Mutagen

<strong>Day 25 – 1:20 PM – Taft Avenue, Ermita, Metro Manila</strong>

Taft Avenue which was originally known as "Calle Rizal" was a major road in Metro Manila that passes through three cities. Along the entirety of the avenue ran the railroad of LRT or Light Rail Transit which was one of the few railroad systems in Manila. Its railroads ran above the center of the avenue with the foundations of the railroad separating the northbound and southbound lanes in almost the whole length of avenue with the exceptions of straight crossing roads and turn slots for vehicles.

Due to the length of Taft Avenue, many known establishments could be bound on the road side. Government offices, markets, malls, parks, apartment condominiums and also the current target of the operation of the forces from Bay City, the Philippine General Hospital.

Although the main entrance of the avenue was nearby Bay City, the evaded to use the majority of the Taft Avenue due to the fact that this avenue also ran across several of the most populated areas in Manila. Since their target was the Philippine General Hospital, they could not waste their firepower and manpower to deal with the number of infected there. In fact, those places were the supplies were most abundant near the Bay City but their manpower was not enough to wipe out all the infected and safely retrieve those supplies.

After their vehicles passed through numerous smaller and safer roads that could easily be defended and had lower population, they finally entered the Taft Avenue already nearby their destination.

Now, there were more than a dozen vehicles parked outside the vicinity of the hospital compound right in front of the main entrance. There were forty-three people currently setting up defenses for the command post around the parked vehicles while sixty-eight people was currently dealing with the infected that was attacking their groups. As for the remaining people, they were the support groups that were supposed to assist the ground troops from elevated areas like the railroad and the commercial buildings around the hospital compound.

One of the support groups included Mei's group that was currently storming into the building in front of hospital compound and behind the temporary camp being set up. It was due to her Evolver Ability that their group which included Odelina, Abbygale, Iola, Laelaps and Fein. Together with their group was a small squad of soldiers and snipers and a small group of Evolvers and Mutators with most of them having the ability to see over long distances.

This group of Evolvers and Mutators did not actually belong in a single group but had been picked from several groups to participate as scouts for this mission. They were tasked for monitoring the situation from the top of the building together with the sniper team. This group was not the only one but there were several more small groups that were dispatched to other tall buildings for the same purpose.

The order to gather these people to form the monitoring groups caused some conflicts due to the fact that any group would hesitate to leave the life of their teammates to the hands of others and caused three groups to almost back out but it hand been resolved by allowing one of their group members to accompany the person to join the monitoring teams.

Even though they were called the support teams, they were actually the first people to embark on their missions and fight the infected. The ground troops would storm the hospital at exact two o'clock and should end at three whether it was successful or not. The mission should only consume this much time since it would be bad for them if they stayed too long in a place with very less defenses. It was very likely that they would surely attract the attention of the infected not only within the hospital but also the surrounding areas.

There would be a grace period of fifteen minutes after the allotted time for the returning groups but after that, the people that still had not returned would be on their own. Everyone that participated in this mission had been briefed and had already agreed at this condition. After all, the military and even the other groups would not sacrifice their own just to wait for a few people that could not even return on time if they were not dead yet.

By the time that the ground troops would storm the hospital, the sniper and monitoring team should already be on position. Thus, they would move earlier entering the buildings they were assigned to. Unfortunately, due to lack of manpower, those buildings were not empty. That was why a small group of soldiers that were more proficient in close to mid-range combat were dispatched to accompany the support teams. They needed to deal with the infected inside the buildings on their own.

***

<strong>Day 25 – 1:24 PM – 2nd Floor Joshua Center, Taft Avenue, Ermita, Metro Manila</strong>

TSST! TSST! TSST!

Three muffled sounds of assault rifles could be faintly heard as Mei's group being led by the soldiers went up the stairs. Looking at the corridor, three bodies of infected bleeding on their heads could be seen. Along with the bodies, several more infected could be seen further which were alerted by their existence. The soldiers hurriedly dealt with the infected and they all silently climb up the stairs up to the next floor.

The building they were currently climbing had six floors with the first floor being a commercial space while the higher floors were either offices or training centers aimed for student nurses. The building was expected to have less infected inside which was why compared to other groups they had lesser members. Also with the noise outside since the building was just separated to the temporary camp by a railroad, the infected inside should have been alerted already but there was very few that came out.

This made it a little obvious that the higher officers of the military were rather biased towards Mark's group. Not only that the building they were assigned supposed to have lesser infected than the others but it was also the nearest to the camp. If an accident happened, it would be easy for them to call for support. However, other people would not be able to deny that the building was a strategic point and had a wide view of the hospital compound from the rooftop. Since Mei was one of the best snipers in Bay City, it was understandable why her group was given this position.

"Sorry if you girls had to undergo those harassments. If it was just me who could order all our forces, I want to kill that senator and his lackeys already."

Staff Sergeant Irene McCarran sighed as she spoke to Mei and Odelina.

As coordination was very essential in this mission, Irene was sent to lead the soldiers with Mei's group since she knew the members of their group already. While they climbed up the stairs, Irene was even chatting with Odelina and Mei though Mei rarely replied to her at all. On Irene's neck, the bandage that wrapped it could be seen slightly hidden by her collar. It was the wound she received during the attack of the Stone Clad Woman. The wound had yet to fully heal but as a soldier, she could not shirk her duties for a superficial wound.

"It's fine." Odelina replied with a smile. "All they could do is run their mouths. It's not like we don't know that they are only instigating us to attack first. Once we did that, I'm sure that they will use it against us."

"Don't worry. General already ordered us to help every time we can. I'm also getting pissed about those people."

Irene said with contempt on her eyes.

"Squad Leader, you should pay attention to the mission."

A male soldier behind Irene sighed looking at his carefree squad leader.

"I know. I know."

Irene shrugged her member's words which made the soldier sigh even more.

It was at this moment that the soldier that went to scout the upper floors went back with a solemn expression.

"Ernesto, what's wrong?"

Irene's expression became serious.

"There's quite a lot of infected on the fourth floor, about thirty or more."

"What? How did that happen? Those infected should have been lured out by the noise. Why are they still there?"

Irene was surprised. Even the people that were tasked for monitoring were alarmed. After all, even though they were Mutators and Evolvers and had experience fighting the infected, it was another thing if they were not with their actual group members but with this ragtag band of soldiers and civilians. They could not help but feel nervous.

"I took a peek. The windows and the hallway of the floor were barricaded. It's likely that the infected there were supposed to be survivors that took refuge there."

"But it's likely that an infected managed to get through and turned them all."

Irene continued the soldier's words making him nod. She then looked at the people behind her.

"Everyone. Get ready. We have to deal with all those infected or we will have a dangerous time returning if these infected got alarmed during the mission."

The others were nervous while the soldiers nodded. Unexpectedly, those people did not see any negative reaction from Mei and Odelina. Even the two children were fine.

The soldiers first moved up the stairs and eliminated the infected near the staircase and prevent any infected from the higher floors from going down. Since the hallway was not large, it became inefficient to use the guns after the large number of infected were attracted to their group. Not only that they needed to reload their guns but assault rifles were not that effective in a team fight on a narrow space. Their pistols would be good but the number of bullets for every magazine was limited and they would reload more often.

At that moment, Odelina and Abbygale went forward. With her bone gauntlets, Odelina started to punch through the heads of the incoming infected while Abbygale that transformed to her cat girl form leaped from wall to wall targeting the heads of the infected that looked faster than the others. With the opening given by the two, the soldiers gained a little time to breathe. It was hard to aim at the heads when the infected were too close especially when the ones in the front were blocking those at the back. They could not just spray their bullets everywhere because not only they would waste the limited number of ammunition they had but also the sounds of the bullets hitting walls and breaking things would like make things worse.

The other people also started to help as they could not just watch as the woman and child fought the infected in front of them alone. One man who seemed to have just accompanied his companion in the monitoring team used his short spear and stabbed at the head of an infected at the opening beside Odelina. On the other hand, Mei sneaked to the other side with a black crossbow on her hand shooting the infected further away with her arrows slipping through between the infected in front.

Abbygale kicked on the wall once more and targeted a rather tall infected at the back. It was then that a Biter with skinny arms and legs jumped towards her like a frog from her blind stop. The people could not help but exclaim as the little girl got attacked but before the infected could even get near her a semi-transparent barrier appeared behind her blocking the attack completely. The Biter even wailed in pain as his arms and legs were burned by the barrier.

Before the Biter could fall back to the crowd of infected, a metal arrow flew towards its head with a swish. It fell back to the crowd of infected not alive but dead. Abbygale on the other hand retreated after snapping the neck of her target with a sinister kick.

The little girl went back and high fived her older sister, Iola, that had her red colored eye glowing.

"Be careful alright?"

Mei caressed Abbygale's white hair making the little girl squint and nod.

It was a good teamwork by the three. Abbygale as a child had the tendency to rampage around that was why Iola who awakened her ability was in charge of protecting her. Mei on the other hand would deal with the aftermath like how she shot the Biter with high precision.

It did not take long and they eliminated all the infected in the building and get to the rooftop in time. The attack on the hospital was about to happen.