Mutagen

Foul-smelling blood and innards splattered as Mark threw a fist-sized rock at his target. The rock left an indent on the trunk of a tree before it fell, revealing the squashed insect that stuck on the tree.

Mark frowned as he glanced at the flattened cockroach and the disgusting splatter of white liquid, a mixture of its blood and innards, around it.

"This is the second time."

Mei murmured beside Mark.

***

Leaving the Rebel Base empty with nothing but bloody corpses, it would not take long for the whole place to crumble.

The animals that went down the mountain were quite smart and aware of dangers. Instead of going towards the group of people leaving the base, they invaded the empty base instead. Compared to moving prey capable of fighting back, these evolved animals preferred the fresh food already served in a platter.

It was like what was happening around Mark\'s base. Animals that recognized the danger would stay away. Right now, both groups that left the Rebel Base were accompanied by powerful beings. Of course, these intelligent animals would try to avoid them.

While the smaller group went north, Mark led the larger group of people going to the south. Together with him was no other than the Mei, the four girls, Chaflar, and Amihan. The others were all assigned to escort the smaller group. Mark even sent Crimson and Ignis to follow the group in the dark. Of course, not only to guard the group but also to monitor Berrak and the two young soldiers. The three were just new members of the group. Furthermore, Berrak was different from everyone since he did not voluntarily join the group. Mark brought him by force and threats.

Well, it was not like Berrak showed any sign of escaping. By what it looked like, his interest was also piqued by Mark\'s group. Nonetheless, it was better to be cautious.

The travel was not fast. If Mark was to judge it, it was even slower than normal. It was not surprising since the people they were escorting were either fatigued or undernourished. The only good thing was that they were in higher spirits. After all, they had just been freed from the suffocating grasp of the Rebels.

Their slow journey along the Catanduanes Circumferential Road was not smooth either, otherwise.

From time to time, they would encounter feral evolved animals or those with inferior intelligence. Without surprise, the feral ones attacked on sight. On the other hand, even with their lacking intelligence, the latter kind of evolved animals were quite tricky to deal with.

After all, animals had their own methods of hunting.

One tricky encounter they had was when they were spotted by a group of evolved dogs after more than two hours of walking. It was clear that these dogs were domesticated ones before the outbreak. Some even had characteristics of expensive breeds of dogs. Unfortunately, the lack of human interaction and hunger pushed them back to being wild. Not to mention the effects of Mutagen on most animals, turning them more aggressive than before.

Being animals with natural hunting instincts, the dogs did not attack openly but tried to surround the group like how wolves behaved. With more than a hundred and fifty dogs, it was quite a large pack that could overwhelm the hundred people on Mark\'s side. Not to mention that the actual people capable of fighting in the workers\' group were less than half even with guns.

Well, it was a mistake for these wild dogs to not put Chaflar and Mark in their sights. They might have thought that they could sneak out one or two humans for a late afternoon lunch.

Unfortunately, the dogs did not even become a challenge as their leader, the Alpha of the pack, was instantly picked by Mark and killed. With their leader gone, the chain of command among the dogs was broken immediately, and it became easier to eliminate them all with the help of the workers.

That, however, brought another threat to the group. After all, the area where the dogs attacked was near an outpost of the Aggressive Rebels.

Furthermore, it seemed that they were restless after losing contact with the main base and immediately went out in groups to check the gunfire.

They were unlucky, however.

Mark could monitor their movements using their mental fluctuations.

At the moment they saw Mark\'s group, Mei\'s Sniper Rifle already pierced bullets unto their heads.

The only ones left were those that appeared to be having similar mental fluctuations to some of the workers they managed to rescue. Without a doubt, they were the men that were forced into the ranks of the Rebels.

Mark then shouted at the base during the encounter, telling what happened to the Rebel Base. After those men realized that the people in Mark\'s group were the very same workers from the Main Base, they began to turn against the Rebels that pushed them into the job they never wanted.

In the end, some of the men were relatives of the workers that Mark\'s group was escorting, while a few were among the group that went north.

It was a half-hour stop as they eliminated the Rebels in that outpost. They also took everything they could. Food, water, weapons, ammunition, and even some explosives, they took it all.

The explosives would be proven useful along the way since before reaching the Military Base, they would pass by the vicinity of the most populous land area on the island of Catanduanes, the Municipality of Virac.

While gathering the supplies, however, Mark noticed something odd.

Mark noticed something emitting a mental fluctuation not too different from a well-trained military dog but did not feel like one. It was coming from the highest watchtower of the outpost.

Strange enough, Mark did not see any large creature. It became even stranger when Mark saw a fist-sized Cockroach hanging out on the wall of the watchtower.

When Mark approached it, it tried to flee. The way it fled, however, appeared to be imitating the natural behavior of a regular Cockroach. It was even if it was not.

Mark could not shake off the odd feeling. Thus, when the Cockroach flew away towards the forest, he shot with a bolt of black lightning. It instantly turned into a crispy fried insect that fell to the ground.

That was only when the odd feeling vanished.

In the first place, it was clearly an intelligent insect. Yet, instead of fleeing the area as most animals and insects did because of Mark\'s and Chaflar\'s presence, it stayed there instead. It was as if it was watching the outpost, and it only tried to escape when it was found out.

Then, as they continued unto the road, they encountered another one of these Cockroaches.

The behavior of this one was even stranger.

Mark detected it immediately when it entered his detection area. He could tell that it was moving across the forest by the roadside at fast speeds.

But then, when it seemed that it spotted Mark\'s group, it stopped. It began climbing a trunk of the tree nearby and behaved like an insect that it was supposed to be.

Without a doubt, it was suspicious. Mark even felt that odd feeling once more.

When Mark felt it the second time, he could not help but realize what this feeling was. It was similar to the sensation when a surveillance camera was pointed at you while shopping inside a store. That uncomfortable feeling of being watched beyond the lens of a tool.

Thus, Mark suspected that these Cockroaches might be sent by someone as a surveillance tool.

That was why Mark killed it as soon as he could, throwing a rock that he had just picked up to kill it.

***

"Looks like there\'s someone capable of controlling these Cockroaches for surveillance."

Mark said to Mei, taking his eyes away from the disgusting scene of a splattered fist-sized Cockroach.

"That group?"

Mei assumed.

"Probably." Mark agreed. "So far, aside from the Spirits and Elementals on the northwest and the Demons to the southeast, that group are the only possibility. We can also rule out the Elementals since they won\'t have any reason to do this."

Mei agreed with Mark\'s assumptions.

While being cautious of the surroundings, they continued for another hour of traveling.

They passed by a few more small villages. Of course, each was empty with nothing else but wild animals.

But what was worrying for the workers was the sight of infected that they started to encounter as they moved further south.

It was not that surprising, in fact.

The Military managed to destroy the only place where the infected managed to congregate on the island. It was no other than the Municipality of Viracto the south of the island of Catanduanes. As it had its own airport, it was expected to be one of the ground zeros where infected-filled airplanes crashed during the start of the apocalypse.

One of those airplanes crashed in Virac which started the spread of the infected on the island. Fortunately, it was not at a degree comparable to NAIA or other areas. The military managed to destroy it, eliminating the immediate threat of the infected to the island.

Of course, it did not mean that they managed to kill all of the infected. Despite their records and what the Military declared, there were still some stray infected here and there. It was a very rare encounter, to be honest, as the surrounding mountains and forests were areas hard to be traversed by the infected.

Furthermore, they were also targeted by the evolved animals for food. That was why it was very rare to see one in the middle of the island.

About past five in the afternoon, they arrived at the Barangay of Boton in the Municipality of San Miguel. It was a small barangay with the Catanduanes Circumferential Road going through its center.

At this point, Mark started to look for places where they could spend the night. It was getting late, after all. There was no way they would travel in this large group of people on foot during the night.

Furthermore, the workers were getting tired. Unlike Mark\'s actual group, these people were far weaker.

Unfortunately, the small barangay of Boton could not offer them a good place to stay. It did have a lot of houses. However, all of them were small. Even worse, only a few were made of concrete, while the majority of the homes were still built with patchy construction materials. It was not a secure place to stay for the night.

​ Luckily, continuing past Barangay Boton, they arrived at the area where government structures and facilities were built before the outbreak. In fact, some were still under construction and will never be finished in the near future.

Here, a suitable place was chosen by Mark. It was the Healthcare Office of the Municipality of San Miguel. In simpler words, the Municipal Hospital.

Surely, it was not a clean place, given that hospitals became the centers of infection during the outbreak. But with the infected mostly eliminated from the island, it was empty.

Of course, the horrors that happened inside its walls still left their marks with blood splatters and a disgusting stench.

Nonetheless, it was a big, secure place for everyone to spend the night. Fortunately, Amihan was here to help blow out the musty and disgusting smell in the building and the workers helped with cleaning on places where they would sleep.

They also had to dump out the hospital beds, however. No one would want to sleep in those, after all, considering that the disgusting smell seeped into the dusty mattresses.

Inside, Mark also found some decayed bodies. Luckily, there were just a few, and by the looks of it, eaten by animals. It was easy to dispose of the bodies with a few bursts of black flames.

Securing the place, this place seemed to be a good one. The only thing they needed to do next was to cook dinner and go to sleep.

Unfortunately, Mark could only shake his head at sundown. It looked like the night would be far from peaceful, after all.