Mutagen

Day 131 - 1:11 PM - Benjamin Franklin Bridge Exit, Center City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America

"Quick! Turn right!"

Mark shouted at Roan as they saw the vast horde of infected not far from the exit of the bridge. It was like there was an ongoing festival.

The number of infected in that horde was more than half of the number of infected they encountered along the road these past few days of travel. It was a number far greater than the number of infected stuck on the other side of the bridge.

Mark was not afraid of that number. Using the crystals, he could wipe them all with a bit of effort. Of course, they needed to get the vehicle out of the way first.

If Mark fought the infected now, the road they needed to enter would be blocked by the infected, making the vehicle stuck. And if that happened and the battle was already ongoing, there would be a very high chance that they would alert the other infected in the near vicinity inside the city.

That was why they needed to strike first.

As Mark commanded, Roan steered the wheel, driving the vehicle towards the overpass to the right. There were also infected blocking the way, but at least, it was still a number that the car could handle and mow down.

SPLAT!

The ram in front of the vehicle was splattered with fresh blood. The force from the collision shook the car a bit. Roan also had to use the wiper as the windshield was also stained with blood.

"I knew that this is a crazy idea!"

Ernst complained with all his heart while looking at the infected behind the vehicle.

Usually, Ernst would get refuted for shouting like that. This time, however, everyone agreed with him. That number of infected was sure a lot to be gathered in one place.

VVRRRROOOOOMM!!!

The engine roared as Roan drove the vehicle as fast as possible to get away from the potential danger.

With that speed, they reached the main road going through the Center City, Vine Street.

Reaching the Vine Street after traveling for about five hundred meters away from the bridge, however...

"HUH?"

Roan voiced out in surprise as he stepped on the breaks by reflex.

The sudden stop of the vehicle caused everyone inside to rattle. Roan had good reflexes, although this time, it caused almost everyone to get hurt. Luckily, everyone had their seat belts on. Or else, someone would already have a painful bump on their head.

"Roan! What are you doing?"

Felicia shouted. It seemed even with the seatbelts on, she felt dizzy from the sudden stop. Not only her, their parents, Abraham and Candace, even the three children, felt the same.

However, no reply was heard from Roan, who was staring in front. Mariella, who sat on the front passenger seat, was the same.

Curious and because of the urgency of the infected chasing behind, Arnold that sat on the third row, stood up slightly to see the front.

Then, seeing the situation in front of the car, Arnold called out to Roan.

"Dude, Roan! Why did you stop?! There's nothing in front!"

But then, he froze.

That was the issue and why Roan stopped.

Abandoned vehicles covered the majority of the road. Old trash and plastic could be seen getting blown away by the wind. The overgrown grass that started to grow was also present.

All of the things left by the outbreak were present. Well, except for one thing that should be present, but none could be seen.

There was not a single infected on the road in front of them. It was even though there was a lot when they exited the bridge.

"Did we suddenly get transported somewhere else?"

Sandie could not help but voice that question because of the absurdity of the scene before them.

Remembering the horde by the bridge, everyone looked behind.

"Huh? There's no one chasing us?"

Ernst said as he saw the empty overpass behind them.

It was strange... Very strange.

"Don't move the car yet. I'll check."

Mark said as he left his seat. Jumping out of the vehicle, he spread his wings and flew up.

The first thing Mark did was to look towards the way they took in a rush. He noticed that the road they traversed just now gave them a limited view of the surroundings. It was because of the walls it had and the winding roads that go over it. While flying above, it was even hard to see the entirety of the road they covered so far after entering Philadelphia.

When his eyes reached the bridge, Mark was quite surprised.

The infected they saw before were still there. All of the infected were all wandering around as if Mark's group never passed by. However, in Mark's eyes, although the infected were moving like natural, they were already blocking the bridge, preventing Mark's group from going back.

Mark suddenly had a bad feeling about this.

KUWWEEEKK!!!

Suddenly, Mark heard the loud screech of a bird. He immediately turned his head towards the direction that the screech came from. There, he saw a large hawk rushing towards him.

A hawk with a two-meter body and a wingspan of more than three meters, it was not wrong to say that it was a small airplane that was rushing towards Mark. Its yellow eyes were glistering despite the sunlight, and its blood-red feathers were in contrast with the blue sky.

Mark immediately readied the [Slicer] and [Divider]. Using his [Blood Scythe] was not suitable for an encounter like this.

Why? As it entered Mark's area of detection, he could not feel anything. As it flew closer, it became even more apparent.

A head that barely had skin and feathers, a hole on its stomach that made its guts spill out and one of its eyes dangled out of its socket. Without a single doubt, it was a Mutated Infected Hawk.

With how fast the hawk flew, it reached Mark in no time. It swept its claws towards him. Mark stopped flapping his wings, purposely losing altitude to evade the claws.

With a spin of his body, Mark slashed towards the wings of the hawk as it passed above him.

However, the slash hit nothing as the hawk spun its body away, evading Mark's attack entirely.

"Intelligent Infected?" Mark could not help but blurt out. However, Mark shook his head immediately.

There was already a lot of infected exhibiting intelligence. However, almost all of them only had enough intelligence to avoid danger. Furthermore, the way they evade danger, like deadly attacks, was rough. They would either jump back really far or run away far from the reach of the attack.

Those infected were still different from the bat-winged [Leader Type] that Mark and Mei encountered before.

This hawk, however, evaded his slash with minimum and efficient movements.

There was a problem, though. Mark could not feel any intelligence coming from the hawk at all. It was not a kind of infected that should be capable of such movements.

One thing immediately entered Mark's mind.

The hawk was being controlled.

After evading his slash, the hawk flew past Mark and took a big turn. It gave Mark the chance to skim past the surroundings to see if he could find the one controlling it.

But there, Mark's eyes grew wide.

Mark did not notice earlier since he focused his eyes towards the exit of the bridge. Now that he looked around, it was not that the infected were missing.

All of the infected, no matter what size or shape, they were all hidden. The infected all hid away from the main road in front of the vehicle. Since some of the Mutated Infected were too large, they were poorly hidden behind the buildings beside the road. However, if it was on the ground level, none of them could be seen like this.

"Well, sh*t."

Mark cursed as he ignored the hawk and flew back to the vehicle as fast as he could.

"BACK TO THE BRIDGE!"

Mark immediately shouted to Roan in the utmost urgency.

Seeing his serene expression, Roan did not ask any question and stepped on the gas pedal and turned the vehicle around as fast as he could.

Mark did not ride the vehicle and jumped unto the roof. He still needed to clear the way when they reach the bridge.

VRRROOOOMMM!!!

The vehicle roared as it accelerated.

But then...

"Is it just me? Or the ground is shaking?"

Mariella asked.

Of course, she was not the only one that felt it. However, none of them knew what was going on.

"HOLY F*CK!"

Until Roan cursed out of his lungs and stopped the vehicle in a hurry, shaking everyone violently once more. This was the second time it happened. They should have been angry because of this.

Nevertheless, not this time. Everyone all understood why Roan stepped on the breaks.

Who knows where it came from? Maybe, from the buildings beside the bridge, or somewhere that was hard to see. The only thing that everyone knew was that the way back was blocked.

It was blocked by a five-meter tall humanoid giant that rushed towards the middle of the road. Its thick and fat body alone covered the span of four out of six lanes that the overpass had.

Rushing back and driving through the empty lane beside the giant? Surely you jest. A single kick from this guy would send the vehicle flying for several dozen meters.

At the roof, Mark started to get ready. He could at least lure or push the giant out of the way.

With red light glowing on his veins, Mark flapped his wings. He immediately appeared in front of the giant's face, giving it a kick from both his feet.

BAM!

The surroundings shook from the collision.

However, Mark could only frown as he failed to do what he wanted.

The fat giant barely moved from its spot. Not only its thick skin managed to resist Mark's kick, but its body was too heavy to be pushed by the attack.

Mark wanted to use the crystals to instantly drill a hole out of the giant's head. However, if he was to do that, the giant would fall in the middle of the road, likely to block the entire road they wanted to take.

"Hey, bastard! Over here!"

Mark shouted, trying to get the attention of the giant.

However, it was not moving at all.

"This guy is being controlled too." Mark deduced.

But to say, Mark started to understand what was happening.

The Center City, or probably, even the entire Philadelphia, was under the control of someone.

Removing the infected out of the main road, if it was not an ambush, it should be an invitation.

Blocking their path to return... It indicated that the one controlling the infected did not want Mark and the others to leave.

Mark looked at the sky. The infected hawk was still there circling at them. However, not only the hawk. The giant made no threatening movement at all. It indicated that as long as they did not try to leave, these two would not attack at all.

"Boss! Just what is happening?"

Roan opened the side window and shouted at Mark.

As the giant did not make any movement, Mark calmed himself down. He returned to the stopped vehicle.

"We are being invited to enter the city."

Mark voiced out, making everyone surprised.

"Drive, follow the main road carefully."

Mark ordered Roan and the latter had no choice but to follow.

With that, they arrived at the main road once more. It was still devoid of infected from this angle.

When they reached the first intersection, however, they could see that a large number of infected roamed the roads that branched off the main one. It felt like they did not want them to go through there.

The person or people controlling the infected should be watching them. That was what Mark thought. In this case, Mark was interested to know what the other party wanted or even just what kind of creatures they were.

With a smile, Mark could not help but anticipate this interesting scenario.