Mutagen

<strong>Day 6 – 9:15 AM – School Courtyard, Queens Row Elementary School, Queens Row Area A, Bacoor City, Cavite</strong>

Captain Dela Rosa was leading Mark, Mei and the two little girls, Abbygale and Iola towards the principal's office near the main gates.

Along the way, Captain Dela Rosa could not help but ask about Iola who seemed to have completely recovered from her near death state yesterday. As someone who was there and the person in charge at that time, Mark told him about the little girl's current circumstances, except for confidential things, and what he planned for her which highly surprised the squad captain.

'This man actually wanted to adopt the girl?'

Captain Dela Rosa thought but did not try to refute it. For the girl to be adopted by someone capable as Mark was her fortune to some extent. Seeing the state of the people in Mark's group, he seemed to be cold and detached from others, would not hesitate to kill enemies and had a scary vibe around him but he was surely not an evil person. His group was filled with cheery people who were completely different to the majority of the people in the settlement. An evil leader could surely not create such wonderful scene in the middle of the apocalypse.

Considering how his performance against the men under Dominador, his violent nature did not harm any of the captured women and children. It seemed that he was a person who would not implicate innocent people as much as possible.

Besides, by right, he had the say on the girl's fate now that she should have died if not for his help. She had no relatives anymore either and no one would contradict Mark for what he wanted. Unfortunately, or maybe, fortunately, the girl had amnesia helping her forget her past. Though she might not remember her real family anymore, she was also able to forget the things she experienced in the past days.

Still, looking at the two girls that held hands together walking between Mark and Mei, it seemed that the younger one was behaving as the older sister as she led the other.

While walking, the captain could not help but realize that most of the attention of the people around was gathered on them. No, he was not included. Rather, the attention was gathered on the four people he was leading. It was not surprising though. Not only that the woman beside Mark was eye catching, the four was actually behaving like they were walking on a park despite the current situation.

He could clearly hear what the children were asking from behind. They were pointing at things they did not know and ask questions and the two adults would answer the two girls.

With that atmosphere behind him, the captain could only sigh and chose to ignore it. He could just wish in his mind if he could be as carefree as these people.

***

Mark and the three girls were led into the principal's office under the amazed gazes on the road. With the intense gaze the men were giving Mei, she could not help but hide behind him.

Actually, he wanted to make Mei stay back in the vehicle with the two girls but considering the current state of the settlement, he decided to bring her with him. He was already bombarded with the intense emotional fluctuation for the almost whole night. Any further would become intolerable for him no matter how much he endure.

Since back at the mall, he started to notice it. Whenever Mei was by his side, his mind state was less affected with the emotional fluctuations, specially, intense ones entering his mind. Though the emotional energies were still getting absorbed by him without control, it was milder and not too intense. It was as if something was preventing the energies from their usual momentum.

Last night however, he finally confirmed it when Mei finally fell unconscious. The intense emotional energies came in like flood, even stronger than before due to the number of depressed people in the settlement. Most of the refugees were in sorrow, anger, despair and anxious about the future. All those negative emotional energies entered his mind without control. He was only able to limit it to some extent by putting his whole concentration into something else and that was he let all his attention on working on his laptop for the rest of the night.

When Mei's fever finally subsided and her unconscious state switched to a sleeping state, the surge of emotional energies was contained once more. Mark was then sure that Mei was not normal either though it seemed that she was not an esper, there was something odd going on with her body.

Mei seemed to be able to dispel the unnecessary and excess unknown energies around her without her knowing. A further evidence of this was how he was able to sleep comfortably when he was in direct contact with her body.

Her existence was becoming more and more indispensable to him over time in many ways.

After they entered the main room of the principal's office, there Mark saw Irene with two other soldiers, City Councilor Palabrica and a few of his men and another soldier that seemed to be about the same age as or maybe older than Captain Dela Rosa by a year or two.

When they entered, the unfamiliar soldier and the city councilor's entourage looked at Mark and his group with raised eyebrows. He knew what they were thinking and it was obvious.

It was like why he brought women and children in this important meeting.

As if he would care about their opinions.

He looked at the members of the 11th squad. They did not seem to mind it.

Mark made the two little girls sit on the waiting bench nearby and told them to stay quiet. Mark then stood on the open space beside Captain Dela Rosa with Mei standing behind him. All of them surrounded a table where a map was placed open.

"Before we start, let me introduce this person first. This is Major Alfred Lopez, the person who led the 11th Rescue Squad."

Captain Dela Rosa introduced the unfamiliar soldier with a respective tone. It was no wonder. This Alfred Lopez was the highest ranking soldier in the settlement at the moment. However, due to being a newcomer here, Captain Dela Rosa held more authority than him during this time.

The captain then introduced the city councilor and lastly, Mark.

"So, you're the person going to decide our route?"

The atmosphere turned stiff and heavy.

Major Lopez looked at Mark and asked the moment Captain Dela Rosa finished the introductions. To Mark however, he felt that the eyes of this Major wanted to gauge him and it was releasing some pressure on him, a pressure that could come from a veteran of the battlefield. It was a different pressure he could feel from experienced politicians like Congresswoman Lanie before.

Mark however, did not feel like succumbing to this pressure. He looked at the Major straight to his eye and replied.

"By the deal, I am. Is there a problem?"

Seeing his composed answer, Major Lopez finally relaxed.

"No there is no problem. I just want to see if you have the confidence in this task or not. You passed. Let's get unto business."

Everyone finally relaxed.

Under Captain Dela Rosa's cue, Mark then picked up the pencil on the table and used it to write the route he wanted to take on the map while adding the few of the things the military intended to do such as joining with the people currently residing in Citta Italia and stopping by at gas stations and stores to get gas and other supplies as much as possible.

Following the route Mark planned, they would go north of this settlement through Queens Row Area B and past the next subdivision named Gardenia Valley. Using the main road, GSIS Road, of Gardenia Valley to the west, they would access the short road behind Molino Wet and Dry Market to bypass most of the heavy traffic blocking the two T-junctions at the end of GSIS Road where it connected to Molino Road.

They would then end up at the very entrance of Molino Blvd. where the east entrance of the Citta Italia was located.

"How are you sure that there were heavy traffic blocking the T-junctions here?"

Major Lopez asked while pointing at the map where those T-junctions were located.

"My group passed that area the day before yesterday."

Mark impassively replied.

"Major, he should be right. Those junctions are the most traffic prone places in that area."

The city councilor who was familiar with the state of affairs of the city added in support.

With that said, the Major nodded and continued to listen.

Continuing the route, after joining with the survivors at Citta Italia, they had two options. One was to access the western area of Citta Italia which was closer to the highway or continue at Molino Blvd. Both ways end up at the same points but also had pros and cons.

The first one would give them faster access to Emilio Aguinaldo Highway but with higher risk of encountering a part of the large horde and if not, they would still encounter a large number of infected as the highway was highly populated. The latter option however would bring them to the almost infected free road due to lesser people and establishments around the majority of the boulevard. The problem however was, at the end of the boulevard was a traffic prone area and the traffic buildup at that place was several times more than the previous T-junctions.

From there, they had to rely on the three modified dump trucks at the front to remove the road blockades and reach the entrance of R-1 Cavite Expressway at the western coastal area of Manila. This expressway would directly lead them to Bay City if no problems arise.

'No problems would arise huh.'

Mark contradicted what he said in his mind. It was because he knew that there would be a problem that would surely happen while they were in the travelling on the expressway. Of course, he could not say that and even if he did, it was less likely for these people to believe him.

While they were in the middle of the discussion, Captain Dela Rosa's private radio alarmed them. This radio should not receive any transmission unless there was sudden important news or a grave emergency from his men.

"Please, excuse me."

Captain said to the others as he answered the radio. Nevertheless, he did not leave his position as there was no need to. If there was an emergency, the people here should better hear it.

"Captain Dela Rosa, Captain Dela Rosa… This is Delay Team Command TS Cadunggan... Over."

"This is Captain Dela Rosa, over."

"Captain, we have an emergency. Another horde of the similar size coming from the southwest appeared at the southeast. They appeared at the blind area we least expected them to appear. Camella Subdivision is not being sieged by the infected on both sides!"

Hearing that, everyone in the room frowned, specially the soldiers.

"Can you still hold on?"

"We already lost several men but we can still hold on. The canals and creeks on the western side are impeding the advance of the infected there for now. We can concentrate most of our firepower to the east side but at the estimate, we can only last about an hour now or maybe even less."

"Alright, delay the infected as much as all you can but stay alive. We wish for the rest of you to return to our side."

"Roger Sir! Over and Out."

Captain Dela Rosa ended the transmission with a grave face and turned to the others around the table.

They should finish the preparations, double-time.