Before Taylor could even move towards what looked like her mother, she felt phantom touches on her face, hearing her first name in her ears.

Upon blinking, Taylor saw the skies above, beside her, Paul as he touched her face.

Behind him, Wilhelm and Edgar, and on the opposite side of Taylor, Anya.

"What?" Taylor's baffled how she was on the ground when she was standing almost a moment ago.

Looking down at her while caressing his rifle, Wilhelm crudely says, "You got a love tap by our friendly freak."

He wasn't angry that Taylor was affected by it, despite him drilling into their heads how dangerous the Zone can be, as apparently even the most adept of individuals can fall to being attacked by the mutants.

Instead, he was glad that this one only made her talk incessantly, compared to the other victims he witnessed during his time in the Zone.

Though Taylor was fine now, Wilhelm worried that because the mutant got whatever it wanted from interacting with her, it would come back around, do something else, maybe worse than making her talk about her mother.

"Can you stand?" Paul asks Taylor.

Using him to leverage herself, Taylor managed to stand, leaning on him briefly as she blinked.

"I didn't… I didn't feel anything," Taylor murmured as she couldn't understand how the mutant managed to intercept her thoughts and broadcast her late mother's image.

Wilhelm comforted her, saying that it wasn't unheard of having an encounter like hers, though he stressed that she needed to be vigilant.

"You didn't find it?" Taylor asks Wilhelm.

Shaking his head, Wilhelm says that it was hiding somewhere in the trees, probably saw them coming, picked her out of the group.

Once again, because of her prior interaction, Taylor had to be supervised by Paul, since the mutant knows it can get into her mind, now.

"I've known men eating their own guns because of them. Turning on their own allies because they saw only rabid dogs," Wilhelm warns how dangerous the mutants can be to those susceptible to their attacks.

It caused Anya to question how a mutant like that could have existed, sharply turning when she thought she heard a noise, "W-who made the-these mutants?"

Shrugging, Wilhelm stated that he only knew it was Soviet scientists, probably used political prisoners and any undesirables for the experiments, anything to further their causes.

No good trying to talk sense, their minds would have "turned mush" by now after all the experimenting.

As for what happened to the scientists thereafter, that much Wilhelm couldn't tell, but it wouldn't surprise him that they got theirs when their experiments started escaping their confines.

Curious, Paul asks why it didn't attack him or Wilhelm, anyone else in the group, why only Taylor.

Shrugging, Wilhelm sarcastically tells him, "I never fancied a chance asking one."

It wasn't like they could stop to ask it without risking their minds turning mush or "pop like a cherry."

Still, they needed to be vigilant for the mutant, since Wilhelm couldn't find it, and he knew better going anywhere near the twisted trees that either obliterated people with their thorny vines, dissolves them with their saps, or turned them into pink dust by being covered in their pollen.

Probably why the mutant hid among the trees to begin with, knowing that it can't be tracked and killed since Wilhelm knew better to try his luck with going near them.

Why it wasn't a victim of the trees itself, suppose being a telepathic creature made from slabs of a prisoner gave it forethought not to try its luck, too, Wilhelm doesn't really know.

He only knew that this got complicated now that Taylor's been compromised.

"Is there any way we can prevent it from trying, again?" Paul questioned Wilhelm as they continued their trek through the garden, almost towards the end.

Wilhelm motioned that the only way he knew was killing them, but that can be dangerous, since they have a habit of "pulling your mind out of your head" when angry.

Not to mention, since Wilhelm only had a simple rifle, he made from parts he found around the Zone, he doesn't think he can do much against the one that read Taylor's mind.

"Just keep an eye on her, Doctor, don't be afraid to kill her," Wilhelm coldly tells Paul.

Once it gets comfortable, the mutant will do whatever it wanted, including knocking Taylor's mind out of her or using her to try and kill the whole group.

Turning his head to Taylor, Paul chewed on his inner lip as he refused the thought, instead working on trying to protect her from the mutant.

Maybe he can trick the mutant into revealing itself if it tries again, that way Wilhelm can shoot it.

Holding Taylor's arm, he subtly tapped the code to her, informant her of the plan he had ensuring she would be safe from harm.
It's a risk, but Paul felt he had a chance, especially if the mutants weren't from the Zone itself, and no doubt it would want them gone, too.

Taylor held his hand for comfort as they found the entrance of the botanical park, Wilhelm quickly turned around with his rifle as he looked for the mutant, but it hadn't followed them, at least not yet.

Edgar whispered in his ear, "She says it left us."

The Zone took sight of the mutant and drew its attention away from the group, but because it wasn't made by her, she couldn't control it as easily as she liked.

"She mind tellin' us when it's coming back, at least?" Wilhelm asks if the Zone would be gracious to give them a warning so he can prepare a shot.

Nodding, Edgar assures him that the Zone will warn if it or other telepathic mutants are in their vicinity but warns that Wilhelm will need to find a better weapon.

"Sure, tell me, where's the nearest stockpile?" Wilhelm sarcastically asks Edgar.

Edgar looked off in the distance before saying that the Zone found a store not too far from them that has something Wilhelm can take for protection.

"Anastasia, the Zone says it will be your turn, soon," Edgar turned his head towards her as she walked behind him.

Tensing up, Anya questioned how she's supposed to know, but Edgar says nothing more.

Following him, the group went through the cracked roads, seeing the disarray caused by the wars waged by factions that made the Zone their home and what was left after the accident.

There were no children playing on the swing sets left to rot in the small playground across from them.