Chapter 74 - Woods (II)

David naturally noticed how serious Mark was and nodded. Even if he was concerned for him, he knew there was nothing that could change Mark's mind once he decided. Mark looked at Suzie one last time before he got down. Closing the door, he held the katana and crossed the street. 

He went into the woods, disappearing from David's eyesight. Mark looked around as he slowly walked. He went forward step by step, cautious. He didn't want a sudden attack on him. He noticed a few of the leaves and the trunk of some trees had purple dots on them. 

He went near the nearest tree and slowly observed it. He didn't want to risk anything by touching it. Observing it, he slowly murmured, "These are normal pine trees. But why does this trunk have purple dots like this? Is this perhaps a mutation? The trees are finally mutating and adapting to the virus." 

After observing the surrounding trees, he noticed all of them had these dots. Some had more while others had less, but most of them had them on their trunk and leaves. He left the trees and continued deeper into the woods as he couldn't find anything else important about them. 

As he continued to go further deep inside the woods, he suddenly found something strange. It was a footprint. Easily 5 times his. He immediately knew what it was based on how it was shaped. This was a bloater zombie's footprint. He looked around it and found smaller footprints. 

"There were zombies here recently. Based on the texture, it looks more recent. But how are there so many zombies moving towards the inside of these woods? It looks like they left too." as he noticed the reverse footprints indicating the person walked back. 

Mark was now in a dilemma. He didn't know what to do. Based on the footprints, it looked like a huge number of zombies went into the woods. Even if there were footprints indicating they went back, he couldn't help but be careful.

He can't face those many zombies in battle. Taking a deep breath, he went deeper. This unease he felt as he went inside was a major point for him. He wanted to clarify what was causing this unease in him and based on how he felt so far; the answer wasn't far away. 

He felt pressured, and it increased as he went deeper. This made him sure there was something here that caused all of this. He suddenly saw a patch of grass not far from him, showing he reached the innermost part of the woods. He quickened his stats and got out of the woods. 

But what he saw made his eyes shoot open. He looked at the huge crater in the middle of the grass. There were a few cracks in the ground surrounding the crater. He looked around and found there were no zombies. Clutching the hilt of the Katana, he went forward towards the crate. 

As he reached the edge of the crate, he looked inside and saw a small blue cube only at the size of his hand lying in the middle. He felt confused and looked around to see if this was a scene of sorts and someone came before he did. 

But when he noticed there was no trace of human interference, he looked back at the small cube. The pressure he was feeling was the highest till now. He took a deep breath and jumped inside the crater. As his feet landed on the crater, the pressure he felt vanished like it was never there.

He slowly walked towards the cube and once he was in front of it, he was contemplating if he could take the cube. It looked completely harmless. He then ripped some part of his shirt off and covered his right hand. He slowly bent and took the cube into his hand. 

But as he took it, sudden heat came off the cube which burned through the cloth and into his hand. He dropped the cube, feeling the skin of his palm burning. He looked at it and found his palm had strange markings burned into it. He tried to rub it off, but it burned the markings into his skin and was in red color. 

He blew some air onto his palm, trying to ease the pain off it. After a few more minutes, the pain was now more bearable. He looked at the cube and cursed. He was now more vigilant to take the cube. He crouched and looked at it. He slowly took it into his left hand once again, and this time there was no heat off the cube. It was now rather cold. 

He exhaled and held the cube in his right hand. There was a bit of ease when he did. The cold cube was cooling the pain of the hand and was comfortable. He walked out of the carter and made his way back to the jeep. He looked at the cube, which didn't give off any pressure. He guessed the eerie feeling he had was also from the cube. 

His right palm now had red markings on it, which looked strange. Mark didn't see these anywhere. He got out of the woods and saw David looking towards him and exhaling in relief. He crossed the road and got into the jeep. 

David looked at him as he got on and asked, "So did you find out anything?"

Mark didn't reply and handed over the cube but as David touched the cube, he shouted, "Damn what is this. It almost burned my skin." Dropping it. Mark forgot about this. He bent and took the cube. He looked at David, who was clutching his hand with a red face. 

He then doubted something and immediately caught David's hand and opened it. There was no marking. It looked like it got burned, but there were no markings like how Mark had them. He felt nothing from the cube at his hands. 

"What is that?"

Mark shrugged as he started the jeep and said, "I don't know. I found it inside those woods."

As Mark drove off, in another place in the city, an angry man slammed the table in front of him and shouted at the people before him, "Why were you not able to find the bastard who killed my brother."