A normal earthling of the past would define such situation the end of the world. In fact, it reminded Jake exactly of those TV series that were going viral centuries ago, narrating about devastation, zombies and the Apocalypse.

Yet it was all real now, in front of the panicked customers of the McDonald Jake and the rest of the staff remained frozen stiff, looking at the situation unfold itself.

A few minutes ago, approximately at 10:02, the noisy chatter of the restaurant had been interrupted by the shattering of both windows near the frontal door. It all happened so suddenly, ‘dead’ bodies were thrown inside of the saloon, high pitched, horrendous screams could be heard all around.

These corpses indeed resembled that of humans, yet just a glance to their now full standing figures could deny such association.

Their sickly white skin and general thin physique alone instilled disgust into all the present. They had various cuts all over, from which was continuously gushing out a mix of blood and pus. Now they even had various glass pieces skewering their flesh. Their expression was strangely that of joy, their blurred eyes were excitedly observing all the humans as a wolf would do before a flock of sheep. Yet their more distinct feature was their bloated round belly, which did put a lot of contrast with their bony physique.

“FLE..SH IS THA..T WE DE..SIRE!!”

The wicked and loud growl of the foul creatures inspired fear into the weak and unprepared that had come here just for a meal. Chaos suddenly dominated the restaurant.

“Quick Brian come with me! I need your strength! Cloe, Jhin you guys run to the storage room and pick up a few wood planks.”

Woken up by Jake’s sudden orders, his three friends quickly nodded and went their ways. They understood from his decisive and serious tone that this was no joke, neither the zombie-like creatures nor the terrorized screams that were now echoing through the entirety of Nova York.

“Brian take this handgun, we have secure the place until our reinforcements arrive.”

Saying so, he quickly took the said gun out of the belt and handed it out to Brian.

“We don’t really need to kill them, just don’t let them break the door. If you can try to aim for their belly, with luck you may be able to destroy the parasite inhabiting the host.”

Without further ado, Jake jumped over the cashier desk and ran toward the four hideous figures that were making a quick snack of a few unfortunate customers.

The tall, fit black guy behind him emulated the feat and quickly followed after Jake, still doubting the reason behind such confidence.

In the first what kind of help was Jake waiting first? Furthermore how could he know so much about the ugly humanoids?

Brian had a lot of unanswered questions, yet he knew that now he had to act and have faith in his friend.

Without hesitation, with the gun on his right hand and the shovel on his left one, Jake was now ready to fight, just a few meters from his targets. The stench of blood, guts and vomit was now permeating the sense of smell of the young man, yet he was prepared for it. Jake rapidly took aim to the nearest infected to his position, the vile creature was still crouched, munching on the viscera of a corpse.

Jake paused himself for a split second, as he could see the poor Brian that on the contrary wasn’t prepared for all this.

The big guy was heavily coughing, probably on the point of throwing up his entire breakfast too. For a normal person this resembled more a nightmare than reality, only Jake had been trained beforehand.

Meanwhile the parasite had already noticed the potential danger that the human a few meters from him could represent. However ‘mother’ clearly stated not to fear the barbaric natives of this planet, as they did not possess nano-based weapons. Thus they could not really damage their true bodies, at most the body of their hosts.

He and his brother needed to prioritize their growth, as such he must eat, to become stronger, for his mother.

Nonetheless the unexpected happened, as Jake pulled the trigger a quick blue line of energy penetrated the abdomen of the shocked parasite.

The Infested halted in a moment of surprise, was now laying dead on the floor, leaking a strange green liquid mixed to the thick red blood of the already dead host.

‘Yes! I got the parasite, judging from its expression he must not have expected this to be a nano-energy based weapon.’

Silence had slowly descended into the restaurant. The humans were both shocked and happy, while the parasites were still incredulous of their now fallen brother.

“To the door, NOW!”

Jake suddenly interrupted such moment, as he shouted a new order into Brian’s ears.

‘Now that they know of our threat they are going to call for assistance. In truth if not for my presence, these four would have sufficed to kill all the ones present in the restaurant. Escaping would be a useless action too, as it would be equal to committing suicide.’

To confirm Jake’s assumption, the remaining three infected did not blindly rush against their enemy. On the contrary, with unjustified dexterity which should be possible with their physique, they charged toward the main door of the McDonald.

Now in front of him was being reflected the image of a young man in his mid twenties, a bit taller of the average men. His face wasn’t particularly handsome, with a hardened and serious expression not typical of his age. He had short black hair, brown eyes and a well kept beard.

Jake was not really observing himself, but rather the conditions of the now madly shaking door in front of him. It was made of reinforced glass, yet an opaque one colored with a shade of dark green and with a big yellow ‘m’ painted over.

At about 9:55 he had came here to lock it tightly with a huge iron padlock, uncaring neither for the weird looks he received nor for the insults and threats.

By every means he had a mission to accomplish, the training he had been obliged to by the association in the past months wasn’t for nothing.

‘Dad, mum wait for me’.

[Meanwhile a few kilometers away, in an old building of the Yonkers]

“Daddy! I’m scared!”

The usually radiant, small chubby face of Alice, was now making a terrorized expression which Joel had never seen on his daughter before.

The cause of such a thing is none other than the death of the first parasite that tried to hunt them down. It reached all the way to the upper floors of the building and sensed both father and daughter as a good meal.

The parasite wasn’t afraid at all, it even thought of the possibility that these primitives may have placed some traps and obstacles on its ways. But it wasn’t a problem, as it had the ability to share some of its nano-energy with the body he was inside of, greatly enhancing its physique. At worst they could immobilize him for a few seconds.

Yet, ironically so, this was enough for Joel. He purposely didn’t lock the door and just as the creature entered the apartment, a few traps had already been activated. They were mostly composed of steel wires, both with spikes and not.

Joel had quickly rushed towards the twisting and screaming deformity, while holding tightly on his right hand a blue glowing knife.

Step by step, he quickly ran across the only safe path he deliberately created through the apartment.

Then Joel furiously stabbed the abdomen of the foul creature, he repeatedly skewered its belly until its agonizing screech stopped and a purple liquid flowed from its belly.

“I know you are afraid my love, yet you must witness all of this and become stronger. The world is getting dangerous, we need to defend ourselves.”

[Back to Manhattan Island, Xeno’s POV]

A small group of primitive humans presented itself out in the street. I shouldn’t be surprised at all, as they weren’t the only one my senses perceived. Yet they were a lot more composed and calm in comparison with most of the other ones, panicked and terrorized.

How could they walk so freely, they are too much of a free target for the parasites, these frail creature will be nothing but prey soon enough.

In fact I have observed enough of the behavior of the parasites. Unexpectedly to what one could understand from the information of the chip, they do prefer to feast on the victim and consume their body rather than using it to reproduce themselves.

There may be two more evident reasons behind it, one is that they need to eat either to maintain themselves or their host’s body. The other one is that they are obeying some kind of scheme implemented from the System.

Yet there is another reason, less evident, which I think is more plausible. They need this nourishment as a mean to grow or upgrade themselves somehow. This would explain while they hunt in small groups at most and not in hordes. Their desire of individuality is making them search for power…

Interesting, I will take on a few of them to study and experiment later on.

As I thought, these humans are going to die, they must be either confident in their skills or in the ones of an external helper.

Thinking so I rapidly expanded my senses, focusing my research on a strong human signature. Enhanced humans, if they have some support it must be them, as No.2345 told me.

I indeed identified a rapidly moving human about a hundred meters away from the group. That must be it.