Mutagen

Day 5 – 10:02 AM – 1st Year Building, Eastern Bacoor National High School, Queens Row Area A, Bacoor City, Cavite

"What are you saying?"

Irene could not help but ask the moment he turned to Mark.

"You didn't hear me? I asked you guys if I can have her. That's all clear, isn't it?"

Mark replied indifferently.

"You-!"

Irene felt too exasperated that she could not think of what to say anymore. They already felt guilty due to their incompetence as soldiers and even more down seeing the dying girl in front of them but all of a sudden, Mark voiced a very unreasonable request behind them.

"Irene, calm down."

Captain Dela Rosa patted Irene's shoulder before turning to Mark.

"Can you elaborate further? Though I understand that you want us to hand over this girl to you can you at least give your reason?"

As Mark suddenly asked for a dying person, Captain Dela Rosa could not fathom what Mark's goal in this was.

Hearing the squad captain's question, Mark held his chin between his right index finger and thumb for a moment before replying.

"I can't go into specifics but you can say that it's my own research."

"Research? Don't tell me that you're a scientist. I won't believe it."

Irene interjected.

"I'm not a scientist alright? Anyways, I really can't go into specifics. All I can say that I have an experiment that I want to try and that dying girl there is the first suitable subject I encountered so far."

"Experiment?"

Captain Dela Rosa frowned. It seemed that it would be hard for him to accept giving a person to be experimented upon.

"Well, you can only say yes or no. In any case, that girl is already dying. If the experiment I wanted to try comes to a success, there is a chance that she can keep her life and I will take her in. If it fails, there was no issue at all even if she died because of the experiment. Unless… Any of you have the confidence, equipment or ability to save her."

Mark said nonchalantly making everyone listening ponder.

Before Captain Dela Rosa and Irene was able to reply back to Mark, the doctor examining the girl spoke.

"Captain, I think it's better if you agree to this man."

Everyone turned towards him and he continued speaking.

"We don't have any of the things he pointed out. We don't have the equipment or enough medicine to keep her alive. At this rate, this girl will die. Instead of trying to ask that man about his reasons, just give him this girl and ask later. Every second that you wasted reasoning with him is a second less for this girl to live. It's not like I agree with him experimenting on another person but it's not like we can do anything either other than watch her slowly die."

The doctor explained.

"I didn't expect that there will be someone that open-minded here."

Mark voiced.

To his words however, the doctor shook his head.

"It's not being open-minded. It's just having the lack of choices to choose from."

Hearing everything, Captain Dela Rosa sighed while Irene clenched her fists tightly.

"Alright. I agree. Mark, you can do what you want with this girl. If you need something else, just say it."

Captain Dela Rosa spoke with helplessness apparent in his face.

"I don't need anything. Just get a stretcher and bring the girl to our vehicle. I'll do the work there. Just hurry up. I need her before she died since I have no use for a dead body. In any case that you are still reluctant to, I left quite an amount of weapons and ammunition in the armory and barely touched the food storage. You can consider those as exchange for this half dead girl."

Hearing his indifferent voice, most of the people around tending the women and children frowned. Nevertheless, no one else questioned him.

***

Carrying a large bag made of vines filled with guns and ammunition, Mark then went out soon after with two soldiers lifting a stretcher carrying the dying girl. They hurriedly made their way towards the vehicle. Behind them, Emika, Laelaps and the beetle followed closely. On Laelaps' back was the body of Dominador that was still covered in thick vines.

"Mark!"

Going back to the vehicle, Mara shouted as she caught sight of Mark.

"Nothing happened right?"

"Yeah, nothing happened. My sister also stayed put not even moving from her seat."

"Alright. You all of you wait here outside the car."

Mark said to Mara and the others while beckoning the two soldiers to put the girl inside the vehicle. It seemed that these two soldiers were not aware of Janette's circumstances they only glanced at her before putting the stretcher with the girl at the floor of the vehicle.

Hearing Mark shoo her out, Mara felt disappointed. Still, she could only turn around and leave. She had already accepted that her sister was gone during the time Mark left her sister in her care. Mara tried talking to her but she only received a silent stare from her making her feel disappointed. Nevertheless, she still wanted to spend her time with her sister despite what she was now.

While Mara had those thoughts in her mind, she heard Mark speak.

"I'm not barring you from interacting with your sister. I just said before that you can't take her away due to several reasons but I never said that you can't meet her. Well, I'll explain some of the reasons to you later since I have urgent business to do."

Mark then turned to Emika.

"Emika, wait here and look after Dominador's body alright? Let's return together later after I'm done."

"Hai~! No problem!"

Seeing that the soldiers were done, Mark then went into the vehicle and closed the door leaving the others outside.

Mara went to sit on a concrete bench nearby. Hearing what Mark said made Mara happy. There, she realized that she had been over exaggerating things leading her to being tricked by Dominador. It even led her to betraying her friends, which made her feel ashamed.

Emika on the other hand started playing with the large beetle happily. It was a really good trait of her to find something fun to do anywhere. Soon, Mara and Emika started talking to each other. Given the personality of the two, it was not hard for them to open up to each other.

***

Inside the vehicle, after putting away the bag of weapons to the back, Mark looked at the girl whose consciousness were getting weaker for every second that passed by. He then started to take out several things from his bag and from the storage area of the vehicle. Soon, beside the girl, a large jar with floating crystals could be seen along with a pair of tongs. Beside the jar was a small bottle of yellowish thick liquid with reddish floating strands.

Mark then kneeled beside the body of the girl. Raising his right hand with concentration, his eyes and hand started to glow with a milky white light. He then held the girl's forehead and the white glow started to seep into her head like magic. What he was doing at the moment was trying to stabilize the waning consciousness of the girl. As the girl was unconscious, on the verge of death, both her conscious and subconscious were on the verge of dissipation.

Since Mark could use this energy to calm down and stabilize Abbygale's consciousness and emotions during the time she was agitated. He thought of trying it to someone on the verge of death or on coma if it would work but never had the chance to do so. Though he had no expectation that it would work on comatose patients, there might be possibilities on patients on the same state of the girl in front of him. Still, it he failed to stabilize her concious, there was no point to continue since even if he managed to treat her body, a living body without conciousness was no different from a dead person.

There, he was right. Carefully monitoring the mental and emotional fluctuations of the girl, he found that the energy he was channeling was doing its work as he intended. Though the consciousness of the girl was still too weak, it was now stabilized. If he did not manage to do so, he might have jumped unto the other experiment he intended to do but since he succeeded, he decided to continue with the current one.

The girl's breathing was still ragged and her body's condition was still getting worse. Even if he managed to stall the dissipation of her conscious, she would still die.

Without wasting time, he reached for the tongs and opened up the jar containing the floating crystals. He then carefully took out the newly formed pale colored crystal. During the six years he spent observing the largest crystal produce the smaller ones, he had several hypotheses and the most realistic was that the crystal was gathering some sort of substance or energy from the air and converts that energy into the smaller crystals. He came to that idea since every time the crystal produce a marble sized crystal, it would exude a bright purple light and he would start to feel some sort of strange energy entering his head and seeping into his skin. That energy might also be the reason why the infected around his house were attracted to the crystal in the first place.

Now that the large crystal suddenly produced an odd looking crystal, there would be no other reason for this but the outbreak and the substance present in the air at the moment should be the Mutagen. The similarities about the marble sized crystal with pale color and the crystal that was found on the huge cat back in the city hall further confirmed this theory of his. These crystals were likely to be a concentrated crystallization of Mutagen similar to the golden fruit Mikio gave his mother.

Still, despite those ideas, theories were still theories and were needed to be proven or else, mishaps could happen if it was concluded just like that. Mark knew that the large crystal produce that deep purple crystal every year and considering the time, it was not far to conclude that the large crystal would be able to produce this pale crystal every four days since it was just four days since the apocalypse started when the crystal released that bright light.

Considering that, he decided to try this crystal on this girl and see what effect it could bring. There were two conclusions he was expecting. One was that it could induce evolution abruptly while the other was to allow the body adapt to Mutagen and evolve in a quicker rate. If one of those two happened, it would likely be that this girl would be saved as her body would surely be able to handle her injuries after evolving. There was another thing he could think of happening but that was not the focus at the moment.

There, Mark made the girl have contact with the pale colored crystal and see if it would get absorbed like the purple crystal with golden glow that entered his body six years ago but unfortunately, it did not. He was thinking that he could make the girl swallow the crystal but she was unconscious and there was the chance of her choking to death if this crystal was forced into her throat. Nevertheless, he had no choice but to try. He put the crystal on her mouth without making her swallow it and was about to get water. In the worst case, he would put effort to at least enforce her consciousness to make her swallow the crystal.

However, while the crystal was inside her mouth, Mark's eyes squinted as a pale purple bright light was emitted by the crystal. The crystal cracked several times before turning into smoke like particles that entered the girl's throat through her breathing. Mark was surprised by it but also felt elated.

"Now to think of it, the infected transfers their pathogen through saliva, don't they?"

Mark muttered as he watched the scene transpire in front of him. Thinking about it, it seemed that the crystal dematerialized after coming into contact with the girl's saliva.

As the crystal was now ingested, Mark decided to observe what was going to happen. However, several seconds later, he started to feel that there was something missing. There was no reaction that could be seen from the girl's body either. Observing the girl, he frowned. Though he did not know why, he could feel that there was really something lacking.

"Mutagen right? It affects the body reacting to circumstances and might be emotions, inducing evolution. The soldiers also said that it affects mostly children because of them being in their growth period. However not all were being affected immediately and the intensity of the effect also varies from person to person."

Mark started to mull over what he knew as he started to feel that there was something missing at what he was doing.

"Mutagen reacts to different things… Chemicals, virus, bacteria… A catalyst… No… Not only those…"

Emika and Mikio came into his mind…

"The siblings both have plant like abilities… Then, the infected around the City Hall was affected by Mikio's mutation…"

Mark came to a realization and his eyes opened wide.

"Genes! Right! Genes, DNA and the like could also be catalysts! Especially those who have special genes either foreign or not in their bodies…!"

Thinking about it, it might also be the reason why there were people like him who evolved faster and stronger than the others. Everyone was infected with the Neutral Strain of Mutagen and of course, it was not only him who was doing their best to the extent of overcoming their limits. Yet, why was the rate and strength of evolution different? It should be because of genes!

Looking at the girl, the reason her body was not reacting to the crystal was likely because she did not have a strong enough gene in her body to induce her evolution!

Thinking of that, an absurd idea hit him.

He grabbed the clean small kitchen knife from his bag. He then, without hesitation, slit his left arm with the knife. It felt painful but not above what he could endure. Seeing the blood started to trickle, he aimed the drops of blood inside the girl's mouth. It did not take long for his blood to stop dripping out however as his regeneration kicked in soon after. He was sure the blood that dripped into the girl's mouth was not enough. It was the first time he felt frustrated about his absurd regeneration rate.

One more time, he made slice on his arm. This time, the wound was larger and more blood came out. He continued on making his blood drop into the girl's mouth before his would closed once more. He was about to make the third slice on his arm but then, there was finally some reaction from the girl's body. Her face started to flush red and her body temperature started to rise. It also looked like that her body was in even more pain. Still, Mark was elated. It was because that was the symptoms of someone was undergoing evolution!

It meant that his experiment was a success!

At that moment however, someone jumped on him from his back pinning him down.