Karl and April walked through the woods even as the sun slowly set. There were times when April wanted to engage him in a conversation but Karl signaled to stop her, although his actions were getting on her nerves she tried to control her anger. She was now covered in a military uniform and the both of them together looked like soldiers on a covert mission with the way they trod carefully.

"Can you at least tell me what's going on?" April asked and Karl finally stopped when he noticed from the tone of her voice that she was at her limit.

"The mutation hasn't stopped" he turned to her and said solemnly while maintaining eye contact.

"You didn't know?" April gaped at the reason for his solemn expression.

"It never stopped. If you hadn't been all about hunting in explored areas and came to the office more often, you would have seen it in my report about a year ago" April revealed causing Karl to feel a little embarrassed but it didn't show at all from his expression.

"You come here often?" he asked an unrelated question.

"Yes but I take my time, and move carefully, I come for experiments or studies, I have never hunted in an explored area to say nothing of the unexplored places. That's why I have you right?" April looked around with some anxiety in her expression.

"Why did you insist on following me then?" Karl asked. April stared into his eyes for a long time, she couldn't understand why for most of the journey he prevented her from talking and he treaded cautiously but was wasting time questioning her now.

"I hate your wife because she stole you from me, but I care that you care for her," April revealed. She wanted to relieve Karl's worry for Lisa by helping him hunt enough meat for her. It wasn't because she cared for Lisa because as she said she really did hate Lisa but she cared for Karl and didn't want him worrying about her condition since they would be leaving her in the Survival Area with the dwindling food source.

"Thank you," Karl said sincerely.

"You really know how to hurt me without doing anything wrong" April scowled at him and tried to walk past and that was when she felt it.

"Karl?" she called with some tension in her voice.

"Hmm"

"Are we being hunted?" she asked the tremble in her voice becoming more discernable.

"Yes," he answered honestly nodding his head along.

"Pack?" she asked again receiving another nod.

"Lions?"

"Yes, but... there is something different about them" Karl sounded uncertain and a little anxious.

"Intelligence" she muttered. She could now understand more or less why Karl engaged her in a conversation without moving. If they moved, be it going forward or backward, they would only dive deeper into the net set by the now more intelligent hunters.

"What now?" she asked Karl only to notice an odd glint in his eyes. It didn't take her long to understand what it was, she had heard rumors for hunters who had seen Karl on hunting trips.

Since the mutation of all life on earth, from micro to plant and then further up the food chain. Many elite scientists had wondered what effect the trend would have on mankind but after many experiments and the passage of time, they had come to believe that the current form of man was the pinnacle of evolution, and thus the minimal effect of the mutation agent on them. Minimal effect because there were small changes for example mankind had seen great advancement in their muscular, skeletal, and nervous systems, which allowed the hunters to go toe to toe with most wild animals.

The rumor about Karl was that, since he was on the Other Side, right in the middle of the mutation trend during his development stage after; like all other humans, he had been exposed to the mutation agent as a fetus in this mother's womb. Like all other organisms in the Other Side, he had mutated too. This argument was not entirely baseless because other humans from his generation like April different greatly in their physical abilities and thought processes from their elders and elites had come to believe that their exposure to the mutation agent during development as a fetus through whatever their mothers are consumed and the environment they grew up in was responsible for this.

For Karl, the reason he was believed to have mutated extensively was that his difference from other humans was glaringly obvious and his methods in the Other Side according to hunters who had witnessed it was in tandem with the law of the jungle. In simpler words, just like it wasn't out of place to see a snake hidden in the Amazon, but it would be if one found it in their living room, Karl was more tuned to live on the Other Side. Of course, all of this can be understandably difficult to understand as it is to explain.

What April witnessed however was more explanatory. She took a glance at Karl who was now standing beside her facing the opposite direction from her and she saw a wild glint in his eyes, it wasn't like the eyes of a human but his irises expanded and changed in color like that of a wild beast. Not only that but there seemed to be a certain coldness to him as the fine hairs on the back of his neck visibly raised. With clenched jaws, the sound of him drawing his thin sword from its sheath sounded very unnatural and he got into stance and held it with his other hand also, the lions seemed to understand his language and growl in response to the threat they sensed from him.

Suddenly Karl stamped his feet lightly on the ground and one of the female lions pounced forward at him, he swung his sword at it in a slice but its intelligent eyes glimmered and it defiled nature by curving its body further upwards midair. At the same time, another lion pounced at April and yet another ran toward Karl at full speed while the first one still mid air slashed with its glistening claws at his head.