Nexis Industries was a major international player in pharmaceuticals and dical supplies. However, beneath this legitimate front, the company was governnt-affiliated and heavily involved in classified research, including genetic engineering, biotechnology, and bioengineering experints, with a specialized scientific team conducting secretive studies.
Marlon had been the director and head of Nexis Industries' underground facility in tropolis City for over ten years. In all his years of experience, he had never encountered a situation as difficult and complicated as this.
After the eting with the president and officials at the White House, Marlon hurried back to their underground facility and went straight to the classified research vault, where the best of his staff had been assigned to monitor the teorite shower phenonon and its victims.
Without saying a word, he imdiately accessed the live feed of the test patients they had gathered after last night's teorite shower. They had recently transferred so of those patients, along with two unclaid dead bodies of street beggars, to their facility before the chaos in each hospital began.
Those two beggars had been reborn, like others from the morgue, and Marlon had been keeping them, now classified as teorborn, alive inside highly secured rooms in the facility. He needed them for further tests and analysis.
For hours, they had been monitoring the teor Survivors, using them as test subjects to assess the potential threat they posed to public and national security. So remained unconscious after being struck by the teorites, while others had regained consciousness, their conditions closely observed for any signs of abnormality.
"Those who died on the spot from the teorite turned into monsters. The governnt is worried about those who survived after seeing this footage. Now, they see all teor Survivors as a threat," Marlon muttered with a frustrated sigh.
"Footage?" one of his staff asked.
He replayed the footage that Field Marshal Roxas had presented during the eting earlier. The report and the video had co in unexpectedly, just as the president had asked what would happen to the survivors. How could they be certain that those affected wouldn't turn into monsters upon death?
The footage showed a prisoner who had been struck by the teorite. While recovering in the hospital, he attempted to escape but was hit by a vehicle during his getaway.
The paradics declared him dead on the spot. And yet, monts later, the prisoner suddenly ca back to life, only he was no longer human. His body had mutated into sothing monstrous, much like the teorborn. Without hesitation, he began attacking civilians, turning them into MB Infectees.
The incident had gone viral, with countless people capturing the horrifying transformation on their phones and spreading it online.
Because of this, many officials urged the president to prioritize public safety by ordering the military and police to eliminate all teor Survivors before the infection and chaos could escalate further. Prevention was better than cure.
However, Marlon opposed the decision. He believed there was more to this phenonon, and his team needed more ti to study the case. Yet, he lacked substantial evidence to support his argunt against terminating the teor Survivors.
"Are we really going to dispose of them?" Karen, his assistant, asked, staring at the monitors displaying so of the teor Survivors being attended to by the staff after waking up.
"Those awake are now all anxious. They want to see their families. Our dical team already explained to them that we need to observe their conditions first before we can discharge them, but most of them say that they wouldn't cooperate unless they first talk with their families," one of his staff inford.
"The military will check on them later and see if we obeyed in eliminating them. It's no use for them to see their families and give them false hopes. It's better that they think they died from the teorites," he muttered.
Those teor Survivors were strictly selected, and most of them ca from poor families who practically signed a contract for them to beco test patients.
He clicked the screen and checked on the dical condition of each survivor.
"Their vitals are stable and-"
"Doc, you should see this!" he was cut off by another of his staff monitoring the teor Survivor patients. He imdiately checked, and his eyes widened.
"There's more of them! What's that? She's making fire?!" Karen burst, her eyes wide, as they watched a patient creating fire with her hand. But then she stopped as she stared at the cara.
"Doc, this one... he suddenly disappeared, but he had clothes on!" one of his staff exclaid.
"Doc, it seems like those who awakened after being unconscious developed supernatural abilities!" Karen pointed out. "And it's probably because of the teorites."
With that, Marlon quickly scanned the dical report of the prisoner who turned into a teorborn after dying.
His eyes widened with realization. "This prisoner was conscious throughout the entire incident... and like the other teor Survivors, he healed fast," he murmured, comparing the prisoner's dical results with those of the others.
Every teor Survivor in their facility had miraculously healed, including one who had previously suffered from terminal cancer. Similar reports from other hospitals indicated that so individuals, after being struck by teorites, were completely cured of preexisting illnesses.
However, there was one clear distinction: so survivors had remained unconscious for hours before waking, while others had never lost consciousness at all.
He turned to his staff and instructed, "Check the teor Survivors who were conscious from the mont they were hit. Isolate them imdiately."
His eyes flickered with excitent as he stared at the test results on the screen. "This could be the key..."
He exhaled slowly, his pulse quickening. "Those who never lost consciousness will turn into teorborn upon death. But those who were unconscious and later awakened... they may have adapted, developed supernatural abilities." His voice dropped to a whisper. "They might not transform when they die."
The implications were staggering. If his theory was right, then not all teor Survivors were a danger, only so.
"There's only one way to be sure." His tone darkened. "We need to eliminate one teor Survivor from each group, one who never lost consciousness, and one who awakened from a coma."
He turned to his team, his gaze cold and unwavering. "Choose one from each category. We need to make a sacrifice... for the greater good."
Two deaths... one conscious survivor, one Awakened, were a small price to pay to confirm their theory. If it ant avoiding unnecessary mass executions, then it was the most logical course of action.
Also, these Awakened teor Survivors, especially those who developed supernatural abilities, could be the very people who might help society prevent further destruction.
"Doc, what about her?" Karen asked, pointing to the monitor displaying the vital signs of a woman who had remained conscious since being struck by a teorite. "She's the oldest among them. Unlike the others, her children are already adults." She glanced at the doctor before adding, "Her husband already signed the contract."
Karen then pulled up another file. "As for the other one... the awakened survivor is a prisoner. A convicted criminal, he raped and murdered five won."
"Take those two down," Marlon instructed, his voice firm. "I need to present the results to the officials before a mass massacre of teor Survivors happens."
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