Past

"For someone who cares so much about other people's mutations, you seem pretty helpless." The knife recoiled and a soft, feminine voice sounded.

Lucas didn't need to turn around to know who owned the voice, but he did anyway. His gaze initially saw nothing, but a figure began to take on color. It looked like a glass was being transformed into a painting, the transparency gave way to the colors and soon a silhouette formed.

The silhouette took the form of a beautiful woman with shoulder-length black hair. Moonlight glinted in her eyes and reflected their sparkling blue color. She smiled when she retracted the knife and said:

"What are you doing? At this time of night and here you are playing!" Her words were scolding, however her tone was relaxed.

Lucas laughed a little before answering:

"Well I couldn't sleep. I have a lot on my mind, so I came here to relax." He shrugged and looked up at the starry sky and Ruby followed her gaze. They stayed like that for a few seconds before he spoke.

"Why did you use the knife anyway? I could just use my hand." He laughed after speaking. The young woman looked at him curiously, her eyes reflecting deep analysis. She thought for a moment and said:

"It would be more fun this way." She pouted and closed her eyes.

Lucas replied:

"Ohh, so what are you doing up at this hour?"

"Someone got out of the car and made a lot of noise, I was curious and came to see what it was." Now Ruby's look was provocative.

The two talked a little longer. In the meantime she had already sat beside him on the stone before asking:

"I'm curious, what was your life like before all this happened?" His own stared straight ahead, seeing the horizon connecting the starry sky with the moonlit terrain. Lucas hesitated to respond.

'Why is she asking that out of nowhere? And why is she bringing me up like that? In the middle of the night?" Even talking and making conversation with her, Lucas had been suspicious from the start. So he gave a rather simple answer.

"Well, there's not much to say. It was a normal life, normal parents, normal friends… not much to say." Even speaking without stuttering or hesitating, her eyes still held a hint of sadness. Ruby, who was looking precisely at them, didn't miss that detail.

"Eyes never lie," thought the young woman.

Realizing that she wouldn't have as much control of her emotions if she continued on this topic, Lucas decided to ask a question:

"Is that you? What was your life like?" He avoided eye contact when asking.

"Well, I wish it were as normal as yours. My family sucks, because of my grandfather's inheritance, my parents and uncles started fighting with each other. This fight lasted several years, I wasn't even born when it started, that's why not even my parents stayed with me for a long time, if it wasn't the work it was the legal fight. My whole childhood was with the maid, I call her mother. I think the only family I really have is my cousin and her." She laughed, but it wasn't one of joy but of helplessness.

"But you know what I think? The world has changed drastically and we are now free. Even though we almost die every day, I'm getting used to it, I don't know if I have a problem in my head. It's only been a few weeks since the war and I'm already finding this world better." Ruby's voice was still a little helpless.

Before Lucas could respond, she got up and said,

"It's almost dawn, I'm going back to the car."

The conversation ended, but Lucas was still thinking:

'She doesn't look bad, her actions are kind of weird, but she seems like someone to be trusted. I'll start trusting then." With those thoughts, he waited for Ruby to get into the truck to resume his tests.

Soon the sun came up and the trio resumed their journey. As they had not been able to get food in the previous city, they had to ration what they had in order not to go hungry. Luckily Lucas brought a lot of canned food with him, it was enough to get to another town without anyone going hungry. They crossed the territory of Minas Gerais and headed towards Bahia. The trio entered a few cities, but none presented the same dangers as before.

Meat was not an unsolvable problem, they found that there were still unmutated animals, however they were rare. It was very difficult to find them on the road, especially in the city. However, Lucas realized this issue, he used [Blood Intuition] to go deep into the few masses of trees seen during the trip, he could sense both mutants and normal animals with him. With luck, the trio managed to hunt a few birds and four-legged animals every two or three days.

Mutants were the overwhelming majority of animals, so the food chain reversed and messed up in unthinkable ways, yet the trio refused to eat them, not wanting to risk ending up mutating too.

During that time, Lucas had plenty of time to run his tests with his mutation. These practices gave many results, he removed many doubts and expanded his limits. While training at night, a few days after the conversation with Ruby, he thought:

"I'm confident I can face those birds and dogs again in my current state, but against that black cloud… I dare not." He looked up at the sky and saw the stars and said,

"Still." So he went back to his training. The journey continued.

In the cities that entered, there were at most a few dogs, cats, insects and humans transformed by the beam, they were few and weak. Apparently, the first city was somehow unique to feature so many mutant dogs and birds. However, even though they were few mutants, they never entered the center of a city. So the journey continued for a few weeks and they arrived in a peculiar town.

They got to it at night, instead of sleeping out of town like they did before, they went inside. They planned to sleep outside, but when they got close, they noticed something surprising. There were barricades at the entrance, flaming torches and people patrolling the territory.

The barricades were made up of cars, trucks and any apparent scrap. There were women and men surrounding the entrance to the city, some teenagers were also doing the work. It looked like a military settlement, or the base of some armed group.

The trio in the car first were surprised, they didn't imagine there were so many survivors gathered, let alone a city controlled by humans. After the initial surprise came enthusiasm for finding survivors. So everyone agreed to move on.

The blue pickup had been sighted long before it entered town, so there were some 'guards' in front of the gate who signaled to stop. The car stopped and one of the guards said:

'Are there any deformed with you?

At the time of the question, the trio was even more startled, not by the question, but by the guard's appearance. It was a clear mix between species! His face had a large orange coat, with some black spots. His body was big and muscular, his hands also had bestial features, in addition to other animal-like parts ..

Now that Lucas and company were close to the guards, they could see their faces. Most had animal aspects, with a few still fully human. His amazement was not small, it was like being in a futuristic movie, but much more frightening.

However, Lucas was shocked for different reasons than his companions, as he believed that all deformed mutants were irrational. Apparently his theory was wrong, the proof of that was right in front of his eyes. As for the cousins, they've never seen these 'deformed humans'.

The guard, seeing the stupor of the young people, understood that they had never seen a deformed one before. Then he beckoned another guard to open the gate. He told the young people:

"Don't worry, you're safe. You'll get used to it soon."

Ace took a while to come back to his senses, it took Ruby to nudge him through the gate. When they finally got in and parked the truck, a group of guards came to meet them. Coincidentally, none of them had bestial traits. There were 4 guards, the team leader came forward to introduce himself.

"Good night, my name is Matthew, it's great that you are all right. It must have been very difficult for you during this time, but don't worry, let's register now and explain how it all works. By the way, have you eaten today?" This guard was short, about 1.60, but had a more dominant stance and an even more aura. His muscles were well defined, making a good impression. He was bald and his beard was very well cared for. He would be a perfect soldier if it weren't for the height.

The three young men still had to get used to it, so they didn't respond right away, but Lucas, who was already somewhat used to deformed mutants, reacted promptly.

"We had something to eat, but we would be grateful for a proper meal."

The patrol leader listened in surprise that the apparently younger boy answered first, but he pushed those thoughts aside.

"So let's go. I'll introduce you to the leader and then we'll register you."