304 Hunt is On

The street was once again tranquil filled with certain dangers in every corner.

Random encounters that can happen for any reason at all as if the universe was against you.

Small critters hid in the darkness waiting for good things to befall them.

Some smaller insects move in groups like evolved cockroaches who had stronger exoskeleton after shedding. For smaller beings, evolution was far easier since they have small bodies that need to circulate energy.

Also, reaching the maximum amount of needed excess energy can easily be acquired in the surrounding.

A few more examples of small insects that slightly grew in size were lizards and ants.

Lizards have faster regeneration ability while ants become much stronger. There is no telling as to how strong these neglected creatures would be in the future.

"Bang! Graurw!"

A male regular carrier continued pounding the door of a coin-operated laundry shop.

Its clothes were ripped and bloodied everywhere showing the various bite and tore marks all over its body. Miraculously, there were no wounds to be seen as if the carrier has already eaten something else. or regenerated on its own. 

Inside the room, eight people were eating MRE in the middle of the room while trying their best to remain silent, It was the president's group that got separated from the main extraction group.

Rodriguez Duforte stared at the door.

"The noise will attract more. Jerry, can you please deal with it."

Before Jerry could answer, someone else answered. 

"It's fine. Let me take care of it."

Everyone just got seated after clearing most of the rooms. When they met up at the lobby, their flashlights happened to attract the attention of the carriers outside. 

Fortunately, only a small number of them was interested while most reserved their energy.

For regular carriers, every bit of energy needs to be saved when night time since they can't receive constant energy from the sun. Although the moonlight gives a small amount of energy, which isn't enough to preserve until morning, it is still mostly used as a catalyst for evolving.

Unless the carrier was on the brink of running out of energy, they would never be so desperate on moving around. But once they achieved their first evolution, they would be free to go wherever they wanted.

Paul stood up and walked towards the door.

With his keen senses, he knew that there was only one carrier pounding the door.

He breathed in and waited for the right timing.

Thud!

Breathe.

Thud!

Breathe.

After learning of the attack speed of the carrier, he suddenly pulled the door open for retaliation.

The supposed scenario was like this;

Weirdly enough, the pounding sound didn't come even after he opened the door. The carrier that was supposedly pounding it was nowhere to be found.

It was as if the event was just a figment of everyone's imaginations.

Instead of carrier lunging at him, he could only hear a quick gust of wind that passed by followed by an eerie silence.

Feeling perturbed, Paul squinted his eyes and surveyed the area.

The streets were filled with darkness. 

The solar-powered street lights were dimly lit and could only illuminate the area near them.

Paul felt that something was odd. Even though they have cleared the road where they came from, there were no carriers to be found in the area.

With the situation unclear, Paul was forced to return to the group.

"Let's eat and rest for a few minutes then continue heading east. We need to get out of here by tonight."

Jerry felt that something was wrong so he asked for more information.

"What happened? Is there a horde nearby?"

"Nothing like that. It's even the opposite. There's nothing outside. Even inside the Palace's walls, we could hear wandering zombies at night. I have no proof but something just doesn't feel right."

Rodriguez Duforte having finished heating his MRE, suddenly commented by the side.

"Then start eating. As soldiers, you should believe your instincts. It's one of your best allies on the battlefield."

He opened the pack and started eating with a spoon that came out from a blackhole.

It took less than half an hour to get everything sorted out and be back on the road.

The group mostly used alleyways to avoid large hordes on National Highways. Even then, they were in a constant battle with the weakened carriers.

"Wow! This is tiring. Even if they don't come in droves, killing small groups after another is getting pretty taxing." Jerry commented while wiping his sweat. 

Normally, he would just be guarding for unseen threats, looking threatening, but this time, they can't use guns and resorted to melee combat.

Although trained in hand-to-hand combat, he wasn't the best on it.

The group encountered at least seventy carriers while traversing the alleyways. It was a small number but big enough when you only use poles and knives.

Most of the time, they could get easy kills since there were few stragglers. But when they don't kill them fast enough, more carriers always come on their way. 

Every battle was a time attack and you need to be swift for it to end. Unless you could do that, every carrier in the area would swarm towards the location and things will only end when no carriers remained in the surrounding area.

"Hahaha. You should exercise more, Jerry. How come your already exhausted when I'm not."

Hearing the president tease him, Jerry scratched the back of his head. In his mind, the answer was obvious.

'I am exhausted because I'm protecting you!'

They continued their journey to the east with their minds at ease. The relaxed atmosphere helped everyone in the group to remain level-headed and observant of the surrounding.

Paul remained extra cautious since he still feels that something feels wrong. 

It was like everything was finally going their way until a Rank 1 Destroyer chanced upon them.

Before they could even enter another alleyway, a Destroyer happened to pass by on the road ahead of them.

"ROAR!!!"

The Destroyer bellowed upon seeing them.