Mutagen

<strong>Day 148 - 07:01 AM - North East Gate, Catanduanes Circumferential Road, Catanduanes Military Settlement, Codon, San Andres, Catanduanes</strong>

The sun had risen in the east. It was another day in the apocalypse.

This time, people were gathered at the North East Gate of the Catanduanes Settlement. While most of them were soldiers, there were also a lot of bystanders. As usual, they were there to just watch what was going on. After all, they were curious about why the General was here in the first place.

Of course, the soldiers tried to drive these people away. However, it was not like use force and could only keep them some distance away.

Even though General Padilla, Vanessa, Andrew, and the rest of their entourage were here, none of them were the center of attraction. It was the two young soldiers talking with the group.

As the gallery knew that these two soldiers were not usually seen around the General, they took the people's attention. Some were just curious, but some had other goals for remembering their faces.

The two were no other than Ernesh Geronimo and Joules Padua. They were the two Privates that were detained due to the ill will of Captain Zacharia in Caramoan Feeder Port.

They were already freed as the investigation deemed them as the victims. Furthermore, the soldier that Private Padua shot had already confessed what happened. However, the two did not have any reason to continue being soldiers anymore.

To say, the General and the higher-ups of the military in this Settlement were too late to take action. The damage had already been done because of the holes in their management.

As such, they lost two promising young soldiers in their camp.

General Padilla talked to the two young soldiers with pity. The more he interacted with the two, the more he saw how decent they were even compared to some veterans in their field.

Unfortunately, they were too late, and Mark got the full allegiance of the two.

"General, are we really letting go of these two?"

Vanessa, the General's Secretary, asked. She had been in this field for a long time and could see the same thing as the General about the two. The two might need some nurturing, but they were definitely good seeds.

"That Mark had already beaten us to the punch." The General sighed. "If not for Seguerra, we could have gotten rid of that Zacharia soon. That pig brought us more damage than help."

That was right. Zacharia was one of General Seguerra's direct subordinates. In fact, after the death of the Marines General, they learned from his subordinates that his appearance at the beach yesterday was not just because of the report of the monster.

Since the night before, even before General Padilla knew, General Seguerra already knew about the arrival of Mark's group and the package they were carrying.

That was why it was totally odd that General Seguerra arrived too fast at that time. Aside from his brother's situation, one of his goals was to capture Mark's group and take the package away from them.

Unfortunately for the Marines General, his greediness horribly backfired.

As the crimes had gone to light, they actually wanted to recall Captain Zacharia and capture him by surprise.

Well, that was if they could still do it. However, the military could not and would not be able to do it in the future.

It was because the Military Camp at the Caramoan Feeder Port no longer existed as of last night.

The reason was not hard to assume. After all, everyone in the Settlement knew the threat that appeared last night.

All communications to the Military Camp was gone, and all the soldiers there were declared MIA. The last radio exchange they had was them reporting a large scale attack at the camp. It was very likely that a lot of the infected that attacked the Military Settlement last night passed by that area.

Ten minutes after everyone was gathered here, the people they were waiting for finally appeared.

A lot of people were shocked. Some even tried to run away.

After all, who would not be afraid to see a huge winged lizard flying towards the Settlement's gates. Some of the soldiers also flinched and moved into battle positions. However, they saw General Padilla signal them to be at ease. That was when they saw people riding on the dragon's back.

Without attacking anyone, the dragon landed outside the gates.

The two young soldiers were surprised at the spectacle. Even more when they saw Mark jump off the back of Chaflar.

General Padilla approached Mark, beckoning the two young soldiers to follow him.

"You guys are pretty early. I won't be surprised if you guys came here a few hours later. I didn't set any exact time, after all."

Mark said as the General's group approached.

Some were confused why Mark said that. There were also those who frowned. As for the General, he could only sigh.

Ignoring Mark's sarcastic remark, the General replied.

"We decided at this time since it's not too early but not too late in the morning." The General then made the two soldiers step forward. "As you requested, we brought these two."

The two soldiers looked at each other and nodded. They then made their way towards Mark.

"Boss, you really came for us, huh?"

Padua said to Mark, rubbing his nose.

"Dude, be respectful. He's our Boss now."

Geronimo reprimanded his friend.

"It's fine," Mark said to Geronimo. "I don't mind how you speak as long as you two behaved properly."

"See, it's fine!"

Padua nudged his friend, who could only let a troubled sigh.

Ignoring the antics of the two, Mark turned back to the General.

"Then, I'll be taking away these two."

"It's fine," The General nodded. "They also requested to leave already. As I said before, we are not going to force anyone to stay."

Of course, the General did not make any effort to hide his pity from the loss of some good seeds.

"Though to say, I'm quite dissatisfied. I don't think that it's enough of a reward for helping us last night."

The General said. After all, he would allow the two soldiers to leave the military if they did not want to continue. Because of this, even though they fulfilled Mark's request, it still felt that they owed him.

At this point, Mark smiled. An eerily uncomfortable smile.

"Then, General," Mark spoke. "Actually, there is something else."

"I'm listening."

The General replied, unsettled by that smile.

"I want to ask about the person in charge of the evacuation in Baras."

Everyone heard Mark's request and felt that something was wrong.

"I heard something. It seems that whoever that was, he tried to hit on a woman and chased away the people with her when she rejected his invitation."

Mark added.

The General could not help but frown. He heard about this situation. However, it was buried in the mud because of the need to rush on securing the settlement. It was totally unexpected for it to be dug up at this point in time.

General Padilla had already opened his mouth to ask what was the matter. However, before he could do so, Mark was already gone.

"ACK!"

A loud painful choking was heard, turning everyone to the source of the sound. They were shocked to see Mark, who was already choking the officer that was leading the crowd control with his right hand.

"How convenient. I thought I have to search the whole settlement. Unexpectedly, you are here. Nice."

Mark said in a chilling tone.

"Mark! What is going on?"

The General quickly asked. He was in a bit of panic. Mark was giving out thick killing intent. He could tell. And as far as the General knew, this was bad news.

Mark then turned to the General, not minding the flailing officer as he started to lack oxygen. Even though it was obvious that the officer was trying to break free and grab Mark, for some reason, he could not, and his movements were strangely stiff.

"I won't hide it since several groups sent people to tail us yesterday. You all probably noticed that I was looking for something."

"I'm looking for my family."

Mark confessed.

"Then!"

The General tried to interrupt.

"You don't have to say anything, General. They are not here. I bet you can deduce it from what I said earlier."

Mark said.

The General and the other soldiers could only freeze as the situation sunk into their minds. Mark just said about that event that happened during the evacuation in Baras, Catanduanes. They were not dumb to not realize know what was going on.

"That woman this guy tried to hit on... That's my sister, you see..." Mark declared. "This guy chased away my parents, siblings, and relatives."

"General, I'm kind of disappointed," Mark said, staring at the officer's insignia on his uniform. "Master Sergeant, huh? Why is this kind of garbage still in this position?"

The General could not say anything to that. Even though he reasons was because there was a lot of more urgent situations to do in the Settlement, it was a fact that he also neglected a lot of things.

Who would have thought that it would backfire today?

Mark glanced at the General before turning back to the officer that was already turning purple on his hand.

"Do you want to say anything?"

Mark asked, loosening the grip of his hand.

"F*CK YOU!"

The officer spat on Mark's face to everyone's horror.

He already knew that he was going to die. He was there when the soldiers under General Seguerra were killed yesterday. Thus, he knew that Mark was a person that would not hesitate to kill.

"ACK!"

The office tried to let out more curses only to start choking again.

Mark then swiped the saliva on his left cheek with his free left arm.

"Initially, I thought of giving you a quick death. But it looks like you're more stupid than I thought."

Then, the officer's eyes dilated in horror. He could feel that something pierced his neck, entered his body, and was now flowing all over it.

Slowly, his body became stiffer and stiffer. Without his control, his lives began to stretch out. It was until he could not move anything else aside from his neck and above. He also felt weak, as if his body did not have enough blood circulating anymore. The worst part, it was painful as hell. He was screaming in agony but almost no voice could be heard because Mark was choking him hard.

Everyone watching could not understand what was happening. They could only see the officer struggle as his limbs behaved as if he was having seizures.

The soldiers were concerned about what they were seeing After all, the officer was still a soldier, one of their comrades. However, none of them wanted to be a hero and rescue the officer. Even the General had no such notion.

And then, Mark opened his hand, letting go of the officer. And like a metal stick that was dropped on the grown vertically, the officer fell with his body frozen like a statue.

"COUGH! COUGH! AGHHH!!!"

The officer coughed hard, only to cause him more pain as he screamed. His body seemed to be frozen stiff with only his head capable of moving.

Everyone could not imagine what happened to the officer and what kind of agony he was going through.

At this time, Mark turned to the General.

"General, you still felt indebted to me, right? Then, I have a good request."

"What is it? Do you need us to find your family?"

The General asked?

"Find them?" Mark smiled. "Don't bother, they're all dead already."

Everyone's hearts started pounding loudly. They could not help but curse inside their minds as their eyes fell on the suffering officer.

"What I want you to do is to keep this guy alive."

Mark ordered.

"What?"

Of course, the General was flabbergasted. But Mark did not care.

"I don't care how you guys do it. Just leave him as is or put him on life support or something. Just keep this guy alive as long as possible. If you think that it will waste food and water, then you can feed him dirt or infected meat and make him drink piss. I don't care as long as he's alive."

"I believe, you can do that, right?"

Mark said as he turned away, walking back to Chaflar.

"Let's go."

Mark said to the two young soldiers.

The two looked at each other once more, seemingly hesitating. In the end, the two made another voiceless agreement as he steeled themselves and hurriedly followed Mark.

And there, under everyone's watch, Mark left taking the two young soldiers with him as they rode on the Dragon's back.