Mutagen

Day 58 - 6:11 PM - University of Perpetual Help System Dalta - Las Piñas Campus, Alabang-Zapote Road, Barangay Pamplona Tres, Las Piñas, Metro Manila

In the director's office, Edward stood with the window overlooking the field in front of him. Beside him was Phillip who was quite unnerved about the things that would likely happen tonight.

"What do you think will happen, Edward?"

The old medical instructor asked.

Anything bad could happen at any time even before the outbreak started. It was just after the outbreak, the possibility of it happening rose more than a hundredfold.

Everyone that knew about this fact would surely feel unnerved while living in this kind of world.

And knowing that there were about a hundred people outside that would potentially ruin everything of what they had left including their lives would surely not help.

The worst thing was that they did not have the ability to choose. Both staying and escaping would give almost the same chances of dying. That was unless they would throw away what was left of their virtues and humanity to sacrifice others so that some of them could live.

It was something that Phillip would never able to stomach.

"I don't know Phillip." Edward sighed. "We can only wait. I don't know why but I feel that something unexpected will happen tonight. I'm probably gambling with our lives right now but we might just win this one."

"Then, it will be the most important wait in our lives."

"Yes, I can't agree more."

Hearing that, the old man sat on the sofa.

"Is it really fine to let Lynn go with them?"

"I think that it's fine. You already heard her boasting being a close friend of Miss Karlene before. Besides, Terrence accompanied her although I doubt that the two, no, even all of us will be able to do anything if they had bad intentions."

"Is that the feeling you got from them?"

"No, not from the other two, just from that person called Mark."

***

Day 58 - 6:13 PM - Medicine Faculty, University of Perpetual Help System Dalta - Las Piñas Campus, Alabang-Zapote Road, Barangay Almanza Uno, Las Piñas, Metro Manila

Analynn and Terrence followed behind Mark's group and reached the Medicine Faculty without problems. Some infected tried to attack after they went down from the roof of the walkway but for some strange reason, the two found the infected rather too slow compared from before. Because of that, the two could only follow Mark and his group that ignored the infected and run forwards.

They also saw the vehicle parked in front of the vehicle and could not help but feel amazed. They never saw anything like it. Nevertheless, it was not the time to admire it since there were infected wandering around them.

Going up the second floor of the faculty, the two of them heard a sweet voice as they saw a girl approach Mark. And of course, the two froze. Terrence froze because of the surprise of seeing Mei's appearance. Analynn was good looking and Karlene was also beautiful. However, the two could not be compared to the one in front of them right now.

On the other hand, Analynn had a different reason for her surprise. It was because she recognized the girl in front of them. Her family might not be too rich but they also belonged in the higher society. Because of that, she was familiar with people who were the best to have connections with.

"Gege, how is it?"

She asked Mark without even glancing at the strangers together with him. However, it seemed that she felt the gaze Terrence was giving her. Because of that, she jumped into Mark's embrace stating that she belonged to someone else.

It did not take long before Terrence lost sight of her. It was because Mark's back blocked his view. He then felt cold and turned to his side just to see both Karlene and Analynn giving him cold stares.

"Let's talk inside. Don't mind these two here. They are Karlene's guests."

"Okay."

***

The night deepened as they talked about their next steps. They also ate dinner like there was nothing wrong which made their two guests perturbed. Nevertheless, eating nothing but dry noodles and crushed crackers these past days made the two throw away their confusion and ate the first real dinner they never had for a long while.

Finally, Mark stood up.

"Odel, Spera, and Edzel, go inside the car and operate the things there as I showed you before. Karlene, stay here with your guests. Mei'er, prepare to back me up from the window. Miracle, Iola protect everyone here."

He then looked at Abbygale.

"We haven't fully tested your new power yet, right? This will be a good opportunity."

Without asking questions, everyone moved to leave another thing that made Karlene's guests confused.

"Karlene, what is happening?"

"Oh, the enemies outside is probably making their moves already."

"Huh?!" Analynn's eyes turned wide. "What are they going to do? He said that there are about a hundred enemies right? Are they just going to confront them upfront?"

To her friend's worries, Karlene smiled bitterly.

"You don't have to worry and just watch. Well, it's quite dark outside already so you might not see anything. It might sound ridiculous but this is already overkilling the enemies. Just Mark alone is more than enough to deal with those people."

Analynn could only nod trusting her friend's words while Terrence silently peeked outside the window wanting to see how they would deal with this.

***

The preparations started. 

Mei took out her sniper rifle and aimed through the window while Iola created a barrier that would protect everyone in this room.

Odelina, Edzel, and Spera ran into the vehicle which made the two sylphs inside rather happy that they did not have to hide any longer inside. With a few maneuvers, the vehicle faced the exit as if ready to rush out at any moment. At the same time, Edzel stood in the sniper dome and mounted two assault rifles in the gun slots while Spera was already to activate the weapons around the vehicle when needed.

***

In the parking lot, about fifty men slowly closed in. They were trying to be as stealthy as possible as they only used knives and other melee weapons to deal with the infected. All of them were rather skilled in close combat as they took down the infected in the shortest amount of time possible.

It was then that they suddenly heard the sound of a vehicle engine starting. Lights flashed towards them making them blinded for a bit. However, as seasoned fighters, the sudden blindness did not stop them from moving. They immediately moved behind the vehicles parked near them and hid until their eyes were used to the light.

"Royce, what is going on?"

Atop one of the buildings that could oversee the parking area, Gifre asked Royce. For the vehicle of their targets to suddenly startup at this time, it felt like the targets knew that they were coming.

"Boss, don't judge my professionality. I kept my self on the maximum distance I can observe them. It is impossible for them to notice me. Hmm, unless they noticed it when our people arrived. The infected made quite a ruckus back then."

"Gifre, it doesn't matter if they knew that we are here or not. Just take them down."

Vem hugged Gifre from behind and whispered into his ear.

"That is right, boss." Logan chimed in. "There are just a few of them and we already took a lot of our men here. Things are already in our grasp."

Gifre nodded. He was also confident about this. After this, the amazing looking vehicle would be his along with the beautiful girls in that group. It might not suit his taste but it would be fine to add a few little girls in their collection.

While those thoughts filled his mind, however...

"Boss, look!"

Royce spoke in a strange voice while pointing at the parking lot.

As Gifre and the others looked, they saw two figures standing in the middle of the parking area slightly illuminated by the lights of the vehicle. One of a man and the other was a little girl.

***

"It's been a while since we are together like this with just the two of us, right Gale?"

Mark spoke.

"Un!"

Abbygale nodded excitedly.

"Well then, you go and deal with the people on that roof." Mark pointed on the roof of the building west of the parking lot. "I'll deal with the others."

As Mark finished his words, Abbygale nodded and rushed off. Like a shadow in the night, she was almost invisible to the eye. However, even if she was fast, there was no way for her to jump towards that roof of a two-story building. Well, that was before though.

Abbygale stared at the roof and ran as her appearance transformed. Her speed increased further and her eyesight had gotten brighter. She then jumped unto the roof of a vehicle creating a loud thud before she jumped off the roof of the vehicle towards the roof of the building. The sound of her jump alerted the people there and she was able to see their silhouettes.

Of course not all the enemies were just pushovers. They were not amateur criminals and were trained. There was also the fact that some of them were Evolvers and a Few were Mutators. When they saw her shadow mid-air, some of them managed to react and point their guns at her.

With Abbygale being in the middle of her jump that was not enough to reach the roof and there was also no way for her dodge in the air normally, the men thought that it would be the end of the silhouette that tried to threaten them.

RATATATATATA!

Bullets flew towards the little girl.

But when everyone expected her death, her eyes flashed with a mysterious light. Both her feet kicked the air for some reason.

And then...

Her body blurred as her body moved towards another direction leaving the bullets with nothing to hit but the cemented ground below.

The men were surprised, yet, they still tried to aim but...

They were never able to. The blurred shadow jumped off and changed directions mid-air as if the shadow was using an invisible platform to propel towards different directions.

By the time they knew, the little girl was already in front of them, no, her foot was in front of the face of one of their comrades.

CRACK! BLAM! THUD!

The first person that received her kick fell with a neck bent backward before his lifeless body fell off the roof.

After the first casualty, a loud thud was heard as the little girl jumped towards another person.

It was the start of the struggle of about thirty people on that roof. They tried to fight back thinking about the deaths of their comrades and with the thought that there was only one enemy in front of them. 

'It was just a little girl.'

They kept on thinking.

It made them not notice that...

One by one, they started to fall.

***

Mark watched the performance of his little girl with a proud expression. Since the start, Abbygale's fighting style concentrated on her feet. She had fast movement and strong kicks but the foundation of those moves was her jumps. That was also her greatest weakness. She jumped a lot. 

Although Mark started to train her on kicking lower parts of the body like feet and knees to incapacitate the enemy, it was instinctual to her to target the heads and necks of the enemies for some reason.

And Mark managed to think of a good way to address that. Devon's psychic ability, the [Psychic Barrier]. Mark did not hesitate to give it to Abbygale during their free time in the settlement.

Devon used this ability to protect himself and the people he was contracted with. It was the main use of this ability after all.

To Mark, however, the function of this ability was not limited to that. Like how he taught his little cat girl, it could be used in many more things.

Just like how Abbygale used smaller barriers as floating and steady platforms in the air to propel herself towards any direction she wanted. This erased her greatest weakness and with her overwhelmingly fast cat-like reflexes, it was almost impossible to kill her without stopping her movements.