Mutagen

Day 156 - 3:21 PM - New Infanta Settlement, Barangay Banugao, Municipality of Infanta, Province of Quezon

Late in the afternoon, the temporary peace of the New Infanta Settlement was disturbed. It was no surprise if the people in the settlement were on edge as the place was prone to constant attacks. The infected from the south would wander from time to time, and mutated animals would go down from the mountains in the west to try and prey on them.

These past few days, however, the military noticed the sudden decrease in attacks of mutated animals. Thus, the people could not help but feel at peace, despite feeling strange.

A temporary peace indeed, although the air was a bit dustier for some unknown reason.

But with the usually eye-catching arrival of Mark's group, it was no surprise that the people would be stirred up. After all, they were the only ones that would use a dragon as transport every single time they arrived at this settlement.

The people in New Infanta Settlement would likely not get used to such a scene of a dragon entering and landing inside the settlement for a long time.

While the entire settlement was filled with murmurs, the cause of the commotion had just landed inside the military base. And as per usual, it was General Faustino who personally welcomed the group together with the mercenary Jones Galley and a few other soldiers as his personal bodyguards.

Mark jumped off Chaflar's back before assisting Elise down. Emika just went down on her own. Karlene was also present, following Emika. This time, it was only the four of them that came here.

While Mark prepared the items he had to give the General, Elise was sticking close to him. She seemed to be curious about the surroundings but was very afraid of the soldiers keeping watch.

"Nee, Uncle. I'll go ahead!"

Emika informed Mark before running off, not even waiting for a reply.

"Wait for me!"

Karlene followed suit, chasing after the green-haired girl. The two left without letting the General call for them at all.

Mark could only glance at the two as they left. It was a part of their plans.

"Nice to see you again." 

General Faustino greeted Mark with a relieved tone. This was not surprising, considering the journey that Mark's group must have gone through. They had been gone for more or less a week. In a world where the person you just met might die the next hour, it was definitely a relief to see them alive.

"Is it only you four? And who is this? I believe it is the first time we saw her."

The General asked. One part, he wanted to know if something might have happened to the others. The other was just curiosity.

It was when Jones chimed in, looking at how Elise was closely beside Mark. Not to mention her holding onto the hem of his clothes.

"Is this your new wife? Did you replace the first one already???"

And... There was no reply.

All there was were Mark's eyes glaring coldly at the guy.

"Calm down with those eyes, alright? It's just a joke."

Jones awkwardly said, taking a step back. Mark's eyes were saying that he could kill anytime.

It was all a joke, of course. But it sure was an inappropriate one.

"I believe we're not that close to exchange such jokes."

Mark declared, drawing the line between him and Jones. He knew that, while good at acting during missions, Jones was never a serious type of person. Jones was the type of person that could easily blurt out jokes and nonsensical stuff.

It was just the joke he thought of this time was not a good one.

"Hah... Jones." The General sighed. "We are on official business right now. Take this seriously..."

"Okay, General." Jones awkwardly replied. He knew that he stepped out of the line this time.

"I dropped my wife and everyone home first before coming here." Mark finally replied to the General's question. He emphasized the word "wife"  however while glancing at Jones.

"They are tired after a long journey."

Mark added.

"That is good then." General Faustino nodded. "Let's go to my office. I'd like to hear some things along with the documents you brought from the settlement in Catanduanes."

And with that, the General led Mark and Elise to his office.

***

Inside the office, Mark handed the documents. Most of it contained the reports of events in Catanduanes after the communication was cut off. As for the other information that was not included in the documents, the fall of the rebels, for example, was supplemented by Mark instead. After all, it all happened after the documents were handed to Mark.

Of course, Mark only told the information directly related to the military and nothing else.

Mark was also handed the copy of the research papers, following the deal with taking this job. Aside from those, Mark also received another case containing another set of [Regeneration Medicine]. Something that only this settlement could provide him so far.

"To think that Padilla tried to hide these for the sake of face."

General Faustino complained, seeing that there were a lot of discrepancies between the actual report from Mark and the ones from back then.

"In any case, that won't be your problem soon." Mark shrugged. "With the leader of the rebels still alive, I doubt that he would still live for too long."

That was a cold way to say it, but there was really nothing they could do. Not to mention that the politicians in Catanduanes were trying to wrestle control from the military.

Sooner or later, the Catanduanes Settlement would fall unto another person's hand. Unfortunately, there was no way that other settlements would be able to help.

"Seriously, these crocodiles are a pain," Jones complained. "These politicians don't really contribute much within the settlement. What's worse is that they are the loudest ones when it comes to complaining."

It was a horrible truth. There were barely any decent people with a political position in the apocalypse. And when things took a turn for the worse, they were the ones to nag the military the most. Not to mention them having more influence than the military.

"That's not my problem." Mark shrugged. "If they were just freeloaders, you just better throw them out of the settlement."

"It's not that easy, alright?" General Faustino sighed.

"It's not easy because you people are still clinging to the belief that Earth will go back to how it was before."

Mark said, just stabbing everyone in the room.

What he said was true, but most people were just unable to let this hope go.

"Anyway, I handed the reports and documents. So I'm done here, right?" Mark asked.

"Yes. Thank you for doing this."

General Faustino nodded. Although what Mark did was just a part of a deal, having more information was crucial to the military in many ways.

"Actually, I think that the payment we can give is too little with all the things you've faced along the way. From the documents, you also saved the Catanduanes Settlement from a giant infected. You're group even decimated the aggressive faction of the rebels."

The General added, which anyone in the room could only agree.

Hearing that, Mark stealthily smiled. It was what he was waiting for.

While he did not lie with his reports, he exaggerated pieces of it, making the General feel that Mark's group was getting a loss instead.

"If you think like that, then I actually have a request," Mark spoke, taking the opportunity.

"What is it?" 

General Faustino asked, thinking that the deal should at least be equal. After all, Mark's group did many things for this settlement, including during the attack of people from Auraboros.

"I want to borrow Chervil Sandoval for a while."

Mark told his request, causing a deafening silence in the room.

"Professor Sandoval? Why?"

Of course, the General would ask.

"We've found some strange samples of plants near the base. I want an expert to take a look."

Mark then took out his phone, showing photos of strange-looking plants.

"You could just take those samples here, right?"

Jones interjected. He was not wrong, though, as it was the standard protocol.

"Would you try and approach, not to mention transport, plants that you knew nothing about without the aid of an expert?"

Mark asked, making Jones silent. There was a possibility that those plants would be poisonous or had allergens. It would be safe to study those plants on-site to avoid complications. Even the soldiers scouring the vicinity would take pictures or drawings first before bringing a team to transport it.

Nonetheless, the other soldiers were against it. A scientist was precious personnel in the settlement. Even more for someone with achievements as Professor Chervil Sandoval.

However, it seemed that General Faustino was different.

"Alright. I'll allow it."

General Faustino nodded.

"General, are you serious?"

Some soldiers could not help but ask because of the unexpected answer.

"We don't really have any problem here." General Faustino insisted. "So far, Mark had been a trustable partner. His base might be hard to reach but is not too far from here either. If Professor Sandoval's safety is what you people are worried about, I doubt that we can do better than him and his group."

Those words struck everyone in the room to silence. No one was able to refute it, despite their disagreement.

"In any case, I'm just borrowing him," Mark spoke. "If you people want, you can send someone to guard him. Preferably, Major Bautista. In the least, we knew each other. I won't bother to get along with people I don't know, so it's better to send someone we knew."

"Is that also the reason why you chose Professor Sandoval instead of asking for any scientist we had?"

General Faustino asked.

"Yep." Mark nonchalantly replied. "Scientists are eccentrics so, I rather not entangle myself with those that I'm not familiar with."

With Mark telling them to send other people to guard Professor Sandoval, the opposition became weaker. In the end, they agreed, although the General told Mark to return him as soon as possible.

Of course, Mark had no problems and agreed.

All of them did not know that it was Mark's plan all along.

By allowing them to send escorts but limiting them to people that Mark knew, it allowed Mark to bring people he knew back to his base. It was likely that the members of Alana and Karlene's former group would be sent together with Major Bautista.

Even the plants that Mark showed were actually plants from the spirit dimension. He needed to show pictures of more insane and unstable-looking plants for this to work smoothly.

Emika and Karlene running off were to tell their families to prepare early. Mark also urged the military that he needed the people by sunset. There was really no need to prepare much as Mark already guaranteed to have science equipment available.

And before sunset, Mark's group left the settlement with everyone he expected.

***

"Don't you think that he is behaving oddly?" General Faustino said, watching the silhouette of the dragon fly away. "He also rushed in taking them away, giving the best conditions he could give. If it as if he was planning something."

"If you noticed, why did you agree?" Jones asked the General.

"We don't really have a choice, don't we?" The General replied. "If we wanted to keep an equal connection with them, we can only agree. We can only rely on Mark's group for things we can't do. We can't burn the bridge because of a single request. Besides, he did promise to return Professor Sandoval. It's not like we are losing something."

"Still, Mark sure is a hard-to-read person." Jones shrugged. "We can't even tell if he is lying or not. How can he keep a poker face and composure like that all of the time? It's impossible to see if he is lying or not. Not to mention trying to deduce his true intentions."

"Since you know that he's someone that keeps to himself, you better stop with those jokes." General Faustino complained.

"Hahaha." Jones scratched his head. "It just came out."

With that exchange, everyone went back to their duties, unaware that it would be the last night that Earth would remain the way they knew.