527 A Stop Over, Reminiscing Felicias Memories (2/2)

”From where we are now, it is not far and we will cross the Delaware River and pass the border between New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Past the bridge, we will immediately enter Philadephia. I don't think that we will have a good time searching for a place to stay there.”

Now, they understood his reason.

Philadephia was the largest city in the state of Pennsylvania.

Entering the city before dark? Why not jump into the Delaware River instead? It was more questionable if they would be able to find a good and secure place to stay there.

No one could refute Mark's decision. It was better to take it safe than take a risk in the outbreak.

”Then, what's your decision?”

Mark turned to Felicia and asked once more.

”Then...” Felicia closed her eyes and took another deep breath. ”Please.”

”Lead the way then. After eating and resting a bit, sit beside Otis and tell him the directions.” Mark said.

”Yes.”

Felicia replied. There was no enthusiasm in her voice. And instead, it was filled with uncertainty.

After lunch, Sandie took Felicia's role in taking care of Morgan as she sat at the front passenger seat.

Taking a U-turn at the junction road to the right of the northbound lane, they went down into Clements Bridge Road.

And to say, unlike the Atlantic City Expressway and the North-South Freeway, Clements Bridge Road was very populated.

Of course, not humans, but infected.

The road, they were about to take, ran near different communities, like Glendora, and boroughs, like Runnemede.

Just with those two places, there should be a population of about twelve thousand people.

The population of the infected might be lesser. However, comparing that number to a group of sixteen people, it was already overwhelming.

Of course, there was no way for that number of infected to be gathered in a single area. Nevertheless, if they were to create a huge commotion, it would not be surprising if they were able to accidentally call hell on Earth.

Furthermore, they were just passing by these two places. Their destination was quite further.

The house of Felicia's parents was located in the eastmost part of Haddon Heights. It was more than four miles from where they eat lunch.

Because of the number of infected, Mark decided to ride on the roof instead. After all, with the speed they were currently taking, it was hard to outrun the infected.

Moreover, since the road was smaller, even with the lesser number of abandoned vehicles, there were too many blockades.

It was not like it posed too much trouble. It was just annoying to deal with repeatedly.

While dealing with the infected, Mark could not help but notice.

It was quite a nice place to live in.

There were a lot of houses. However, they did not look cramped at all. Even the smallest houses were large enough for a family to live in. Not to mention that almost every house had a very wide yard.

The facilities such as malls, diners, churches, schools were also close to the residential areas making it easier to access.

Well, that was before not outbreak.

Right now, that very same reason made the place a hell of an infected hole.

They took roughly one and a half hours to finally make it through Runnemede and Barrington.

It was lucky that aside from roadblocks of abandoned and crashed vehicles, they did not encounter any barricades or manmade blockades. Unlike the residential areas, Mark passed through before back in the Philippines, it seemed quite impossible for this place to be barricaded considering the layout and style of the residential area.

Thus, they did not have to take detours too many detours along the way.

Soon, they finally entered the border of Haddon Heights.

At this point, Felicia was obviously restless.

The closer they got to their destination, the louder was her heartbeat.

Seeing the place she was very familiar with, if one was to nudge her, she might cry.

After all, the familiar places in her memory looked very different now.

The lively streets became a deadly road.

The beautiful houses were left broken and abandoned.

The lovely neighbors were now carnivorous infected.

The good things in her memories were being replaced with the current unsettling appearance of the place.

Then, she realized. She was starting to doubt her decision to return to this place.

If she did not return here, the good memories she had would not be replaced with the unsightly things she saw.

However, they were already here.

”Turn left, right?”

Otis asked, snapping her out of her thoughts.

”Y-yes...”

It was the last two turns before they reach her parent's house.

What would it look like? Were her parents still there?

Both anticipation and fear filled her heart.

Another turn, this time, it was to the right.

A white modest house with a wide yard that contained an old playground, they finally stopped in front of the house of Felicia's Parents.