Chapter 1 - The Fog

"Frank, report, do you copy?!" Terrence called out with a hint of frustration in his voice as he gripped the microphone tightly in his hand. In the previous privileged world, he would be considered an extremely intimidating person due to his height and murderous look on his face which people referred to as psychopathic, however, to Terrence, nothing mattered other than the safety of his own arse as he called out again with a bit more frustration this time, "I said, do you copy?! God damn it! Every god damn time I call out for them, I get nothing but that cursed static!"

"It's not good for you to release your emotions this carelessly, captain... you will end up scaring away the other rookies," Maxwell said hoping to calm him down, his intentions were genuine as most of the rookies would be too scared to go out on any missions if they were constantly getting reports that more members had vanished in the fog.

"As a rookie are you speaking for yourself or for the good of others? I don't give a damn about how many of us go, we will finish repairing this truck and be at Fort Juno in a matter of days. What we need right now, are the parts in that electronic factory, we get those and we can trade everything in for some decent genes, until then, you all follow my orders and get the job done, understood?"

Maxwell was quite surprised at his last order but to avoid any problems he replied with a simple, "Yes Sir," then walked back into the main carriage where the rest of his squad were. Inside, a bunch of people were sitting quietly staring at the plated-ground until he walked in and got their attention.

"Squad is still in action, they just had to remain quiet for some time because a group of beasts were passing by, nothing to worry about," he assured them with a smile, even though he knew that the situation was dire and that many of these good people would be sacrificed for the greater good but the last thing he needed was an unorganized mob trying to get back to the Fort. Maxwell felt like he could easily make it back to the fort with a little luck, however, returning with a larger group of people, was simply impossible. A mob would attract too much attention and lead into complete annihilation, which was not good at all. The reason why he hadn't left the truck and headed back to the Fort was because he was currently working as Terrence's right hand man and would be given a report of his experience and resourcefulness during his mission which he desperately needed to enter the 'Rogue Unit'. This was a team of individuals that were given special privileges by the militaristic government and would have an easier time surviving in the world.

Of course, he could also take the risk and make is own community but that would require a lot of strength and knowledge to do, however, it was done before. The world as they knew it, was overcrowded with hostile beasts that mutated as a result of a rogue planet colliding into Earth, although it did no physical damage, it littered the world with various bacteria that mutated animals and covered the world in a dense fog.

The only way to survive was by injecting the genes of other species into a person, making them immune to the bacteria and allowing them to gain other powers as a result. Unfortunately, if you didn't do so within the first twenty-one years of your life, you would die a horrendous death, as for people which lived before the collision, you had to receive an injection within three months. Maxwell, was one of the... you could say the most fortunate of the bunch as he was born after the collision and received his shot immediately.

Genes were separated into various grades, each upgrading a specific part of your body, whether it was physical or mental, these were:

Grade F; Immunity Genes

Grade E; Emotional Genes

Grade D; Tolerance Genes

Grade C; Mental Enhancement Genes

Grade B: Physical Enhancement Genes

Grade A: Mortality Genes

Grade S: Extraterrestrial Genes

Each grade is then further separated into its own advancement system, from perception in 'Grade C' genes, to specific poison immunity in 'Grade F' and so on. However, neither could be compared and each of them had their own role in expanding human limitations. When Maxwell received his shot as a baby, he acquired a Grade E gene which allowed him to remain calm even in the most stressful of situations... but not all since he only had one shot of that gene.

It was an emotional gene, albeit, one of the most useful ones in the eyes of many, as the whole world wasn't exactly a merry place to live in. Also, gaining a physical enhancement gene would only make him cocky and more than likely lead him to his own death, so, he was happy with what he had.

After Maxwell finished speaking to the group, a sudden thump into the side of the truck re-ignited their feelings of stress and paranoia. When they all looked up, they could see the outline of a human body dented into the truck which caused them to scream in panic. The screaming was quickly suppressed by Terrence's presence who walked into the carriage with his hands gripping tightly on his spear. That was another thing, because of the herds of beasts, weapons numbered in the tens and only higher ranking personnel could carry them, so, medieval era weapons were used instead.

Terrence walked passed all of the soldiers and then stopped at the very end for a few seconds and then turned to speak to the squad as he garnered their attention, "As the man in-command of this squad, we will now be commencing the retreat order... please grab a hold of your weapons and stick close to me!" Upon hearing these words, Maxwell had almost fainted in horror but his genes reacted quickly allowing him to remain calm. This was a suicide mission, they would have to move for at least seven days just to get back to the Fort, it was safer remaining in the truck until help arrived!

"I know you all may feel reluctant but I received a transmission from one of our squads to immediately retreat! This is an emergency order and must be carried out, help will be here soon, I promise," he concluded his speech with a battle-hardened smile before he bust open the truck doors to leave with the squad following close behind him.

Maxwell on the other hand stayed inside the truck and didn't move a muscle, he knew that it was dangerous and knew that they would all be safer traveling one by one, thus, he stayed behind and waited until they moved further away despite the loneliness.

Some time passed and he could occasionally hear screams coming from his fallen comrades but chose to ignore them and remained inside the truck for a bit longer. Eventually, he crept out of the truck and vomited when he saw an array of corpses lying about, some missing chunks of their bodies while others were missing entire limbs. Despite all of the danger signs he left the truck and continued in the fog with his mouth and nose sunk into his elbow.

The Fog was the worst thing about the world, if it had not existed, humans could easily defeat the mutated entities by using their military equipment, however, how could one shoot at what they couldn't see? The trick was to gain more genes, as it was reported that the more genes one owned, the better vision they had of the world.

He trudged through the fog, stepping over bodies and holding his breath as to not throw up again and held tightly onto his blade which was nothing impressive. He followed the lines on the road and new that if he simply followed them, he would reach a populous area within a few hours of traveling. The fort was a weeks travel away but that didn't mean that it was the only shelter that existed in the world, there were many 'scavengers' that covered the entire globe and remained in self-made shelters. There were also 'gas stations' that were used to refuel humans with food and water rather than vehicles although they did sell petrol and it was the thing Maxwell wanted to see the most right now. Some scavengers were known to be ruthless and stole from passerby's if they intruded onto their territories.

Before he could even think about the future, the most important thing was to survive, he remained in the overgrown field next to the road and pushed forward. The reason why it was easier to survive alone was because you could always hide inside the overgrown greenery but if you moved in a group, you would be discovered a lot easier.

He continued forward casually and was relatively undetected until suddenly he came across a mutated beast that was resting on a branch. It was a bat, however, a mutated one with extra long fangs, red ears and the size of a human child. Instead of running, Maxwell revealed a sinister grin and slowly raised his blade to the height of his shoulder and walked in front of it as to not startle it by approaching its ears. In an extremely fast movement, he fired his blade at the bats head using every muscle inside his body and successfully took out a chunk from its head before it woke up. It fell on the ground and started to screech in pain but Maxwell jumped on top of it and mounted his body in a way so that the bat couldn't claw him too severely. He then desperately hacked at the beast with all his might until the bat had stopped struggling and he was covered in its blood.

The process of gaining a gene was done in two ways, one; injecting the blood using a needle or two; doing what he was just about to do... swallow the blood of the beast. He would gain the same amount of genes this way but would have to go through the unappetizing method of swallowing foul-tasting blood which was in no way designed to be drunken from. The bat could be consumed to gain some more points in his genes but the meat never tasted good even with a ton of spices.

After drinking the blood, a feeling of déja vu occurred when a voice rung in his head, "Grade C gene acquired from Weakened Crimson-eared Bat; three points in hearing obtained." This was it! The message that many people spoke about when they got points in a gene! Other than having improved hearing, he noticed that his eyes covered more of the ground ahead of him as if the fog had cleared up slightly.

With his improved hearing and vision, he now felt more confident at making it back to the fort. However, first of all he needed to find a source of food and water as he would not make it further without the necessities.