Mutagen

<strong>Day 36 – 10:32 AM – Port of Real Settlement, Barangay Ungos, Real, Quezon</strong>

"Karla… Karla… Karla…"

The other consciousness of Karlene born of the experimentation done to her, Karla, muttered the name Mark gave her over and over while giggling creepily. Her voice was a little gruff sounding with two different voice pitches echoing like how possessed people in movies sounded when speaking. Her creepy voice however did not hide her childish demeanor as she happily accepted the name given to her.

Right now, Karla sat at the right side of the backseat of a Humvee together with Mark while Joash drove the vehicle and Major Bautista sat on the front passenger seat. This should be the first time for Karla to ride a vehicle but she did not seem to care about it and was more focused on remembering her name. This behavior gained the confusion of the two on the front seats since she was obviously Karlene but in what reason would she accept another name.

Since the alarm sounded and with Mark enforcing the consciousness of Karla, it gave them the chance to see how Karla would behave and fight against the infected. It was actually easier if they would just bring an infected from outside however, they would not do anything like that in this settlement since they focused mainly on fauna of the area. Furthermore, bringing an infected inside the lab would result in unusual behavior among the evolved animals contained in the laboratory. It was as if they could sense the infected and wanted to eat them. However, since continuously eating the bodies of the infected had some effects on the animals on the long run, they would not try such experiments, at least, not in the near future.

They were currently in a convoy composed of military vehicles that boarded the general and his entourage and the scientists that would observe the session. Still, the scientists would not go on the field but would use camera mounted drones to record Karla's fight. Of course, since there was also the possibility of Mark fighting, they also wanted to capture his abilities on video.

"My Lord, what's wrong with her?"

Amihan asked as she peeked on the other side of the vehicle. Karla had her head lowered as if chanting her name in a prayer.

"Just ignore here. She's just happy about her name."

"Hmmmm???"

Amihan was confused. She knew that the woman's name was Karlene and it was the first time she saw a transformed Mutator up close. Although Mark had already told her the situation, she could not help but feel curious. After all, she noticed that even though she was obviously human, she did not feel like one either.

While being curious about many things along with this being the first time she was able to ride a car, she was turning her head everywhere. It was then when she noticed the expressions of the people by the side of the road as they hurried to go back to their dwellings. To say, the people's expressions looked the same when they, the spirit races, were driven away from the human society.

Mark could sense Amihan's emotions as she looked at the people outside. He caressed her head with his finger.

"Don't look outside."

"Yes."

Mark was not fond of these people at all. These people were those that chose to stay in the safe confines behind the settlement walls and live on their fear of the outbreak. Although most of them were just normal people, it was not an excuse to rely on others to protect them while they hid inside their homes cowering in fear. Sure enough, this was the bad qualities of humans.

The convoy reached the walls after more than five minutes after leaving the laboratory. The atmosphere was surprisingly dark even for the soldiers.

"General!"

The soldiers on top of the five meter wall saluted as the General and his entourage along with Mark, Karla and the scientists went up the stairs.

"I need the report."

General Faustino said which the soldiers hurriedly replied.

"Yes Sir."

While the scientists prepared their equipment the soldiers on site gave their report.

Apparently the situation was not the usual infected attack they experienced before and the general, the other officers and soldiers could not help but frown hearing the state of the situation.

A horde of more than four thousand infected along with enumerable mutated ones was spotted by scouts on the southern coast about three kilometers away from the settlement. This number was very unusual in these parts of the country where the population even before the outbreak was way lower. The horde was moving along the main roads from the south and was speculated to be an accumulated amount of infected from several areas in the south.

Due to this behavior, the scouts speculated that there would be several [Leader Types] among the horde.

Mark who also heard the report could not help but think that it was the same with the wave of infected they encountered before. Since the accumulation of the survivors in the other areas was low, these infected followed the coast line to search for prey. Due to the fact that the infected would likely not be interested in the ocean or the mountains, it led the infected towards this settlement. What a strange time for this to happen when he was here.

It seemed that the military already gave these infected different classifications depending on their abilities. Mark started to inquire about these classifications and could not help commend the military on how easy to understand the characteristics of the infected using the infected classifications they had.

They only have about two hours to prepare, probably, even less. It was already what the soldiers could stretch out even if there were squads on the field already hindering the horde using blockades and traps.

The soldiers also prepared a few lines of defense outside the walls. After all, the walls should be the last line of defense they had against the infected. Once the walls were breached and they were not able to contain the breach, it would be the end for the settlement.

Soon, the sounds of gunshots from the field squads could already be heard along with the appearance of the vehicles that contained the injured soldiers. It did not take long and the retreating squads came back and the first groups of infected was on sight.

"Grrrrrr."

Mark had to hold Karla's hand tightly this time. As a consciousness similar to a failed Mutator, it seemed that she had adverse reactions towards the infected. Her expression this time, Mark had seen it before. It was the same expression the stone-clad woman had when she fought with the frog headed mutated infected. It contained disgust and hate even though their origins were the same.

Since the situation was kind of unusual, Major Bautista and Joash wanted to cancel the scheduled experiment. It was also supported by the other scientists.

On the other hand, Karla would not agree to it. She was already on complete battle mode. If not for Mark holding her back, she would have jumped off the wall already to join the fight.

It did not take long and the mutated infected started to appear. It was a hybrid infected that had qualities of both [Armored Types] and [Agility Types]. It was impervious to bullets that the soldiers even needed to use a rocket to kill it.

"Alright, time to go."

Mark said making Professor Suzuki nod.

"Are you sure that it will be fine?"

Major Bautista asked with worry of his face.

"Don't worry about it. When it comes to worst, I can take her away and escape."

"Alright. I'll leave my daughter in your hands."

Mark nodded and the two of them vanished in a puff of black mist. Although they had already seen this before, it was still a surprising sight, not to mention to the soldiers on top of the wall that saw if for the first time that could not help but step back in surprise.

Together with Karla and Amihan, Mark appeared at the base of the wall. He did it at the very back of the line of defense so that the soldiers defending the wall would not be surprised. Although they had been informed about Mark and Karla, it was still not good to suddenly appear near them.

Seeing that the drones were launched from above, Mark dragged Karla to the side so that she would not disturb the soldiers and Mutators on their work. Karla was eager to go and immediately ran towards the closest infected she could see after Mark let her go.

Brandishing her claws, she swiped towards the infected. Even though her movement speed was on the lower side, her attack speed was not. With an attack that only afterimages could be seen, the head of the infected was divided into several slices.

Without stopping, she lunged towards the next one and lopped the infected's head off. Wild and fierce, that was how she fought the large number of infected that started to attack her. The swings of her arms were rather wide and inefficient in normal cases of attack but her attack speed and inhuman strength made up for that inefficiency.

While the drones were recording and Mark watched by the side, the soldiers that were supposed to assist Mark and Karla finally arrived. Since Mark had just vanished from the top of the wall and appeared below, they were late. They wanted to complain but of course they could not and just went on their duties.

"Watch out!"

Several soldiers from the defensive line shouted towards the soldiers around Karla. It was because an infected about three meters tall was coming towards the direction of the experiment. The skin of the infected was grey in color and was covered in rough and bulky rock like matter. It was running rather fast which totally contradicted its body size and shape. For sure it was a hybrid of [Armor Type] and [Agility Type] infected.

Even though the infected was coming towards the area of the experiment, it was surely not coming for Karla or the soldiers around them. Mark was sure, it was coming for him.

The soldiers were shooting the infected but their bullets just bounced off the infected's armor. It was very impervious to bullets. Unfortunately, it was already too close to the defensive line and a rocket was impossible to use at this range.

Mark was about to move when he noticed a sudden change with Karla. Her hair that was unaffected by gravity started swaying fiercely and the glow on her eyes intensified. Following that, the blades on her claws grew longer started to emit a faint violet glow. She pounced towards the incoming hybrid infected which scared out the wits of the soldiers guarding her along with the people on top of the wall observing the situation.

In their previous test on how strong Karla's claws were, she was not able to cut through a thick steel pole. Even a steel pole would not be able to bounce off all the bullets that hit it and would get embedded on it which meant that the grey armor of the infected was way thicker and stronger.

However, their worries were for nothing. The glow on the claws on Karla's both hands left behind a glowing afterimage as she swiped the claws on the hybrid infected in a shape of an X.

The hybrid infected suddenly stopped moving and its whole body crumbled into pieces.

Everyone was surprised since she managed to cut the infected's body into pieces but Mark had a different reason. Most people could not follow her attack speed but Mark could and to say, he saw the process Karla cut the body of the infected. Her glowing claws did not cut just into the material of the infected's armor. Even a clean cut would have a bit of friction on the attack and would also cause a slight sound of the material being cut. Karla's attack however had none of those.

In what Mark saw, her attack was able to cut though the substance itself. She was cutting through matter without hindrance. If almost felt like her attack changed the shape of the enemy's body. Mark immediately had several theories considering what he saw. It could be either she was able to separate the molecules of the substance or she was able to destroy the bond of the molecular makeup of the matter. Either way, it was a very frightening ability.

If Mark was right, there was nothing that Karla would not be able to cut with her glowing claws or in the least, there was very few that she would not be able to cut. He wanted to know more about her ability and he still have a lot of chances to see it. After all, the horde of mutated infected had just started to arrive.