Mutagen

Day 41 – 6:40 PM – Main Road, Barangay Anoling, General Nakar, Quezon

The sun had already set and because of the thick clouds that loomed over the sky and the heavy rain around the eye of the storm, the surroundings were even darker than usual.  Because of the darkness, the flashes of lightning between the clouds and the lights coming from the vehicles traveling at the main road were more prominent.

This road that was located at the south of the Death Valley Settlement was mostly surrounded by rice fields and vacant lands which made it easier for the people of the Death Valley Settlement to monitor the road not to mention that they actually made the effort to uproot the trees at the roadside to widen their view. That was how paranoid the people of this settlement against the possible incoming attacks especially from the military.

After all, this was a paradise for them, people who had already forsaken morality and humanity to indulge themselves with their immoral desires and mindsets. None of them wanted to lose this place.

However, an existence named Mark became a huge threat to them and had already destroyed more than half of the settlement with his schemes. Needless to say that but more than half of the defensive forces of the settlement had already been annihilated.

Right now, the person that caused all this was running along the main road while keeping a fixed distance from the gigantic creature chasing behind him. Due to the larger size of the whale, it was easy for it to catch up to Mark but every time that happened, he would vanish into a trail of black mist and appear further in front constantly maintaining the safe distance.

It did not take long and the three sides met. Of course, Mark was not included in those three as he was the fourth side after all.

***

Adrik and his convoy travelled along the road. Due to the rain, the off roads became muddy and the main roads became flooded. It took them a lot of time to return despite the fact that they hurried as much as possible. Fortunately, it was not only them that were affected by those obstacles but also the infected that relentlessly followed behind. The unfortunate thing however, those same obstacles prevented them from losing the infected from their tail.

Now, they were in a severe predicament. Adrik's men had just received some fatal information through the radio from his men left at the settlement. Because of the weather, the transmission was rather choppy but the person managed to convey the serious situation.

The whale that had devastated the majority of their settlement finally left. It was a good thing if not for the fact that the whale was heading towards their convoy. With the horde of more Mutated Infected behind and the gigantic whale in front, they were in to become sandwiched between the enemies.

Changing their route was impossible as the branching roads nearby would either lead them away from the settlement or would just go around the corner and back to the main road. They could not go off road either because all that they could see by the roadside where the rice fields that had nothing but thick mud. It was a place that could not be traversed by vehicles and it was also hard for them to traverse the muddy fields on foot.

Without any other choice, they accelerated their convoy in order to reach the nearest residential block by the roadside. The block consisted of several residential houses along with a small monastery. Since both going forward and backwards posed a huge threat, they Adrik and his men decided to use the area as defense at least, against the infected. They already called for reinforcements but for sure it would not be easy for them to come.

BANG! BANG!

RATATATAT!!!

The gunners riding on the back of their vehicles started to fire their guns in order to delay the infected even just a bit. Even just a second was precious to them. It was unfortunate that the horde of infected chasing after them looked too smart to be true. They were not able to gun down the horde because the ones running in front were [Armor Types] that were almost invincible even against bullets.

As for the other vehicles, they all stormed into the compound of the monastery and were aligned by the in a circle as barricades.

"Emperor, shouldn't we enter the monastery and not stop here?"

One of Adrik's men asked seeing that he ordered them to create a barricade using the vehicles rather than entering the building.

"We can't. There is too many of us to be able to freely move inside the building. Also that damn whale is coming. The building will sure crumble once that thing arrives. I'd rather fight than get buried alive."

Adrik clutched his aching arm and spoke with a voice filled with resentment. Well of course, not all he said were true but just some words to make the people around him believe what he said.

The emperor then turned to a rather round bodied man who was resting inside one of the vehicles.

"Corrosion, how long till you are ready?"

Hearing his question, the fat man called Corrosion closed his eyes and probed his body.

"Sir, about five minutes."

"Good! Get yourself ready, well need you to deal with the [Armor Types]."

"Yes, Sir!"

Corrosion replied with a stern face though his eyes looked troubled. Corrosion's ability after he became a Mutator was to be able to spit corrosive bile. It was a rather disgusting ability but Corrosion was not bothered by it at all. Rather, it helped him to digest things inside his stomach even food that was supposed to be inedible. In this apocalypse, getting enough food for a fat man like him was hard. With his ability however, he could eat anything and be satisfied since he would not suffer from food poisoning and diarrhea.

The only setback of his ability was that he needed to recharge his body after using everything in his stomach. To be able to escape the horde earlier, he had already emptied his reserves and had to refill it.

Corrosion took out his current food which made the others look at him with disgust. What he was eating was an arm of a child. Yes, a human child. This fat man was a cannibal and his favorite food was children. The taste of a child's meat would always raise his spirits. The one he was eating now was actually one of the children that came with the evacuation from East Port Settlement. Although the others were not able to get anything, he managed to secure food for himself before he retreated and escaped. In fact, the child was still alive inside the vehicle and was unconscious due to the pain from the child's arm being ripped off.

The fat cannibal munched on his treat mumbling about how he would finish the rest of the child later on.

***

Unknown to everyone in the convoy, someone had already slipped into their ranks and heard every single they said.

Mark left the whale into the dust and ran off first to see what the people in the convoy were up to. After he stealthily snatched one of the men from their convoy and took his undamaged jacket and guns, he walked around as if he was among their group. After all, with the large number of people here, it would be hard to say if they were all familiar with each other's faces. Not to mention that he was wearing a mask right now. Different from before however, it only covered his nose and mouth and was covered in cloth to avoid suspicion. Wearing a mask was not new to them. In fact, there were some that were wearing makeshift masks like a modified welding mask and even a hockey mask.

When no one was looking, Mark slipped into the vehicle where he detected the child. The poor girl was near death with her arm ripped violently. Her pale skin showed her loss of blood. Her arm that was ripped off was burned to seal the wound in order to keep her alive and probably, fresh.

Well, she was lucky.

With a puff of black mist, both Mark and the unconscious girl vanished. Mark then appeared atop the monastery building with the girl on his arms.

Looking at the criminals below, Mark felt laughing. They were wasting their effort. With him here, none of them would leave this place alive.

Mark looked at the man leading these people. His fluctuation was quite similar to the leader of the outlaws he killed before, the man called Drake, with dragonification ability which he gave to Chaflar. This leader should be that man called Adrik and the father of Drake.

Looking at the man however, Mark's eyes were filled with incredulity that almost made him laugh out loud. There was no doubt that the man was also a Mutator and his robust body told that Adrik was rather strong. However, out of all traits that could manifest inside a Mutator's conscious and subconscious, this man who was supposed to be the leader of Death Valley Settlement had…

"Cowardice? Seriously?"

Mark muttered with ridicule.

However, the trait was really well hidden in Adrik's case. If one as not to look at him and observe him, Adrike was actually talking and instructing their group while being in the safest place which was the back of the group. Mark could tell that this guy was ready to abandon everyone here in order to escape. Surely, he was a coward. A person who would only fight in battle's he could win while running away at things he could not handle.

"Anyway… All of you can die now."

Mark spoke as his eyes glowed red.

GRRRUUUAAARR!!!

UUWWWOOOOOUUUUU!!!

Both the incoming whale and the horde of the infected roared almost at the same time. The infected became more and more aggressive as they detected a psychic nearby releasing a large amount of energy. Even though these infected were still maintaining their formation, they were already away from Aephelia's control and as such, led to the infected becoming berserk.

Soon, the defenders started to get overwhelmed by the sudden rampage of the horde. At the same time, tremors could be heard as the whale finally arrived and kicked the wall of the monastery crumbling it to pieces. Even the monastery building was shaking as the whale brushed off its exterior.

"AAAHHHH! HELP!!!"

Yells started to echo around their barricade as the infected started to run forward in frenzy.

The bodies of the criminals were ripped into pieces as the infected caught and ate them alive. Those that confronted the [Armor Types] turned into disfigured people in a few moments.

Finally, Corrosion seemed to be ready. His stomach was way bloated than before.

SPURT!

Corrosion spit a mouthful of bile towards an [Armor Type]. The armor of the infected started to melt along with its flesh. It did not take long and the [Armor Type] infected crumbled to the ground with melted body parts.

The fat man was about to attack once but…

"GAHUH?"

He let out a confused expression but then, he saw that his throat had been pierced by a rather large needle. No, it was better to say that it was a small stake than a large needle.

From the roof of the Monastery, Mark shot Corrosion creating a hole on his throat. The black corrosive liquid started to spill from the hole. He tried to block the wound to stop the spill but Mark shot another needle and the target was his stomach. Similarly, the corrosive liquid tore through the organs and ended up spilling as he screamed. With the fatal injury, Corrosion started to drift away from reality and entered a deep sleep.

BAM!

Debris flew around as the whale hit the monastery building with its tail. It seemed that Adrik and his close men were putting up a good fight against the whale.

As Mark thought, Drake and Adrik both had similar abilities. In front of the whale, Adrik was flying with his bat like wings while his body was covered in black scales. He looked like a black dragonewt.

"Found another interesting ability to take."

Mark murmured with great interest.