Mutagen

Along the empty boulevard, a small family-owned lodging with a great view of the Absecon Bay. The rooms looked dated, and it was low in terms of quality compared to the other lodgings dozens of meters away along the same road. The security of the place was questionable, and the facilities were not functioning for the most part. Furthermore, the apocalypse turned it into a dilapidated building filled with a b.l.o.o.d.y mess.

Nevertheless, if one was looking for a quick lodging in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, it was one of the best options.

After all, even though the security was not up to standards, it was easier to clear as it had a lesser number of infected wandering around or trapped inside its walls.

Now, a group of fifteen people was currently spending their time in this place for the night.

Of course, it was no other than Mark and Mei, together with the survivors of Bally"s Casino.

With Mark and Mei around, clearing the infected and the problem with security got addressed without question. Cleaning the rooms that they needed to use fell in the hands of the survivors.

They had no questions against it either. What mattered was safety. They had no issues for doing menial labor after it was secured.

Nevertheless, they never thought that it would be quite hard than they imagined.

Rotting corpses left inside the rooms almost made their stomachs turn upside down. 

Although these survivors had seen the infected daily since the outbreak, a dead, decomposing corpse was still different. Not to mention that they had to clean these disgusting, rotting piles of flesh that already stuck to the floor and walls.

Fortunately, they only had to clean three rooms on the second floor of the lodge. They picked the area above the office on the first floor that was easier to clean than the others.

While the survivors cleaned the rooms, Mei stood guard. Mark, on the other hand, left for an hour.

When he came back, they were yet to finish cleaning as the rooms were too filthy.

Then, it was when they heard Mark speak.

"Hurry up cleaning so we can cook a meal."

That was when they noticed the two strange-looking rabbits that Mark had on his hand. 

They looked like cottontail rabbits, but they had long, sharp fangs instead of incisors. 

But seeing the rabbits, what came into the minds of the survivors was not doubt if these animals were edible or not. What was in their minds was that they never tasted fresh meat ever since the outbreak started.

It had been four months already. Some of them could not help but swallow their saliva because of that thought.

Because of that, their cleaning efficiency suddenly spiked up. Even the children were affected by their eagerness and started helping in doing smaller work.

Seeing that, Mark and Mei could only shrug as they prepared the rabbits together.

When the night came, they were already eating a well-cooked meal after a long time. It was just a plain salted stew. The seasoning they found in the kitchen of the lodge was not even enough. From the looks of it, other people might have searched the place already long before.

Nevertheless, the taste of meat almost made them tear up.

Mark and Mei left the group to their own and ate in another room. After all, this arrangement was better for the survivors as they only met Mark and Mei today.

The survivors ate energetically. It was until the survivors noticed one of them. The other female mutator, Sandie Miller, was only staring at the bowl of food in front of her.

She was a woman in her mid-thirties. She was not beautiful, and she did not have an attractive body, either. However, what made her stand out from the group was that she was compa.s.sionate to everyone.

"Sandie, what"s wrong? Did you not like your food?"

Arnold asked as he was the first to notice her.

Sandie snapped out of her daze because of the question. It was when she noticed that everyone was staring at her, waiting for her answer.

"No, I"m fine. The food is delicious. I just had things in my mind."

"Is it about your family?"

Felicia asked as she stood up from her seat next to the unconcious Morgan and sat beside Sandie.

Most of the survivors that were stranded in Bally"s Casino were either tourists or employees around the area. Sandie was one of the former, and she was with her family. Her husband and two children. Unfortunately, their family was among the first casualties of the outbreak in Atlantic City, and it was the very same incident that turned her into a mutator.

Sandie shook her head to that question.

"I"m still sad about my family, but that"s not it. It"s just... There is still a lot of us this morning, hungry and worrying for the future. Now, we have food, but there"s only thirteen of us left."

Hearing that, everyone could not help but feel down. It was the worst atmosphere breaker. However, no one wanted to rebuke Sandie. She was the mother figure of the group, so they understand her sentiment. What she said was also correct. 

When they escaped the Casino, Sandie even asked Mark if they were the only ones left, which he nodded as a response. It just meant that either everyone else was already dead or already turned.

They were the only ones left of their group. All of them were too shocked by the events that happened earlier. It caused them to not think much of anything else aside from their survival.

Now that things had calmed down, the emotions for those events started to haunt them.

"It is better if we don"t think about it too much."

Arnold said, which made everyone look at him. After all, what he said was quite cold-hearted and was not like him at all.

Nevertheless, when they saw his expression by the gloomy fire they had, he was obviously feeling down. Then, Arnold continued.

"Let"s just think that they already escaped the hards.h.i.+ps that we are going to experience from here on out. Remember that we are following Sir Mark and Miss Mei, but we are never sure what we will find while following them."

"That"s true." Felicia also spoke. "Living in this world now was no different from being thrown in the middle of the Amazon forest, hard and deadly. In the least, none of them will struggle like us."

"They are dead, we are alive. That"s all that matters."

Ernst also spoke. What he said, however, earned him everyone"s unfriendly glare.

"Huh? Did I say something wrong?"

Ernst noticed their glares and was confused. He was just stating facts, after all.

"We are trying to cheer everyone up! You idiot with no social skills!"

"Ouch!"

Arnold knocked on the head of Ernst. It was a friendly knock, but it sounded quite heavy. Ernst could only hold his head in pain while staring at Arnold with an expression that did not know what he did wrong.

Seeing that, everyone laughed.

"Hey! Shus.h.!.+"

Felicia immediately hushed everyone causing them to cover and zip their mouths. That was right, it was not the time for laughing out loud. What if they attracted anything dangerous outside? They might also disturb Mark and Mei next door.

Nevertheless, the atmosphere was much better. Even Sandie was smiling a bit.

Many have died, and they were the only ones left in their group. Yet, fighting together with everyone for survival and managing to succeed, even with Mark"s help, brought everyone closer.

Arnold watched everyone as they started to continue eating. He was smiling, but behind that smile, there was a tint of sadness and disappointment.

Inside this room, only Arnold had the guts to ask Mark a question. It was why Mark saved them.

And the answer was unexpected.

It was because they did not run away and tried to fight the infected despite the disadvantage, whether it was to protect or let the others run away.

Who would have thought that a moment of valiance would let them survive that deadly situation?

But then, at the same time, the answer told him an awful truth.

Among their whole group of survivors consisting of about a hundred and fifty people, only thirteen of them stood their ground in front of the infected. Whether it was to protect or just plain bravery, only that number pa.s.sed Mark"s test.

As for everyone else... they abandoned everything for their own safety. Even sacrificing Arnold and the others who stood behind, taking their words for granted. And to think that even three children pa.s.sed. It meant that these three children worth more than all those people left to die.

It was an awful truth that Arnold would not tell everyone here. They, who managed to survive, valued everyone from the group. They would be emotionally distressed if they learned of this.

Even if it was known to them, in the least, it would not come from his mouth.

***

"What a rowdy bunch."

Mark said as he heard the laughter. 

Of course, he did not mean it negatively. A good mood and mentality was one thing that survivors needed to maintain in front of adversities. It would keep them going even at times that there was seemingly no hope.

Mark and Mei sat together as they ate their bowl of stew. Compared to what they ate at the base, and in the Spirit Dimension, it was awful. Of course, it tasted good enough to be eaten because of the natural flavor of evolved meat.

"Gege, here."

Mei said while eating as she took out some clothes from her [s.p.a.ce Ring]. 

Mark was quite surprised by this, but also thankful. He never had time to properly change away from his ragged clothes or even find some. Still, for Mei to bring some, she was really prepared.

"Its because I saw Gege"s clothes already tattered before entering the portal, so I brought this. Also when Gege is not responding when I"m contacting, I know that Gege is concentrated at something again. Gege even forgets to take baths when working at the workshop, so I thought that Gege will even forget to look for clothes."

Mei"s reasoning made Mark speechless. However, there was no retort that he could think of as everything was true.

"Alright, you got me." Mark caressed Mei"s head. "I"ll change after we eat."

THUMP! THUMP! GRRR!!!

A noise disturbed the time of the two. It was no other than the [Queen Type], who was still struggling from her restraints.

Looking at the [Queen Type], Mark thought of things to make her stop making noises.

"Maybe, I should affix her to the wall." 

Mark murmured. 

"Gege, that will only make her noisier, I think."

Mei said while glaring at the [Queen Type].

While thinking, Mark"s eyes fell on the stew he was eating.

Suddenly, he conjured a small [Blood Whip] that immediately turned into a metal skewer. He pierced a mouthful chunk of rabbit meat on his bowl and stood up, walking towards the [Queen Type].

Mark removed the part of the restraints that disabled the [Queen Type] from opening her mouth.

The first thing that the [Queen Type] tried to do was to screech.

However, before she was able to do so, a chunk of rabbit meat entered her mouth.

Wide-eyed, she started chewing.

Swallowing the meat, she stared at the skewer that already had another chunk of meat.

"What this?"

Mark asked as he waved the skewer side to side. Like a hungry cat, the [Queen Type] followed it with her eyes.

"Stop making noise, and I"ll give you more. Understand?"

The [Queen Type] was not responding. However, she was intently staring at the skewer on Mark"s hand.

"No noise. Understand?"

Mark said more firmly. He knew that even though not everything, just like the [King Type], the [Queen Type] should be able to understand some words.

Finally, the [Queen Type] nodded weakly. There, Mark gave her a few more chunks of meat before she was satisfied and went quiet.

When Mark went back to his seat, he noticed that Mei had not touched her food since he stood up.

"Why are you not eating?"

Mark asked. And the reply was...

"Ah..."

Mei closed her eyes, blus.h.i.+ng as she opened her mouth.

Mark could only sigh and did what she wanted. There was nothing hard in feeding a jealous girl, after all.