628 Above the Shoreline, How Emika Convinced her Mother (1/2)

Leaving the New Infanta Settlement, Mark directed Chaflar to fly towards the south, maintaining their flight over the eastern coastline of Real, Quezon.

From Infanta, it would be faster if they flew southeast, over the ocean, following Pollilo Strait and soon, Lamon Bay. However, flying straight towards the direction of Catanduanes would lead them to a hundred-kilometer flight over the ocean waters. That was even farther than flying from New Infanta Settlement to Bay City, which only had a seventy-five-kilometer distance.

There was no way that Chaflar would be able to fly that far in one go. Going through a few islands was also an option. However, it did not remove the fact that it was far more dangerous to travel above the ocean than on land.

Well, it might be safer in other kinds of a zombie apocalypse, but not in this one.

On land, one could encounter infected flying animals, infected humans, feral evolved animals, and humans. In most circumstances, these things were threatening enough to drive people to travel on water. The humans that one could meet might also be hostile. In Mark's group, however, that was not the case. Flying on a dragon's back, they would only encounter infected and feral birds. As for humans, only idiots would try to go and approach a gigantic flying lizard that was passing by. And since Mark was here, there was no way that humans would be able to sneak at them without knowing at all.

On the ocean, however, although the main threat would be infected and feral birds, under the waters, however, everything was unknown. Infected fish? Maybe. However, who knows what kinds of mutations they might have undergone. It would not be hard to imagine a school of mutated fish that could snipe birds from the sky.

And thus, Mark played it safe. On their left was the ocean, while on their right were the mountains. He went between the two, making it easier to change direction whenever needed.

The flight was peaceful... Well... Not exactly. They got attacked by flying insects several times coming from the mountains. As there was just one or two at a time, Mei shot them down without getting close.

Along the way, Mark kept on reading the papers he was handed. The information he asked about. Although most of it was the list of survivors they currently had, some of it contained some crucial information.

One paper, in particular, made him frown a bit.

”Gege, what's wrong?”

Mei asked as she noticed this.

”Look.”

Mark handed Mei the paper he was currently reading.

”The New People's Army?”

Mei asked, reading just the first paragraph written on the paper.

”Yep. It looks like some of their people found the outbreak an opportunity to rise into power.”

Mark sighed. It was not really unexpected.

They had been peace talks in the past, though it had reached an impasse with the current Philippine Government shutting it down.

Presently, the Philippine Government and other foreign agencies designated it as a terrorist group, along with the CPP.

There had been quite a few known encounters between the Government and the NPA, with most of it resulting in blood being shed by either party.

Now, however, it looked like some of them decided that it was their time to take over the country. At least the Catanduanes, where one of their bases lay, for now.

Well, not everyone as it seemed. It looked like among NPA, factions were also present. For now, there were three that were known. One aimed for peace talks, the second planned to drive the Government out of the island, and lastly, the third was focusing on their own preservation.

So far, the peace talks faction was not succeeding, with the second faction creating conflict every time. Unfortunately, the second faction seemed to have the most members, rendering the first helpless. As for the third, they did not care what will be the outcome of the two other factions as long as they could stay alive.

In the past months, it seemed that the second faction was rolling, creating conflict with the Military at any possible time they could. Contesting for supply locations, ambushing Military Transport Convoys, and even soldiers and kidnapping refugees for ransom. Because of this, the Military Stationed there could not have even just a day of peace without worrying when those bastards would attack again.

Unfortunately, the Military there could not just go and wipe them out. Not only that it would risk the soldiers being on the enemy's home ground, but the soldiers were undermanned. If that really happened, it would end up with armed refugees having to fight combat-trained enemies.

A direct confrontation was not viable to the Military's current situation. All they could do was apply countermeasures and minimize the damage.

”It looks like the paper is missing some details.”

Mei said, reading the paper halfway.

”General Faustino said that the communication there is quite rough. They're not able to build communication relay antennas over such a long distance. Every time they managed to establish connections, it's fuzzy and short.” Mark then showed the other paper in his hand. ”Look, the last transmission is more than a week ago.”

It was one of the most unfortunate things. Sattelite communication was down, and the Philippine Military had to rely on their third world equipment to transmit information and communicate with other Military Settlements. There was no way that they would be able to establish clear communication.

Even so, the information that General Faustino gave was more than enough for Mark to have a proper insight into the current state of the Military Settlement in Catanduanes.

At this moment, Emika suddenly yelled out.

”Uncle! Look!”

Not only Emika was but Abbygale, Iola, and Miracle were looking in the same direction. The girls were bored and decided to sightsee while flying. Of course, they were the first to spot that thing in the distance.

What thing? Nothing, just a four-meter tall blob of humanoid walking meat. Yes, that was the exact description. Looking at it, it seemed to be a skinless humanoid filled with disgusting toad-like boils all over its fat body.

”Ugh.”

Emika groaned as she took a closer look at the creature. It was far more than just disgusting.

”That came out of nowhere.”

Mark said, looking down at the creature.

”Smelly Uncle, is that a joke?”

It looked like Emika got what Mark did.

This creature was definitely out of nowhere. After all, they were currently flying in a place where there's only an uncemented road by the shoreline. Basically, nowhere.

”This is the first time we encountered a Failed Mutator after a while.”

Mark said, ignoring the noisy little girl.

That was right. It was not an infected by a Failed Mutator.

The last time that Mark encountered one when he turned Vem into one of them.

It seemed that inside heavily populated areas, seeing Failed Mutators was next to none. That circumstance was not surprising since both Failed Mutators and the infected attack each other on sight. Inside cities where the number of infected was overwhelming, there was no chance that an insanely behaving Failed Mutator would survive.

Here in the outskirts of the country, where the infected were lesser in number, the Failed Mutators could thrive and grow. And now, there was this disgusting looking thing roaming the barren outskirts of Real, Quezon.