Mutagen

Egg Harbor Towns.h.i.+p. It was a towns.h.i.+p the Atlantic County in New Jersey, one of the places where the Atlantic City Expressway directly pa.s.sed through. 

Right now, the whole group led by Mark and Mei were following the expressway.

Following this road had pros and cons.

One of the pros was that the part of the expressway going through Egg Harbor Towns.h.i.+p and the next Town, the Hamilton Towns.h.i.+p, the road was pretty much isolated from the populated areas. Although there were some housing and commercial areas connected to the expressway, it was fewer compared to other routes.

Because of that, the number of infected reduced considerably. It was despite the large number of abandoned vehicles in the middle of the expressway.

One of the cons, however, thick, lush forests surrounded this part of the expressway, leading to more evolved animals to be encountered. For most humans, this fact was deadly enough to avoid this road during the apocalypse.

To capable some, however, it was a pretty good hunting spot.

While many evolved animals retained their size, most had grown bigger. Thus, hunting these beasts yielded more meat. Furthermore, not only the nutritional value of their meat spiked up, but it also served as a great energy supplement for mutators.

Well, there would be people hunting animals in this area. That is if there were still humans living around this place.

In the middle of the lanes of the expressway, Mark and the whole group walked. Everywhere they pa.s.sed by, a trail of blood and dead bodies was left behind.

"There are too many animals," Felicia said as she looked behind them.

Everyone that would look behind might say the same thing. Many times, enemies attacked their group while peacefully walking along long the center of the road. Most of the attackers were animals, though.

They had seen a whole lot of animals observing them from the shade of the forest. There were all sorts of appearances and sizes. If not for the fact that these animals were dangerous, it was a very interesting sight for them to see.

Especially since these animals looked like they had been taken out of a storybook.

For the most part, the animals that did not seem to have hostility towards humans looked like herbivores, like rabbits that were more frequent to be seen. 

Of course, these rabbits were not docile and to be trifled with. After all, to keep surviving in such a hostile environment, they should have the capability.

Most of the animals that stood their way were evolved cats and dogs. Thinking about it, these animals might have been domesticated ones before the outbreak. When the apocalypse started, most of them might have turned infected, while those that survived, evolved, and left the urban areas.

It was kind of sad if one was to think about that side. After all, these animals were also victims of the apocalypse.

"Don"t think about it too much. There"s nothing we can do about these animals right now."

Mark looked at Felicia over his shoulder as he slashed the head of an infected shambling towards them.

With a sigh, Felicia looked away from the dead bodies of the animals they left behind. Before the outbreak, she had a pet cat at her apartment. The little guy was the only her only escape after the long hours of stressful work at the casino. If fact, she wanted to see if her cat was still alive. Of course, it was nothing but a wishful thought. And even if it was able to survive, there was a very large chance that it had already turned feral like how Mark described those animals attacking them without fear.

Even for them, who spend their days of the outbreak around the casino, it was easy to notice that there were two types of evolved animals. The first ones retained most of their natural behavior before the outbreak, while the second type was those that attacked any living thing they encountered. Along the way, they also witnessed some animals being attacked by other animals.

As such, Mark briefed them about the feral evolved animals.

It was a good thing for them to know, though, that not everything had become ravenous flesh-eating infected.

Mark looked at the elevation of the sun and took out his phone to check the time, luckily, he readied several spare batteries inside his [s.p.a.ce Ring]. Although the time on his phone was not set up in the timezone of New Jersey, it was not hard to calculate the time. Sure enough, it was already past noon. 

"We should hurry up and find somewhere quiet to eat lunch."

Hearing what Mark said, the ears of the survivors from Bally"s Casino perked up. It made Mark shrug his shoulders as he felt their emotions when any world related to food was mentioned.

Well, it was not like he could not understand them.

In four months that they had to live with a limited amount of food and were at the was very close to dying because of the lack of supply, it was not surprising that the words "eat" and "food" sounded like music to their ears.

Because of Mark"s suggestion, everyone was invigorated. Thus, their pace hastened as they try to find a good place to prepare lunch.

Unfortunately, in order to find a good spot to rest, they had to make a detour from the expressway. It was fortunate that Mark took pains to download an offline map and installed it on every gadget he had. Although the features were not that usable without the internet, they could have a usable reference.

Using the map, they managed to find a good spot, a Steakhouse. Not only that there it was easy to clear up as the place was rather small, but they also managed to find more items to season their plain food.

Still, as they could still attract the infected while eating, the inside of the Steakhouse was not quiet. Thus, they moved to the rooftop and prepared their lunch. This time, they would have some grilled birds. 

Unknown to them, while they were preparing to eat, they were being watched.

***

Day 127 - 1:01 PM - Hamilton Commons, Mays Landing, Hamilton Towns.h.i.+p, New Jersey, United States of America

Hamilton Commons. It was a decently large mall and commercial compound. There were several buildings and facilities around the wide parking area that surrounded the whole place.

And at the main building... was being occupied by survivors.

Currently, several men were scrambling around the rooftop of the department store. It was because one of their Mutators that had the ability to see about a kilometer away without problems spotted some survivors in their territory.

CLINK! CLINK!

"What"s the ruckus all about?"

A woman with a mercenary look went up the rooftop to question the lookouts. She was wearing some tight tanktop while wearing camouflage pants. On her back, an a.s.sault rifle was hanging. Two pistols were holstered on her waist.

The strange thing, however, the woman was pulling a chain that locked the neck of a very tall and muscular man behind her. The man did not seem to mind the chains though as he followed behind the woman silently.

"Boss!"

Everyone on the rooftop immediately greeted. Unexpectedly, this group of rowdy men was being led by a woman.

"I spotted some people. They"re currently at the roof of the Steakhouse."

A man with a handkerchief bandana on his forehead and hawk-like pointed eyes spoke while he used his thumb to point at the Steakhouse about two hundred and fifty meters away.

The woman opened his hand towards one of the men and a pair of binoculars was given to her immediately.

And there, she immediately spotted the small group of survivors currently cooking at the rooftop.

"Boss, what do you think should we do?"

One of the lookouts asked.

It was a question that would not come from a decent person. In fact, none of them here were decent people.

Hamilton Raiders. That was they call themselves after the outbreak started. They took control of this area early in the outbreak and plundered the escaping survivors in the guise of a toll as they blocked the road to the expressway.

Many fell victims to their group and many died by their hands.

This time, they found people for the first time for a long while. Of course, their malicious minds would spin immediately.

"Hmm... They have a beautiful girl with them, huh?"

The woman said as she licked her lips while looking through the binoculars.

"What do you think should we do Gregor?"

The woman turned to the chained man. That was when she noticed that Gregor was staring in the same direction with quite a fierce glare. The woman was quite surprised by this as this chained man was not the type to do so. Well, when he was chained, in the least.

With slow movements of his head, Gregor turned to the woman.

"Ignore... Dangerous..."

Hearing those words, everyone was rather surprised.

In fact, the strongest person here was the man in chains, Gregor. No one could control him with the exception of Lady Amelie, their female boss.

"If you say so."

Lady Amelie said with a shrug. She was quite interested in that beauty among those people. However, since Gregor said to ignore them, there was nothing she could do.

After all, most of her accomplishments here were because of Gregor.

"You all heard him. Ignore that group if they are just pa.s.sing by."

That decision from Lady Amelie made the men here dissatisfied. Everyone here had seen the beauty she among that group in the Steakhouse. It would be a lie to say that none of them was interested.

After all, they would not get tired of a beauty like that. They could keep her for a very long time, unlike the ones that pa.s.sed by their hands before.

That beauty aside, there was also another good looking woman among that group. Of course, they would want to play with at least one of the two.

After saying her decision, Lady Amelie left, pulling Gregor"s chain.

"Hawker, what do you think?"

One of the lookouts asked the mutator that spotted the group first.

"Although I don"t understand why Gregor wanted to ignore that group, it"s better if we follow that."

Hawker said without thinking too much. After observing the group after a few minutes, he also left.

Both Gregor and Hawker was right, that group was dangerous.

Unfortunately, their other members could not see the bigger picture and were blinded by their desire.

***

"Tsk. Cowards." 

The third among the hierarchy in Hamilton Raiders, Sir Kesser, heard about the findings of the lookouts. He was in charge of the westmost building and was the last to know about the survivors the lookouts had spotted.

And among the sub-leaders of this group, Sir Kesser was the most courageous. No, reckless was the most appropriate description to call him.

"Is there really a beauty among those people?"

Sir Kesser asked the man that reported the situation to him.

"Yes, Sir. I saw it with my eyes. She"s like an angel fallen from heaven."

To hear that from the man, Sir Kesser"s eyes had a deep tint of l.u.s.t in it. Sir Kesser was notorious for capturing beautiful women even back when they blocked the roads. Even if the victims already paid the toll they set up, he would still capture any woman he got interested in.

Unfortunately, he killed most of them in the most unbelievable way.

While playing with them, Sir Kesser would mostly get careless. He would end up killing the woman with his sheer weight.

After all, he was a man weighing six hundred pounds before the outbreak. When he became a mutator, his weight increased further.

But unexpectedly, this weight was not his weakness, but his strength. With the nickname Bulldozer, he was capable of demolis.h.i.+ng everything on his path.

"Ignore Amelie and Hawker. Prepare to capture those people."

Sir Kesser said with a wide grin that made his double cheek jiggle.

"Yes, Sir."

The man that reported the situation eagerly replied. In his mind, those survivors were unfortunate.

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