Mutagen

Day 5 – 10:26 AM – Parking Area, Queens Row Elementary School, Queens Row Area A, Bacoor City, Cavite

Feeling the weight and the soft sensation that suddenly pressed on his back, Mark struggled hard not to fall towards the girl he had just finished experimenting on. Due to that, he had fallen side wards avoiding the little girl. When he fell, Mark felt a little pain on his right arm and right side as it hit the floor. It was then he felt a tight grasp on his left arm as it was pulled away.

Following that, his back shivered and he felt the hair of his neck, back and arms stood on ends. He could also feel a soft and sticky sensation repeatedly touching his left arm that was pulled away.

As he recovered from the sudden fall, he looked at his left arm that was voraciously being licked like an ice cream. And the culprit of course was no other than Janette who was left inside the vehicle all this time. Janette was tightly hugging his arm and licking the remaining blood away.

Seeing this sight, Mark felt exasperated. It was not like he was too immersed in what he was doing but he felt no ill intent from Janette nor felt any danger in the surroundings. It just meant that Janette did not attack her but only wanted to lick off the blood that covered his arm after he sliced his skin twice. If there was really any danger, his enhanced senses should feel it but as there was none, he was caught off guard.

Still, the feeling of your arm being licked by a woman was rather…

As he started to feel somewhat weird and awkward, Mark started to pull his arm away but Janette's grip was just too strong. He then hurriedly sat down and pushed Janette's face away from his arm. Unlike her arm that did not budge even a centimeter, Mark easily peeled her face away. However, it seemed that she did not want to stop and struggled.

"Janette! Stop! Bad!"

Mark yelled with a slight red glow in his eyes.

Hearing his voice and feeling the sudden jolt inside her mind, Janette froze and looked at Mark's face. Seeing his angry face it seemed that Janette felt intimidated and slowly let go of Mark's arm seemingly afraid that he would get angrier.

Seeing her reaction, Mark was both confused and amazed. Confused because of her actions but amazed with the fact that Janette was starting to display emotions though it was very faint. Still, though it was faint, it affected her actions too harshly as her mind was as blank as a brand new sheet of paper. Janette was mostly docile but if something ticked her consciousness off, she tended to act erratically pretty much like now. The same applied when Mark made her stay and she did, at least until she saw the remaining blood on Mark's arm.

Sighing, Mark looked at his arm covered with Janette's saliva.

"I won't get infected like this right?"

Thanks to his absurd regenerative ability, the cut he made on his arm left no mark at all and he was not able to cut himself for the third time as the girl's body finally showed some reaction. As Janette's saliva did not enter directly into his body, he was thinking if it would bring him bad repercussions.

"Hmmm?"

Mark noticed something and hurriedly picked up the small bottle that he prepared just in case that the first experiment failed. It was the bottle that contained a yellowish sticky liquid that had blood strands in it. The content of the bottle was actually saliva from one of the infected he killed earlier. He took a bottle of saliva as he wanted to experiment on it in the future. It was just that he did not expect for a good subject for the experiment to come too early.

If he was not able to turn the girl into an Evolver like him, Mark might have resorted in trying to turn her into a Mutator or if that also failed, he would try to turn her into something like Janette. That was also the reason he let Janette remain inside the vehicle. He also intended to get saliva from Janette or maybe blood sample just in case.

Comparing the contents of the bottle and the saliva on his arm, Mark frowned. The saliva on his arm obviously looked different from the content of the bottle. Janette's saliva looked clearer and unlike the thick saliva in the bottle that almost looked like syrup, the viscosity of Janette's saliva was thinner.

Seeing the comparison, Mark suddenly spit on his arm next to the thickest part of Janette's saliva. It might look disgusting but Mark did not care even a tiny bit. Comparing his own saliva to Janette's, there was not much difference aside from the reddish color on Janette's saliva due to her licking his blood.

"Does this mean she's not one of the infected anymore?"

Mark mulled as he compared the three kinds of saliva in front of him. Still, he was not that convinced with the thought. He wanted to at least confirm this but where could be find a microscope to check?

"Wait, Emika's uncle is a botanist so he should have some research equipment with right?"

Thinking that, he decided to ask later.

Mark then wiped off the remaining blood and saliva on his arm with a rag before he helped Janette who was frozen beside him, not moving even an inch and made her sit back on the sofa.

"Don't move from there again or I'll get angry."

Mark said to her with a faint red glow in his eyes. Of course, he did not receive any response but the jolt on her faint consciousness was enough to tell him that she would stay put for a while.

Turning back to the unconscious girl, Mark suddenly had a conflicting thought in his mind.

It was true that that he only brought her because she was a perfect candidate for the experiment. Since there was a chance of failing and if any of the experiment that failed would result to the subject dying, someone who was on the verge of death was a perfect candidate. Not only that but this girl was within the effect of growth as a child which would also affect the chances of success on the experiment. Furthermore, she had no relatives to claim her which would make it easier for him to put her into his custody if the experiment was a success.

After all, he was not doing this for humanitarian prospects but to test how he would be able to enhance the capabilities of the people in his group and as countermeasure in case that the worst case scenarios happened. Just the value of the crystal could not be estimated and he would surely not waste it on someone he would not benefit from.

Now however, he felt conflicted. As what he did, using his own blood as catalyst to induce the girl's evolution, it was something he did on the spot without thinking too much about it. This was because the situation was grave and he could not bother to think about other things. Now however, the evolution was induced and using his blood as catalyst, it would sure fuse with the girl's body.

Now, the question here…

Could this girl be considered as his kin now?

Scratching his head, Mark started to examine the girl's body. It might look unethical seeing a fully grown unrelated man intently observing an unconscious little girl's naked body but he needed to do so. It was to see whether there were changes that could be observed that was happening on the girl's body.

Mark was right at this moment. There were some changes that could be observed and it was no doubt that it was something that came from his blood.

The girl's wounds and bruises started to heal in a rate that could be observed with the naked eye. Even the bleeding of her genitalia had already stopped. It was still bleeding before he started his experiment. The evidence of this was the red stain left on her bottom and on the stretcher.

Touching the girl's forehead, he found that her temperature was rather too high. Even higher that Carlo's temperature when he was unconscious. As this could lead to the girl's brain being fried by her fever, Mark took out some anti-fever syrup and made her ingest it with his assistance. He then proceeded to take out cold water from the refrigerator and started to wipe the girl's body. It was not only to control her temperature but also to wipe off the filth on her body. If Mark was to be frank, the girl was rather quite smelly. He did not try to decrease the temperature of the air conditioning since it not only that it might led to a different effect but he and Janette would also get affected by the sudden drop in temperature.

It was unfortunate that only Janette was here to watch Mark do his work. He might not have a good personality and his vocabulary was limited most of the time. He also had a lot of bad aspects. One of his best qualities however was how he was meticulous in taking care of his people. As he already though in his mind that this girl was one of his people, he gently wiped her body caring not to hurt her in any way. It was similar to why he would not let the others fight too dangerous battles as long as he was around doing almost everything by himself. He did not want them to get hurt in any way.

After cleaning her body and her temperature waned, Mark lifted the girl off from the dirty stretcher and made her lay down on the blanket covered sofa before covering her body with another blanket. As the little girl's condition stabilized, it was now time for Mark to get out of the vehicle. It was because he could detect some people waiting for him outside aside from Emika and Mara.

Opening the door of the vehicle, who greeted his sight, was Captain Dela Rosa and Irene. Behind them were a few soldiers along with the Doctor that examined the girl. Even the Barangay Chairwoman was here but Mark could not see the City Councilor though. Rollan, Nikky and her group was also missing. Probably, they already returned to where Dorothy was.

As Mark went out, Irene immediately stepped forward.

"How is it?"

"You can check inside. Well, just you alright?"

Mark nonchalantly said while beckoning her to get inside the vehicle.

Irene nodded and hurriedly went inside the vehicle while Mark stood by the side of the door.

Captain Dela Rosa also wanted to follow but he restrained himself hearing what Mark said.

Entering the vehicle, what Irene immediately though was how luxurious the vehicle was. She then turned to Janette warily since she was an infected by their intelligence report and Mark had already admitted it before. Seeing that Janette was only staring at her without moving, she proceeded to check on the girl.

It did not take long before Irene went out of the vehicle and stared at Mark as if she wanted to dig something from his body. Her expression made everyone concerned about the girl tense up. Mark on the other hand stared back at her without backing up.

"How did you do it?"

Irene finally spoke.

Mark just raised his shoulders as reply to her though. As if he was going to answer that question.

"How is the patient?"

The doctor who examined the girl before could not help but ask Irene. It seemed that the suspense started to kill him inside.

Looking at the doctor and the others waiting for her answer, Irene spoke.

"The girl is already safe. She had fever but it doesn't seem to be something dangerous."

Irene might not be a doctor but the girl's condition did not need some expert to deduce.

What she said made the people around feel relieved. But it was obvious that there were still lingering sadness inside them. Feeling the odd fluctuations, Mark could not help but ask.

"The girl is safe now but why the long faces?"

To his question, Captain Dela Rosa answered.

"Not all the missing women and children were retrieved. When we asked the rescued women, it seems that the still missing ones had already died and were already disposed of."

The dismayed face of the squad captain as he told that, revealed how much guilt he was feeling at this moment. It was the same for Irene and the other soldiers. Nevertheless, they could not do anything about the dead anymore.

"By the way Captain, I want to ask something."

Mark suddenly spoke diverting their thoughts away.

"What is it?"

"Do you think, I can sell or at least trade Dominador's body to your scientists?"

Mark said while looking at the body covered with vines in front of Emika. At first, he wanted to make Janette eat his body but considering Dominador's transformation, Mark felt repulsed to do so. Eating that Mutator back in Firenze seemed to not only awaken a new consciousness on Janette but she also inherited his arm strength. If he made Janette eat Dominador's brain, there would be a chance that Janette would turn into a monkey looking monster and he did not want that to happen.

He wanted to observe Janette and wanted to see what she would end up as but he did not want to create a disgusting looking monster just because he feed her everything he could get.

"Why did you ask?"

Captain Dela Rosa voiced his question.

"Well, I figured that your scientists might need a specimen of a successful Mutator. As far as I know, your scientists only have those failed ones right?"

What Mark said pushed the squad captain into thinking.

"I'm not sure about it but I'll ask."

Their conversation was about to continue when a soldier came running towards them gathering their attention.

"Captain! Captain!"

The soldier stopped beside Captain Dela Rosa.

"Calm down. What is going on? Did something happen on the radio?"

"Yes captain."

The soldier tried to catch his breath.

"We were scanning for radio signals when we managed to intercept one. It came from a bandwidth being used by the local police. They said that they were from Firenze and were asking for assistance."

The soldier then handed a small notebook to the squad captain.

Hearing the word "Firenze", Emika suddenly stood up and Mark's eyes squinted.