Mutagen

Atlantic City. It was a city established at the Atlantic Coast of New Jersey during the 1800s as a health resort. It then became known as a resort city with casinos, wide beaches many other features aimed for relaxation and entertainment.

Now, however, the city"s bright lights were already gone, and it was nothing but a dead silhouette of a city filled with tall buildings from afar.

After a tiring flight, Mark landed atop a highrise building by the coast. He breathed deeply. It was very tiring trying to flee in that situation that you know when something that you could not handle might appear.

Mark walked towards the edge of the building, sitting down as he looked around the area.

There were other places he could land when he was flying away. From the north, there seemed to be some suburban city. It was the same in the south. However, both areas were not that suitable for hiding. If one was fleeing from something, it was a better choice to find where there were more places to hide.

It was not like something was chasing him, but it was never a bad thing to be careful. After all, who knows? He liked to hide his trump cards and use them at crucial times. The others could be the same. Furthermore, who knew what else the enemies were capable of considering nothing much was known about them.

As Mark looked around, the city was dead quiet. But it did not mean that no activities were happening.

In the first place, Mark did not know where in the world he was right now. The only thing he could think of was somewhere in America because of what he told Spera before opening the portal. He also flew across an ocean towards the west. The outlook of the city also resembled the North American casino cities.

Even the reason why he landed on this specific building was that it stood out quite a bit. This orange-colored, large building with a tall tower seemed to be a multi-purpose tourist site now that he got a closer look at it, even the building connected to several casinos around it.

To the north, there was another casino-hotel that was violet-colored. It was more conspicuous, but Mark avoided that one. It was because one of the activities in the area was there.

Why was Mark aiming for buildings that stood out? Of course, it was because the more conspicuous the hiding place was, the more likely that who or what could be chasing would think less of it. Well, it would not work all the time, but there was still the chance that it would.

Mark sat at the edge of the building but away from anywhere that anyone could see him easily. He was waiting if there was something to happen and was getting ready for another action if needed.

While he did so, Mark was observing that violet-colored casino-hotel.

It was quite surprising to find survivors in a place like this. If one to look below the streets, were was quite an amount of infected. It was something to expect in cities that invested more in tourism.

The outbreak suddenly came, and the tourists that flocked in these areas during the holidays turned into infected.

To say, as a fan of the Zombie Genre, Mark missed seeing a scene like this. After all, they had been spending their time at the base surrounded by greeneries. A zombie-apocalyptic city scenery was more pleasing to Mark"s eyes if not for the danger.

Looking back at that building, Mark could see how these people managed to survive. The lower roof of the casino used to be part of rooftop restaurants and a big swimming pool. Since that was the case, they were able to use the rooftop that already had enough facilities to shelter people.

With that as the main camp, they were able to cross a large area using the junctions that connected the buildings.

Mark closed his eyes, enveloping the whole casino he was looking at with his [Emphatic Detection].

"Hmm?"

He detected something unexpected. It might be a coincidence, but who knew?

There was an inheritor among the survivors in that casino-hotel.

Mark could not tell which ability the person inherited. Nevertheless, it was definitely something worthy of checking.

Of course, he had no reason to meet or show himself to the person. As long as he pa.s.sed Freed"s criterion, there was no need for any interaction.

And to say, if he was to evaluate the current state of his survivor camp, it was rather neutral.

Their emotional states were not happy but not that disturbed either. They seemed to be content just by surviving. 

Nevertheless, there seemed to be some problems. That was what Mark thought as the Mutators were together emitting some uneasiness in their conversation.

Mark waited in his position for another hour.

Fortunately, nothing seemed to be tailing him. It would be a bad thing if there were in any case.

Nevertheless, he did not dare go home immediately. Someone might call him being too careful, but it was better than botching things up.

In any case, he already told Spera to open the portal back after a day. Thus, he could stay here and go home later.

While patting the dust off from his pants, Mark stood up. 

The sky already had a glimpse of dawn as he was on the eastern coast. The breeze was cold, but a bit salty. It was something that one could expect when near the ocean.

Still, Mark had quite a jetlag. It was already past lunchtime when the battle started. And yet, here he was now. On the morning of the same day again. The feeling was quite odd.

Mark looked at one of the rings on his fingers, he started sending magical energy at it without trying to activate it.

This ring was one of the pair of rings Mei received from Bathala. The rings that would allow the wearers to teleport to each other.

During the preparation, Mark and Mei already tested it. There seemed to be no repercussion to using it. However, the rings could only be used with a day interval after the last one. It was something like a cooldown as the rings replenish the energy used on their own.

Mark tried replenis.h.i.+ng it with his own energy or the crystals. Unfortunately, that was not applicable. He could use it now, and return. Still, he would use this in times of emergency instead. A day might not be too long, but seconds of danger could already cause a catastrophe.

Nevertheless, Mark and Mei found another use for these rings. 

When one ring was activating, the wearer of the other pair would feel a slight vibration to indicate the arrival of the other. However, this vibration would trigger while the ring was preparing the energy being used for transfer and could be canceled before activation.

That, however, led to something like a communication device between Mark and Mei. Using the vibrations with morse code, they could send messages when they were far from each other.

And right now, he was sending a message to Mei that was on the other side of the globe.

***

Day 126 - 3:16 PM - Mountain Base, Mount Malabito, General Nakar, Quezon

Past an hour after Mark dragged The Great One through the portal that Spera opened, those that were left at the base were worried.

They did not dare call the others out yet, and they were still waiting for any danger that could appear.

While they did that, they started eliminating the scattered infected outside the base. Without anyone controlling the infected, the infected started to go rampant and even tried to attack the base. 

Fortunately, the base was made to defend against the infected. There were some infected that were troublesome to deal with, but all still fell.

Finally, after waiting for a while, Mei"s ring let out a weak vibration.

Translating the code was quite hard, but Mei had no qualms learning it. She was still slow, though. It was not too hard to learn, but it was not something that could be memorized perfectly in a few days.

"Sis, how is he?"

Jaeya asked Mei, who was still receiving Mark"s message.

"Gege won." Mei smiled. "He said not to worry about him. It seems like he"s in New Jersey right now. He"s still looking for any directory or address around."

"New Jersey... Spera really sent him that far." Jaeya said as she looked at Spera, who was currently sleeping. "She"s spent, though."

Spera was the MVP when it came to protecting the base this time. In return, however, she immediately fell asleep after the battle. 

From what they could see, Spera spent her magical energy to the last drop. She might have gotten stronger because of Mark. Still, opening a large portal and another that connected to the opposite side of the world would leave her incapacitated afterward.

Not to mention the effort she exerted in order to maintain the large portal from crumbling, her mental stress would surely be heavier than anyone here.

Well, the danger this time had already pa.s.sed. The next thing they should focus on was to recover.

The surroundings of the base were devastated, after all.

"The old couple will be sad after seeing that."

Jaeya said with a shrug while looking at the already nonexistent crop fields.

"By the way, won"t big brother return?"

"Not yet. He"s being careful not to drag anything unnecessary back here. Also, the rings are for an emergency." Mei said with a smile as she looked at the ring on her ring finger. "Let"s just wait until Spera recover."

***

Day 126 - 3:42 AM - Bally"s, Atlantic City, New Jersey, United States of America

Inside the office of the casino, the Mutators gathered as they discussed their worries.

These Mutators led this group of survivors holed at the rooftop of Bally"s Casino. Every since the start of the outbreak, all of them had been here. No one tried to leave, or rather, no one could leave even if they wanted to. 

They were trapped in this casino.

It was because Atlantic City was one of the worst ground zeros in the state.

The chances that an accident where two pa.s.senger airplanes would collide in the air was too small. And yet, it happened above this city before the outbreak started.

Many people witnessed it when two airplanes suddenly stalled and lost control, deviating from their paths and colliding with each other.

That large display of fireworks brought h.e.l.l to the city as Mutated infected rained from above. Many died from the fall, but most of them managed to live with just broken body parts.

Unlike how the outbreak started at one area in other ground zeros, the ground zero here was the whole city.

Because of that, the military had to abandon the city and destroy all the bridges leading to it. They thought that they could contain the outbreak by trying to isolate it.

That was where they were wrong and the military just ended up trapping the survivors inside the city with nowhere to go.

The survivors here managed to hold on for four months just by scouring the connected casinos and hotels.

But that ended here as their supplies started dwindling.

And of course, no one wanted to go to the streets even if they were Mutators.

It was because, in this city, the Mutated Infected outnumbered the regular ones. 

And in their group, there were only six of them among the one hundred and thirty people they had.

Running for supplies would not only endanger their lives but would not ensure that they would be able to collect enough for everyone.

All that led to this meeting. Among the six, however, there was someone not paying attention and was looking at the wall for some reason.

"Morgan, what are you looking at?"

One of the two women at the meeting asked the man.

"No, its nothing."

Morgan replied. Nevertheless, he was sure that he felt something nostalgic for no apparent reason.