Mutagen

1:33 PM – Central Business Park, Pasay City, Roxas Blvd.

BRRRRRR!!!

TATATA!!!

Sounds of heavy machinery and assault rifles being fired echoed across the area.

A large scale construction was ongoing as the government ordered to secure the place. The workers did their tasks with hurried and unnerved expressions but still worked as serious as possible. Several military squads were dispatched to guard the area and the workers.

When the outbreak started, the government already began considering numerous plans as things were going awry. The police, army and marines joined forces in trying to control the situation and it made them loose a lot of equipment and manpower. Still, they severely failed to contain the outbreak. With their failure, the government was forced to forward their plans.

One of those plans was for evacuating survivors and the location of the evacuation area. The government had a number of places suitable for this plan and one of the places they chose was the reclaimed areas in Manila Bay, the Bay City, specifically, the Central Business Park and Marina District.

These places were chosen because of numerous reasons but the main reason was both areas would be easier to secure. The majority of both areas were surrounded by high ditches and moats and the places that were not were surrounded by strong concrete fences. Another important reason was that the area was large enough to accommodate a large number of people.

This moment, the workers were working on building walls on the areas surrounded by fences.

The military heavily barricaded all the roads that were directly connected to the reclaimed areas and prioritized building the walls on those barricaded areas.

The government also issued the order to destroy a segment on all the bridges going over the moats and ditches. Afterwards, they started to build a drawbridge over the destroyed segment. It was a countermeasure for the possibility of zombies congesting outside the entrance and exits rendering the facilities inaccessible.

***

A certain building in the Central Business Area was taken over by the military. The building was now used as the command center for the military's operations.

In a room within the command center, several people gathered around a rectangular table. At the far end of the table, a stern looking man with a slightly square face stood. His mustache, beard and hair had an uneven combination of black and white colors due to his age or maybe, due to the stress he received every single day. The man wore military fatigues and on the sleeves of his fatigues, an insignia with four stars lined vertically with the word "PILIPINAS" under the stars.

The man's name was Gen. Miguel Perez. He was an army general and the person in charge of the Central Business Area.

"What is the status of the walls?"

Gen. Perez asked the man to his right who was assigned to oversee the construction process.

"General! The construction of the walls should be finished in approximately two hours."

"Is that the limit?"

"Unfortunately, yes. The workers had already been pushing their best in the past four hours. We can only shorten it further if we can increase the manpower."

The general sighed.

"The higher ups from the government divided the manpower to build other shelters. The people here currently are the only ones we have."

The people inside the room hung their heads low. That was the biggest issue they are facing right now, other than the zombies.

"Still, try to shorten the time as much as possible. The lesser time spent on building the walls, we can save more of the supplies we have."

"Yes Sir!"

"Jordan, what is the progress in clearing the area?"

The general asked the middle-aged soldier by his left.

"General, we already cleared all of the infected. My men are now checking the perimeter if there is any remaining infected that we might have missed."

"Good. Check it properly. We can't have even a single one wandering about without us knowing."

"Yes Sir!"

"How about the evacuees?"

"Sir! The evacuees and the survivors we found are already brought to the designated areas. Still, the situation is bad."

It was a woman further in his right side that answered.

"What do you mean?"

"Most of them are mentally disturbed and emotionally unstable. Some are even causing disturbances."

"That is really bad isn't it? Send specialists to attend them. It is already hell outside so we can't have anything happen inside here."

"Yes Sir!"

"Is there any news from our men in the Marina district?"

...

***

The meeting ended after a while after the General's trusted aides finished their reports and went back to their duties.

As there was not a single soul left in the room aside from him, Gen. Perez took out a stick of cigarette and lit it with a combat knife shaped lighter. He slumped on his chair as his stern expression vanished and was replaced by a look of worry.

TOK TOK

He looked at the entrance as he heard the gentle knocking noise. A woman in her late twenty's wearing military fatigues, with a medical belt pouch was swaying by her left side and a holstered pistol hung on her waist stood by the door. On her hand, she was holding a cup of black coffee.

The woman walked into the room and placed the cup in front of the general.

"General, Raf will scold you again if he saw you smoking."

"Don't tattle on me alright? Just let me this once. And you can call me father since there's no one around."

"I can't General. I'm still on working hours."

"Haha, no wonder my son chose you."

Then, an awkward silence pervaded the room.

"Teresa, did Raf contact you already?"

"Yes. He already found Gabby and also rescued a number of survivors."

"What about their sister?"

"They already reached and searched her school. The school is already overrun and they did not find any survivors."

Teresa's voice became softer and softer as she spoke.

"I'm sure she is fine. She is a brave girl, even braver than I do. I'm sure that she can hold out by herself."

"What you said is true but the problem is that girl is still too naïve. If she thinks that the infected are dead people, then she will be fine to some extent."

Teresa nodded at what the general said.

"But, it's not those infected that worries me."

"It's those isn't it?"

"That's right. I'm worried about those things that caused the containment to fail. I don't even know if we can still call those as just infected anymore. Those are more like monsters. If she encounters something like that…"

The general looked at Teresa.

"The next time Raf contact us, tell him to hasten the search for her. Also, about her childhood friend, we already secured her family so we only need to find her. My daughter should be with her friend right now. Those two are really inseparable since they were little."

"Yes, those two complemented each other. The two of them are both courageous but one is strong while the other is smart."

"If those two were together, it's more likely for them to be alive."

The general bitterly smiled as he tried to assure himself. He then extinguished his half-unfinished cigarette inside the tray and drunk the cup of coffee in front of him.

PUH!

But he immediately pulled the cup away from his lips.

"HOT! Teresa, you know that I'm bad with too hot drinks . You should have made it a little bit lukewarm."

"It should be lukewarm General. I just did not expect you to throw away your cigarette without finishing it."

The General raised his eyebrows at this woman who was the fiancée of his eldest son.