Mutagen

Day 5 – 7:33 AM – Queens Row Elementary School, Queens Row Area A, Bacoor City, Cavite

Captain Dela Rosa and his subordinates were once more bewildered by what Mark had just said. One of the reasons were because he guessed correctly what Dominador was and another was because he said that the person in question was now heading to their location with his men. No matter how they tried to think of the reason or method how he did it, they were not able to imagine the current answer.

Mark on the other hand was sure about his deduction. When he noticed a Mutator he did not know of in his area of detection, he immediately thought that this person was the leader of the third faction the female soldier was talking about, Dominador. There was no way this Mutator would be under someone. Using the emotional fluctuations of this Mutator, Mark deduced that this person could only be a leader and not a subordinate.

While the soldiers were still skeptical about what Mark had just said about Dominador coming here, they saw a group of people moving towards their direction quite a distance away. As the pathway they were walking on was a straight path parallel to the school building to the south of the school, there was no way that they would not be able to see the approaching group.

"Everyone, get behind me and the soldiers and stay alert. Odel, in case that something happens, take everyone away."

"Yes master."

Odelina replied while the others nodded and positioned themselves behind how Mark ordered them to.

Hearing the orders Mark gave his group, the soldiers also moved in front of them. There was no doubt that Dominador and his men came to meet Mark's group. Aside from that, there would be no other reason for these people to come near the building where their squad had settled.

As for fleeing, it was out of question. Mark also knew that. Fleeing would surely inflate the ego of the other group and the prestige of the soldiers would also take a huge blow. Though it would be dangerous, Mark also did not want to show weakness to the other party. If he did show a sign of weakness, the other party who were obviously not coming with good intentions would try to exploit it.

"It seems that this bastard is after your group. Do you know why?"

Captain Dela Rosa stood beside Mark and asked. On the other hand, Mark looked at him with incredulous expression as if he was looking at an idiot. Seeing Mark's expression, the captain was confused and asked another question.

"Is there something wrong with my question?"

Knowing that the captain really had no idea, Mark sighed.

"You're asking about why those guys are after us when you are the reason. Seriously."

"Me?"

To that question, Mark did not answer as Dominador and his men were already near them. Captain Dela Rosa also did not have the luxury to pursue the reason and stepped forward.

On the other hand, Dominador stopped about two meters away from where the soldiers and Mark's group stood.

"It's a very rare occasion to see you all the way here Dominador. Do you need something?"

Captain Dela Rosa greeted with a sarcastic smile.

In response to the squad captain's greeting however, Dominador confidently smiled not minding Captain Dela Rosa's attitude.

"I heard from my men that a new group of survivors arrived. I got curious as to why some like you seemed to respectful to the leader of that group. I can't help but feel the urge to meet them."

Dominador spoke with an amiable tone. Nevertheless, the soldiers did not seem to fall into it. The soldiers frowned even more due to this specially Captain Dela Rosa. He could now understand why Mark said that he was the reason why this abominable person came here.

After Dominador spoke, the armed man beside him whispered something into his ear. After that whisper, his eyes fell on Mark who was standing slightly behind Captain Dela Rosa. Dominador ignored the captain and stepped forward towards Mark.

"You must be the leader of the group that had just arrived am I correct? This gentleman is called Dominador. If you may, I would like to invite you and your group to our base for some welcoming gesture."

Dominador introduced himself and stretched out his hand towards Mark inviting a handshake. While he was doing so, his eyes did not leave Mark and was measuring him.

On the other hand, Mark was the same. There was no need to guess what was inside the mind of the person in front of him so he was looking at his appearance and deducing what kind of ability this person might have as a Mutator.

Looking at Dominador who was wearing a loose striped formal suit, a fedora hat and a cigarette on his hand, he looked like the stereotypical criminal syndicate boss. Along with how he acted, there was no doubt about it. As Mark observed Dominador, the person was waiting for his answer to his invitation.

Nevertheless, Mark's expression betrayed the expectation of the other party.

Mark looked towards Captain Dela Rosa and spoke.

"Squad Captain, there's no reason to stay here anymore, bring us to your quarters already."

Mark decided to ignore the other party. Not because he wanted to shame the other person but because he had no interest in his invitation. Furthermore, as a person who hated doing introductions, answering to a handshake was out of question, especially to a person doing an act in front of him.

To what Mark did, not only Dominador froze, also the soldiers and the members of his group found his action unbelievable.

"What is… You don't have a sense of courtesy do you?"

Dominador spoke with his cramped up smile.

Finally, Mark turned to him and responded.

"Yeah, I don't, especially to people who like to fake their own courtesy in front of me."

"Pfft!"

No able to hold back anymore, the female soldier talking to Mark earlier let out a stifled giggle. She really seemed to hate this person for some reason and seeing Dominador fall into a setback, she could not help but laugh.

Knowing what his subordinate was doing was inappropriate, Captain Dela Rosa feigned a cough and glared at the female soldier stopping her.

However it seemed that her laugh fueled emotions of the men Dominador brought with him.

"You bastard, our leader are politely inviting you. It should be your honor to be personally invited by our leader!"

One of the men stepped forward and bellowed.

Unfortunately, his bellows were met with a disdainful stare by Mark.

"Wha-what's with that stare!"

The man stammered as he tried to threaten Mark. Nevertheless, he did not receive any reply as the person who he was shouting at was not paying attention to him anymore.

"Squad Captain, what are you waiting for? We don't have much time to waste here."

Mark urged the captain to leave once more.

"Alright. Men! Let's go."

Captain Dela Rosa could only nod and order his subordinates to continue before he turned towards Dominador.

"Dominador, it seems that you wasted your time coming here. Our guests have no interest to your invitation so you can go now."

After the captain said that, he did not wait for the reply of the person and turned around ushering Mark's group to move on.

"I gave you a chance but you don't want to cherish it."

Dominador spoke as Mark was about to leave. To that however, Mark turned his head to look at him and smiled. His smile however was full with ridicule.

"Why would I cherish a chance to become your subordinate? I don't have time to play kingdoms with you."

Mark then turned his back and left leaving the stunned Dominador.

Dominador did not expect that everything in his ploy seen through. He politely addressed the other party as he was measuring why Captain Dela Rosa was respectful to him. If he was able to invite the aforementioned group, he would draft them into his faction while sounding out everything he wanted to know. If it did not work, he would play words with the other party to get what he needed and plan their next actions afterwards. Nonetheless, not only he did not receive any answer, he was even ridiculed.

Furthermore, it seemed that not only that person was able to see through his ploy and it looked like that he was even able to see through his personality and goals. That made him unable to react towards the other party incurring ridicule to himself further.

No matter what, he found it inconceivable as his rage started to boil inside him.

"Leader, what are we going to do?"

One of his men asked.

"You're asking me what to do? What else can we do? Return to base! GO!"

As he could not control his anger anymore, he started to lash it out on his men.

'You will pay for this!'

Dominador bellowed in his mind as he thought of that person who ridiculed him.

***

"That felt really good! The look in his face is satisfying to look at!"

As they were further away now, the female soldier did not hold herself back anymore and laughed. Still, no one reprimanded her now and even Captain Dela Rosa was smiling as he looked at Mark. His reactions and response were too out of the norm that he even managed to make the despicable Dominador to freeze.

Mark on the other hand was observing the reactions of the soldiers to what happened. It seemed that these soldiers had a deep hatred towards that faction leader that they were in glee seeing him face a sudden setback.

"Thank you for showing that to us!"

The female soldier approached Mark and tapped his shoulder like a close friend.

As the female soldier was feeling overly close, Mark frowned but he tolerated it she did not have any lingering motives. It was just her pure personality that she did that without knowing.

"Mark, are you sure about that? Falling out with those people is a bad idea if you ask me."

Captain Dela Rosa spoke.

"It doesn't really matter. We don't have plans to stay here. As long as what we came here for is done, we'll leave."

Mark replied. Then, as he remembered something, he added.

"Actually, it's better if you also leave this place as soon as possible."

"Why is that?"

The squad captain and his subordinates were all baffled as to why he suddenly warned them.

"Sooner or later, this place will be overwhelmed by the infected."

"This place is secure though. It shouldn't fall unless an unknown appear. If that case happens, we also have several countermeasures to exploit."

The female soldier interjected.

"I'm not talking about that. It's not good to talk about that here. I'll tell the reason later."

With that conversation, the two groups made their way to their destination together under the watch of the curious refugees nearby.

***

Day 5 – 8:02 AM – Firenze Townhouse Complex Subdivision, La Joya St., Buhay na Tubig, Imus, Cavite

RATATATATATA!

"Chief! We can't hold on anymore!"

A police officer bellowed on his radio while a top a roof of a house shooting his assault rifle.

Not only that police officer was atop that roof but several more. They were all busy firing their guns on the infected in front of them.

All of them were currently facing the west side of the subdivision where the farmlands were located. And what they were looking at was hell. A part of the wall separating the subdivision and the farmlands had already broken through. Among the rubble that came from the broken wall was a body of a five meter long infected scorpion that was killed using several grenades.

Still, even though the infected scorpion was killed, the wall had already collapsed.

Now, not only that the police officers in Firenze was not able to rebuild the wall but with the number of infected currently charging towards their position, everyone knew that they would not be able to keep this place safe anymore.

If Mark was here, he would know what was happening. The police was facing the wave that was returning to the shore at the moment. Right now, they were trying to hold back thousands of infected. Not only was that but there were a lot of Mutated Infected among the ranks of the enemies.

Right now, the police were not trying to eliminate the infected anymore but they were buying time for everyone to prepare and evacuate. Once the evacuation preparations were done, they would abandon this place.

"AAHHH!!!"

A fearful scream was heard as a three meter wide infected spider managed to slip up the wall and lunged towards one of the police officers on the roof of the house.

PANG!

"Dammit!"

SP02 Agbayani whose arms were now covered in metallic sheen immediately went to aid the police that had just screamed and punched a hole on the head the huge spider. Still, he was already late. Half of the waist of the police that was caught was already missing from his body. He was already lifeless with his eyes wide open in horror.

"The preparations are ready! Everyone retreat!"

Chief Mallari's voice echoed in everyone's ears through the radio. Hearing that command, everyone felt that they had been pardoned. Everyone immediately retreated while continuously firing towards the infected that were now flooding through the broken gap on the wall.

It did not take long before a convoy made up of more than a dozen vehicles left Firenze. The people inside vehicles were all in remorse. They had only felt safer for several days and they had to face the infected world once again.

As for the ranks of the police, they were despairing. Although they managed to leave and facilitate the escape, they lost more than half of their men due to the infected insects and Mutated Infected that were able to scale the roofs of the houses they stood on. As the infected were too many, they were not able to aid their comrades in time.

Now that they left Firenze, none of them knew what kind of life they would face outside the safety of the walls.

During the fifth day of the apocalypse, the Firenze Survivor Settlement had fallen into the hands of the infected.