Mutagen

Day 5 – 6:07 AM – Queen's Main Ave., Queens Row Area A, Bacoor City, Cavite

Two vehicles entered through the gates finally stepping into Barangay Queens Row Area A. Along the way, they encountered quite a number of infected but as there was no need to bother with these infected, they just drove past by them. Many parts of the main street were littered with abandoned cars but the two vehicles drove around them without any difficulty. Everyone was looking outside the vehicle watching the devastation left by the apocalypse.

As Rollan lived here and Mark, Carlo, Sundra, Charmaine and Ceilo attended college here, they were familiar with the place. The college had been relocated somewhere else years ago and aside from Mark, the others also went there but their first college location was still in this Barangay. Their former campus though after the college moved was annexed by the elementary school beside it.

In their memories, this place was lively and while not filled with people, there were still a lot of people wandering around specially students as several schools were located nearby. Now however, while they were still seeing students, they were all infected already. The convenience store that just passed by seemed to be looted clean with its glass walls fully shattered. The gates of the houses almost everywhere were smeared with blood and rotting remains of decapitated dead bodies could be seen in the middle of the road.

To say, this place was one of the central areas in eastern Bacoor. As such, several elementary and secondary high schools, commercial establishments and other places of interest could be found here especially along the main roads. Now however, almost everything was already bathed in blood and violence. It was one of the places that took the most damage in this part of Bacoor.

Turning at the first corner to the right of the main avenue, they traversed the last stretch of road before they the street where Rollan's house was located. The street where he lived was at the last branching street of this one. Obviously, Rollan started to get nervous. Similar to Carlo and Anna's situation before, he did not know what to expect. He wished that his family was still alive but he could not get the thought of the other possibility out of his mind. After all, Anna had experienced it. Though she did not see her family because Mark prevented her from doing so, the pain she felt was deep. What more if she saw her family's current state?

Rollan however wanted to see no matter what. He was stranded at an Auto Repair Shop when the outbreak came several days ago along with several people. To find food and water to survive, they lost a few more. It was until they took the gamble and went towards the sounds of gunshot they heard around the area while riding the passenger van that was about to leave the garage before the outbreak came. They were fortunate to find the police and he was even luckier to find Mark. With what Rollan experienced in the span of five days, he could not imagine what kinds of things his family had gone through.

Making another turn right, they were greeted by a closed steel fence gate blocking the street. Still, it seemed that this fence gate was of no use at all as they could see traces of blood on the other side of the fence. There were also no signs of people around.

Mark alighted from the vehicle along with Abbygale and Laelaps to check if they would be able to open the fence gate. Mark went and checked the bar latched on the center and the gate and saw that it was actually not locked. Mark passed his arm through the narrow space next to the latch and opened the fence gate with a little twist and push.

As Rollan's house was just a few blocks away, Mark and the two did not enter back into the vehicle. Rollan who could not wait anymore also alighted from the vehicle. The two vehicles passed through the fence gates and Mark closed the gates afterwards. Observing the area, the two vehicles matched the pace the people outside the vehicle walked.

After passing by six houses, they reached the house where Rollan's family lived. The next house further was the house where Rollan and his girlfriend lived together. To say, it seemed that the houses did not escape the infected. The walls and gates were smeared with blood and the glass windows of the house of Rollan's family were all broken down.

Standing outside the gates, Mark's nose twitched. It was because he could smell the faint pungent odor in the air. Normal people might not be able to notice it immediately but he who was an Evolver with enhanced senses could. The odor smelled like something rotting mixed together with the smell of mud. Furthermore, the smell was actually coming from the house in front of them. It was not a good sign as Mark could not detect any people either.

Mark looked at Rolla who was also staring at him and nodded.

While the others remained outside the two men carefully entered by climbing up the fenced walls since the gate was locked. Looking around the lot, traces of what happened before were still present. The dried up blood on the cement pavement, the scattered things at the garage and the pieces of glass littered around both outside and inside the house.

The two silently walked around the house observing everything. It was then that they caught sight of something in the backyard that made Rollan run forward and kneel on the ground.

In the backyard, several graves were erected. Looking at the uneven patch of dirt that covered the graves, it was not fresh but might just be about a day or two after the graves were made. As for who these graves belonged to, there was no need to question. If it was just the wooden crosses erected on top of the graves, Rollan might have thought of the possibility of his family being alive but with the wooden placards nailed unto the crosses bearing the names of his family members, he started feel remorse.

Mark tapped the shoulders of Rollan who kneeled in front of the graves while weeping. He did not say any words of condolence as he knew that no words would placate his best friend's feelings right now.

What Mark did afterwards was to search around for clues while waiting for his friend to weep everything out. It seemed that they were taking so long that Mei and Abbygale checked on them. When the two saw what was going on, the Mei did not dare come closer and stopped the little girl from moving forward. Mark then approached them.

"Gege, he…"

"Just leave him alone for a little."

"That's not all his family right?"

Mei asked.

"Surely not. There are only eight graves there. Considering the numbers if I remember correctly, there are three people missing."

Mark spoke as he tried to recall Rollan's family members that lived in this house.

"You think, the missing people you said dug these graves?"

"The two probably, one of the missing people is a little girl after all, Rollan's cousin. The other ones missing is his girlfriend and younger brother."

Hearing Mark's explanation, Mei nodded.

How long had it been? Ten minutes? Fifteen minutes?

When Rollan stood up and wiped his tears, almost twenty minutes had already passed. Seeing that Mei and Abbygale were together with Mark now without him noticing, he felt a little awkward. It seemed that he showed them an embarrassing scene.

,m "Sorry for taking so long."

Rollan apologized as he looked at the three. Still, what Mei deed made him snap out of his embarrassment and sadness. It was because she hid behind Mark before nodding to his apology.

"Am I that scary?"

Rollan asked as he turned to Mark.

"Don't worry about her. You approached too closely triggering her fear of men."

Mark replied helplessly.

"Fear of men…"

Rollan looked at Mark with a doubtful expression.

Mark who saw that look of his…

"Do you want another grave to be added there?"

Of course, he knew what was going on in his friend's head. Still, though he felt a little angry, Mark also felt relived. At least it looked like that Rollan would be able to recover from this with no problem.

Mark then froze and suddenly faced north. Within the almost thirty meter radius of his detection, he detected a group of five people. He then turned to Rollan with a smile.

"Rollan, it looks like you tears will be short lived."

Hearing that, Rollan looked at him with confusion.

"What are you talking about?"

"Enough questions. Let's go."

Mark and the rest made their way out of the place.

***

Day 5 – 6:56 AM – Paradise St., Queens Row Area A, Bacoor City, Cavite

An owner type jeep was traversing the street. The jeep looked refitted with the windows and doors were welded with guard rails and the bumper being bent into a V shape. Inside the vehicle was a group of five people consisting of three women and two men.

"Boss, you should really stop going back to your house every morning and evening. Is there really a point to this?"

The female driver asked the other female sitting on the front passenger seat.

"Boss is still waiting for her boyfriend to go home. You shouldn't ruin her business."

Before the female called boss could answer the question, the other female behind interrupted.

"Sis, you think, Big Brother will be able to return?"

The younger man sitting in the middle of the back seats asked the Boss.

"I'm sure he will. I don't know when but I'll keep on waiting."

The female Boss replied with a resolute expression in her face. Actually, even though she had that expression, she does not have much hope either. It was already the fifth day. It could be a short time if it was before the outbreak but it was already too long at this moment.

Looking at the scenery passing by, she could still clearly recall her experience during the time the infected flocked into this place. And to describe it in one word… Hell.

While everyone outside the streets were panicking. Her boyfriend's father came home in a hurry despite the fact that he was already bitten. When he turned, he immediately attacked his defenseless family members together with her who was there at that time. Everyone else aside from her, her boyfriend's younger brother, Daniel and her boyfriend's little cousin, Dorothy was bitten and turned.

During the commotion and when her future in-laws turned, she grabbed the remaining two to flee. Giving Dorothy to Daniel for safety, she forced their way against their infected family with brute force even forcing her strength to the limit. Luckily, they managed to lock up their turned family members on the first floor of the house and they managed to flee and hide at the second floor.

Upon feeling safe, she was immediately assaulted with extreme pain in her body and fainted. Daniel and Dorothy panicked thinking that she was bitten but upon checking her body, the two learned that she was not. But after she fell unconscious, she started burning with high fever that kept the panic of the two from reducing. Her fever took about half day and one night before she woke up with an indescribable strength in her body.

To say, her physical strength tripled during the time she was asleep. She was both happy and sad. She knew that she could make use of this strength to survive whatever was happening. Still, during the time that she woke up, both Dorothy and Daniel was feeling weak due to lack of food and water and she was the only one who could address that issue. In the end, she managed to kill her boyfriend's turned family members with remorse.

Nevertheless, they were also a family to her and thus, she dug graves for them. It was fortunate that she gained the strength that she managed to dig the hard ground despite her thin appearance but she also felt sad that one of the first things she did with her strength was to kill and bury her boyfriend's family members.

The three of them cried afterwards watching the graves she finished. Among the people that died were Dorothy's mother and father. The others were Daniel's mother, father, older sister, his older sister's husband, his older sister's daughter and their little uncle.

While she was recalling those memories, she heard the woman beside her speak to her. It looked that while she was dazed, they had already passed through the fence ate.

"Boss, there are people."

As the street was curved to the east, they could not see the scene further around the corner. When they passed around the corner, they saw two vehicles and several people outside the house of her boyfriend. However, she did not recognize any one of these people. Everyone in their group felt anxious and they grabbed their weapons. They felt that a battle would not happen considering that the people were mostly females and a few children but just in case.