Mutagen

Dawn had come as the sun rose from the east. It marked the start of a new day. But of course, a new day cowering in fear inside the walls of the settlement of the infected outside was not that well appreciated. In the least everyone was glad that they survived the past day and night without being food for the infected.

It had been three days since the disaster where mission the military led to clear the Infected Nest in NAIA failed miserably. The number of casualties they suffered amounted more than the deaths they had for two whole weeks by two times and it even included the number of deaths incurred during the mission in Philippine General Hospital. That was how serious the situation was back then.

However, no matter what the reason was for the failure, the people with ill intent took advantage of the matter to saw the power and the support the military had. In this past day, rumors after rumors that denounced the military spread like wildfire. Despite the fact that none of the common people knew about who started to spread the rumors, their trust towards the military started to falter.

It was the worst thing to happen since the military heavily relied on the manpower from the common people to maintain the most important things in the settlement like man power for construction. Not to mention that while the numbers of soldiers were being reduced after almost every mission, the number of combatants from the common populace was increasing. Every day, there would be people that would awaken their abilities as and Evolver after falling ill with a high temperature fever.

Right now, if not for the firearms and equipment in the military"s a.r.s.enal, the common populace could overwhelm the soldiers and take over the settlement just by the number of Evolvers and Mutators among them.

Fortunately, that was yet to happen. Wishfully, it would never do.

Now, the current power in Bay City started to tilt towards the factions of the politicians, especially the faction led by Senator Estrada.

Fortunately, it was not all bad news that the military received in these past days. The next day the partic.i.p.ants of the mission returned tired and dejected, they received good news trice until yesterday.

***

Day 51 – 8:15 AM – Recovery Ward, Military Laboratories, Bay City, Pasay City, Metro Manila

General Miguel Perez walked along the white halls of the laboratory towards the recovery ward despite his heavy schedule. He totally freed his morning and late afternoon schedules to visit the recovery ward these past two days. It was because of the first good news that they received.

The Bay City"s Military Princess, Angeline Perez, finally woke up from her coma.

When she suddenly had a high fever after a month of being stable, the military entered a panicked state after learning about what was happening. It would not be a good thing to make the general experience more stress from what he was already having after the failure of the mission and the slander that started to spread around the settlement.

Fortunately, her fever only lasted until midnight and few hours after her fever receded, Angeline finally woke up. The General and his sons were overjoyed at the sudden good news. Unfortunately, there was no way for them to conduct a celebratory party for this event.

"Dad!"

Angeline immediately called out when General Perez entered the room. She was currently walking around the room with the help of a walker and was being supervised by her elder brother"s fiancé and her best friend. After more than a month of lying down on the bed, she needed to recuperate and practice her body to move around. Fortunately, her body was recovering strangely fast that she was already able to walk around even if it was a.s.sisted with some tools just the next day after she woke up.

"It"s early in the morning and you"re training your body already. You should sleep more."

The General reprimanded his daughter.

"Dad, I"m already fine. I already slept a lot so I don"t feel like sleeping too much now."

Angeline joked which made her father turn the two other women in the room who only shook their heads in exasperation. It seemed that Angeline was being hardheaded and was doing things as she liked.

"Dad, is there news about Mei?"

Angeline asked as she already heard about what happened in the failed mission in NAIA. It was one of the reasons why she was too hasty in recovering herself.

Unfortunately, even though it was related to the second good news the military received, there was no traces of Mei or even those powerful people.

The second good news that they received was the mysterious destruction of the Infected Nest in NAIA. Due to being close to Bay City, they managed to see the thick almost black smoke that was rising in the sky the next morning. On the night of the day the mission failed, several accounts of people with sensitive hearing said that they heard explosions during the evening. Due to the sudden signs, they sent several scouts back to the site to confirm what was happening despite how dangerous it was.

When the scouts returned, they brought back the good but mysterious news that the whole nest was destroyed by a large fire. No one could fathom what happened but in the least, the threat of the Infected Nest was no more. Unfortunately, the news was limited to that and Mei"s whereabouts was still unknown.

The general started to spend his time with his daughter chatting and laughing as he tried to forget the current state of the Bay City that was giving him too much stress.

It was when Paula brought out the question regarding the good news that many people in Bay City was talking about and was kind of celebrated by them.

That news was about a survivor group that suddenly went missing yesterday.

"Uncle, we have several strange occurrences these past days don"t we? First, although it"s not bad, Ange who had not signs of waking up woke up abruptly. That Infected Nest in NAIA suddenly got destroyed and now, a group of survivors are MIA."

"Haa…" The General sighed. He would not show this side of him to others but here, he was free to do so. "It might not be a good thing to say as a person but its good if that group will not return anymore, at least, I have less sources of headache to suffer from. We didn"t really want to but we still sent a search and rescue team just for saving face. It"s more of the person who contracted them to do that really."

There, a warm embrace was given to the General that worked hard this past month. It came from his daughter that he longed to wake up.

"Don"t worry dad, after I fully recover, I"ll help you straighten those kinds of people."

"You silly girl. Just behave and don"t add another source of headache for me…"

***

Day 51 – 11:32 AM – Harrison Plaza, Mabini Street Corner, Adriatico St., Malate, Pasay City, Metro Manila

Led by First Lieutenant Rafael Perez, a group of armed soldiers were searching the mall infected by the infected as covert as possible. They were here for investigation and to locate the missing survivor group. If possible, make sure to make them return safely even with the fact that the soldiers did not want any ties from that survivor group.

[Leo Troops] was what that group called themselves. A group of arrogant scoundrels that was really good at throwing their power around. The worst part was that they were contracted by the business genius, Raver Guevarra, who was among the faction that was benefiting the failure of NAIA mission the most.

The [Leo Troops] were very unruly and always threatened those who was weaker and had lower status than them in Bay City Settlement. And even though they were highly protected, some of the members of [Team Fairy] were subjected to their hara.s.sment especially the girls in the group that were working inside the settlement.

Unfortunately, the soldiers still had to do their job just for the sake of publicity. Their name was being dragged into the mud these past days and they could not afford to have more things thrown unto them.

"Sir! We found their vehicles!"

A soldier hurriedly returned and reported their findings.

"Alright, lead the way."

Rafael readied his squad and made their way towards the location.

There, they found several cars parked at the front of the mall which were totally the same vehicles [Leo Troops] had.

"Men, search the area. See if there are clues to their whereabouts."

"Yes sir!"

It did not take long and the soldiers found traces that led to where the members of the group were. Soon they found them…

The members of [Leo Troops] were either dead or turned into Z-type Beta commonly known as Eaters. They were not just dead and infected but they were all made to suffer in the most brutal ways.

Their members were tied up and hanged at the central area of the mall. However, the electric cables that hanged them were not the cause of their current states but the roaming infected beneath them. Their bodies were hanged in a height that the infected where able to reach and eat up to their waists. Right now, each of the members only had their torsos remaining that were still hanging from the electric cables and were attracting the infected below them.

Rafael and his men could also not help but notice that some the dead Mutators of [Leo Troops] had their heads bashed open and their heads were left hollow. Their brains were missing. Looking at the wounds on their heads, it was very likely that their brains were removed after they turned into Eaters after half of their bodies were eaten by the infected. As for the evolvers and normal members, they were left to become Eaters that were forever tied up inside this mall br.i.m.m.i.n.g with the infected.

As they found all the members of [Leo Troops], Rafael and his squad had no reason to stay. They took the armored vehicles and also took a number of pictures to bring back as evidence for the investigation. They immediately returned to Bay City to report what happened.

***

Day 51 – 3:11 PM – Central Business Park, Bay City, Pasay City, Metro Manila

"They already returned."

Mark said as he watched the vehicles entering the northern gates of the settlement. Right now, he was together with Mei in the open and was not concealing their bodies. Instead, they wore masks and protective clothing that was not really strange after the apocalypse started.

These past days, the two mingled with the survivors around Bay City as common survivors. Due to the large number of people inside Bay City, no one suspected the two as they gathered information about which people they needed to pay attention to.

Finally, he started his plans after gathering as much information as he could. He started with the [Leo Troops].

These people were under Raver which was one of the high status individual in Bay City and someone who wanted Mei to fall unto his hands. Furthermore, the members of [Leo Troops] hara.s.sed Elsa and Charmaine several times already according to Mei.

Luckily, the group wanted some alcohol to drink and the military was strict about distributing alcohol from their stocks. Unless they took it outside the settlement, they would not have enough to endulge themselves. They never thought that that flimsy mistake of indulging in their desires led them to be the ones targeted first.

As Mark watched the familiar vehicles enter the gates, he smiled as he played with the two new crystals in his hand that he managed to get from that arrogant survivor group.

"Let"s go."

Mark and Mei held hands and left the area.

For sure, the news about what happened to the group would spread like wildfire. Of course, as the first case, the people in the settlement would only think that it was an unfortunate coincidence.

However, it was just the start…