351 Speras Longing, The First Step to Get Her Loyalty (1/2)

Day 56 – 11:02 AM – Hospital Area, Military Laboratory, North District, Bay City Settlement, Pasay City, Metro Manila

On the white hallways of the laboratory, Mark walked with a soldier designated to process things for him if needed.

After the arrangements in the workshop were finished, Mark decided to return here for his unfinished business. On the other hand, General Perez and Major Lopez had other work to do leaving him to go with a designated guide. Especially since the two also needed to process his request for a large amount of blood he needed.

Fortunately, they had quite a good amount of unused blood bags retrieved from nearby hospitals. A fresh blood bag could only last for forty-two days and the quality deteriorated for the time it was stored unless frozen. Unfortunately, freezing blood was a bad way of storing it and was not advisable. As almost two months had already passed, there were a lot of blood bags in storage that were not usable anymore.

These blood bags should have been disposed of already along with expired medicines and food in the storage. However, a facility to dispose of the waste was not fully implemented yet in Bay City. The scientists were against indiscriminate disposal of wastes in an unmonitored area due to the high sensitivity of Mutagen. If the waste disposal was not properly done, new types of mutated infected might appear because of it.

As such, aside from food waists and non-biodegradable wastes, most medical and chemical wastes were secured instead in a maintained warehouse just on the northernmost part of Bay City that was not occupied by the settlement.

For the stale blood bags however, these items were still stored in a freezer in the laboratories since the blood could still be used for different experiments.

It did not take long and Mark was in front of Spera's rood once more. He made the soldier assisting him to stay outside with the guards who let him in after he removed his mask.

***

Spera did not get enough sleep last night. She was thinking carefully about the offer Mark had given her.

During her contemplation, however, she found out that Mark was playing with her. He said that she had a choice but thinking about it further, there was no choice at all. The choices that she was given were to join his group or stay here. However, she could only choose the first one. While it was true that she could stay here, there was no doubt that she would end up as a hopeless criminal to be held in prison. Since Mark would also not return her ability if she chose the second choice, there was really no other choice for her to pick.

Another thing that kept her awake was her current condition that she herself could not fathom why this happened. Since the time she felt being a useless person even as a slave, her emotions from her childhood vanished. Now, however, she could not control it no matter how she tried. Her actions were affected by these emotional bursts too. She even hugged Mark's legs and begged when she would have never do something like that before even if she was about to die.

Nevertheless, she found something good. The head pats Mark gave her was really comfortable despite his scary aura.

”It seems you already decided.”

She suddenly heard a voice which made her flinch.

When she turned, she saw someone wearing a tattered occult-like robe with a familiar sword on his back. She was about to panic until she saw his face.

”Do I look scary?”

Mark spoke with a grin.

”You should have knocked before entering a girl's room.”

Spera huffed. She was grumpy both from lacking sleep and Mark tricking her.

”This is not your room but your prison. I think you already figured that out.”

”That's…”

Spera was stumped.

”So, you're joining me, right?”

”I don't have any choice, do I?”

She replied dejectedly.

”Then, get your things and I'll get you out of here. Also…”

Mark approached the confused Spera and reached for her forehead.

”GAAAHHHH!!!”

She could not help but yell in pain. Tears accumulated at the corner of her eyes as she felt a head-splitting pain.

It only took a few seconds but Spera was sweating and gasping for breath afterward. She tried hard to endure but tears still overflowed from her eyes.

”Wh-what… did… you… do…?”

She tried hard to ask.

Then, his hand fell on her head and caressed her comfortably.

”Sorry about that but I can't just let you roam around freely. I told you last night but I have a way to deal with the possibility that you will stab me in the back.”

From the pat on her head, the pain started to ease but her pain started to turn into fear.

”Don't worry. I only planted a ball of miasma in your head. It is something that is usually used to possess someone without harming the body. I can't possess or control you since I don't have that ability but I can do this much. The moment you tried to escape or think of something against me or my people, that miasma in your head will explode and rot your brain.”

Mark smiled.

”So be sure to behave. By the way, I also took care of that Dopp the same way. Your previous teammates might have been injured because of him detonating like a bomb.”

”I see…”