Chapter 3 - Mutants

"Shit what the hell is that green lava?" Echo had pulled out a device that was able to scan the lava, but nothing was coming up due to something interfering with electronics.

"It is probably something to do with this new element that was recently discovered and now the military has royally fucked up this time" Reia looked towards the tower that was falling apart.

Much of the attention was now on the eruption instead of them making it easier to escape.

"Kim, get your sniper and take out any remaining soldiers at the gate. After that, we will push forward on foot."

Kim nodded and pulled out her sniper from the boot.

Kim then got on the roof of the jeep and despite her size was able to lift the sniper with ease. Kim then placed the sniper on the roof and laid down aiming down sights.

"What the fuck is that?" Kim called out as she spotted something odd in the distance.

"What do you see Kim?" Reia was concerned as they were just too far to clearly see what was at the gate.

"There is this black oil looking creature, and it has mangled body parts coming out of it. Looks like it is still transforming." Kim was rather disgusted by the site as she saw a half-dog start getting mangled and a black oil cover its body.

"Kill it quickly, it must be from the green lava, ECHO! Don't touch the lava!" Reia told Kim to shoot and yelled at Echo who was still around the crack with lava in it.

Echo quickly backed up from the crack in the ground as he heard the conversation and would rather not find out what happens if he touched it.

Kim lined up the shot and the orange lining that was on her sniper began to glow brightly before firing. The jeep shook and a bunch of dust lifted in the air as the orange bullet travelled through the air, directly into the transforming half dog's heart. A massive hole in the half dog's chest was created and he fell to the floor.

Kim waited a moment before saying it was dead and thankfully it did not rise. However, another issue just occurred, more of the soldiers that were at the gate were also touched by the lava and the shot had caused the mutated people to start running towards them.

"Shit they are running this way." Just as Kim was about to look away, she saw the half-dog rise from the floor.

"How is it alive?" Kim saw the half-dog transform into a black oil looking creature taking the form of the dog.

"Kim! What's going on?!" Reia wanted to know what she was seeing.

"I thought I killed the half-dog soldier, but it lived and turned into a black oil looking monster dog." Kim tried her best to describe it as the body had an oil effect but looked more like a fleshy slime.

"There is also more coming so we should either run or try to kill them, but I have no idea if it's possible to kill them." Kim was starting to panic, not sure what to do.

"Sweetie~ shoot the dog one last time and if he doesn't die then we will have to run but if It does die, we can stay and fight." Lou had spoken up and Kim regained her composure.

Kim took a deep breath and went to fire another shot at the mutant dog. The dog's eyes glowed green and the size of the dog was larger than any normal dog.

Kim's gun lit up and another orange bullet fired piercing right through the dog's body. Green blood splattered all over the ground and a dark green crystal fell to the floor in pieces.

"It's dead! I think." Kim wasn't too sure, but she could not see any movements and the body stayed limp.

"Good they are killable, what do the other mutants look like?" Reia knew there were too many unknowns about the mutants but seeing as they can be killed, it allowed them to find out valuable information through this encounter.

Kim looked over to the small horde that was still far from them. When she looked over, she saw that one of the human soldiers was running away. Unable to be faster than the many mutant beasts following the human, it started getting eaten alive till it was dead.

A panther, lion, wolf and many more mutant beasts gnawed at the human body. Once they were finished, they continued to run toward Reia and her squad. Kim then noticed something strange happen with the human body. After the beasts had killed him, the dead body started to transform into a mutant. Its body was elongated and no longer represented a human, looking more like an alien, unlike the animal forms the half-humans took.

"We have almost every animal you can think of and don't get bit or hit because it will cause you to transform!" Kim felt chills as the scene was quite morbid.

"Lou protect Ki-." Reia was about to tell Lou to protect Kim, but she already started running towards the horde.

"Echo protect Kim, surely you can use a gun for once and not rely on your drones." Reia turned to Echo who was pulling out a silenced MP5.

"A shame I can't use my turrets but don't worry I will protect her." Echo stood by the jeep.

"Good." Reia nodded and chased after Lou.

Many robots were scattered around as most electronics had been disabled leaving them limp on the street. Many of the apartments had also been empty as most soldiers were on duty and it was rare for a lot of people to be home.

The few people that were home had come out of their apartments because of the eruption but many were unarmed and if they were spotted by the new emerging mutants they would have been killed and turned.

Lou came face to face with some mutants and pulled out her dual black berretta's. Using one of the disabled robots on the road, Lou jumped in the air and fired on the 2 mutants. Her yellow pullets set the mutants ablaze, but it did not stop them from moving. The bullets pierced through the bodies but even a headshot did not kill them.

"Tch." Lou clicked her tongue while landing back on the ground and then jumping back.

Riea had caught up and crouched on the ground and began to fire her assault rifle. The purple lining on Reia's gun began to glow and a burst of bullets came out. The bullets were like lightning piercing through a mutant lion destroying a green crystal. Lightning lingered around where the bullets hit.

"Looks like they have a core, and destroying it is the only way to kill them." Seeing as Lou's bullets were ineffective means the only way to kill them was by destroying the core.

"Well, that's easy, just shoot them enough times till you hit the core." Lou aimed her beretta's and fired on a mutant cat that jumped at them. After a few shots, Lou hit the core and the mutant cat's body fell to their feet.

The main horde had almost arrived, and a smile sprung on Lou's face.

"Shall we have some fun Reia?"

"I don't know how you find this fun but yes I am ready." Reia stood up and the magazine in her gun slightly glowed purple.

"Make sure to fill your gun back up with your essence." Reia reminded Lou to reload her gun.

"Oh yeah." Lou looked at the handle and saw a yellow bar that was half full.

The mutant monsters growled and screeched as they approached.

Lou ran straight ahead, and Reia ran to the side jumping on a car that was left in the street.

Lou began to fire into the horde picking off a human and fox mutant. Reia from a distance began firing at the bear mutant, punching many holes in the bear. Reia's bullets having a lightning effect paralysed the bear.

Now able to get a clean shot aimed at the middle of the bear destroying the core with one bullet.

Despite Their efforts there were still about 15-20 mutants left and at their current pace would be overrun.

'At this pace we won't be able to kill them before they get too close, if what Kim said is true then it's best, we keep our distance as much as possible.' Reia did not want to end up fighting close range with the mutants as even a scratch could possibly turn them.

Lou, on the other hand, was getting close and thanks to her fire were able to burn away their bodies making it easier to guess where the core could be.

Sending a barrage of bullets Lou picked off many mutants causing a small bonfire of dead bodies.

Lou jumping off a disabled robot again launched herself over the horde raining down bullets on them. The mutants tried to reach out but because of the sudden stop to grab Lou, many of them ran into each other. Lou killed more of the mutants and set fire to the remaining and their bodies began to melt.

Reia pushed closer to the horde and let her own barrage of bullets onto the horde killing the remaining surviving mutants.

"Now where is the next horde?" Lou looked around for more but was not able to see any mutants.

"We have other things to worry about, we need to go back to Echo and Kim." Reia turned around and Lou sighed but still nodded. Both then began to run back to the jeep.