Mutagen

"So, Seguerra was forced to escape, was it?"

A woman sitting behind an office table asked while she stared at the messenger standing in the middle of the room.

She was Elma Marcos. A member of a very influential political family in the Philippines and was a provincial politician. Now, she was leading this group, the third faction within this settlement that was led mainly by politicians residing in this place.

It might have been already the end of the world. However, there were still those people that did not want to lose their power and influence. A good example of those kinds of people were politicians and successful businessmen. Losing all they had and reverting to regular people was not acceptable for them. This was even more to those that came from families whose power and prestige was built over generations.

Even so, despite their status and influence back before the apocalypse, their current standing was hard to maintain.

And thus, like-minded people decided to bond together, strengthening their overall influence and power over the settlement.

Of course, the leader of this coalition was no other than the person with the greatest influence among them. Who would that be other than the person that came from the lineage of a previous president?

And now, that person was receiving urgent information from their messenger while the other members of the coalition listened to the side.

There was no way that any of them would miss this information. It was because one of the factions within the settlement took a big hit all of a sudden. There was also the events that transpired today, along with the arrival of the couriers from Infanta.

This group had many ears and eyes within the settlement. Almost no events that happened in it go unnoticed by them. It was even more since General Seguerra went out full force, bringing his loyal men and even a tank. They were supposed to respond to a call that a monster was by the west beach. However, the news that they received now was quite unexpected.

And to Elma\'s question, the messenger replied.

"Yes. However, no one knows if he did manage to. The surveillance target seemed to have chased after the General and his brother."

"Chased? How?" The leader asked. "You just said that Seguerra and his brother flew off on the back of a flying serpent. Did that person fly too?"

"No, madam." The messenger shook his head. "He just vanished, leaving his group by the coast. They were still there at the moment, and number two is still monitoring them."

"This sounds like bullsh*t." A thin old man at the side chimed in, glaring at the messenger. "Magic? Summoning monsters? Such things don\'t exist! What did you sniff, huh?"

It was a rude remark. Of course, the messenger did not take it nicely. However, there was no need for him to speak.

"Mr. Alcantara." Elma glared, widen your narrow mind, please. He is my person and not yours. A big event like this sooner or later will reach the ears of everyone. Besides, just because you never witnessed or believed it, it did not mean that it doesn\'t\' exist."

The rude politician shut up with a low inaudible grumble.

Elma then faced her messenger.

"Is that all?"

"Yes." The messenger replied. "Before I returned here, the members of the group we were tailing did not leave the beach area, and General Padilla also stayed with his men. So far, there were no other notable things that happened."

"Good." Elma nodded. "Return for now and continue observing them. We need to keep an eye on those people for various reasons."

"Yes, madam."

The messenger bowed slightly before leaving.

After the messenger left, a short meeting followed. It was about what steps to take if the Marines General never came back and his faction crumbled. Besides, even if he did come back, their faction lost a good amount of people.

Unfortunately, without the aftermath of the event being disclosed, there was not much they could do but wait. Thus, the meeting ended without achieving anything.

As almost everyone left the room, Elma turned to the man standing beside her. It appeared to be her personal guard, but there was some kind of mysterious aura around him.

"What do you think, Panther?"

"About what? The situation, General Seguerra or the courier?"

The man called Panther asked back.

"Everything."

The woman replied.

"Then, I think that the power balance here will shift drastically with General Seguerra\'s faction crumbling."

"You don\'t think that General Seguerra will come back?"

"That courier killed the General\'s men without any regard to the military. Even if the General did come back, he would still die. For a long time now, his bastard brother had been his weakest link. He was unlucky that his brother offended the wrong person this time."

Those words from Panther made Elma nod.

"About that courier," Panther continued. "It\'s better if we don\'t interact with them at all."

"Why is that?" The Coalition leader asked. "I was thinking trying to win them over to our side."

"You won\'t likely succeed in that endeavor, Madam." Panther shook his head. "A person, no, a group that could cross almost half of Luzon to get here would not be just anybody. Just refrain from making contact or you might accidentally follow General Seguerra\'s steps."

Hearing that, Elma went silent.

"I see." She soon said. "Unfortunately, we can\'t just ignore them. Although it might offend them slightly, we should continue the surveillance over them."

"I agree with that." Panther nodded. "So far, we only knew that they were here to deliver that mysterious package. However, the reports we had earlier indicated that there might be some other reason."

Then, Elma asked.

"What about strength, Panther? Can you win?"

"I don\'t know yet, Madam." Panther shook his head. "Just the reports won\'t be able to fully describe a person. It\'s better for me to see them personally before making an assumption."

"Then, go to the beach," Elma commanded. "See them for yourself and give me a good evaluation."

"As you wish, Madam."

With those words, Panther turned into a blur as he left the room.

Alone in the room, Elma stood up and stared outside the window.

She could not help but sigh.

Getting rid of Liden might be a good thing but the power balance would now crumble. It will give the NPA a hole to exploit and create trouble.

"We better prepare for the worst."

She murmured.

Although she was quite surprised that the Marines General had someone behind him that could summon and control monsters, such people were not new to her. Being in a family that was revered as the most powerful political dynasty in the country, their members were bound to see those kinds of people from time to time. Their family had knowledge that most regular people and politicians did not have.

In fact, her current personal guard, Panther, was one of those people.

"But it appeared that Panther was weaker than a courier sent by General Faustino, huh." She sighed again. "I\'m really curious about those people."

It was impossible for her to not be curious. The reports they received earlier was too intriguing. But in any case, she would heed Panther\'s suggestion. Unless it could not be helped, she would refrain from any contact with that dangerous group of people."

***

Day 147 - 2:15 PM - Western Coast, Codon, San Andres, Catanduanes

"General, how long are we going to wait here?"

A soldier in General Padilla\'s entourage asked.

"You can go first if you don\'t want to wait anymore."

The Genera replied.

"No, General. I did not mean it like that. It was just it\'s already been more than an hour."

That was right. It was already more than an hour since the Marines General had fled the scene, and Mark went after them.

The shock from the events had not died down, though. It was the very first time for the majority of the people that saw the event to witness actual magic. Even though the world was already facing zombie-like creatures, its progression and effects were still more or less scientific. Magic, on the other hand, was still unbelievable to them.

That was why, even though the battle had ended long ago, there were still people here, waiting. They were the same as the General. They were all waiting for when Mark return.

Why here?

Well, Mei and the girls refused to go anywhere else until Mark returned. The group was still in the same spot, not minding the leftover blood on the sand.

General Padilla tried to invite Mei and the others to wait somewhere else more suitable. However, they refused and insisted on waiting here. The only thing that the General could do was to order his men to do some cleanup. The dead bodies and the disembodied heads were already removed. But of course, the blood still remained. The soldiers tried to wash it away with seawater, but not everything would be removed instantly.

And like Mark\'s group, the General decided to stay here and wait.

Still, it had been more than an hour. Everyone that stayed behind curious was wondering what happened. There were even those that started to leave already.

At this moment, a messenger came and whispered something to the general. Hearing the message, General Padilla could not help but frown.

"Alright, you can go."

The General said and the messenger left.

"General, what is it about?"

The General\'s secretary asked as she noticed the General\'s expression.

"It is the families of the soldiers that were killed. They started to make a ruckus." The General replied. "They were gathered in front of the base crying out for justice."

"For f*cks sake."

The secretary could not help but curse.

They were already dealing with a lot of matters, and here came the unreasonable troublemakers.

The Marines General\'s camp had been unreasonable for a while now, and their soldiers also took advantage of it. Those families also benefited as the soldiers abused their post, causing displeasure to other parties. Now, they had the guts to cry out for justice when the justice to the people their families had stepped on never happened.

All of these things aside, there was also the matter of the monster on this beach. It was that rock that was sitting still near Mark\'s group. The General had yet to decide what to do with it.

Trouble, trouble everywhere.

General Padilla could not help but give out a deep sigh.

"General, what are we going to do about those troublemakers?"

Andrew asked. He was pertaining to the families of the killed soldiers.

"It would be good if we can just chase them away." The General replied. "However, that will heavily impact our prestige and influence here. There might be those that witness what happened here but it is just a few compared to the whole population of the settlement. Not everyone will believe the things that transpired here, and if we did not do anything to address the issue, the people would lose trust in us."

Everyone became silent. It would be a tough decision to make. The only thing that they decided to do right now was not to offend Mark\'s group at any cost.

They could not help but glance at Andrew. It was a close call this morning.

If they could not make Mark\'s group among their people, in the least, they should not turn them into their enemies.

It was at this time that the General noticed Mei stand from her seat. She was staring in a certain direction. Unexpectedly, the direction was the forest.

Only a few seconds passed, and Mark came out of the forest. Unexpectedly, behind him was General Seguerra\'s supposed helper.