Chapter 53 - Mutants

"So, what's your name?" Teresa asked. After about ten minutes of coaxing, the girl was ready to make contact.

A lot of it was Wain's fault since he scared her a lot. But, Teresa's entreaties worked. This girl was a mutant but also human and a teenager whose life was like hell.

In fact, on some level, Wain was her savior. After all, it was because of him that the apocalypse began, and thanks to that, now she would no longer have to endure cruel experiments.

But, of course, she couldn't have known that. At that moment, there was a hurricane of thoughts and various emotions in her head. Over the past few hours, she had broken free from the shackles she had been shackled in since birth and then plunged into a bloody massacre.

The girl looked at the smoking Wain, then at the smiling Teresa, and said, "My name is Number-07."

"Not a bad name," Wain commented with a chuckle.

"Shut up." Said Teresa looking at Wain, and turned to the girl, "Honey, do you mind if I call you Epta?"

The girl nodded and said, "What's your name?"

"My name is Teresa, and he is..." She looked at Wain, and he said quietly, "Wain Norheim."

Teresa looked at Epta and asked, "What is this place? And what happened here?"

But when she asked that, Epta's face darkened, and she was silent again.

"I thought you knew how to communicate with children." Said Wain and exhaled a puff of smoke. "You're asking her the obvious things she doesn't want to talk about. Isn't it clear what was going on here? Look at her arms and legs, all done by those who are now gutted lying in the halls. Epta, tell me, did you get a soul?"

That was one of the questions Wain wanted to know the answer to.

"Yes, then we were able to get out of the pods..." Epta said quietly. It was painful for her to remember what had happened.

"We? How many of you? All of you girls?" Asked Wain several questions at once.

"Yes, me and the others who were in the pods... There were boys and girls among us, but there were many more boys. There were twelve of us girls and about thirty of us boys." Said Epta.

She didn't really want to talk about it, but she understood that Teresa and Wain had no hostile intentions toward her. Wain practically killed her, but it was a misunderstanding since she attacked him first.

'So there were boys in the experiment too... I thought for some reason they only chose girls, I see.' Thought Wain.

"Then take us to your friends. We can help." Said Wain.

"Okay, but boys... Yesterday the men in white coats took them all away and gave them some pills. After that, they went crazy..." Epta said in a trembling voice.

'I see. They decided to test the drug on the boys first. They were probably more resilient, but suddenly the apocalypse started, and things didn't go according to plan.' Thought Wain.

"Are the other girls okay?" Asked Wain.

Epta nodded and said, "Yes, we were attacked by mad boys, and I decided to lure them in and take their attention away from me. I tricked them, but I had to hide here. I know where the others are, but we could run into the boys at any moment."

Wain shrugged and said, "It doesn't matter. Just take us there."

Epta nodded and headed into the other room. Wain and Teresa followed her. Wain had to go deep into the lab anyway. So he didn't mind saving the mutant girls along the way. 

Wain planned to direct them to Gisle. If Gisle got such useful people under his command, he would take over territories much faster. It would take him no more than an hour to rescue the mutant girls. 

But, at the same time, Gisle would develop the university more quickly while Wain went about his business. This was another investment, though Wain was curious to see what these girls were capable of.

After a while, Epta stopped them and said quietly, "There's one of the mutants around the corner. I can hear it."

'She has pretty good powers. Even I couldn't hear anything, even though my stats are very high at the moment.' Thought Wain.

Teresa and Epta prepared for battle. Wain looked relaxed at the dark corridor. He wanted to see Teresa and Epta in action. He wanted to see how strong they were.

Then a monster-like creature came around the corner, but with a human body. It had once been a boy of fifteen, but now all that was left was a shell.

There were four ghastly, blade-like growths growing out of his back, and his arms were like massive axes. He could never be the same again. His body was as impossible to restore as his sanity.

When the mutant spotted them, he pounced on Teresa at lightning speed. She seemed a more alien object to him than Epta, who was also a mutant.

Teresa bounced to the side and landed more than five blows in one place in less than two seconds. Her weapon was a rapier, a rather weak but swift and light weapon. What's more, the rapier was perfect for a single-point attack.

It wounded the mutant deeply but not enough to kill it. The mutant attacked sharply, but suddenly Epta appeared in front of it. She began to attack her enemy with lightning speed, cutting his chest into many pieces. With each blow, she tore out a piece of the mutant's flesh with her sharp claws.

Finally, she dodged another attack and ripped its head off in one swift movement.

'Impressive.' Thought Wain.

He looked at the corpse of the dead mutant and thought, 'No soul has come out of him, which means that he is still considered human to some extent. Maybe if we came here a week later, he'd be a full-fledged monster by now.'

Wain and Teresa walked past the corpse and moved on. But, suddenly, Wain noticed that Epta wasn't with them, and there was a chomping sound behind them.

He turned around and saw Epta greedily eating mutant flesh. Teresa was horrified by this unpleasant sight, and Wain asked with a wry smile on his face, "Epta, what are you doing?"

The girl looked at Wain in surprise and said, "I'm eating, can't you see."

Wain sighed slightly and asked, "Do they always feed you like this?"

Epta nodded, shoving another piece of bloody flesh into her mouth.

"I see," Wain said briefly and slipped his hand under his cloak. Then he pulled out a candy bar and tossed it to the girl.

Epta caught the chocolate bar and asked incredulously, "What is it?"

"It's chocolate. Your new best friend." Wain said with a smirk.

The three of them walked down the dim hallways for the next few minutes, which were lit by a few surviving light bulbs. Wain and Teresa remained silent while Epta enjoyed the chocolate. She had never eaten anything so delicious before.

When she had finished everything, she looked at Wain, but she never dared to say anything. Despite her looks and somewhat bestial actions, Epta was a humble person.

"Would you like some more?" Asked Wain without stopping.

Epta only nodded weakly. Then Wain slipped his hand under his cloak again, pulled out three candy bars, and tossed them to Epta.

"Do you have a portable black hole hidden under your cloak?" Asked Teresa.

"I have to store food somewhere. I suggest you do the same." With a shrug, Wain replied.

They walked forward for a while until they reencountered a mutant. This time there were three of them. Wain wasted no time and simply summoned the Destruction Sword. The dark sword cut them into meat cubes in just a few seconds, and they moved on.

At that moment, Teresa looked at Wain and then at Epta. She hated to realize that she was the weakest of the three of them despite being an assassin for hire.

'When I told Wain that I was a killer, he only laughed at me. What's more, I hate to admit it but considering his power, he has every right. Who was he, then, before the apocalypse?' Teresa pondered.

She could accept that Epta, who was a mutant, was stronger than she was. But, she could not understand who Wain was to get such skills.

"More guests, Epta, if you deal with them, I'll give you two more chocolates." Said Wain pointing at the two mutants walking in their direction.

The girl eagerly agreed and, shoving the candy bars in her mouth, fearlessly attacked the mutants. Their strength did not vary much, but unlike these mutants, Epta did not lose her mind. 

She fought against big pieces of meat incapable of even thinking. So, after ten seconds, the two mutants turned into tattered corpses, and Epta got her well-deserved reward.

"Epta, how far to go?" Wain asked.

"No, the other girls had to hide in the main hall. We were sometimes brought there all at once. There's a big, sturdy white door. That's probably where they are. We have to turn around, and we'll end up in a big hallway at the end of which is this door." Epta answered.

Wain nodded. After a minute, they reached the right place, and after Wain turned the corner, he saw hell. Dozens of corpses were lying on the white floor. Blood poured over almost the entire wide hallway that looked more like a hall.

At the end of the corridor, Wain saw a large door next to over twenty mutants. They tried to break through the door and get inside, but they were having no luck.

"They're in there." Said Epta. She was a little afraid of so many opponents, but she didn't show it.

"Good, that's just where I needed to go."