'Mutart'

After betting at the lottery, Jose and Arthur went to the department store of the mall. Like in his past life, Arthur admitted that he like Sophia and he needed help from Jose in buying a Christmas gift for her. Jose suggested the bracelet like last time and they bought it.

"Thanks for your advice, brother Jose. One day, Incase you need my help, as long as it is within my capabilities, I would do anything to help."

"Thank me if you and Sophia are already dating!" Jose grinned which made Arthur feel more nervous.

"Enough about me... What about you, brother Jose? The Christmas party in our class is tomorrow. Don't you need to buy something for Clara?" Arthur tapped his elbow to Jose in a teasing manner.

"Clara?" Jose was confused. He frowned while forcefully remembering his memories in the past.

"Come on, brother Jose! Everyone in the class talked about how close you and Clara were. There was even a rumor that the two of you were dating secretly."

"What? Dating secretly? It's not like that!" Jose jumped in astonishment while Arthur was looking at him as if saying 'Stop acting brother Jose, it won't work on me!'.

"You don't need to deny it to me. This brother can keep it a secret!" Arthur placed his arm on Jose's shoulder and whispered.

"F@ck that secret! She was just my friend since childhood. Nothing more!" Jose shrugged Arthur's arm and walked faster.

"Ok! Ok! Friend... Just a childhood 'friend'. I believe you! I believe you!"

Arthur rushed to catch up to the annoyed Jose. They took a train back to their homes. Arthur disembarked the train two stations before Jose. They waved goodbye to each other before parting ways.

"I wanted to roam around our area but... Seeing my family was the more important right now."

Jose took a thirty-minute walk to reach their house. Normally, one would ride jeepneys or other public transportation to reach his house. However, he chose not to ride such, in order to test his current physical capabilities like his stamina.

He knows that at the start of the apocalypse, he was amongst the normal people, whom besides their basic knowledge like applying first aid, were completely useless against zombies. Without the army's protection, they would have long perished. And only after half a year after the apocalypse did Jose started to grow stronger.

The scientist knew that a virus was responsible for turning the infected being into a zombie. However, complete information about how the virus works and the origin of the virus was still a mystery to them. What they only knew was that based on experiments, the virus was only transferable through blood contact.

As time passes, they discovered that an infected being develops a new organ they called 'mutation heart' or well known as 'mutart'. It is located near the infected being's heart and it was as small as a thumb. It is spherical and is colored dark green.

They were able to identify that the mutart was responsible for the mutation of the other parts of the body. The mutation causes improvement in the ability of a being like its physical abilities.

Half a year after the apocalypse, the scientist was able to find out that if the mutart was extracted and exposed in air, the virus in it would die after a minute. It turned into grayish dark green in color.

Considering these hypotheses, a mad scientist ingested a mutart after exposing it in the air for a minute. He assumed that after the virus dies, he will ingest it so that the body could naturally make use of the dead virus and develop a resistance to the virus.

He was right. He injected to himself, one mL of blood from the same infected zombie where the mutart came from. Surprisingly, he didn't become a zombie. On the contrary, he felt that his body had somehow increased its strength.

This spread through the world and the humans started to mutate and evolve. Unfortunately, as they mutate and evolve one level higher, the zombies also mutate and the virus evolves. Hence, the threat was not fully eliminated.

"Almost 78 percent of the overall population of the world had become a zombie after four years since the apocalypse began. With just 11 days, I need to make a plan for us to last longer than that. Despite having the information, I can't underestimate nature and let my guard down even for a second. Unexpected circumstances, after all, were the major causes of casualties after the apocalypse."

"I'm back!" He contained his excitement while standing in front of their gate. Their house was filled with colorful Christmas lights, that perfectly blends with the night. At the same time, a bright light inside their house can be seen through their windows. It signified that someone was at home.

"Jose! Where did you go? I saw you earlier depart with Arthur." A beautiful girl approached him with a wave.

"Clara... That... We went to the mall. Why do you ask?"

"Nothing really. The gang was just looking for you earlier. We were talking about exchanging gifts for tomorrow. You were not there so we decided to do it later on."

"I see. You can count me in."

"Hehe, then see you tomorrow! Don't forget to see me and the gang after the class' Christmas party. Else... I won't talk to you for a week." Clara threatened in a joking manner.

"Yeah! Yeah! You have my word. Don't worry."

"Hahaha, Good night."

"Good night!"

Jose waved back with a smile whilst pushing their gate open. Clara also entered a nearby gate.

"Mom, I'm home!"