Mutagen

GUAAHHH!!! RAAAAU!!! GRAAAR!!!

The noises created by the horde were deafening.

On top of a van that was used as barricade to block the incoming horde, Mark stood. His above neck long hair fluttered along with the flapping sounds of his clothes. Like the t.i.tle of the song that was playing in his ears, the wind was blowing. It was blowing beautifully.

It smelled unpleasant though.

Mark face could not help but turn unpleasant. With the large number of infected in front of him it was no wonder why the wind smelled so bad. Especially the Biters, their body organs were still functional and thus, their bodies would still excrete urine and feces. Their oddly colored lower body clothes was the evidence to this.

ROAR!!! GRAAAAHHHHH!!!!

However, that was the least of his concerns. Among the horde, there were several figures that started to cause havoc. There where figures of different sizes, all of them wanted to get close to Mark in frenzy. It was what he aimed to do though.

Since the first time he encountered these mutated infected, they had been targeting him no matter how many people were on the other side. Back in the mall, the fat man caused his barricade to collapse leading to the long chase he had to suffer through. There was also the Charred infected back when he found Abbygale and the female Dozer afterwards. Next were the Level-2 Mutation Woodman and the Level-2 Mutation Dozer. All of them were coming after him for some reason.

If that was the case, Mark decided to use that to stir up the mutated infected among the horde. That was the reason he climbed up on the tallest vehicle and made sure that every single infected would see him. And he succeeded.

When he climbed up, the common infected which were the Biters and Eaters behaved normally but the mutated once started to get agitated. They were roaring and tras.h.i.+ng everything on their way. He could make out several Dozers among the horde shoving away the other infected in front of them. There was also that hulking muscular infected that started lifting up the infected and throwing them out of the way. The hulking infected also killed other infected as it made its way towards Mark.

Well, the scene reminded Mark of some people he saw in the internet back then. The mutated infected looked like Korean Pop fan girls that saw their idols out of the concert stage. They would come rus.h.i.+ng towards their idols despite how tight the security was.

***

Back in the vehicle, with the exception of Mei, Abbygale and Odelina, everyone was worried. Even if they could not hear the roars and moans of the infected outside due to the sound proofing of the van, they could see all the scary figures beyond the barricade of vehicles. They all could see Mark who calmly stood on a vehicle looking at the horde as if the ones in front of him were just ants.

If they were the ones who stood there in front of the horde, it was for sure that their legs would have turned into jelly. They would probably plop down on the roof of the vehicle not knowing what to do.

Sundra who had just been rescued was not only worried about the infected outside but was also glancing at the woman tied up at the back of the vehicle. Even though she was told that the infected woman was different from those outside, she could not help but be alarmed. It was good that Charmaine was there sitting beside her. Even if they were not close, they were familiar with each other. She could now understand why this group of people came here to find her boyfriend. However, she still felt pity. Among all of them who seek refuge at that rooftop, only the three of them made it.

She looked at the beautiful girl sitting behind the driver"s seat. She was sure that it was her voice that she heard talking from the man"s radio. She could not help but feel inferior not only on her looks but also her current expression. There was not an ounce of fear on her face. As if she truly believed that the man outside would bring them away from this predicament.

The crackling of the radio was then heard inside the vehicle followed by a man"s voice.

"Mei"er, tell Odel to get ready. We"re going to bust it out of here."

It was Mark"s voice.

"Gege, she already heard it."

"Alright, wait for my signal. After that, don"t wait for me and drive through."

"But Gege, how about you?"

Mei became worried.

"Don"t worry about it. I have no plans of getting left behind."

***

Mark put his radio back in his belt while watching the situation in front of him. The mutated infected was still having the brawl of their lives trying to make their way towards him. It was just a pity that the number of the common infected outnumbered the mutated ones. However, they were getting good progress to get to him.

He suddenly turned to his right, he noticed some abnormal movement. It did not take a second after he turned when an infected jumped over from the ranks of the horde towards him. When Mark, saw it, he was sure that it was another Level-2 Mutation. The body shape of the infected was odd though. It was a female infected and she was crawling on all fours however, rather than like an animal, the movements of her limbs resembled more like an insect. Furthermore, her eyes had a holographic looking texture aside from her pupils.

The infected sprang off from vehicle to vehicle making her way towards him. She opened her mouth and Mark could see her tongue rolled up looking like proboscis which could be seen on b.u.t.terflies. She sprang up from another vehicle but Mark did not let her closer.

BANG!

Mark had drawn his shotgun and accurately shot the mutated infected"s head after she got close enough. He would not take any chances for sudden unexpected situations to occur, especially not at this moment that a horde was in front of him waiting for him to get slaughtered.

The female mutated infected with a blasted head fell in between the overturned vehicles and laid there motionless.

Turning back his head at the horde, Mark knew that it was time for the first step to commence. He let go of the shotgun and kneeled on the roof of the vehicle with one knee. Pulling up the a.s.sault Rifle from his back, he closed one of his eyes and aimed at the Dozers among the horde. He aimed at their bellies and not at their heads though.

TSST! TSST! TSST! TSST! TSST! TSST! TSST! TSST!

All eight Dozers he could see were shot on their bulging stomachs and started wailing in pain. It was the weakness that only Biters and their mutated variants had. However, after their pain subsided, their eyes slowly turned red and they behaved more violently.

After Mark shot the stomach of the Dozers, the pungent smell of methane started to drift into the air and the density was getting thicker by the moment. Along the spread of methane, the bulging stomachs of the Dozers started to deflate in a visible pace. Still, if Mark was closer to their bodies, he would notice that the holes on their stomachs were not only spewing blood but also a huge amount of methane.

Soon enough, even Mark could not stand the smell anymore. This was the signal for the second step. He pulled up the backpack behind him and opened it. There, he took several grenades. This many grenades would not really help much against the horde but with the thick methane from the Dozers spread among the horde, the effect would be on another level.

He pulled the pin of the first grenade and threw it as far as he could before being followed by another which was thrown much closer than the previous one. He ended up throwing four grenades on a fast pace before he jumped down the vehicle. After landing on the ground, he pulled out one last grenade and threw it just behind the barricade before running away madly and lying p.r.o.ne on the ground.

BOO-!!! BLAAGAAAAM!!!

Before the sound of the first grenade exploding could enter their ears, it was replaced by the loud sound of flames suddenly spreading in a large area. It was as if there was a storm of fire behind the barricade. They did not even hear the sounds of the remaining grenades exploding as the sounds where overwhelmed by the sound that came from the flame.

It was a sudden inferno. Everyone who saw the scene was both amazed and scared. The scene looked like h.e.l.l on earth. The explosion even pushed away some of the vehicles from the barricade destroying the line of cars in the process. Mark pressed himself to the ground letting the wave of heat pa.s.s by above him while the people in the vehicle could feel the shockwave created by the explosion.

The whole scene only took about half a minute but if felt longer to everyone who witnessed it.

As the wave of heat pa.s.sed by, Mark kneeled on the ground and took out the radio.

"Odel! Go!"

VRROOOM!!!

***

Odelina immediately drove the vehicle. The remains of the barricade were still there but some parts of it was broken down and thinned after the vehicles on the barricade were pushed away by the explosion.

BAM!

The vehicle rocked hard after hitting and pus.h.i.+ng the vehicles blocking the way however, the armored vehicle was not stopped and rushed out of the barricade. When everyone looked around, they could see the aftermath of the explosion. Hundreds of charred bodies littered the narrow road. Most of the bodies were still burning and many of them were blasted into pieces. The most noticeable thing was the middle of the road was almost clear of the bodies of the infected. They did not know that the straight lane void of bodies was the aftermath of the grenades exploding in a straight line pus.h.i.+ng away the infected to the side before they got incinerated by the ignited methane.

"Where"s Gege?"

Mei suddenly voiced out making everyone look around outside the vehicle. The vehicle rushed out of the vehicle but they did not see where Mark had gone to. They suddenly became worried. However, their worry was unnecessary. After she voiced out that question, they heard a knock coming from the window. They saw a hand outstretched from the roof of the vehicle and knocking on the window. The radio on Mei"s hand then crackled and they all heard Mark"s voice.

"Don"t worry about me. I"m here on the roof."

They all sighed in relief. That feeling almost took half of their lives.

***

Mark sat holding unto the metal grid covering the solar panels on the roof of their armored vehicle. He could feel the lingering heat and smell the unpleasant odor in the air.

When Odelina pushed away the remaining vehicles on the barricade, Mark used one of the vehicles as a platform and jumped into the roof of the moving vehicle. It was because there was no time for the vehicle to stop and let him in. The explosion might be huge but it could not kill every single infected on the road.

He turned to his left while he was looking towards the back of the vehicle. There, he could see a lot of the surviving infected. There was even the hulking mutated one. Most of them was injured and burned but not dead yet. To most of these infected, these injuries were nothing and they would continue on chasing them.

Mark aimed his gun towards the mutated infected.

TSST! TSST! TSST! TSST!

The hulking infected did not immediately die after being shot in the forehead. It was. .h.i.t two more times before falling down.

Looking at the devastating scene around the vehicle, Mark could not help but feel satisfied despite the fact that his face was all scrunched up. He was satisfied with the success of his plan but disgusted with the unpleasant smell in the surroundings. Who would like the smell of burnt hair, clothing and flesh mixed all together anyway?

The vehicle sped past the area where the horde was earlier. As not all the infected was eliminated, the vehicle still ran over some of the surviving infected before leaving the area. Mark looked back at the scene while tightly holding onto the metal bars by his feet. There were dead infected everywhere, burning bodies and bits and pieces of their decapitated bodies. Making a way out would be hard and dealing with the whole horde was even harder. If not for the existence of the Dozers and their unreasonable rampage due to Mark"s existence, all these feats would be impossible to accomplish.

Not only that the mutated infected initiated chaos within the ranks of the infected, the Dozers wanting to catch him only spread the methane gas their bodies exude further.

Mark looked forward, they were back on track. He was worrying about another matter though. His nose was stuffed with the pungent smell there so he could not tell. He just wished that the smell would permeate his clothes. He just changed these clothes about two hours ago and was.h.i.+ng the clothes was not possible at the moment.