Will returned upstairs to find his Grandpa combing Broski's fur.
"I forgot to mention, there were people snooping around two days ago." His grandpa mentioned casually.
"People were here? How many of them? Did they say anything?" Will asked.
"A man and a woman. They didn't say anything, they were walking around outside the walls, trying to peek over and take pictures."
"I'll teach you how to turn on and record on the cameras later."
Will usually kept the cameras off to save energy but now that people had found out about the compound, he'd have to take some precautions.
"Troublesome." Grandpa muttered.
Will turned and headed outside.
"Don't you need to cover up?" His Grandpa asked when he saw Will opening the door in a t-shirt and track pants, armed with only his flashlight and pistol.
"Not anymore."
"Troublesome."
"I'll help you evolve very soon." Will promised. He needed to scout out the second location they had found first.
"Woof."
"Yes, you too, Broski."
Will walked out the compound gates and scanned the area with his new vision. He could see lights in the trees around the compound from the sensors he had hidden. He also found some fingerprints on the walls but he couldn't tell if they were from the snoopers or the contractors. Other than that, there were only animal droppings here and there.
Will then went over to check on the various organisms living on the compound. The Parasite farm and the regular farm showed no changes but when he was checking on his chickens, he found that one of them was showing signs of an early evolution. The chicken had grown a few centimeters, and he found that scales were beginning to form underneath its feathers.
Although he had an idea what was happening to it, Will decided to bring the chicken into the house to keep an eye on it.
----------------------------------------
After tai chi and breakfast, Will covered himself up in armor to prepare for his trip outside.
"You going somewhere?" Donny yawned as he came downstairs.
"I'm scouting the second pod location. I won't be too long. You can sleep in, but keep an eye out. My grandpa says people were snooping around a few days ago."
"Alright." Donny yawned again and turned to go back upstairs before doing a double take. "What's with the chicken?"
"It's evolving."
"Hey there, little buddy."
Donny began playing around with the chicken inside the cage in the corner as Broski watched the scene curiously from across the room.
"Hey, Grandpa Wong. Can we teach it any tricks?" Donny asked as Will was walking out the door.
After detaching the cargo trailer and refueling the SUV, Will drove in the opposite direction of the other Metamorphosis Pod. Although this second one was closer to the compound, it was located inside a public park. There was a good chance he would run into other people.
This proved true when he neared the location and drove through a suburban area. The streets were oddly clean of any clutter. They had been cleared of cars and bodies, and he only found spots of blood occasionally. The homes had either been boarded up or fenced up using sandbags, cars, furniture, or just regular old fences. Although it seemed like a community lived here, and they had a certain unity in the way they did things, it was basically every home for themselves.
As he drove through, Will noticed people peeking at him from behind their windows or doors. Some came running out of their homes, attempting to wave him down.
One young woman, in particular, sprinted after him while calling out, "Hey! Help us! Hey! Stop!"
This forced him into changing directions, so that they wouldn't guess his destination. He eventually lost the young woman in a nearby construction area and looped around to the park.
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
This was a rather large park with a pond at its center and a jogging trail. Will drove down the jogging trail and found the Metamorphosis Pod. This one had already completed its mutation.
It was a good thing for him that the Metamorphosis Pod was out of sight for the most part but if anyone took the jogging trail, they would easily spot the alien looking tree. He would only need to collect some corpses, and then he could bring his grandpa over for his evolution.
There was suddenly a squelching noise and Will took a step back. The Metamorphosis Pod opened up and a squirrel squeezed its way out of it. The squirrel spotted Will and immediately bolted with away in fright. Its speed was abnormally fast, and it climbed up a tree in the distance, turning around to look at Will once more before moving out of sight.
Will couldn't help but shake his head as he walked back to his car. This neighborhood was going to have a menace terrorizing them in the future.
On the way back home, Will stopped by the area around the mall. He pulled out the drone, using it to scout the area for the dog he heard about last time.
The people inside the mall appeared to have holed up because they were still being harassed by zeroes all over the place. It seemed that they had been feeding off of the ones that had fallen among them. Will spotted a few people working away and keeping watch on the rooftops. They had turned the rooftop into a farm and there were a number of people tending to the project.
Twenty minutes later, when the drone ran out of power and with no signs of the dog, Will approached the emergency exit at the cinema from last time. Will had to clear out a few zeroes on his own but with the use of narrow spaces and his newly increased stats, taking care of them was a simple job.
Will knocked on the door, and it was answered after a couple seconds.
"Who is it?" A man called out after opening a small crack in the door.
"I'm looking for Jason." Will said.
"Jason? He's out on a run right now, he should be back before it gets dark."
"Jason mentioned a dog last time, do you know if it's still around?"
"That monster is still around, alright." The man spat. "It appears every couple of days but its presence makes it impossible for us to get any work done outside. And it might sound crazy but I think that thing is growing stronger too. You should be careful out there."
If it's growing stronger, it might be hard to shoot it down, especially with how fast it might be now.
"Alright, thanks for the info." Will turned to leave.
"Wait a moment. Are you with a community? Do you have any water? We can trade you." The man called out.
"We can talk about it next time. I need to go now."
Will left the area and drove over to the police station next in order to check out the situation.
This time, he couldn't even return to the same spot he had used the last time because the whole block had been fenced off. There were armed men patrolling behind the metal fencing. Will had to drive away when they spotted him and began pointing in his direction.
----------------------------------------
"So the high-level area turned into a settlement." Donny surmised. "What do we do now?"
Will finished his set of pull-ups, took off the weights before he turned to Donny. "There's nothing we can do. The worst case scenario is the government reclaims the area and we spend some jail time for illegal betting, but I doubt they would have time to pursue any of that in the foreseeable future. They will be extremely busy trying to reclaim land and protecting the land they already have."
"I just don't like the idea that they could send us to jail anytime they want." Donny said, tossing Will his bottle of water.
"There's a way you could possibility avoid it." Will scratched his chin.
"How?"
"Canada has a LOT of land compared to our population. The government will be severely undermanned dealing with all the zeroes and evolved wildlife in the future. They will offer benefits to people who help out with dealing with all of that—benefits like income, food, utilities, tax breaks, insurance and health plans, and leniency on non-violent crimes." Will listed out with his fingers. "And once they figure out the Metamorphosis Pod, priority use. This is basically the precursor to the Hunters."
"That sounds awesome. It's like questing, we should do that." Donny said, adding more weights to the waist belt and tying it to his waist. "But I ain't fighting no crows."
"It would be helpful, at least for the tax breaks and the pod—in case something happens to the second one."
"About the first pod we lost. You mentioned selling it when you were talking to that David guy, could we have done that?"
"Of course, each of those things could go for about 30 million dollars a pop before they develop the lab versions."
"Then we lost out big time..."
"Nothing we can do if the military already set their eyes on it. We'll just have to make sure we secure the other one."
"Will they find us? They know my name, and since I had my helmet on, some of my face. But that dude saw all of you, and I mean all of you." Donny said, glancing down.
"If they do find our identities, they won't be able to find us until everything is up and running anyway. And it's not like we did anything illegal, we were running for our lives. I think we'll be fine as long as they don't find out we actually knew the purpose of the pod, or they might want answers."
"Let's hope he bought that stupid story we gave him." He grabbed the bar and pulled himself up.
----------------------------------------
"So this is our so called 'alien pod'." The colonel said, watching the monitor as the person operating the camera arrived at the scene.
The area around the pod had been quarantined off, and they had soldiers patrolling the perimeter for any hostiles. Everyone on the scene was wearing hazmat suit. Private Nielsen had been placed into quarantine as soon as he returned and was being monitored for any changes.
"Private Nielsen's report mentioned two civilians coming in contact with it?" The colonel asked one of the men operating the station.
"Yes, sir."
"Do we have an ID on them?"
"Not as of yet."
"And he stated that the reason for climbing inside the specimen is that they were filming a YouHub video?"
"Yes, sir."
"What do you think of it?"
"I've seen kids do even dumber things on YouHub for views."
"You're not wrong..." The colonel rubbed his chin as he watched them take samples from the unknown specimen. "Let's just hope they aren't carrying a new type of virus or something like that with them."