Chapter 72: 72 The Situation Around the Country

Day 3 – 6:23 AM – Urdaneta City, Pangasinan, Philippines

Urdaneta City, about 200km North of Bay City Evacuation Zone. It was the third day of the outbreak and this city had not been fully affected. There would be some skirmishes as the infected arrived but was still minimal. With the remains of the military, local government and local police, they were managing to hold the infected back until now. They blocked the main highways and destroyed the bridges to at least hinder the infected as much as possible.

Still, they were just barely managing. Once the full brunt of the advance of the infected finally arrive this area, their defenses would surely crumble. Some mutated infected already reached their defenses. They managed to kill the mutants but their losses were also devastating.

On the first day of the outbreak, the local authorities were warned about the passenger flights that crashed and the closest one to this city was actually beyond the mountain regions several kilometers north of the city. Fortunately, due to the uneven mountain terrain and other factors, the infected from the crashed plane had not made it out of the forested mountains.

However, while the authorities were all bent on holding back the infected, the city they were protecting was in utter chaos. Most of the population in the city was in panic. They already lost media communication since yesterday. There were no television broadcasts and no internet connection available. The only thing they knew before the connections were cut off was that the whole world was being infested by zombie like creatures.

At first, many of them dispatched the thought as a hoax or gimmick by the government as excuse to deploy marshal law but before the announcement was made, they never heard much from the Malacañang Palace anymore.

By this time, violence, theft, looting, murder and **** was happening in the whole city and the remaining police could not do about it. The situation was horrible and their manpower was not enough for this. They also had no reinforcements to call. They were all left to fend for themselves.

Those who were smart enough went and left the city after collecting as much supplies as they could. They were betting on going to the north - The City of Pines, Baguio City. However, most of the populace remained on the city shelters or barricaded their homes betting on waiting out the outbreak. It was not that they did not want to leave but they had no capability of doing so.

Unknown to the city, by this moment, the final defense of the local government collapsed.

***

Day 3 – 6:23 AM – Baguio City, Benguet, Philippines

The City of Pines and was also called as the summer of the Philippines due to the high altitude of the area and its colder climate compared to other parts of the country all year long.

The city was surrounded by mountain ranges and could only be accessed by the long winding roads across the mountain sides and valleys. It was an ideal place to secure as the mountains could act as a natural barrier against the infected.

However…

Compared to the chaos that was happening in Urdaneta several kilometers south, the whole city was calm. It was calm but not in a good way. No people could be seen in the streets, no animals, and no military. Most people, be it be civilians or the military were holed up in shelters and the buildings around the city. No one dared to come out into the streets turning the whole city into a ghost city.

While the southern areas of Luzon, the largest archipelago, was being invaded by the infected due to the lack of geographical defenses, the natural defenses around Baguio City worked the opposite way they wanted it to be.

As the mountains were highly forested, it would be a good source of food and other construction materials still, no one thought that these forested mountains was the cause of their fear.

It was fine in the first two days of the outbreak and the government actually chose Baguio City as one of the potential settlement areas for survivors and refugees. The military was deployed around the city and was busy in building walls and other defenses. However, just last night, one of the military outposts was attacked. Not by the infected and not by humans either.

Coming out from the mountains, a pack of cloud rats attacked the soldiers. The pack consisted by about 50 cloud rats. It was not a problem for the soldiers to put down such rats if it was before the outbreak but the problem they faced was cloud rats that was way larger than normal. The sized varied with the smallest was the size of a dog while the bigger ones were the size of a cow. Furthermore, their bodies were highly impervious to bullets. A 9mm pistol bullet could only do a shallow wound on their skin.

Normally, these nocturnal rodents were slow and were hunted almost to extinction as food. Now however, these rodents were the ones doing the hunting and in a very feral manner. Due to the surprise attacks, the soldiers lost the outpost with a devastating amount of casualties. It would be good if that was the end of it but the pack of rodents came into the city wreaking havoc and killing the residents.

The pack was soon wiped out with great effort and casualties but then, a monkey-eating eagle about the size of a car flew down into the city to grab a body of a deceased cloud rat. The scene terrified the people. It would be just the body of the large cloud rat for nowbut what if it started grabbing people to feed on them.

***

Found on the other sides of the Cordillera Mountain Region that was surrounding Baguio City was several ethnic tribes were living in their ancestral land. However, each tribes were now gone. What was left on their abodes were bloody mess and dead bodies of their tribesmen.

It was because the tribe members failed to believe the lectures of their seer several days ago. The seer's family evacuated and left the mountain along the other older families under the mocking gazes of other the tribesmen. This was just how much their culture was affected by the modern era. Now however, they paid the price. Just this morning, their tribe was attack by an infected. Not just a normal infected but a mutated one which came from the crashed airplane just one mountain away from their tribe.

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As the whole tribe was killed, a loud excruciating scream was heard in the middle of the tribe settlement. It was the mutant spreading the vibrations of its voice across the surroundings searching for prey and would also disorient enemies nearby. It then looked towards the north and scurried off under the shades of the trees in the forest.

***

Day 3 – 6:57 AM – Mandaue City, Cebu, Philippines

The city was now a lost cause. It was one of the places where a plane crashed in the middle of the city in the country. The Mactan-Cebu International Airport was just on the other island south of the city and was surely the reason why a passenger plane would came crashing in this city.

The survivors of the city fled to the mountains just west of the city. Whether they would leave the mountains alive would be another thing though.

***

Day 3 – 6:59 AM – Zamboanga City, Zamboanga del Sur, Philippines

It was another city that was already a lost cause. However, compared to other cities, the amount of survivors that managed to flee from this city was higher compared to others. It was due to the existence of armed militant groups, also known as terrorists, in the area. The normally threat causing groups was now fighting the infected as much as they could while they secured the survivors from the surrounding areas.

A large settlement was built by these armed groups in the nearby island of Basilan, directly south of Zamboanga City. This island was said to be the main base of the terrorists in this area and was the island where most skirmishes between the military and these groups happened.

With the terrorists in the lead, they commanded over the survivors into creating their own region. A government where they were the voice and the populace could do nothing against them.

***

Day 3 – 7:05 AM – San Andres, Catanduanes, Philippines

It was one of the largest islands in Luzon and the largest one in the Bicol Region. As the island was detached from the mainland, it was one of the places where the government planned to build an Evacuation Zone. The town of San Andres as the port area became the central area of the Evacuation Zone.

Right now, the entrance and exit to the island was strictly monitored by the coast guard and the military patrolling the areas to the west of the island facing the mainland.

Here, as the area was safer, the survivors had more freedom compared to other Evacuation Zones. However, that changed last night as an armed group came out of the mountains and a small skirmish happened between the group and the military.

It was not a secret to the soldiers and the residents of the island that there were several armed groups that was based within the mountains of the island. Right now, it seemed that the armed group wanted to wrestle over the control of the residents of the island.

***

Day 3 – 7:16 AM – Bacoor City, Cavite, Philippines

The outbreak had already succumbed the whole city into a dead zone. Aside from several groups who managed to secure their places and those who successfully managed to hid themselves, everywhere else was danger.

The local armed forces secured schools as evacuation areas and were barely managing to defend the area of the infected. Attacks from mutated infected instilled fear to the survivors as breaches could not be helped. During these breach, it was up to every survivor to defend themselves and remain alive.

The rich had the advantage in securing places to live in. As they all lived in private subdivisions surrounded by tall concrete walls and sturdy metal gates, it was harder for most infected and even mutants to breach their defenses. The only downsides to these groups were that their manpower was too lacking. It was barely enough to keep the infected at bay outside the gates and walls.

***

On the other part of the country, of all the Evacuation Zones the government planned to build, less than half was cut off in the early stages.

By now, the current population of living people in the Philippines was reduced by seventy five percent.

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