"Take care of my grandpa."

"What?"

When Will lowered his weapon and John began walking back to his group, other than the leader who was talking, the rest of them also lowered their weapons. The men finally putting their guards down had been what Will was waiting for. They were still clinging to their former way of life and their survival instincts hadn't fully been honed by their new circumstances yet.

Will planned to take advantage of it.

Although he disliked giving them time to set up and threaten him, he wasn't quite sure how many bullets a riot shield could take but he knew the armored SUV could take much more of a beating, he had a jeep sitting in the garage to prove so. The man holding his grandpa "hostage" would be in for a surprise if he tried to fire his weapon.

Taking a step back, Will reached the cannister on the ground that was still expelling smoke and kicked it towards the men. Still making sure to keep John between himself and the only man with his gun aimed at Will, he moved forward and raised his gun. His first target was the man aiming at him with a handgun—who also happened to be their leader.

Bang!

He quickly aimed at the next man, the only other person with a pistol—a revolver wielder.

Bang!

Two bodies dropped before the other three men finally reacted and raised their hunting rifles. John dove to the ground and covered his head.

Will ran to the side, using the smoke as cover to get behind the front of the pickup truck for cover, dodging their shots while firing back his own shots.

"He's too fast!"

Will managed to hit one of the men in the chest while he felt a shot clip his shin guard.

"Watch where you're firing!" John shouted as he crawled out of the way of the firefight.

"That asshole got Mark too." One of the men called out from behind the pickup truck.

Will quickly cycled through the entire spectrum of his [Electromagnetic Vision] but couldn't see the final two men through the truck. Instead, what tipped him off to danger was when he felt one of them lower themselves to the ground and look in his direction from underneath the vehicle through his [Electric Sense].

As fast as he could, Will tossed his shield to the side which baited out a shot as he jumped onto the fender of the truck and fired back, downing his target before he could swing his lengthy weapon in Will's direction. Will then advanced overtop the hood of the truck and onto the roof, firing down at the final man as he scrambled to get to his feet.

"Stop right there." Will said and aimed his gun to the side when he felt John reaching his arm out for something on the ground.

"Don't shoot! I don't want any trouble." John stopped reaching for the pistol and raised his hands.

"How many more of you are here?" Will demanded as he descended from the roof and leveled the pistol to his face.

"Two! We had two outside keeping watch."

Bang! Bang! Bang!

BOOM!

Just as Will was about to ask another question, he heard multiple gunshots followed by a large explosion from outside the gates. He turned to see a giant mushroom of fire and black smoke bloom up above.

"I don't know what happened, I swear!" John pleaded when Will glanced in his direction.

"Move!" Will hoisted him up by the back of his jacket and forced him towards the gate.

The two jogged over and quickly arrived at the gate to see a pickup truck kicking up dirt, driving away into the distance. The fuel tanker was on fire and Donny was on the ground nearby, reeling and slowly getting back onto his feet. The problem, though, was that Will had parked the SUV near the trees for cover and the fire was spreading close to it.

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Seeing that the situation was urgent and John was constantly receiving bursts of transmissions from his accomplices and Will no longer needed a hostage anymore, he gave John a bullet to the head before he could even react before rushing over to the SUV.

He could see his grandpa inside, trying to open the door. There were multiple bullet marks on the passenger window and door lock, the latter of which seemed to have caused the lock to deform.

"Other door!" Will pointed at the driver side. He coughed from inhaling the smoke, and he could see it was starting to get to his grandpa as well.

He waited anxiously for what felt like an eternity as his grandpa struggled to maneuver his legs over to the driver side. The heat from the spreading fire was already starting to beat against his back and his eyes were filled with tears from all the smoke. His grandpa looked like he was suffering much the same when he finally reached the door and unlocked it.

Without delay, Will opened the door and Donny appeared at the same time, the two worked together and pulled his wheezing grandpa from away from the fire. By the time they were clear of all the fire and smoke, his grandpa was barely breathing.

"Get the ventilator from the clinic!" Will told Donny while he began giving his grandpa chest compressions. Will knew that normally for smoke inhalation, he should give mouth-to-mouth but it was impossible for him or Donny to do so since his grandpa was still unevolved.

He had wanted to evolve his grandpa as soon as possible to avoid a situation like this but who would have guessed they would be targeted on the same day.

Donny soon returned with the portable ventilator, and he placed the mask on Grandpa while Will activated the machine. He then took off his body armor and placed it underneath his grandpa's head to make it easier for him to breathe.

Will let out a sigh of relief once the breathing stabilized.

"We need to move him, get the stretcher. And pack the blood bags from the basement into another cooler for me."

Donny ran off again, and now that things were not as urgent, he spotted John's corpse. Donny doubled over and vomited but he recovered quickly and continued moving. Will heard a high-pitched whine from beside him. Broski had appeared at some point and began licking Grandpa's hand.

"Broski, blanket. Get the blanket."

Broski tilted his head.

"Blanky, get the blanky."

Broski finally dashed off back to the house while Will watched over his grandpa. Now that things had settled down a little, Will felt a bruise on his shin.

The two returned shortly after, Broski sprinting ahead, dragging the blanket along with him. Will took it from Broski and wrapped his grandpa up in the blanket before they transferred him onto the stretcher. Will led the way, they carried him around the house to the back. The bruise on his shin caused some discomfort when moving but he ignored the pain. They placed the stretcher down gently and Will moved to pull the tarp off of the helicopter.

"What are you doing?" Donny asked.

"His condition has stabilized for now but I'm taking him to evolve ASAP in case any complications arise." Will said. "Stay here and watch over the house."

They transferred Grandpa onto the back of the helicopter. When Will was making sure he was secured, Broski hopped into the cabin and sat next to Grandpa.

"Broski, get down." Will said.

The dog only howled in response, refusing to leave.

Deciding he didn't want to waste any time, Will shut the door and climbed into the cockpit. "Fine, just sit still and don't bother him."

"Woof."

"And don't blame me when the ride is too rough for you."

"Woof, woof."

The helicopter was quickly fired up and was up in the air a minute later, flying off at high speeds. Broski's legs were constantly pawing against the floor, trying to keep his balance. Will soon reached his destination and touched down.

"I'll be back in a moment." He said to Broski and exited the helicopter. Will ran over to a patch of dirt and picked up a shovel that was on the ground nearby. Using all the strength he could muster, Will rapidly dug into the ground, and before long, cloth was revealed.

Once he found it, Will reached down and pulled out a giant bundle wrapped in cloth, that was larger than himself, out of the dirt.

Because they were taking the helicopter, Will couldn't transfer the rest of the corpses to the Metamorphosis Pod. Even if he could, the cargo trailer was most likely caught up in the fire by now. But if he used Matthew—who had fused with a symbiote and almost had the power of a Category 1, it should be more than enough for his grandpa to evolve.

Will tied up Matthew, hooked him up to the loading skids, and they were soon on their way towards the park. Once they arrived and Will landed close to the Metamorphosis Pod, he began to unhook his Grandpa and bring him down from the helicopter.

Will carried him over to the Metamorphosis Pod and prepared a quick blood transfusion as Broski paced around uneasily.

"Don't touch anything, Broski." He warned the dog.

After that was done, he removed his clothes and Will gently slid his grandpa into the pod. He then removed the tarp from the nearby pit and began feeding bodies to the alien tree. After emptying the pit, he made his way to the helicopter and untied Matthew, dragging the giant over to the pit.

Broski began to bark at the moment, and Will turned to see a young woman appear from around the bend of the jogging trail. She had dirty blonde hair tied up in a ponytail, wore protective padding, a hard hat, and was armed with a hatchet on her waist and a long metal pipe that had been sharpened into a long spear.

Will immediately recognized her. This was the young woman who had chased him the other day.

She had her spear up and gazed at the scene before her warily.

"What are you doing?"