Mutagen

Day 126 - 12:03 PM - Monitoring Division, Great Island Military Base, Atlantic City High School, Great Island, Atlantic City, New Jersey, United States of America

"Dad, are you just letting that weird professor go his way like this?"

"Major, I have the same opinion. It was already the fifth time it happened. Not only to you but our other personnel."

Both Maurice, the Major's son, and Private James, complained to the Major, who already snapped out of the mental suggestion of Professor Alston.

"You two should not mention this anywhere else. I'm angry myself be can't do anything."

Major McGuire let out a deep breath.

"Remember that our families are still under the government's "protection."

Sending soldiers on the battlefield while leaving their families under the so-called protection of the government. It was not a new concept. This, however, was what the US government did to force the soldiers into fighting and surviving.

They had to fulfill their duties as per the government said. It was in exchange for the shelter and protection that their families would directly receive from the government.

The moment they lost their lives, however, that protection would also end.

After their death, the family members they left behind under "protection" would be sent out to a settlement that had lower security and more prone to the attacks of the infected compared to the "protected area." 

Thus, the soldiers could only strive to survive while fulfilling their duties to ensure that their families would not have the worst fate after their deaths.

Nevertheless, in this outbreak, not everyone was always lucky to be able to return and reunite with their families.

In the worst case, they would still be able to reunite with their loved ones. In the afterlife, that is.

Almost every soldier here had the same circumstances. Thus, they could only obey someone like Professor Alston that was directly sent by the government and was the one making evaluations on them.

These soldiers were like dogs with leashes that would tighten once their point their fangs to their owners.

Hearing those words, both Maurice and James shut their mouths. The Major was right, and it was the worst thing if what they were saying was heard by Professor Alston.

"Anyway, Maurice." Major McGuire turned to his son. "What do you think about that man called Mark?"

As the topic was shifted, Maurice spoke once more. This time, however, his eyes and expression were serene.

"Dad. I'm taking the words I said before the meeting back. That man. Don't try to mess with him."

Hearing that evaluation, Major McGuire nodded.

"That man sure has an eerie atmosphere around him."

"No, dad." Maurice shook his head. "It's more than eerie. I don't think that even if we sent all the soldiers in this base... No, even all the soldiers in this state. We won't win."

Those scary words from Maurice made Major McGuire and Private James Andrews freeze in their steps. That was not a good claim at all. It was hard to believe.

However, Major McGuire trusted the words of his son. He might be hard-headed, but he never lied about things like this. It was also the second time he saw his son give out that kind of expression. The first time was at the start of the outbreak. That expression saved their family's lives at that time.

"Then, it is good that he seems to have come here only to gather information."

Major McGuire said with a bit of relief in his tone.

It was already noon. To ease the three's tension, the three decided to head to the cafeteria to get lunch.

Unfortunately, it seemed that everyone in the monitoring division would eat late.

"Major! Do you copy? Major!"

Major McGuire's communication device sounded.

"I can hear you! Report!"

"Major, a situation is happening in Area 0. NH-002 located the survivors in Bally's Casino."

Hearing that, Major McGuire and the two young soldiers with him frowned. 

The survivors in Atlantic City was not abandoned by the soldiers.

It was the government that abandoned them for the sake of so-called "study."

If Major Mcguire was given the call to rescue these people, he would not hesitate to bring them to safety. Unfortunately, they did not and could not.

And because their families were in the government's grasp, these soldiers could not move out and save these survivors on their own.

As they received the notification from the three hurried back to the monitoring room.

It was not good news. Furthermore, NH-002 did not stand for a single infected but a cluster.

NH - 002, Codename: Brainspiders. It was a cluster of infected Pholcidae, commonly known as cellar spiders. These spiders mutated in a way that they would jack into the heads of the normal and mutated human infected and control them. Another bad thing was that compared to infected humans, these fist-sized infected spiders retained most of their predatory instincts. And compared to regular spiders that would cast out their net and wait for prey, the Brainspiders would group on hordes of brain-controlled infected and search for prey.

But the worst case was that... the infected jacked by the Brainspiders would undergo a mutation where their bodies would become stronger, faster, and enable them to climb walls with their bare hands. And if one spotted a prey, all the other members of the horde would be alerted.

The soldiers joked about it, calling the horde as infected spidermen. But in fact, it was one of the most threatening dangers in Atlantic City. Furthermore, unless the Brainspider was killed, it did not matter if the body it was controlling died. It would latch onto another infected and repeat the process.

The only fortunate thing was that the soldiers never observed the spiders being able to multiply. If they were capable of it, the Brainspirders might have overwhelmed the whole Atlantic City long ago. 

Still, the numbers of these spiders were not to joke at. Their last count, there were more or less nine-hundred spiders creating a large horde of infected.

***

Day 126 - 12:05 PM - Bally's Casino, Atlantic City, New Jersey, United States of America

"Everyone! Hurry! Throw anything heavy that we don't need!"

Everyone in Bally's Casino ran around the rooftop frantically. They carried sofas, cabinets, beds, and even empty propane tanks. They threw these heavy things down the building.

Of course, the survivors were not dumping trash or trying to make a tall tower of debris. These survivors were trying to make the infected climbing the face of the building fall to the ground.

Due to their current crisis in their food supply, Morgan and the other mutators decided to make a crucial decision. It was to try to go down and find food at the shops in the streets.

It should be fine as long as they maintained themselves out of the sight of the infected.

They even managed to reach the first floor of the casino on the other side of the street. They did it while eliminating the infected along the way as quietly as possible. Especially with Morgan's powers, it became a possibility.

Unfortunately, their "clever" vice leader wanted to show off since he was very insecure about the praise that everyone was giving Morgan. Morgan's skin color gained the vice leader's ire even more. It was racism at its finest.

Along the way, they encountered a seemingly normal infected wandering the first floor of the casino. They were totally out of sight of the infected, and it was fine to leave it be as they were just passing by.

However, the vice leader found it an opportunity and attacked the infected. They never noticed the fist-sized spider latched onto the back of the head of the infected because of the poor lighting.

The only moment that they noticed the spider was when it jumped off the infected after the infected's head burst into pieces.

Morgan used his powers to kill the spider, and he managed to do it.

However, it was already too late.

The glass windows and the remaining glass walls burst into pieces as hundreds of infected came in droves.

Their jealous vice leader was trapped within that horde, and his last screams were heard by everyone as they fled.

As they fled back to the rooftop, Morgan used his abilities several times to block the path behind them. There, they managed to gain some distance from the infected horde.

But their relief did not last long as they witnessed the hundreds of infected climbing up the walls slowly.

The group left that building and used the roofs to make their way back to the Bally's Casino, where they resided.

Unfortunately, the hungry infected did not want to let their prey run away, climbing every building in the vicinity.

One of these infected accidentally located their base.

That instance led to the current situation.

BAM! BAM!

Loud explosion-like sounds echoed as the friction between solid cement happened.

Morgan held tightly unto the edge of the building as he tried to stop the advance of the infected below. Cement spikes protrude of the building's face as it pierced the heads of the infected that tried to climb up the walls.

Nevertheless, despite their efforts, there seemed to be no end to this. They managed to make the infected fall off or destroy their heads. However, new infected would suddenly take their place, and new ones from below would emerge.

"The spider! Kill the spider's on the back of their heads!"

One of the female mutators realized the issue as she remembered the spider back on the first floor of the opposite casino that Morgan killed.

Then, the most crucial question came from one of the survivors that were helping throw out furniture.

"How?"

That question made everyone as frustrated as they could be. They were regular people. They managed to get three guns at most, and they already used up the bullets long ago.

They only managed to survive because of Morgan and the Mutators, and none of them had the ability to shoot out projectiles aside from Morgan.

And to say, Morgan was already pushing his limits here.

Everyone could see him heavily panting, but he was still not giving up.

"GUHHAA!!"

An eerily painful sound was suddenly heard.

They could not help but look at the source of the sound and saw one of their people.

"Gregory, what is wrong?!"

One survivor immediately asked and try to approach him.

Nevertheless, the only thing that Gregory managed to say was...

"Help?..."

BURST!!!

Gregory's skin burst and cracked into unsightly pieces as he suddenly went mutation while alive. The pain in his twisted expression was clear to everyone.

Because of the pain, the man called Gregory started waving his hands around, trying to reach behind the back of his head. Nevertheless, his hands would freeze unnaturally every time he tried to.

Their leader immediately ran behind Gregory and saw the cause.

"There's a spider behind his head!"

The leader rushed towards Gregory with his hands covered in black fur. He swatted the spider down to the floor and stepped on it causing a burst of red fluid.

Gregory immediately fell down and some of the survivors checked on him.

It was already too late. He was dead. It was already fortunate that he did not turn into an infected puppet.

Morgan squinted his eyes in anger and agony. One of them perished once more. However, he could not stop. Until his powers emptied, he would try to protect this place.

"Everyone! Don't just concentrate on the climbing zombies! Watch out for spiders if you don't want to follow Gregory's steps!"

The leader shouted. His words were kind of angering since he voiced it as if Gregory had done something wrong. Nevertheless, none of them could refute those words because of the current situation.

They could only continue to hinder the infected trying to reach their place.

None of them noticed, there was a man with bat wings at the roof of the tower where they lived. Watching everything unfold while munching on some luxury chocolate from a box.