Mutagen

Day 3 – 7:10 PM - Central Business Park, Pasay City, Research Building

Nia stood inside a room with white metal walls. It was a room built to be used as a testing area for many of the Research Laboratory's experiments. In front of her, there were three floating spears made of ice about the size and length of a throwing javelin. Her hands kept on moving while the floating spears of ice would move in the same direction of her hands. She circled around, jumped and gently moved her hands as if she was dancing and the spears of ice wound dance around her in the same manner.

For anyone who would witness this sight, they would immediately think of how spectacular and fantastic the scene was. Along with her rare beauty, she looked like an ice fairy that came out of a fantasy .

Outside the testing area, Prof. Isaach Co and Allen were watching Nia's routine through a one-sided mirror. The professor nodded while watching the great improvement of his adopted daughter and assistant in satisfaction. To say, Nia's ability to control and decrease the temperature of the moisture in the air reached new heights in the past two days.

Inside the testing area, Nia finished her routine by launching the three spears of ice towards the wall. The spears flew fast at a speed of a javelin thrown by an Olympic athlete.

DANG! DANG! DANG!

Three loud sounds echoed inside the testing area as the three spears of ice were embedded into the thick white wall. Nia then released her ability from the spears of ice slowly turning the spears of ice into water that flowed down the surface of the wall and creating a puddle of cold water on the floor. She then proceeded to walk out of the door and entered the room where Prof. Isaach and Allen were watching.

"How is it profe-, no, father?"

Nia asked with a smile.

"It's brilliant Nia! Your ability had really grown stronger compared to several days ago."

Prof. Isaach was smiling from ear to ear as he praised Nia's improvement. Several days ago, the most that she could do was to conjure two chopstick sized ice spikes and to lower the temperature of moisture in the air in a small area while slowly turning the moisture in that small area into ice.

Now however, she could already conjure three spears made of ice and even make the spears to float with precise control.

To the side, Allen looked at Nia with both happiness and envy. His older sister's ability had already started to improve while he was still the same as before. Nevertheless, Prof. Isaach looked at Allen with smiles. Now that some of his theories were proven, it was time to think of a way and a good training routine for Allen.

The professor was in a very good mood. After all, several of his theories were finally given an answer. One of those theories was regarding the evolution of people who already had super-human abilities before the outbreak.

As he thought, Mutagen could really enhance their super-human abilities. Not only the physical abilities of the living creatures could be enhanced but also improved their preexisting mental abilities.

Another of his theories was about how to stimulate the evolution process. Was only the growth potential and DNA compatibility of the person with the Mutagen was the factors for evolution? The answer was fortunately or unfortunately, no. However, the third factor was not really easy to achieve. It was to stimulate one's potential by overpassing their limits. It was something very easy to say but hard to achieve.

One way to achieve this required one to undergo constant arduous training and overpass their limits slowly. This method was the one Prof. Isaach used to make Nia's ability to this extent. In the previous two days after he learned the possibility for human evolution, he had Nia train several times a day to the extent that she was not able to use her ability for a moment. Just this afternoon, she finally fell unconscious with high fever. After she woke up, her ability had evolved to this extent.

There was another way to stimulate this latent potential. It was to expose the person to extreme danger that required the person to exert actions beyond their current abilities. This method could be a faster and easier way to evolve but also came with grave consequences. Not all people would be able to exert actions beyond their abilities in the face of danger. It would even be more probable for the person fell into panic and fail. That situation could even cause death. No, it was highly likely for the person to die.

​ If Prof. Isaach were to be asked about what he viewed Mutagen as, it was both disaster and opportunity. Disaster because of what had already happened, the apocalypse. It was an Opportunity because it opened the possibility for people to evolve. In the professor's view, mankind had already reached the end of evolution. The reason for this was the way the modern society was living. Technological advancements always leaned towards comfort and entertainment and it cost the expense for mankind to evolve further.

Now however, Mutagen could stimulate the evolution not only of mankind but also the other creatures on earth. Furthermore, it would need for mankind to evolve further or else, mankind would succumb to the threat of the apocalypse and face extinction.

"Come on you two, let's rack our brains out and find a way for Allen to improve his ability."

Prof. Isaach together with his two young assistants left the testing facility and back to their office after collecting the printed data into folders. The middle-aged professor wanted his two adopted children to improve. All his studies with the Mutagen showed that more powerful threats would come in the near future. These two should improve their abilities so they would be able to protect themselves even if he himself was not included. Other people might view Prof. Isaach as a research madman but he was a kind person at heart.

***

Day 3 – 8:22 PM – Saint Paul's Monastery, La Paz, Iloilo City, Iloilo

When the outbreak first struck, a single passenger plane fell in the center of the city. This caused the city to fall into chaos almost immediately. When the infected started to invade the people's peaceful life, many of the survivors fled out of the city and into the sea surrounding the island of Iloilo. As for those who were late to flee and were not able to leave, most of them gathered in this monastery.

Due to the terrain around the monastery, which were mostly flat lands, plantation and small forested sitios, the inhabitants of the monastery along with the survivors that gathered in this place managed to safely fortify the preexisting walls and fences surrounding the monastery in safety. Since the monastery was also built quite a distance from the city center and the area was surrounded by long blocked bridges, there were every few infected that wandered into the monastery before they finished the fortifications. It was lucky for them that there was a scrapyard just two wide blocks away to the northwest of the monastery allowing them to gather materials for the fortification. The existence of the police squads that were also late to flee the city and stayed in the monastery managed further increased the security of the camp.

At this moment, the nuns of the monastery were busy at handing out bowls of porridge to the survivors. The porridge was not too lavish and each bowl only contained a small portion of meat. Unfortunately, this would be their last meal with meat in it. It was because while the terrain around the monastery gave them the advantage of security, it also gave them the lack of areas for gather food and other necessities.

In response to these problems, several survivors started to form search and supply groups that would go out of the monastery to gather necessities further around the city. Due to the danger, the police allowed these people to be equipped with firearms. To say, the survivors in this monastery were one of the first people to implement this kind of approach to the outbreak.

Quite a distance away to the south west of the monastery, a small group of survivors were rushing back to the monastery. The group was led by a person who evolved his arms during the initial outbreak. This man saw his loved ones being bitten off one by one by a single running infected in his own home. In his fit of rage, he bashed the infected to death with his bare fists. With tears dripping from his eyes, he continued punching the unmoving infected until his arms went numb.

During this past afternoon, he went out to gather supplies with several survivors he knew but got delayed in returning due to a number of infected that passed by at the area they were searching supplies. After the horde passed by, it was already night time. As they could not stay the night in that unsafe place, they hurried back to the monastery.

BAM!

The leader bashed the head of an infected blocking his way. Due to his evolution, he could exert a strong force from his arms enough to smash an infected's head into smithereens with a single bash of his iron pipe.

Luckily, there were not many obstructions on their way back and they reached the vacant land just outside the monastery. It was because they went through the familiar forest and avoided the areas were the infected possibly wandered.

CRACKLE!!! BOOM!!!

All of them stopped on their tracks. They all turned to the north east and saw a bright light illuminating the night quite a distance away. Along with the bright light, there were several flashes of electricity firing off to the sky from the source of light. As they witnessed this scene, the members of the group could not help but feel goosebumps. They decided to leave and rushed back to the monastery with faster speed.

***

About one and a half kilometers away to the north east of the monastery, a power plant was located. The power plant had already shut down since yesterday and the place was brimming with infected who were the employees of this facility before the outbreak.

Inside one of the rooms that were previously used to store the electricity produced by the power plant, a two meter charred humanoid figure stood. The skin of the humanoid was full of cracks and was colored black due to carbonization. The most noticeable thing though was the faint light emitted from the cracks. The humanoid opened its eyes and roared facing the ceiling of the room.

CRACKLE!!! BOOM!!!

Along with its roar, the roof of the room was blasted off along with a large amount of electrical discharge coming from its body.

***

Day 3 – 09:50 PM – Day and Night Convenience Store, Niog Road, Bayanan, Bacoor City, Cavite

A TYT Vios stopped outside the convenience store at this time of the night. It was a family car enough to fit five people. It was strange however that the car was covered with tough vines. After the vehicle stopped, three silhouettes came out of the vehicle. The oldest was a woman in her thirty's while the other two silhouettes were children. The oldest child looked eleven years old while the younger was about four or five.

They entered the convenience store in hopes of finding food and supplies however, they did not find any. All the stalls were empty and even the storage area had nothing but empty boxes in it. The three were disheartened. They were really feeling hungry. At this moment, the older one of the children went to the toilet to check if there was anything to find there though there was not much hope of finding anything.

However, the child was surprised. Inside the cubicle, there was a bag filled with food and other sanitary needs. The child immediately called unto the woman and took the bag even though they knew that it might belong to someone else. Surprisingly, when they opened one of the pockets, they saw a note. After reading the note, they knew that this bag of supplies were actually for them. The child who found the bag was now brimming with a bright smile. She knew who left the bag for them.