Mutagen

Day 6 – 8:57 AM – Parking Area, Queens Row Elementary School, Queens Row Area A, Bacoor City, Cavite

Mark said goodbye to the mother and daughter who wanted to return to Chervil's quarters after making the two promise to not to tell anyone about what they had just seen which the two readily agreed. Apparently, the botanist was still on going with his study like a madman so they sneaked out to ask Mark about Dominador's body. They also needed to get breakfast for Chervil from the soldiers. It seemed that Rosamie's family was lucky with Chervil around even though Rosamie found her brother's passion for Botany frustrating.

As family members of Chervil, they were entitled to privileges given to the families of scientists in Bay City. It included daily necessities as food and water, clothing, medicine and even personal housing. It also seemed that the family of three would be forced to separate from the group after arriving at Bay City. Rosamie and her two children would be put into the most secure housing area in Bay City which was a privilege for important people of the settlement.

Rosamie did not know what the purpose was for that but Mark was clear about it. If they lived at temporary or normal housing areas, they could subjected to many things as kidnapping and blackmails which would all be due to being relatives of a scientist. Last night, Captain Dela Rosa gave a few hints about the current power struggle in Bay City. In that case, the families of the scientists were one of the people that could be targeted.

When Mark returned to the parking area, there was a commotion. It was not a bad one but seemed more of a celebration from the members of the 11th Rescue Squad members. When he saw who was in the center of the commotion, he could not be any clear of what was happening. The handsome face, fit looking body and resolute eyes showing experience. The person was Keene Dela Rosa who he treated last night under the deal he had with the 7th squad captain. Looking at how he was welcomed with both shock and glee to his sudden recovery, it seemed that Keene was popular to his comrades. There was not distinction whether it was male or female.

It was not like he was envious but he still felt like…

'Riajuus should just explode.'

Just outside the commotion of soldiers, there stood Captain Dela Rosa and Irene who were both looking helpless to stop what was happening. They know that their time was running out but it was also bad to suddenly dampen the mood since it would surely impact the morale the soldiers needed in order to fight later on.

When 7th squad captain saw Mark walking not far from them, he immediately approached him with Irene to his side. Their helpless expressions suddenly turned serious. Mark signaled the two to talk near his vehicle away from the crowd.

"What's wrong?"

Mark asked.

"The large horde from the southwest is already at the outskirts of Springville North. The estimated number is about thirty thousand."

Captain Dela Rosa sternly replied.

"That's a lot."

Mark replied. Even in the Left4Dead game, a single one and a half hour campaign would only have around a thousand and five hundred infected in average and it was already a tedious. Thirty-thousand infected at the same time…

'My PC can't handle that… Wait what the hell am I thinking?'

"Are you okay?"

Irene asked seeing Mark suddenly blank out.

"I'm fine, I just lack a little more sleep."

Mark replied before turning to the captain once more.

"You already did some countermeasures to delay them right? How long before we leave?"

"My men I sent estimated that they could hold on for about two to three hours at most. It's lucky that the canals and creeks were helping in slowing down the horde. We plan to leave before that time was up whether we complete installing defenses on all vehicles or not."

"Are the things I asked you ready?"

"LPG Tanks, molotovs, a motorbike and an extra vehicle for your friends. I'll have one of my men drive that vehicle. Everything is ready. Still, I don't know why you requested for those though."

"You will know later, alright. We'll also prepare. Let's meet later. Move the extra vehicle beside ours so our group can move together."

The two soldiers then left. Actually, Keene wanted to thank Mark personally but with the commotion that happened, it seemed that they would be exposed if he still did talk to Mark.

Mark also decided against telling the squad captain about Dominador's body at the utility room. If he did, he would probably be suspected about what happened. Since they were leaving soon, it was likely that no one would go there anymore.

He then turned around. It was because he felt that Odelina was coming.

"Master."

Odelina bowed as she approached.

"You need something?"

"I just want to ask if you want to have breakfast. We made some oatmeal and canned fruit cereal."

Odelina showed the four layered circular lunchbox she had in her hand.

"Okay, just bring it inside."

Mark and Odelina entered the vehicle and like how Rosamie did, Odelina also asked about Mei. Of course, Mark answered her question.

The two girls on the other hand seemed to have taken two of his phones from the drawer. The two were playing and Abbygale was the one teaching Iola how to play the game. What carefree children these girls were.

After Mark gave the two each a layer of the lunch box, they put down the phone and ate once more. Sure enough, just a few biscuits were not enough to fill the stomach of these two. Mark then told the situation and asked Odelina to tell the others to get ready as they will be leaving in less than three hours. With that order, Odelina immediately left.

It was not long after Odelina left when Mei's eyes quivered. Mark noticed that and put the remaining lunchbox on the sofa.

A few seconds later, Mei finally woke up.

"Gege…"

Mei looked at Mark but she looked rather strange. Her eyes seemed unfocused. Mark knew that she was looking at him yet it felt that she was not. Furthermore, she was blinking her eyes rapidly while squinting as if trying to adjust her eyesight.

Mark helped her up and she tried to stand but like a drunken person, she looked dizzy and almost fell down.

"Mei'er, are you okay?"

He could not help but ask.

"I feel fine. My body also feels stronger but…"

"But?"

"My eyes looked like it were zoomed in, I feel dizzy. Also, using my eyes, it looked like I'm moving slowly but my body tells me that I'm moving normally. It feels really strange."

Hearing that, Mark frowned. It seemed that Mei developed a rather strange ability.

"Sit straight and let me look at your eyes."

Mark said and Mei immediately complied.

He then moved his face closer meticulously examining the appearance of her eye. There was only one and obvious change however. It seemed that her pupils were more dilated than usual and it was stuck like that.

"Try closing your eyes and breathe deeply. Relax your body specially your eyes."

Mei immediately followed what Mark said and after several breaths, she opened her eyes and the size of her pupils went back to normal. Her dizziness also disappeared at the same time.

"Gege, what happened to me?"

Mei asked seemingly confused. It seemed that her eye sight turned back to normal as she looked at Mark.

"It looks like you developed some kind of eagle eye ability. It could also have enhanced your eye reflexes since you said that it looked like you're moving slowly when you feel like you're moving normally."

"Is that so?"

Mei looked a little disappointed.

"What's wrong?"

"I want an ability that can help me fight beside you."

Mark shook his head and patted hers.

"If you ask me, that ability is perfectly suited for you."

"Why?"

Mei tilted her head.

"You don't look like the type to fight in the frontlines. You're not bloodthirsty enough and rather have a mixture of melancholic and phlegmatic temperaments. You're more of an observer than a fighter. You observe a lot and meticulous about details. Also, among the others in our group, you improved the fastest in using range weapons right? You even started to endure the sound of the guns, it's just you preferred to use the crossbow I made."

Hearing the last sentence, Mei's cheeks could not help but redden. It seemed that she was caught. Back then when her Gege was retrieving the crystals from his house, she managed to use the pistol under Odelina's guidance and managed to kill more infected with it compared to the other members of the group. It was just as her Gege said. She preferred to use the crossbow he made back in the mall while keeping the one he made for her like a treasure.

"With that ability, what do you think you can do if you learn to shoot sniper rifles?"

Mark suddenly asked.

"Uhmmm… I can shoot enemies even without the scope?"

"That's right and that's not all. Since what you see on your eyes slows down, your accuracy even with fast moving targets will be high. Maybe, you can't fight beside me but you can guard my back with that."

What Mark said made the Mei's eyes lit up. However, her eyes also dilated once more due to her excitement pulling her back to her dizzy state.

Mark could not help but laugh seeing that.

"You better practice controlling that. It's not like super strength or super speed that can be controlled just by limiting movements. It's a more complicated ability."

"Yes."

Mei was embarrassed as she calmed herself down but she did not look disappointed anymore.

"You also need to train your body. It won't be good if your body can't move as fast as your eye reflex. Alright, that's all. Here, Odel brought breakfast. Let's eat."

Mark handed her one of the lunch box layers and the two ate together.

Meanwhile, the settlement started to get noisy once more. The evacuation was finally announced and the refugees were started to be ushered to the vehicles they needed to board. The soldiers however, did not dare disclose the actual situation. Once they did that, it would be likely to start chaos within the settlement. That was why the buzzing noises from the crowd contained more questions than the actual answers.

The only people who knew of the current situation within the settlement were the soldiers, the higher members of the city councilor and barangay chairwoman's faction, the volunteer groups and the people from Mark's group.

Soon, a knock came and it was Captain Dela Rosa once more. He came to tell Mark to come to the principal's office. Of course it was not for detention but because the office was currently being used as the meeting area for the important people within the settlement.

As Mark was tasked to choose the route they would take, he should be present there to tell the reasons. It was not to change the route but to appease the other leading people.

Mark accepted the squad captain's invitation and he decided to go with Mei and the two girls who would rather come with them than continue staying inside the vehicle.

Before they could leave, the other members of his group arrived. Under Mark's instructions, they all entered the respective vehicles to use. Even Nikky's jeep and Jason's Armored Transport Car were driven nearby. Jason's other two group mates who were named Dalton and Byron also joined the fray.

While the others were still preparing, Mark and the three girls followed Captain Dela Rosa towards the principal office.