The Mutation Wave

Chapter 2: Not Your Average Survivors

"-When do you think he's gonna wake up?"

"I don't know, but let's be careful. I'm gonna go check up on him."

William slowly opened his eyes and blinked slowly. He felt slightly disoriented but surprisingly refreshed, like he had been sleeping for days. William shook his head groggily as his muddled thoughts slowly regained coherence.

Oh great. I've been kidnapped.

He sat up, pushing his hands against the soft fabric of the bed he was lying on to support himself. No, I got... saved? William quickly surveyed his surroundings. The room was a simple one. His helmet and crossbow lay neatly on the floor beside the bed. Small rays of light poured in through the barricaded window, illuminating the posters of fighting champions that decorated the light turquoise walls. A light blue bookshelf was filled to the brim with antique digital versatile discs, or DVDs for short.

The room on the whole looked well maintained, a little too well maintained in fact. It was as though no days had passed since the fall of civilization. A holographic calendar hovered over the stack next to an oak brown door.

15 May, 2178. So I've only been asleep for a day...

The sound of a door handle turning interrupted William's thoughts. He swiftly turned around, his hands instinctively balling into fists in front of his body.

"Calm down. If I wanted you dead, I would've just left you for the zombies back at the store."

William slowly lowered his fists, eyeing the lady in front of him suspiciously. She had a slender build and was about 1.7 metres; taller than the average woman of oriental descent. Her long wavy brunette hair parted neatly between her upturned blue eyes. She wore a wry smile on her face, accenting the dimples on her cheeks that softened her confident expression.

"Who are you? Where am I?" William asked warily.

"Oh, he's awake." Another bespectacled young lady with black hair popped her head through the door. She looked slightly younger, though it was probably also due to her petite frame and bob haircut. "Calm down, you're safe here," she said in a lazy tone.

The girl with brunette hair pulled up a chair. "I'm Marianne, and she's Masako. You're in my apartment. My... old- apartment."

William relaxed his shoulders and leaned back against the bed frame. "I didn't know there were other survivors in this area."

"There weren't. You're the only one we saw," Marianne said. "We came from somewhere else, you see. We only made a temporary stop here to collect more supplies and happened to see you as well. Oh and why were you wearing that thing? It looks awfully stuffy."

William stunned for a moment, before motioning to his protective gear. "This, you mean? It's... so that I don't get bitten and turned into a zombie?"

The two girls looked at him in genuine surprise. "Wait, you don't know?"

"What don't I know?"

Masako rolled up her sleeve to show numerous bite marks on her forearm. "We enhanced mutates are immune."

William sat up in shock. "Immune?! Wait, what do you mean, 'enhanced mutates'?"

Masako straightened her spectacles. "We're just like you. Our bio-electric field is similar to the mutates; that's why we're so much stronger and faster now. That's also the reason why their bites have no effect on us and we're invisible to their electro-reception. Apparently, we're no longer fully human after the mutation wave, so we're called 'enhanced mutates' now. Or at least that's what the government declared before going MIA on the rest of the world."