Mutagen

Day 41 – 12:42 PM – Gen. Luna Street, Barangay Dinahican, Infanta Quezon

At the only road that connected the eastern part of Infanta, Quezon not only to the rest of the Municipality but to the rest of Luzon, more than three thousand people filled the streets under the stormy weather. Of course it was not a festival but the people of East Port Settlement that left the settlement to evacuate.

With the lead of Salvador Family, the people were informed about the storm early and the evacuation proceeded faster after it was announced. Those that witnessed the approaching storm at the horizon relayed what they saw to the others and sure enough, it pushed the people to prepare even faster. Although there were those that had conflicted thoughts on leaving the confines of the settlement, they still went with the evacuation since they had not survive the apocalypse this long to die because of a strange storm.

Everyone could fight the infected and the evolved animals. Even the less capable could struggle with the slim chance for survival. A strange storm like this however, they could only flee.

However, the evacuations might have started as early as possible but it did not go without any mishaps.

It was obvious that the vehicles available were limited and only a few hundred people could be transported using the vehicles. Due to this, the first thing the Salvador Family did was to let the children and elderly aboard the vehicles.

The first issue was with the Cristobal and Ruanto Families. As the two leading families had their private army and riches, they had more than enough vehicles for their people. However, the two greedy families did not have any notion to lend their vehicles and filled the extra vehicles with either their useless properties or used to rope in more Mutators and Evolvers to their camps. This gained not only the dissatisfaction of the Salvador Family but also of the majority of the people from the settlement.

Still, there was nothing that they could do with this and just accept their selfishness. It was not like could start a war between the three families right now because of those vehicles that they rightfully owned. Some private groups and survivors that had vehicles were way better in this aspect for letting other evacuees ride on theirs. Accepting the circumstances, they marched out of the settlement and the second issue with the two other families happened.

The two families had vehicles and as such, it was better for them to lead the march. It was not expected for these greedy people to help protect the others but at least accompany the people but instead, the two families drove off on their own leaving solely the Salvador Family and the rest of Mutators and Evolvers to protect the people during the evacuation. With the lack of capable people, even the non-combatants expected that they would need to fight this time for survival.

Fight what? Unfortunately, the only evolved animals Mark dealt with were the ones coming from the east and the south of the settlement. Although not as many due to the large islands off the coast directly at the east of Infanta like Polillo Island, it was still many. Since Gen. Luna Street was just about five hundred meters away from the northern and northeastern coasts, the whole evacuation was met with dangers encountering not only the local animals from the forest but also these sea creatures. It looked like that the large number of people marching the street did not deter these animals from the march but saw them as a large group of food instead.

Furthermore, even though they left the settlement as early as possible, they were still caught by the rain and winds of the storm. It seemed that the storm moved faster than their speed. Not only that it decreased the fighting efficiency of the people and lowered their morale but also made the rampaging sea creatures even further.

"There is no end to this!"

Alana grumbled as she punched a dog sized Beach Flea that was hopping around. She managed to hit it but the exoskeleton of the Beach Flea was rather hard and it managed to survive the heavy hit and was only pushed away. Enraged, it charged toward Alana once more. As she felt how hard the body of her opponent was, Alana grabbed the protruding part of her left gauntlet and pulled it back revealing some springs and pistons on her gauntlet. She then rotated the strange thick disc on the wrist of the gauntlet and locked it on the part that was colored gray with a click.

Immediately finding the right timing, Alana punched once more and the front of her fist landed squarely on the body of the Beach Flea once more. With the front of her four fingers landing on the body, the four buttons on each finger clicked and the protrusion she pulled back was fired forward. The protrusion hit the thick disk hard causing her arm to tremble and four green, finger-sized short, pointed stakes was shot forward from the disk and retracted back afterwards. The stakes drilled four holes on the exoskeleton of the Beach Flea and the oversized insect trembled before it fell down on the ground while its wounds overflowed with sizzling sound due to poison.

Karlene on the other hand used her strange shaped dagger and fought off other animals and insects coming towards the vehicle that they were riding on while Amihan assisted the two using the attack Mark had taught her in a few days. With the wave of her hands, wind blew in a strange manner as if forming a thin line as it shot forward. The streak of wind hit a cat sized Sea Worm and bisected its body. In the past days, Mark had been teaching her this but it was kind of hard to learn for her who did not know the principle behind it. With her current proficiency, she could use this move against smaller and soft bodied animals but she could not make a good scratch on harder bodied ones.

The three had no choice but the join the fight due to the lack of manpower not to mention that the sea creatures already managed to close in to the vehicle lent to them by the Salvador Family. Inside the vehicle was Miracle, Hamlin's grandchildren, Edzel who was guarding the children and Hamlin who was driving it. Although Alana could probably drive it better than Hamlin, she was also better at fighting than the old man and thus, it came to the current situation.

It was the same at the other parts of the group. Mutators and Evolvers joined up with the common people to deal with the sea animals and escape the current predicament. Along with the sounds rumbling thunder, strong wind and rain, the sounds of gun fire echoed without pause.

Even Annica's precious pets already joined the fray. Hellhound, that Mark and the other met before was rampaging as it fought with another dog that came out of the forest. Her pet sparrow was distracting enemies while it flew around while her dog sized cat with blue fur would hop around wounding the limbs of the enemies depriving them of their ability to move. With Annica's instructions, the teamwork of the three animals was rather good not to mention her other pets.

UUUWWWWOOOOOOUUU!!!

They were a few kilometers away from the settlement already when they suddenly heard that eerie sound similar to a whale's. If not for their current situation, most of them would have stopped and turn their heads finding where that loud sound came from. Furthermore, the sound repeated further and louder each time.

Pinpointing the direction that the sound came from, Amihan, Karlene and Alana felt rather worried. It was the same for the others inside their vehicle. The sound came from the direction of the settlement and their leader was still there for who knew what reason. With how loud the sound was, for sure, the size of its source was surely terrifying. They wished that they could come back and drag Mark out of the settlement but it was already late. After all, who knew that he would stay behind? He just pushed them to return and cooperate with the Salvador Family after all.

***

Day 41 – 2:51 PM – Free Port District, East Port Settlement, Barangay Dinahican, Infanta Quezon

After another hour at the settlement, a large part of the place had been swallowed by the sea water already. The tall walls did not manage to hold too long and fell down as the storm surge continued to push against it and washed almost everything on its path. The boats left at the shore were now drifting inside the settlement along with the debris of destroyed establishments and houses. Even trees and hardly planted posts leaned to one side after a prolonged exposure to the force of the storm surge.

As the storm closed in, the lightning strikes also became fiercer and even hitting the ground at certain times. Electricity ran on the flood water killing a lot of those sea animals that was swept away by the surge of sea water. The sea creatures swept by the current was scattered within the settlement and caused even further destruction.

The strong wind started to sway even heavy structures and caused lighter debris to fly around. That debris hit other things and windows breaking them. Some of the debris like wide wooden boards and broken metal roofing flew off away from the settlement to who knows where. The wind was too strong, fortunately, it was still not enough to create a tropical storm sized tornado or it would be a huge disaster.

Mark watched all these happen with his very own eyes. Even the second floor of the building he was currently on was subjected to these happenings. Most of the windows in the office area he was sitting at overseeing the sea was already broken allowing the rain water in and soak everything wet. Chaflar already felt like sleeping. If the temperature grew any colder, it would not be surprising if it started to rain balls of ice already.

Another two hours passed…

SWOOOOOSHHH!!!

With the last surge of wind, everything became calm.

Mark was playing with the seven new [Mental Crystals] on a table as it happened. With a flick of his hands, the crystals vanished and were stored back inside the [PsyCrystal]. He then walked towards the already shattered window after being hit by a crumbling electrical post and looked at the situation.

The sea was still chaotic and it was still raining hard. The rumbling thunder could still be heard. However, none of those was happening near Mark's location. No, it was happening in a rather large area. Looking at the sky, the clouds were rather thin compared to the other directions. For sure, the settlement had already been covered by the eye of the storm.

UWWWOOOOU!!!

The cries of the whale were even louder and more deafening compared to the rumbling of thunder.

SPLASH!

Finally, the cause of it all emerged slowly from the water. As Mark thought, the storm was too slow if the cause of it was swimming on the water but it was really not. It was walking under the water due to the loss of its fins. Although its speed was still fast, it was too slow compared to swimming.

As the sea it traversed became even shallower, the body of the large whale emerged. It was the same whale what Mark saw in his vision but as Mark fiddled with the future, something was obviously wrong.

The whale was still covered in its thick barnacle armor but some of the barnacles had a black eerie color that for some strange reason, Mark found dangerous.

Mark frown even further as he looked at the large enemy in front of him. No wonder it was attacking everything and the storm happened. The creature had no control over the psychic ability it had and had gone berserk.

The ground rumbled as it stepped onto the shore. Mark came into a realization as he smiled. The whale was actually a failed Mutator. If this was the case, his next move had become easier. His eyes started to release its red glow.

"Chaflar let's go. Time to lead it away."

"RRRAR."

A Mutator and a Dragon burst out of the crumbling building and flew away as the man riding the flying lizard released a thick energy enthusing the enemy. Finding its target, the whale that had became more skilled in running than swimming chased after with speed faster than before.