Mutagen

Day 47 – 7:10 PM – Seaside Road, Bay City, Parañaque, Metro Manila

BANG!!! BANG!!!

RATATATATATA!!!

PANG! BANG!

A plethora of gunshots could be heard from the walls beside the gates as the bridge lowered at the southeast side of Bay City. It was to clear the wandering infected on the other side of the moat before the bridge was fully lowered.

Behind the lowering bridge, a huge number of vehicles were waiting. It was a huge convoy composed of both military and civilian vehicles. The largest mission they had in the past was the Philippine General Hospital incident and the number of vehicles at that time was not even a third of the number of vehicles this time. In the truest sense, this was the biggest movement the settlement had since the outbreak started.

Three days ago, unsettling information was disclosed by the military along with the announcement of a mission pertaining to that information.

The information was about the Ninoy Aquino International Airport or NAIA which was just more or less three kilometers from the southeastern corner of Bay City Settlement.

NAIA which was formerly known as Manila International Airport was the largest Airport in the Philippines. Compared to the two of the four areas in Bay City that was the Bay City Settlement occupied, the whole airport was visibly larger. It was one of the two Airports that serviced Metro Manila and also the most known Airport throughout the country.

Before the outbreak, it serviced millions of passengers with its more than two hundred thousand flights, both domestic and international, yearly. Now however, more, not only the prestigious airport was vacated, it was overwhelmed by the infected.

Since the outbreak started, NAIA was one of the places the military barely touched. It was due to various mild to serious reasons.

First was because the area around the airport was densely populated. Not only that many commercial establishments that were populated could be found around the airport but there were also several large areas where squatters inhabited. Compared to the actual residential subdivisions around the airport, the total population in those squatter's areas were way larger.

Second reason was because risk-benefit ratio of going to the area was very low. It was a high risk low benefit thing to do. Just wandering around the area could lead to annihilation than being able to take home that they came there for.

Third and the main reason except for the high number of infected in the area was that early in the first day of the outbreak, in order to delay most the infected from the southeast as they build the Bay City Settlement, they bombed all the bridges, flyovers and highways that goes over Parañaque River. This river flowed from the north to southwest of NAIA and way south of Bay City and to Manila Bay. By bombing those designated places, they forced the infected to be stuck on the other side of the river at the area around the airport. Unless the infected at that time were able to traverse the deep river or climb over the walls at the riverside, they needed to go several kilometers north of the airport to manage and attack Bay City.

That was rather both a good and bad move for the military. Good was because they succeeded the in delaying early attack of the infected towards Bay City while they prepared the settlement. It was also bad, because it hastened the scattering of the infected into other areas like Bacoor, Cavite which was just a few kilometers southwest. Not to mention that the military had to abandon all the survivors stuck on the area around the airport that could have crossed the areas the military bombed. There was also the fact that the military would also have a hard time to enter the area once again.

Nevertheless, the survivability around the Airport was very low. It was because the airport itself was one of the ground zeros of the outbreak.

Back that day, three airplanes, two was in arrival while one was on departure, crashed into NAIA in three different areas. As such, the airport immediately fell into pandemonium. The emergency personnel of course came to the rescue along with the authorities but as everyone could guess, it did not go well.

Like in the movies, military immediately tried to quarantine the whole airport but differently however, they failed to contain the situation. Not only that the squadrons of the military were spread out to deal with other ground zeros but the highly mutated infected from three airplanes were way more than what the soldiers could handle.

After that, the place was neglected by the military. Although it could not be helped just by the fact that the military was mostly lacking in manpower, it was still a bad move.

Since they had already scavenged most of the areas around Bay City for food, water and other necessities, they finally set their eyes on the untouched area around the NAIA.

Like most procedures, they sent scouts to monitor the area first both personally and using unmanned camera mounted drones.

That was when they saw the horrifying situation inside the airport at the expense of the lives of several scouts.

The airport had turned into a hell in the surface of the earth. Millions of infected roamed the terminal and the runway. Flesh like membrane could be seen like webs all across the vicinity of the airport whether it be the walls or the ground. The parked planes became meat driers as the bodies of the airplanes were also covered with the similar membrane.

Long term short, it was an infected nest way larger than Bay City Settlement. Even the population of the two cannot be compared in quantity.

Another thing the scouts found…

Was the type of infected that they called [Z-type: Alpha], the [Leader Type] among other [Leader Types].

Thus, the military could not neglect it anymore and decided to prepare to take action.

The military posted the announcement where they invited both free and private survivor groups to participate with a very high value of compensation. Furthermore, whether it succeeded or not, the compensation was still valid as long as they managed to survive the mission and made an acceptable contribution.

With that, they managed to haul a large number of people to participate in this mission.

BAM!

The lowering bridge connected to the other side of the moat. It was finally time for everyone participating on the mission to depart.

With mostly military vehicles in the lead, the vehicles drove out of the settlement with the sounds of gunshots in the background.

Just behind the military vehicles in the lead, three non-military vehicles could be seen driving at the center of the group of vehicles.

Those three vehicles obviously belonged to one large group as the three vehicles drove side by side. At the center was the very well-known vehicle in the settlement, the black armored MB Sprinter.

***

"Young miss, will it be okay? I still think that we should not participate in this."

Odelina asked Mei who was behind her as she kept her eyes on the road.

Mei who was patting the heads of both Iola and Abbygale who slept on the sofa while using both her laps as pillows turned towards the front.

"I also don't want to but we have no choice. General Perez is practically begging us to help."

She replied in a helpless tone.

That was right. Their group did not want to participate in this mission initially. It was due to the very fact that Mark was about to return and they only needed to wait for him before they go. These past days, they even spent their time doing nothing much but wait except for the times that a small number of flying insects and animals attacked the settlement.

However, General Perez begged them to participate. Still, it was not because he wanted to force them but it was because more of those humanoid infected with wings were sighted at the airport. In fact, most of the drones the military sent were destroyed by those flying infected. Aside from Mei, they had no one capable of dealing with them efficiently.

Those flying infected were more troublesome than birds or flies and mosquitoes. Infected flies and mosquitoes, despite their larger sizes, had not ability to lift a grown human from the ground. Due to that, their only attack pattern was to charge forward and bite while having an unstable flight pattern. At the time they were close enough, skilled people would be able to handle them even normal soldiers.

The humanoid flying infected however was already a pain to deal with, even with just their flight pattern. Not to mention that they would not slow down as they attack in uncanny angles and drag a fully grown human off the ground.

They really needed Mei's help. Furthermore, there was also the pressure from other people. It was a wonder why those people started to exert pressure in the military but since they also had high standings in the settlement, it became harder for the general to contradict it.

Thus, it came to this situation. In exchange, General Perez promised to put them in a secure position with most of his elites around. After all, even the general was not comfortable with what was going on.

While patting the heads of the two girls that had to wake up too early to prepare, Mei recalled the mission briefing.

In this mission, the convoy would travel south through the Cavite Expressway. It was same expressway where she saw Mark for the last time before he was separated from them. Since it was impossible for the military to clear the fallen toll gate that blocked the center of the expressway, they would have to go through several private roads while fighting the infected.

From there, the military planned to take Circumferential Road 5 or C-5 Road. C-5 Road was connected with Cavite Expressway and would lead them northeast. The road will pass right just beside the southwest wall of NAIA after traveling for about five kilometers or so of the road.

From there, the mission would commence.

The convoy would divide into several groups in which most will move as a distraction while the remaining would find a safe place to infiltrate the airport.

Their mission was to destroy the nest and not kill all the infected as it was dangerous. Not to mention that it was their territory. The people that would infiltrate all had stealth or agility type abilities and they would hurriedly plant bombs inside the airport while the infected were distracted by the other groups.

Once the bombs were planted, everyone would pull out, retreat and meet at the rendezvous point.

For sure, it would be a long and tiring mission but they all planned to finish everything before the sun set or else, everyone would end up dying.

It was because this nest became more active during the night.

***

As the convoy drove off from the sight of the people at the walls of the settlement, a shadow of a person could be seen above one of the buildings outside the settlement. No one from the wall was able to see the person due to the distance and the place the person was standing but he could clearly see everything.

Seeing that the convoy passed below the building the person was standing on, the person took out a radio and spoke. The person was a man with a rather raspy voice.

"The targets had already driven out of the settlement. They were in the most guarded position. What are your instructions?"

"Just continue to monitor them and the others will do the other things. Keep in touch and report everything about the targets."

A gloomy voice replied from the radio.

"Yes sir."

The man stored the radio and lifted his head revealing bloodshot eyes. He then stared at the convoy while licking his lips not in a creepy but a hungry manner. If one were to look at his eyes however, the reflection on his eyes was upside down.

As the convoy drove far, the man jumped from the building head first. Amidst his fall however, the shape of his body started shifting disgustingly and before he became a splattered meat below in the middle of the road, he turned into a large black bird with disgusting face and bat wings before he flew off.

"TIK TIK TIK!

That sound echoed faintly as the strange bird flew following the convoy.