376 Returning to Bay City, The Last Help They Will Give The Settlemen (1/2)
Day 59 - 3:02 PM - Radial Road 1, La Huerta, Parañaque, Metro Manila
Mark and the rest were finally returning to Bay City. The previous day, night, and the morning were rather eventful.
Inside the vehicle, Jaeya sat beside Abbygale. She wanted to hug her niece and make her sit on her lap. Unfortunately, the little girl with a nose as sensitive as a cat did not want to. It was because she reeked of bad smell. Analynn only smelled of dirt and sweat, Jaeya's had a way worse source. It was already good that the little girl did not run away from that.
Still, it was a surprise that the woman who Mark brought back was actually the blood relative of the calm little cat girl in their group. Even Mark had not expected the fact.
To some extent, he could use the mental energies of people around him to judge people who were possibly relatives. These energies and emotional waves had distinct similarities between blood relatives. The similarities grow more substantial as the two people had closer blood ties.
On Jaeya's case, however, it was kind of hard to tell.
Like the individual, herself acknowledged, she had a broken mind. Mark also acknowledged that fact because he could tell how chaotic her state of mind was. It was already good that she was not someone that had gone crazy. Her consciousness was still clear to some extent. There were a few things to watch out though.
Nevertheless, everyone was shocked when Jaeya started to communicate with them through their minds. They now understood why Mark brought her back and called her a convenient human radio.
Although handheld radios were great communication tools, these items still had discrepancies. The signal between radios could be greatly affected by environmental factors. A good example just happened recently when Mark and Mei were inside the blood bank.
With Jaeya's presence, this issue could be addressed to a large extent. All that was left was further testing on this. She would become a good asset to Mark's group. It was also very unlikely for her to leave Mark's entourage considering that her only relative left saw Mark as her father and Mei as her new mother.
Right now, Jaeya was feeling down and quietly sat on her seat. She asked Abbygale about her mother which was actually Jaeya's older sister. Hearing the story from the little girl herself and how she witnessed her mother's death the Aunt felt sad and confused.
Sad because her beloved sister was gone and in the most brutal way, to save her daughter. Confused because of how the little girl calmly narrated everything as if what happened had nothing to do with her. The changes her lovely niece had were baffling her.
However, that state of Jaeya did not take too much time. As her chaotic mind affected her state, she instantly recovered.
Now, Mark could not help sigh at how his group had two mentally ill patients now.
***
Aside from those things, the rest of their journey went well. The highway had less infected than other areas because of the fences and walls that isolated most parts of the highway.
There were not many events going on, aside from one thing.
”They are really following us weren't they?”
Odelina said as she took a glance at the side mirror of the vehicle.
There should be just two vehicles and a huge infected in their convoy but about several dozens of meters behind them, another vehicle followed.
”Just let them be. We have no time to deal with them.”
Mark spoke.
Those people behind riding the vehicle were not new to him. They were the same women that were imprisoned in that condominium building. It seemed that some of them had their way around that place and took one of the vehicles that were left behind. By the looks of it, they took the opportunity to use Mark and his group as a shield and guide to follow.
Nevertheless, those women seemed to not have any idea that the devil their ignored to escape and Jaeya was in this convoy.
”Why didn't you help them?”
Karlene asked.
”Because there is no point to.” Mark shrugged. ”We are not some rescue workers or part of the military and police. If they ask me for help, I will want something in return. I'm not asking much, even just some useful information will do.”
Mark then tilted his head.
”The main problem is unlike Jaeya, they didn't even ask for my help. Why should I bother?”
”Alright then...”
Karlene shrugged her shoulders and accepted the reason.
This, however, made Analynn quite bothered. Not even one person in this group contradicted his answer.
”We are quite heartless, aren't we?”
Mark spoke which made Analynn shiver as it was exactly what was in her mind.
”We are in the apocalypse right now. Sympathy can get you or the people around you killed. You should have already learned that the hard way.”
That made Analynn look down. He was right. Their sympathy towards other survivors before led to the current state of Emi. It was just her not digesting the fact properly.
Thinking about this, the people following them were not exactly good people either. To follow behind strangers and use them as a shield to clear the path was not good behavior.
As Mark said, there was no need to bother with them. Stopping because of them would just be a waste of time.
***
BOOM!
As they left the highway and closed near Bay City, explosions could be heard along with faint sounds of guns shooting fiercely.
”Looks like we returned at a bad time.”
Karlene voiced out hearing the commotion from afar.
Because of the noise, Mei climbed unto the sniper dome where she had a higher and clearer vantage point.
”Mei'er, can you see anything?”
”No, Gege, were are still too far to see anything. I'm just looking if there are any flying infected around, but there don't seem to be any.”
”Probably, there's just ground infected this time. But for the military to use explosives, the number of infected should be quite large.”
Odelina assessed.
That should have been an accurate assessment of the current situation. It was until...
”Hmm? What is that?”
Spera who sat at the front beside Odelina spoke.
It was because she saw something covered in flames fly up in the air.
SCREECH!