mark's group experienced today when they entered Philadelphia. If one was to ask them if they would come there again, none of them would definitely reply positively.

Well, Mark was the only exception. If he had time, he would return there prepared to catch that arrogant bag of uncontrolled anger.

And now, while eating...

"Should I start exercising?"

Ernst said with a sigh.

During meals, everyone would talk about different things to entertain themselves while eating. This time, however, the topic was about what happened this afternoon. Specifically, they were talking about not being able to do anything about the opponents that Mark matched up to them.

They were smart people and understood what happened.

Mark wanted them to see their weaknesses. Of course, Mark did not mean that they should fill in those weaknesses entirely. In the least, improve on something and narrow down the chance of getting killed once they faced a kind of similar opponent in the future.

Nevertheless, saying it and doing it were different things. Ernst might have asked that, but his heart was still quite against it. He was a scientist, after all. He was used to being cooped up in a research room or laboratory than going outside to jog.

In any case, he might as well try to do so. It was because Arnold and the others would also try.

Abraham, Candace, and Elise were quite terrified about the earlier experience. Being surrounded by several thousands of infected with no way out, seeing someone summon a tornado in the middle of the city, and many other things that happened was not something they would ever expect to see in their entire life.

Nevertheless, they just did and actually survived to tell the tale. This experience also made everyone realize the actual threat that the infected could bring to people. If Felicia's family did not agree to follow Mark and something like the Infected King attacked Audubon High School, everyone would surely die.

When that thought came to their mind, they could not help but remember the unsightly appearance of the Logan Square that became a Slaughter Park. They could just wish that the sight they saw would not haunt their sleep from now on.

Still, not every result of today's events was positive. It was more apparent with the relationship of Mark towards the other members of the group.

Before, they only saw Mark similar to a strong warrior with a set of uncanny abilities. They respect him for his strength and fear for his low view of life.

Now, however, even though they were not aware of it, Arnold and the others seemed to start drawing a line between them and Mark. A person with the ability to summon disasters. If he wanted to, he alone could do more damage than what the infected could do.

It was a kind of differentiation similar to what a commoner and a noble.

Like a worshiper and a deity.,

Or maybe, the poor and the rich. 

Both sides could coexist. Nevertheless, there was a line between the two sides that they would not cross consciously or subconsciously, especially for those in the lower caste.

The only exception to this was Roan, Felicia, and Elise. For some reason, the siblings did not view Mark any differently. Or maybe, they were not really thinking much about it. Hannah was the same. Her view of Mark did not change in the slightest at all. That behavior of hers was strange itself.

More than anything, Elise started to see Mark as some powerful superhero. Her sparkling eyes that were similar to a high school girl's seeing her idol was quite uncomfortable for Mark.

On the other hand, the [Queen Type] that had already woken up also showed some changes. And to say, she was quite a lively one. Her sticky stare towards Mark was gone, indicating that most of that urge came from the [Empress Spider] urging her to copulate.

Nevertheless, the [Empress Spider] that was now freed from the Infected King's orders started to behave like a normal intelligent mutated infected. Or rather, it was trying to escape and look for a new host. It continued to bash its body unto the walls of its cage and end up sleeping after it became tired of doing so. Of course, its intelligence was on the low side, about similar to a dog or a cat.

The changes between the [Queen Type] and the [Empress Spider] likely indicated that most of the behavior they displayed before was the result of their relationship as a host and a parasite.

That change was quite a good thing, especially for Mark. Before, even if the [Queen Type] was docile, he could not let his guard down as it still felt like she would swallow him whole when she could. Now, even Mei had a considerable change towards her behavior towards the [Queen Type].

Still, there was one thing that everyone felt strange. It was because [Queen Type] was highly submissive towards Mark. She was basically following Mark's orders like he was her superior. It even became questionable to still keep her on restraints because of how she behaved.

Even Mark found it quite strange. Mark asked her why, but [Queen Type] only tilted her head in confusion. Her intelligence was still lacking to be able to answer these kinds of complex questions.

The only thing that did not change about her was how she was too fond of cooked human food instead of human or raw animal flesh.

With everything like this, the only thing left to worry about was Morgan. It was already several days since he fell unconscious. It was fortunate that he was not a normal human at all. Or else, this state would kill him anytime soon without hospitalization.

Well, where would they even find a hospital here that was still operating anyway?

After eating, it was time to sleep as they still have an early morning tomorrow. The destination was still more than forty miles away, and the travel would definitely be a rough one.

Inside their room, Mark urged Mei to sleep first. It was not hard to make her do so as she was still injured.

"Snow, you should sleep too."

Mark spoke to the [Queen Type] that was sitting in front of the window. Since it was quite hard not to have anything to address her, Mark gave her the name Snow. It came from her pale complexion. If fact, if she was to wear a nightgown and let her roam a haunted house, she would be mistaken for a ghost because of her skin color.

Hearing what Mark said, Snow nodded.

"Where?"

She then asked where she would sleep, making Mark point at the blankets layered on the floor on the other side of the room. Without any complaints or other questions, she lay down on the makeshift bed, not even minding as Mark put restraints on her.

Seeing Snow fall asleep, Mark shrugged. She was more behaved than a child that would argue for wanting to sleep late. It would be acceptable if she was hard to tame as she was an infected. However, that was not the case at all.

Mark then closed his eyes, concentrating.

"Arnold and Ernst are on the lookout, and everyone else is already asleep."

He murmured as he monitored everyone.

And then...

"Crimson, Oracle."

Mark called out, making Crimson appear out of thin air, and Oracle pop out of Mei's bag.

Patting the two with a smile, Mark ordered.

"You two guard everyone here. I have to go out. I can't let our guests wait any longer."

The two jiggled in agreement, making Mark assured. And there, Mark opened the window and jumped out. Closing the window slowly, Mark started to run and left.

***

Day 131 - 11:15 PM - Glassglow Quarry, King of Prussia, Upper Merion Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States of America

After moving for more than two kilometers away while holding his phone, Mark finally found his destination.

It was a large quarry own by an asphalt distributor, according to his map. Of course, he was not here to mine anything. Instead...

"You two should come out now. Aren't you two tired of trying to peep without avail?"

Mark said, facing the large hole at the center of the quarry. 

Well, he was not speaking towards the hole, but the two that were following him behind.

And as he said that, two people went out from the dark shades of the trees that surrounded the quarry. It was a man and a woman.

"See. I told you. He came out to lure us away."

The woman spoke towards the man.

"Alright, you win."

The man replied.

Mark turned towards the two with a serene expression. He did not know why trouble kept coming in just the span of one day.

First, a [King Type].

Now, a pair of [King Type] and [Queen Type].

The worst thing, these two were far stronger than the first one they encountered today.