Mutagen

Day 3 – 10:07 AM – Bacoor City Hall 4th Floor, Mayor's Office, Molino Boulevard, Bayanan, Bacoor City, Cavite

Chief Mallari sat in front of the mayor's desk as he just finished reporting everything that happened at the Command Center.

On the other end of the desk, the congresswoman of District 2 Bacoor, Madam Lanie Villa was massaging her temples with an exhausted look on her face. The report she just received was very hard to swallow.

The escaped inmates were wiped out. That was a good thing as these people would only add fuel to the fire created by the apocalypse. The problem however was that the cause of it was just a pair of a father and a daughter. Furthermore, the daughter was just a five or six year old little girl.

There were also the non-human abilities the two displayed during the confrontation with the inmates. Specifically, the abnormal speed the little girl had and that mysterious ability Mark used to deal with the most notorious man among the inmates.

It was lucky that she did not push her chances too much in front of Mark.

"Garcia would be in trouble later."

Madam Lanie muttered and the police chief agreed to what she said.

Garcia was the business man who offended Mark. Thinking about it, Mark did not say anything about forgiving the man. He just talked along the lines of not attracting the infected to avoid the innocent from getting implicated.

"You should stop thinking about it Madam. If Mark really wanted to make a move against Garcia, we won't be able to do anything but watch."

The congresswoman sighed after she heard that.

"About the weapons and equipment, how was it divided?"

"Mark just took a third of the guns and ammunition. The grenades were divided in half. He took three riot shields and five helmets and the rest are left to us. About the radios, he really did not take even a single unit. It is the same with the batons."

"I doubt that those batons would be of use even to us."

The Chief smiled bitterly.

"I think the same. I just brought those back just in case that there would be a need to it."

"What need? Firewood?"

Chief Mallari did not answer and Madam Lanie continued.

"Still, I'm surprised that he did not take majority of the guns and ammunition."

"He probably had his reasons."

***

Inside the reception area, Mark sat with his legs crossed beside Charmaine while hugging Abbygale. As an Empath, he could subconsciously absorb the energy emitted by the emotions of other people. And of course, he could also do it consciously. The reason he was hugging Abbygale at this moment was because she was emitting a faint bloodlust after wiping out the criminals in the Police Command Center. To describe the little girl's situation, it was like an animal that was emitting a dangerous intent after slaughtering their prey and witnessing blood.

Since that was the case, Mark hugged her and was currently absorbing her bloodlust while channeling the calming energy he had.

"Big Bro. Your nose."

Charmaine noticed blood dripping from his nose again and wiped it.

"Thanks."

His nose started to bleed after using a mental pierce on that fat criminal a few minutes ago. Though the bleeding was not much, it was still it had not stopped even now. It seemed that he received a backlash after using the ability and losing a bit of control. Even if he managed to practice it, fully controlling the ability was still far away.

Still, the progress he had in training this ability was way smoother compared to learning to control his adrenaline which lasted several years.

He looked at his hand. He found that it was easier to direct the energy by channeling it to his arms and hand and releasing the energy to where his hand was facing. He wished that he would master it sooner so that he would not look like some guy with a delusional syndrome every time he used it.

Mark looked at the bag of weapons, ammunition and equipment tied up together beside him. He actually wanted more of these but it would not fit anymore inside the van. Furthermore, he only wanted to add some variety to his arsenal. After all, just like why he used the pistol instead of the assault rifle inside the Command Center, every situation had a suitable weapon to use.

A person passed and stop in front of them. She was one of the survivors here that was tasked to cook rice porridge. She place three bowls of porridge in front of Mark and Charmaine and retreated.

On the other side of the reception hall, the other survivors were relishing their first meal in the past two days. The ingredients used to cook this porridge were actually of low quality as it was the ingredients used to cook food for the detained inmates of the police station. The Chief decided to also retrieve these ingredients from the Command Center along with some cooking tools and utensils.

Despite the low quality and cheap ingredients, looking at the face of the survivors, it looked like that the bland porridge was on par with a restaurant cuisine.

Mark tried to taste the porridge. I was not bad but quite salty. Charmaine on the side however started to devour the bowl of porridge.

"Don't eat too much."

"I know, Bro."

Mark started to feed Abbygale. The little girl ate the porridge without saying anything. She did not seem to be picky about food.

He thought about their anti-climactic battle against the criminals. It seemed that he overestimated them. They did not even put up a proper fight. It was like those corny action movies where the enemies were blindly coming for the protagonist just to be shot down. It slipped far from Mark's mind that their flawless victory was attributed to them and their superhuman abilities overpowering the group of criminals.

'At least, it did not become a troublesome matter.'

Few minutes passed.

At the moment, Mark was thinking of a way to rescue the people at the Health Center. It was lucky for those people that the Mutated Woodman seemed to have no interest in attacking them and was busy of looking up at the strange fruit on the huge tree.

The only way Mark could think right now was to lure the infected towards the street and make those people slip through the back of the building into the outside of the compound. They could traverse the farmland behind the compound and use the emergency exit behind the Police Command Center.

He tried to think of other ways but that was the only possible plan. They also needed to get rid of the infected that came flocking towards the Police Command Center due to the noise the gunfight made. That funny screaming infected would be crucial to this. Mark just wished that that infected was still around.

No, that infected should be around. Mark was sure of that. He had been noticing it but the infected seemed to be attracted around places where survivors dwelled. The more survivors hiding in the place, the more infected was wandering around. It was the same in the mall and was also the same here. Though, the infected did not seem to pinpoint were the survivors were staying.

***

After eating, Mark met up with the Chief and the Congresswoman and discussed his plans with them. The two seemed to be apprehensive about his plan. However, they could not think of another and better plan either. And thus, they decided on how to execute and allocate the roles everyone should take on.

This time, all the policemen and the bodyguards was decided to participate. Even the two bodyguards of the business man were not an exception. The business man was actually against his bodyguards participating but still conceded when he was warned for not contributing to the group and being a baggage to everyone.

For this plan, Mark, Abbygale and Chief Mallari and his subordinates would be the one to fetch the people at the Health Center while the bodyguards would go to the northern side of the roof to create a distraction and attract the infected away from the rescue group.

During the whole discussion, Mark could not help but notice. The two were very careful of their words to him. They were afraid that they would offend him in any way.

***

Day 3 – 10:42 AM – Bacoor City Hall Roof Top, Molino Boulevard, Bayanan, Bacoor City, Cavite

A group of people was wandering around the rooftop. Seven people were wearing suits, six were wearing police uniforms. With Mark, Abbygale and Madam Lanie added, there were sixteen people participating in his plan.

Actually, the Chief and the Congresswoman did not really need to participate in this but it seemed that they wanted to show Mark their "sincerity". Mark did not stop them and just let them do what they wanted.

Mark looked at the long metal poles by his feet. It was the metal poles that were on the rooftop of the Command Center earlier. It looked like the Chief and his men did not slack when he asked for these. After rescuing those people in the Health Center, he would proceed and take that fruit up there.

The other people were also interested in that fruit as they saw the golden glow it exudes but no one tried to make a move as Mark already declared his claim for it.

***

After a little more preparation, they started the plan.

The bodyguards at the north started shooting the infected on the street. They planned to make it like that to strike two birds with one stone. While they were killing the infected and thinning their numbers, they would also accomplish luring the others away from the rescue group.

When the shootout at the northern part of the rooftop started, the rescue group at the south also made their move. Mark and his group waited for most of the infected to leave and went down to the back of the command center.

They went around the back of the compound and made their way towards the back of the Health Center. Along the way, Mark was the only person who shot the incoming infected as the weapons the police had were not silenced. It was not because their station was under equipped but because the inmates that took out the weapons from the armory did not seem to have the idea to also bring the gun suppressors and left the equipment at the armory that was brimming with the infected.

It was still fine though as the number of straggling infected was not large. The policemen were also trained for close quarter combat and was able to handle the infected without getting bitten. It was another issue if they got surrounded however.

Abbygale also played an important role on killing the remaining infected making the jaws of the policemen that did not participate in dealing with the criminals slack jawed. She was even more efficient that these large bodied men. Well, not all of them were large bodied since two of the policemen were large-bellied.

When they arrived behind the Health Center, the survivors inside that was informed through the radio beforehand was already waiting with excitement. They were carrying numerous bags and equipment. Some of the policemen went and carried the items.

Everything was going smoothly and as planned. Everyone was in high spirits. Until…

Chief Mallari saw Mark staring blankly again. He had a bad premonition.

"Mark, what's wrong?"

Mark looked at him.

"Why don't you listen?"

Hearing what Mark said, the Chief strained his ears but what he could only hear were gunshots that were being fired indiscriminately. It should be the gunshots coming from the bodyguards that were luring the infected away…

Then he froze as it registered into his brain.

The gunshots were being fire indiscriminately. As if the people shooting were panicking.

He then heard Mark once more.

"We should hurry. Something is not right."

The Chief nodded and ordered his men to hurry up. They all picked up their pace.

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