Dawn of the 13th Era

Deformed Mutant

After returning to his lodge, Orion pulled out his phone and dialed the first number on his contact page.

~~ding~~

~~ding~~

"Hello Orion, anything wrong?" Jerry said across the line.

"Oh, thank God you're still alive, hold on I'm coming over to your place." Orion said.

"Oh don't worry, it was just a mild headache, it's gone now, no need to worry." Jerry replied.

"You sure?" Orion asked again

"Yeah I'm alright now, don't bother." Jerry affirmed.

Dropping the call, Orion took in a deep breath.

"I thought he was also having the plague, first things first, I need to sort out this money before it's too late." He thought while taking out his phone then transferring all the balance over to another account then decided to block that account at the bank the next day along with the current one after withdrawing everything.

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The next morning, he woke up took a hood and a mask over his face then headed out of the lodge, when he came out he saw a small crowd in front. Confused, he walked over and asked what happened.

"A girl in the lodge died yesterday apparently, she was found almost frozen with disfigured bones and her face was almost unrecognizable, I think her name was Mary or so" the stranger said.

'Mary, she's the one who woke me up, she's dead?" Orion thought in fear while walking out towards the nearest bank.

He was wondering what the government was doing, a plague of this level should definitely call for a curfew and proper investigation. Instead, all he saw were people dying everywhere and the government was keeping silent over the matter which was extremely strange.

"What on Earth is going on right now?" Orion thought while walking over to the bank. He decided to call his parents after he was back from the bank, hoping they were alright.

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A few hours later, Orion walked out of the bank with a bag slumped across his shoulder.

"I'm not a millionaire but $90,000 would definitely do a lot for a while" he already covered all traces and withdrew the money already, then left the bank and hailed a cab home.

After getting home, Orion quietly shut the door and stood still for a moment. The day felt heavy, like everything was finally catching up to him. He took a breath, pulled out his phone, and called his mum.

After a few beeps, he heard her voice over the call.

“Orion…?” Her voice was shaky. He could hear her crying.

His chest tightened. “Mum? What’s wrong?” There was a short pause, then she said it.

“Your brother… he’s gone.”

Orion froze. His mind went blank for a second, the words repeating in his head. He remembered his brother, the same he played with from childhood.

"How? There was nothing wrong when I called last time, an accident?" He asked.

"Nothing was wrong this morning, it was just a mild headache then this afternoon he suddenly started convulsing" his mother said between sobs.

“Mum… it’s okay,” he said quietly, forcing himself to stay calm. “I’m here. Please try to calm down.”

He listened as she cried, speaking softly to her until she settled a bit. Then he tried to reassure her.

"I can't go home now, we have exams in 4 days time and I have to stay, I'm very sorry I can't be there mom. I'll send the little cash I have on hand over to you" Orion said

"Where did you get money? No matter how bad our family is, don't engage in bad activities just for money Orion. You don't have to send anything."

"I got a very decent job recently, I'll explain when I get home, please just calm down"

"Okay, read for your exams, don't worry about us here" She responded weakly, and after a few more words, the call ended.

Silence filled the room again.

Orion lowered his phone and walked to the window, staring up at the sky.

Something didn’t feel right, the government was way too silent regarding a matter that took three percent of the world's population and still counting.

Casualties in hundreds of millions within just 3 days and everywhere looked peaceful, it was like the government was trying to cover things up.

"I need to find out what exactly is going on" he said with eyes narrowed.

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Downtown Cyberis City

A group of 3 men and a woman were approaching an isolated house, getting close two other men came to meet them.

"Is this the house?" The leading man asked, he was about 1.5 metres tall with a sharp eye, looking around the house, it looked normal at first but they knew what they were there for.

"Yes, according to the reports, everyone in the house is dead and the target is cornered in the first floor." The man reported.

"Let's wrap this up quickly, we still have other places to attend to." The man said then pulled out an electric baton and barged into the house.

The others followed right behind him, one of them pulled out a flashlight while they walked down the stairs, after searching the first floor and second floor without finding anything they decided to check the basement.

Gently walking down the steps, they heard crawling sounds then the next thing they saw was a black humanoid figure flying over at them, the first man wacked the baton over at it but it dodged with an hairs breadth then leaped at the man holding the flashlight and the next thing, everything went blank.

"Stella move to the side, Damion pull that thing off your head!!" The man shouted in a frenzy while rushing over to wack his baton at the humanoid figure only for it to jump away vanish into the dark hallway again.

"What the hell was that, it's not supposed to be that strong right?" The third guy asked amidst rapid breaths.

The first man didn't respond and rushed over to Damion only to find him lying down lifeless. He closed his eyes and looked at the dark basement stairs.

"Tell them to seal down the house and all it's exits, this isn't a normal deformed mutant, it must've been an anomaly from the second or first surge, fall back for now it's not something we can deal with." The man said then picked up Damion's body and ran up the stairs with the others.