103 Waking up in the Middle of the Nigh (1/2)

Day 4 – 12:32 AM – Firenze Townhouse Complex Subdivision, La Joya St., Buhay na Tubig, Imus Cavite

It was in the middle of the night. All the survivors gathered in this subdivision were asleep with the exception of the people who were tasked to patrol and guard the place throughout the evening. Those people could be seen patrolling the place carrying lamps while some were posted at essential vantage points around the subdivision and monitor the movements outside the walls.

Inside the master's bedroom of the largest townhouse in Firenze, located at the north west of the subdivision, Mark finally opened his eyes slowly after being unconscious for about eight hours. It took him this long, several hours longer than the last time.

As he opened his eyes, he immediately reorganized his thoughts and it went smoothly for some reason. Looking at his surroundings, he knew that they arrived at their destination. Otherwise, it would not be too quiet outside. It seemed that there were no mishaps that happened after he fell unconscious.

He roamed his eyes around the darkly lit room and saw the almost snuffed out candle illuminating the place. At the exact time his eyes landed on the candle, it finally went off. Strange enough, despite the sudden darkness, he could still see his surroundings. Albeit not too clearly, he could at least see the surroundings in the darkness better than normal.

When he turned to his right, he could see Mei sleeping beside him. He was not surprised as he detected her presence the moment he woke up. Still, he could not help but sigh. Instead of sleeping in another room, she would actually sleep beside him. She was too careless. However, he felt touched. Her face had a frown even while sleeping. Mark could feel her worry for him even in her sleep.

He gently caressed the sleeping girl's hair and channeled that comforting energy towards her. The frown on Mei's eyebrow vanished in an instant. Mark then looked at his hand. He felt just now that his control of that energy was higher and more efficient. He stared at his hand and tried it once more, with that, he did not notice but his eyes were glowing white, the only thing he saw was the faint white light surrounding his hand at the moment.

Mark decided to get off the bed. After he got off, he fixed the blanket covering Mei's body and went to the glass door on the southern side of the room. It was a door connected to the veranda on the second floor of the townhouse. He then opened the door and went out while trying not to disturb Mei from her sleep.

After stepping outside, he felt the cold breeze blowing across the place. The cold wind was not surprising considering that the area just behind the subdivision to the west was a huge farm land. Furthermore, the cold breeze really felt good for him. The moon illuminating the place also looked clearer than before.

He noticed that it was not that the environment that had changed but actually his eyes. It was way clearer than before he fell unconscious. Mark also noticed that his body movements had some changes. The delay between his brain command and his body action was now almost non-existent. He could also feel that his body was stronger.

Concentrating on his environment, he could feel that the range of his detection of emotional fluctuations were even larger. Before, the maximum area he could detect was a little bit below twenty meters, now however, his detection area had already reached thirty meters. Furthermore, the fluctuations he could detect were also clearer and more distinct. He could now recognize people from their familiar fluctuations without needing to concentrate on them.

Mark suddenly looked at the house in front of him on the other side of the street. It looked like Carlo had also awakened. He sighed though after noticing what was happening at the room where Carlo was in. He was with his girlfriend Sundra and was engaged on a night activity. There was nothing wrong with it though. The two were on a relationship for several years now and Carlo almost sacrificed himself for his girlfriend.

As it felt that he was peeping at their session, Mark decided to divert his attention to somewhere else. He looked behind him then by his foot. It seemed that the children were all sleeping at another room in this floor while Odelina was still awake and was doing something at the garage.

He then noticed something good at the room below. At the room on the first floor, Charmaine was sleeping with another person. The fluctuation of the person was quite similar to Charmaine making him conclude that the congresswoman managed to uphold her end of the deal. It seemed that they successfully found Cielo, Charmaine's younger sister. After monitoring Cielo's mental fluctuations however, Mark frowned. Her emotions at the moment were even more unstable than Mei's. Something might have happened to her before she was taken into the custody of Madam Lanie's men.

As for Melissa, she was sleeping at another room in the first floor. She was together with that woman then brought along with Carlo and Sundra. Mark then focused at the new addition to their group. The dog was sleeping in the living room it seemed.

”Hmm?”

Mark was surprised. The dog's senses were really high. It seemed that it noticed that it was being monitored and abruptly woke up while looking around in confusion.

Looking back at the sky, Mark decided. Since the moon was illuminating the place beautifully, he might as well take a stroll and survey the place. He might as well familiarize himself with the emotional fluctuations of the people inside the subdivision so he would know if there was an intruder in the future. It was not for the sake of the people of the subdivision but for the sake of his companions.

SWOOSH!

Mark jumped off the veranda towards the roof of the neighboring house to the east. The distance between the veranda and the roof was actually four meters but he jumped over effortlessly. He never tried this before but something inside him told him that he could do it and he just tried. He knew that he would not be injured too much even if he fell due to the absurd regeneration capability of his body.

Under the moonlight, Mark's shadow flashed from roof to roof. His movement speed was also enhanced compared from before. He was still not on par with Abbygale and Odelina's speed but he was faster than a national athlete for sure. He roamed around the subdivision without anyone noticing. With his ability to detect people around, unless he deliberately showed himself, no one would find him.

Going around, he found out the exact number of survivors staying in this subdivision. There were one hundred thirty-five people not including the men on patrol, the guards and his team. The patrols and guards numbered to twenty-five people. Mark wondered how the men in charge of this place was handing the supplies for this many people.

Arriving at the southeast of the subdivision, he noticed the houses on the same block of the gate but outside the walls of the subdivision. There was a wooden bridge going over the wall and into one of the houses outside. Inside the house, there were several people guarding the place. It looked like they made another place to go in and out of the subdivision aside from the gate. It was a good thing as there was the possibility that the gate would be blocked with a lot of infected. Using the house, they could use it to in and out or at least, they could use the house to lure the infected away from the gates.

”Huh?”

Mark noticed something not right. On the other side of the road outside the subdivision, there were houses that belonged to the subdivision where Charmaine was living before. There was a wall separating the subdivision from the road but the second floor of the houses could see over the wall since it was shorter. Inside the two houses in the opposite subdivision, he could detect people.

There were two people in each house. Furthermore, Mark could not detect any good intent from them. Jumping onto one of the houses closer to the house where he detected one of the pairs, he noticed that there was a person with binoculars constantly viewing the perimeters of Firenze.

***

Inside the house Mark was looking at, there were two men hiding. The one in his late twenty's was monitoring the perimeter of Firenze using the binoculars on his hands while the other who was in his early thirty's was taking a nap. Both men were armed with high caliber guns and their bodies were painted with menacing tattoos.

While the man with the binoculars were looking around outside, he saw a silhouette of a person standing on the roof of one of the houses inside the subdivision they were observing. Shocked, he focused on that silhouette.

”WAAHHH!!”

He suddenly backed off and screamed waking up the man who was taking a nap.

”What the f*ck?! Why are you screaming?!”

The man who was awakened by the scream cursed. He had just taken a nap and he was abruptly woken up. He was in a bad mood.

”I-I-I saw a ghost!”

”Motherf*cker. You disturbed my sleep because of some nonsense? Ghosts aren't real you dimwit!”