513 The Morning at the Road, The Bloody but Beautiful Scenery (1/2)

Day 127 - 6:32 AM - Royal Lodge, E Absecon Blv., Absecon, New Jersey, United States of America

Early in the morning, as soon the sun rose from the east, everyone got ready to leave.

Everyone knew that they still had a very long way to go to get to safety. The goal of this journey was to get to The Pagoda in Reading, Pennsylvania.

It was the fifth-largest city in Pennsylvania, located in the southeastern part of the state.

And from their current location, the shore of Absecon Bay, the shortest route they could take was still more than a hundred and eighty-five kilometers. Using a family car and going through the Atlantic City Expressway, it would take around two and a half hours to travel that distance back before the outbreak.

Now, however, this travel might take several days, if nothing goes wrong in the middle journey. And unfortunately, the chances of something going wrong was rather high. No matter what road they took, it would lead them to pass through several infected infested cities before reaching their destination.

”We will be going through the shortest route, so everyone should focus.”

Mark said to the survivors with a serene expression.

Everyone nodded. Although if the infected inside Atlantic City looked fiercer than those outside, they could not let their guards down. Even though they were currently under Mark and Mei's protection, they should not be too complacent.

They did not survive these four months trapped in the middle of Atlantic City without learning anything.

And thus, everyone left the dilapidated lodge, facing the empty road.

Their load was quite light, with only four backpacks carried by the survivors. These backpacks had some items they managed to find in the lodge. It contained a few clothes, the little amount of seasoning they got from the kitchen, and some sanitary items that were yet to expire. Being a lodge, it still had the things of the people staying there when the outbreak started.

Most of it smelled gross, though, after the smell of rotting corpses seeped into the items. That was why there were very few things that they could take with them.

The cars outside the lodge had some valuables like gadgets and other stuff that most people bring on vacations. The electronics were unusable without electricity, and thus, left behind. A car had a set of tent though, which they gladly took.

There were also cars left open, even with keys inside. However, after four months of being left without maintenance, the vehicles would not start anymore. The batteries were already dry, and the gas had gone stale.

Even if they wanted to highjack a vehicle, none of the cars would start at all.

They had no choice but to continue on foot with the items they had taken.

It was hard to be indebted to the government, any government. Comparing walking through cities filled with infected and having a debt to the government, both were equally dangerous. Dealing with the infected was better as they could not scheme, unlike humans.

Mark would also prefer adventure than diplomacy.

The whole group started walking north, following the E Absecon Boulevard.

Luckily, the road was pretty much empty. It was your typical countryside road during a zombie apocalypse.

The infected were more concentrated in cities where humans lived before. On the other hand, there were fewer infected in these kinds of places.

There was a downside, though. Evolved animals frequented areas like this.

A vast grassland surrounded the road, filled with kneehigh grass and bushes. Those surroundings made it easier to spot the animals roaming the area. There were also smaller ones hiding in the thickets.

However, for some reason, none of them were brave enough to attack Mark's group. The animals could only watch their supposed prey in fear.

Mark pulled the cart carrying the [Queen Type] and the [Empress Spider] without minding the animals watching them. Like how it was in their base, the animals could feel a grave threat from Mark and dared not to take action.

Still, Arnold and the others did not know that and were still wary of the animals. After all, even though they had encountered who knows how many mutated infected, yesterday afternoon was the very first time they had seen an evolved animal.

And to say, to them, even the small cat they saw with metal spikes around its neck, was very dangerous.

These animals made them realize that the world was not what they remembered.

Mark and Mei led the group as they passed by the other lodgings and a large hotel along the road not far from where they started.

They took care not to make too much noise as there were quite many infected roaming the vicinity of the hotel.

Most of them were regular infected, Biters and Eaters, though there were some strange-looking mutated ones.

CRASH!

A loud sound of glass breaking sounded. It seemed that an infected from the higher floors saw them passing.

That was not a good move though, because the infected was on the sixth floor, it ended up falling unto its death. The sound of flesh falling to the ground echoed from the hotel's front parking. Still, everyone hurried to pass by the hotel as the sound of crashing glass alerted the entire hotel.

There would not be much danger for the group even if the infected from the hotel confronted them. Nevertheless, rather than wasting time while fighting the infected, it was better to continue on the road.

Avoid unnecessary fighting. That was what Mark planted on his mind this time.

Leaving the vicinity of the hotel, they reached an abandoned house. From there, it would be a long patch of empty land until they reached the outskirts of the next city.

While walking, Mark could not help but notice Mei looking around.

”What's wrong?”

Mark asked.

”There's nothing wrong. It's just I never thought that a single road could look pretty, like this.”

Mei had a strange reply. Nevertheless, Mark could understand what she was saying.

If you removed the infected out of the way.

The green grass by the roadside and the properly maintained road before the apocalypse, the scene looked beautiful.

Now, the plants had overgrown, and some were crawling in the middle of the road. Nevertheless, it added to the beauty. In the least, compared to the ones back in the Philippines, this scene was better. After all, it was more common to see unmaintained roads in the Philippines, especially the older ones.

After walking for about twenty minutes, they finally reached the outskirts of Absecon.

The first two buildings they saw made Mark feel a bit funny. Disregarding the first one, which was another small motel, the second building was The Home Depot. And a big mall at that.

”Gege.”

Mei called out to Mark.

”What?”

”You look very interested in that mall.”