Mutagen

<strong>Day 18 – 12:02 PM – Northwest Tower Rooftop, Silver Dragon Hotel Manila, Central Business Park, Bay City</strong>

Two women were currently entangled on a fight on the wider area of the rooftop. No, rather than a fight, despite how intense their movements, there was no killing or ill intent behind their attacks. In a closer look, it was nothing but a friendly spar.

Both women wore fitting clothes and tight pants and their hair both tied up in a ponytail. The older woman who should past her thirties had a good looking face and attractively mature aura while the younger woman was only eighteen at most with a beautiful face and pale white skin.

Obviously, these two women were Odelina and Mei. Training in this rooftop had been their routine in the morning till noon since three days after they arrived here in Bay City.

It had been twelve days already since Mark separated from them due the extreme circumstances that night. At that time, Mei felt afraid of the thought that something bad happened to Mark and that was why Fein flew back alone with his things and that letter. If not for the certain feeling she had, a connection she felt towards him, she would have been devastated.

Another thing that made her worry was that after Iola collapsed that night, she did not wake up. A military doctor here in Bay City examined the little girl and found that there was nothing wrong in her body and the problem might have been in her psychological state. It made Mei even more worried. Since Mark was not here, she took responsibility of taking care of Abbygale and Iola. If Iola did not wake up, she did not know what she would do.

Fortunately, the worst did not happen and Iola woke up three days after. There was a very noticeable change on her however. Iola's dark brown eyes before turned into different colors. Her left eye turned dark red while her right eye turned deep violet. It was a really strange case of heterochromia especially since those kinds of eye colors did not exist before. Now, even though different eyes and colors could exist on people, it was only available to Mutators.

Iola was not one which made it very strange.

Furthermore, when she woke up and saw Mei's sad face, what the little girl said was not confusion nor to ask for something she wanted. She touched Mei's cheeks and weakly said.

"Papa… is alive…"

Iola then let out a bright smile as if assuring Mei.

No one knows why the girl said that or how she was sure about what she had said but the more important thing was Mei knew that she was not the only one who could feel Mark's existence even from far away. Furthermore, with how Iola reacted to the crystals that night and sent the crystals away towards Mark, it gave her account more credibility due to its mysteriousness.

Mei changed her mind and set it to training herself and the ability Mark gave her. She wanted that by the time Mark returned, she could fight by his side. Whether it was being able to use the sniper rifle, physical fitness or close combat, she took it with all her heart and effort. And of course, her trainer was the all-around servant, Odelina.

To the side watching the two in their current spar were the four children that were sitting around a circular table and were forced to study. To others, it might not be necessary anymore to study but Odelina did not want these children to shirk their studies. Other specific subjects such as advanced math could be neglected but not general knowledge that would be of use in the long run. Furthermore, it was really easy to procure the books due to the fact that most people find these things as nothing but junk after the outbreak.

Siegfried and Odette were diligently studying the sixth grade books they had while Iola was practicing to read. On the other hand, the five year old Abbygale who could not read yet was only coloring a coloring book this time.

CREAK…

The door to the rooftop opened. It was Anna who was carrying two towels and bottles of water.

"Lunch is ready!"

Anna called out to the two women and four children. She then handed the towels to bottles of water to the two women who had just stopped from their spar. Anna's countenance now had already improved as she gradually recovered from the loss of her family. Even though she still felt sad every time it came into her mind, in the least, she would not cry anymore.

"It's lunch time already?"

Odelina asked as he looked at the sky. It seemed that she was too focused on training Mei that she did not realized that it was already noon.

After calling the children, the group of women went back to their designated dwelling. Their room was the largest room on the ninth floor in the same tower. It was a room at the northwest corner of the floor which gave them a good view of the places to the northwest and west side of Bay City.

Their current life was not bad as the military upheld their deal when they asked Mark for cooperation. More than cooperation, a lot of bad things might have happened if not for him and as such, both Major Lopez and Captain Dela Rosa appealed for an additional reward. Along with Keene who was a Mutator supporting the request, it was approved and the entire half of the ninth floor of the northwest tower and its facilities had been given to them.

The additional reward might have sounded excessive to others but the entire half of the ninth floor only consisted of seven large hotel suites and two facility rooms. Considering the number of people in their group, they still had to share the rooms with a few members that what the room should accommodate.

When they arrived at the facility room that was turned into a kitchen and dining room, there were only a few people. Mark's classmates, Suzanne, Saime, and Carren along with their children, the wives and children of Mark's friends, Mara, Dorothy and Janette along with Monique, Jester and the docile infected girl, Ellie.

Not everyone was here because they started to have their own work and duties in the settlement. Melissa, Elsa, Charm and Ceilo started to work as helpers at the medical facility while Carlo and Sundra along with Grace and on the food management and relief distribution. Rollan, Nikky, Daniel, Maverick and Delia teamed up with Arvie, Jason and his team doing supply runs and helping the soldiers in clearing operations. On the other hand, Harvey and the men that came with them started to work on the construction of new buildings and maintaining and enhancing the wall around the settlement.

Everyone was working within their capabilities. Mei and Odelina and even Abbygale were not an exception to this. The next day after the night they arrived here, the wave of infected finally caught up and it became a huge battle for the soldiers. Despite the moats and the high walls, they still lost a lot of soldiers and people due to the insects that were either flying or climbing on vertical surfaces.

The wave were not annihilated but somehow dispersed for some unknown reason after more than half of the infected were killed. Due to that, there would be attacks happening at the eastern wall from time to time. The most dangerous ones were when flying insects were attacking. It was the time where Mei, Odelina and Abbygale would start to help.

Even though the experienced soldiers wanted did not want to admit, they could not deny that Mei was a great help at those times. With the help of her ability, she could accurately shoot even fast moving targets. Even though her shoots still misses from time to time, her margin of error were very low compared to the normal soldiers.

The soldiers that witnessed her abilities even started to call her as the "Fairy Sniper" due to her beauty. Many men wanted to approach her and introduce themselves specially those who knew her connection to Xiao Industries but they were stopped by the "Bone Armored Demon" and "Violent Cat Girl" that spared no mercy to those who tried to.

Rosamie, Emika and Mikio along with Professor Chervil were staying at a secure facility on the northwest of Bay City. It was the ECom buildings converted to become research laboratories and dwellings for the scientist and their families. From time to time, Emika and Mikio accompanied by their guards would come to visit and play.

When they arrived, the reunion between Charmaine, Cielo and their eldest sister, Elsa was quite dramatic. After all, the possibility of them not seeing each other alive was not low at all. Saime on the other hand felt sad at that reunion, she remembered that her two younger sisters and younger brother was still missing.

There were many good things but there were also bad things.

Angeline was still in a coma and Mark who mentioned that he might have a way to wake her up was still not in Bay City. Her current condition was a really stressing thing for both her best friend, Paula and her father, General Miguel.

Mei was also invited and visited by her both her father and brother. It was obvious what they wanted. They wanted for Mei to return to their family. Mei declined without hesitation and even started to bar them from trying to contact her. To Mei who knew how the minds of her family worked, she knew that they were working too hard right now to make her return to the extent of promising her to become one of the executives of their company was because of the existence of Mutators and Evolvers around her. If not for the powerful members of their group, Mei was sure that her family would just force her to return and marry her to someone else with power here in Bay City.

Even though she tried to stop her family, she was sure that they would not give up.

There were also those invitations that came from the senators and groups that started to form in Bay City, of course they did not have any notion to accept. Mei was only waiting for Mark to return and together with the two little girls along with Odelina and her children, they would leave this place.

TOK! TOK!

Someone knocked on the door while they were eating.

Anna hurriedly opened the door. There, a woman stood which could not be any familiar to them, Paula. Mei had a good relationship with her and Angeline and that was the reason Paula would come to see her every now and then when she was free. Now however, Paula was not alone, there was a middle-aged man wearing a lab gown along with a beautiful woman with bluish eyes with her.

Seeing the man, Odelina sighed. It was not the first time this scientist had come to see them. Professor Isaach Co, he was the main scientist researching Mutagen. For sure, he was here to convince them to allow him to study Janette and Ellie again. Of course, they would decline if that was the case. Janette was Mara's sister and Ellie was Monique's daughter. Even though studying them might lead to the breakthrough on Mutagen research, it was impossible for them to agree. Not to mention that if the infected were treated as things, Janette was owned by Mark due to various solid reasons. There was no way for them to agree without his consent.

Due to encounters like this, Mei was starting to get tired of living here. She looked outside the window and to the blue sky.

'Gege, return soon and get us out of here.'

She wished with moist eyes. Mei was always waiting for his return.