Mutagen

The Great Island. It was a large, irregularly-shaped island southwest of Atlantic City. Rivers, gra.s.s, and trees filled the landscape. A single highway connected the island to both the main island of Atlantic City and the mainland of New Jersey. Inside the island, only four establishments were present, an abandoned roadside hotel, a gas station, the Atlantic City Parks Department, and the largest school in Atlantic City, the Atlantic City Highschool.

Currently, while the survivors remaining in Atlantic City thought that the state had abandoned the city, a large group of the US military was stationed here, occupying the Great Island.

Unfortunately, their orders did not include the welfare of the survivors.

Inside the Atlantic City Parks Department, the military had installed a surveillance system. Powered by solar panels and batteries, the whole facility had no problems running.

Here, they monitor the current state of Atlantic City and fulfill two of the orders given to them.

The first order was to study the ecology of the infected, and the second was to monitor the state of the survivor groups left in the area.

Each day at a fixed schedule, they launch and retrieve drones that they scattered across the city. There were more than a hundred of these drones equipped with the military"s latest technology. There were more than two hundred drones across the city. The location did not matter whether it was land, air, or water.

These drones were not only equipped with silent motors but also had long-distance cameras allowing them to observe the targets without closing into a noticeable distance.

Furthermore, these drones were perfect for the job as the infected were not attracted to them except for a few odd ones.

They needed to gather as much data about the infected as they could together with the scientists studying them that currently stationed at the high school.

At this moment, a military officer with a stern appearance entered the surveillance room early in the morning.

"Sir McGuire!"

The personnel inside the surveillance area immediately stood up and saluted.

He was Major Samuel McGuire, the head military officer of this military facility. Known for his strict appearance and conduct, no one who knew him would try to get on his worst side. Nevertheless, he was a very approachable superior to his men and everyone here respected him.

"Report."

Major McGuire signaled his hand to put everyone at ease and asked for the current status report. He was alerted by one of the soldiers in charge of monitoring one of the targets of interest.

"Sir, specimen NH-528, Codename: Magma Hill, is on the move again."

A soldier with quite a bored expression reported.

Hearing that, the Major made his way towards the monitor of the bored soldier. On the screen, a seslug with magma like body and was spewing hot smoke was present. It slowly made its way through the highway.

"So, it moved again." Major McGuire voiced. "Did it change direction?"

"No, Sir. It continued in the same direction after another week of dormancy."

"If it continued like this, it could be heading in a specific direction. We need to know where it is going."

"I know, Sir. But how long will it take?"

The bored soldier asked. It was no wonder he had that expression if the was a.s.signed to monitor this creature. Even the Major could not blame the soldier since he understood his troubles.

According to their records, NH-528 surfaced from the sea two days after the start of the outbreak. It first appeared at the coast near Oscar E. McClinton Waterfront Park with the signs of hot water vapor from the ocean. Since then, it continued to move straight towards the highway at a snail"s pace. Not only its movements were slow, but it had long dormancy intervals too. For the four months that it appeared, it had not even reached half of the highway it was traversing. Also, because of this, they had to rotate the personnel monitoring the target.

"Continue monitoring the target. Who knows if it suddenly exhibits changes in its behavior."

The Major commanded.

"Yes, Sir." The soldier replied with a deadpan expression.

Major McGuire then looked around.

"Where is Andrews?"

He asked.

Private First Cla.s.s James B. Andrews. He was one of the promising new soldiers among the last batch of graduates that they recruited before the outbreak. Meticulous, observant, and honest. Those three traits were something Major McGuire liked about the young man.

Because Andrews was good at observing, the Major designated him to one of the specimens that were hard to catch.

When the Major entered this time, however, he did not see Andrews among the people that stood up to salute.

"Andrews, Sir? He"s right there."

The nearby soldier pointed at the seemingly empty station that was facing the Major.

As it looked empty, the soldier stood up from his station and approached the one he pointed.

The Major immediately followed behind. And there, the Major saw a soldier, who was fully concentrated at the monitor on his station. His face was just about three inches from the monitor as if he was trying to search for something.

"Andrews! Hey! Andrews!"

The soldier called out.

"What is it?! I"m busy!"

That reply made the soldier shrug as he pointed at the man behind him.

"Ah, Major!"

Andrews immediately stood up and saluted.

BAM!

His chair fell with a loud bang, though.

"What is happening? You"re not always like this."

The Major asked.

"Sir, it"s about the specimen you told me to watch."

Andrews replied with a bitter expression.

"What happened?"

Moved towards Andrews" station to see. Even the other soldiers nearby went to see.

"Sir, look."

Andrews pointed at the barely recognizable corpse shown on his monitor.

And of course, everyone frowned. What was shown was not only bad for the eyes and stomach, but that was not the issue. The corpse that was on the monitor should be HS-005, Codename: Jumpshooter. The fifth among the infected that they were monitoring since the start of the outbreak. It might not be the strongest, but it was among the fastest. It could also use its jagged hands with hooked bones to climb and jump across faces of buildings and walls. But that was not its ultimate weapon. It was able to generate projectiles from its fast-growing bones and use it to attack its enemies and prey.

The fast-moving predator, however, was now nothing but a leftover of a heavily-eaten corpse.

"Did you see how it died?"

The Major asked.

"That is the issue, Sir."

Andrews then switched to a minimized video player, which seemed to be the one he was watching intently earlier.

It was a replay of the video feed that was recorded earlier by the drone Andrews was controlling.

At the start of the video, the Jumpshooter was roaming around blindly. But then, a large number of infected was seen running on the opposite street. And then, the target followed the horde.

From that onwards, it was clear that Andrews used the drone to immediately chase the target. But with the speed of the Jumpshooter, the drone had a hard time catching up.

The target turned on the corner of the street following the disturbed horde. 

And when the drone turned at the same corner, all they saw was the head and body of the Jumpshooter separating from each other. Then, the head vanished while its headless body continued to plummet to the ground.

Everyone watching the video frowned. The soldiers could see nothing at all.

Then, Andrews switched to a slow-motion playback. There, they saw a black blur that appeared to be a smoke catch the head and flew away.

Not content yet, Andrews switched to a still screenshot. There, they could see a blurred silhouette of a person with bat wings reaching for the severed head.

Seeing that, the Major frowned. But then, he knew what to do.

"Locate the area and check all the drones around it! We need to know what it was!"

The Major ordered.

"Yes, Sir!"

With that order, every soldier in the room moved.

It was not surprising. One of the targets they were monitoring died for an unknown reason. The silhouette that they saw might be a new threat, and they needed to find it as soon as possible.

"Huh?"

A confused voice was heard among the busy people. It immediately took the attention of everyone in the room.

And they saw that the source of the voice was that confused-looking soldier that was in charge of the Magma Hill.

"Major, look!"

The bored soldier immediately called to the Major.

"What is it?"

The Major, of course, approached as it could be urgent.

But at the monitor, there was nothing but an empty rooftop of the building.

"Are you fooling with your job right now? Why is your drone focused on an empty rooftop instead of your target?"

The Major said with a reprimanding voice.

"Sir, no! It"s not that!"

The bored soldier immediately worked on his station, opening and switching screens. And then, the replay of the footage that was only lasted a few seconds was projected on the monitor.

And there, they saw a man with tattered clothes standing at the very same location of the empty rooftop earlier. The man was wearing an odd-looking armor, and two swords could be seen on his back.

The man seemed to have noticed the drone as he turned his head facing the camera. Then, with a cloud of black smoke, the man vanished.

Everyone that saw the video realized that something or someone had appeared in the area of their jurisdiction. And that smoke was totally the same as the one that killed the HS-005.

Without a second thought, the Major released an order.

"Everyone a.s.signed to specimens of lower threat level, switch to search protocol. We need to know whether that man is human or not. Release the reserve aerial drones if needed! Understood?"

"Yes, Sir!"

And that morning, the monitoring division of the soldiers stationed at the Great Island became busy.

***

Day 126 - 7:34 AM - Atlantic City, New Jersey, United States of America

Mark stood at a hidden area of another rooftop, away from the one he stood at while watching the gigantic mutated Nudibranch.

"Is that a military drone?"

He murmured with confusion.

Since he did not expect it, he was caught off guard. He was definitely filmed by that drone even just for a few seconds.

"I was too careless."

Mark did not care who that drone belonged to, but it definitely looked like the ones that he saw on a US military doc.u.mentary before the outbreak. In the first place, he never liked being filmed or taking photos of himself. It as because it felt uncomfortable for him. That was also the reason how he noticed the drone as he felt the same discomfort.

He did not mind being seen, but in the current state of the situation, he did not know who could be watching the video feed of that drone. The person could be connected to Auraboros or even the Eyes. There was no one he could trust here.

And it was even doubtful if it was really a drone of the US military. It was because if it was present here, they should be working on evacuating the survivors left here.

Now that it crossed his mind, he did not really know anything here at all. It seemed like whether he liked it or not, he should establish contact with the people here.

"Hmm?"

While he was in deep thought, he noticed something.

There were more than a hundred flying drones now gathering in the area.

"What the h.e.l.l is this now?"

Mark shrugged. It felt like he was some freeman with a crowbar being chased by drones sent by the enemies.

With that funny thought, he decided to investigate a bit. Thus, turning into black mist, he flew towards where the drones came from.