390 The First Day on the Road, A Rather Smooth Travel (1/2)

Day 66 - 10:15 AM - W Service Road, Parañaque City, Metro Manila

”Oww... Scary Uncle, let me down already...”

Emika's unsteady voice echoed behind Mark while riding on Chaflar's back.

It had been more than three hours after they left Bay City. Now, they were traversing one of the main service roads beside only skyway going through Metro Manila. As for their exact current location, they were more or less a kilometer away southeast of Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

The first route they had taken was the very same route when the forces of Bay City Settlement tried to destroy the nest in the same Airport. Not only that the route should already have been cleared of the previous blockades, but most of the infected had also been cleared by the explosion that occurred in the airport.

Of course, it did not mean that they would not encounter the infected on the way. In fact, there was quite a lot.

If it was before the outbreak, from Bay City, their current location could be reached within less than an hour if the traffic was low. Yet, because of the infected, they still took this much time.

As for Emika, she was already complaining about her aching bottom.

Mark already expected this, but his predictions had been off. Emika lasted longer despite Chaflar rampaging around to fight the infected that came close to it. It took three whole hours before she noticed the effect of riding on Chaflar's back.

Unfortunately, they could not just suddenly stop the vehicles while being besieged by the infected on all sides.

Past the airport, it was already out of the activity area of the forces of Bay City. It meant that the number of infected here was larger than the areas around the settlement.

And they were currently experiencing it.

Since the road they were traversing was the main road going through several cities, there was a lot of commercial establishments could be found by the roadside and a few blocks and streets away from it. This meant that the population in this area alone was rather high.

Furthermore, main roads like this suffered more heavy traffic when the outbreak happened. As such, most of the road was occupied by abandoned vehicles.

They were currently experiencing one of the downsides of having a large number of people in a traveling group during an apocalypse like this.

Unlike when there were only one or two vehicles in Mark's group, they would be able to traverse smaller roads, branching streets, and back alleys. Because of that, they could avoid heavy road blockades by entering alternative routes.

That was something hard to do with a large group of vehicles.

Although they could do the same, entering smaller roads would need to separate the defenses of the convoy making it easily penetrable. Also if they encountered a dead end, it would be hard to backtrack with too many vehicles in the group. The group would be prone to getting stuck during those times and ambushes, especially from [Predator Type] infected, could happen.

Mark would have no problem if he or his group were the ones being attacked with the ambush. However, it would likely be a different story if the target of the surprise attack were either the soldiers or the vehicle with their families inside. Casualties could happen because of that.

***

While traversing the road, the vehicle leading the way was no other than the modified Lorry, the [Exceed: Disintegrator Fortress]. It had larger V-shaped rams in front of it and was heavy enough to push away most of the blockades on the road. The one driving it was Edward as he had the experience to drive a military truck before.

The Lorry was being followed by two military humvees, then the [Exceed: Personnel Carrier] in the middle of a modified van, ridden by Monique's family, and the modified armored carrier that was currently used by Rollan and Arvie's groups.

Behind the three vehicles modified by Mark were four military trucks with the families of the soldiers participating in the escort mission. The remaining vehicles were all military humvees that surrounded the other vehicles, especially the sides and the rear.

As for Chaflar and Gifre, the two large beings had no fixed positioning within the convoy. They would go where most of the infected were coming from to avoid things from going out of control.

While midway on traversing the service road, the convoy slowed down before going to a stop.

The soldiers from the humvees went down from their vehicles and took position around the convoy. This had been their routine when the convoy needed to stop.

As the Chance, Mark made Chaflar go near the [Exceed: Personnel Carrier] to drop off Emika.

”Scary Uncle! I'll get back at you for this!”

Emika shouted while sticking her tongue out as Mark left with Chaflar to see the situation upfront. Her threat might have been more intimidating if she was not limping as she approached the vehicle. When Emika entered the vehicle, everyone was holding back their laughter, Rosamie was included.

***

Mark and Chaflar went in front of the convoy and looked around. Of course, there was already the muffled sounds of shooting in the background as the soldiers shot the incoming infected.

”What a mess.”

1st Lieutenant Baller said as Mark approached.

Edward was also outside the [E: DF] as he tried to see if there was a way to push through this.

They were already near Bicutan Interchange where they would turn eastward leaving the vicinity of Metro Manila Skyway.

However, the road was blocked, not by abandoned vehicles or the infected, a large part of the skyway had collapsed. The collapsed skyway filled the roads below with a large amount of debris.

”What could have caused that?”

Phillip who followed Edward out of the [E: DF] could not help but voice while looking at the destroyed skyway.

”It is better for us not to know.”

Edward said as he understood a certain fact.

The Metro Manila Skyway was not something that would easily collapse even if a tank were to ram against one of its foundations. There were no signs of a large explosion either. The only thing they could conclude in this scene was that something unimaginable caused this.

”Aimee, can you get rid of this?”

Mark approached the [E: DF] and asked Aimee who was already sticking her head out of the carrier.

Unfortunately, she shook her head. Her light beams might turn flesh into dust and melt metal in seconds, but it would be hard to do with concrete without taking too much time.

”I see...”