Mutagen

Day 126 - 1:11 PM - Monitoring Division, Atlantic City Parks Department, Great Island, Atlantic City, New Jersey, United States of America

Inside the military's monitoring division, everyone stared agape at the scene they watched on their monitors. 

They never expected to see a scene that was only present in hero movies in real life. 

The zombies coming into life and Mutants appearing was already hard for everyone to believe. Now, the display Morgan gave them made it harder for them to accept immediately.

In the first place, they only thought that Morgan was just a Mutant, a psychic at best. Nevertheless, destroying a large part of the Bally's Casino was not an easy feat from what these soldiers knew.

While everyone felt shocked, the Major's son, Maurice, could only feel amazement.

Unlike the regular soldiers who only saw the extent of the destruction, Maurice saw a totally different scene.

The scene where wisps of brownish-orange light emerging from the surroundings and gathering in Morgan's body. It was etched into his mind. As the building collapsed, the blinding explosion of light deprived him of his sight for a few seconds.

It was amazing.

Unfortunately, the next thing they saw was Morgan lying unconscious on the roof before he was swallowed by the thick cloud of dust below.

"What a pity."

Major McGuire said with a downhearted expression.

Many of the soldiers thought the same. With this display, they might be able to appeal to rescue these survivors if they managed to live through this tough situation. But Morgan, who should be the best bargaining chip, had already fallen below.

"Dad, what are you saying? That black guy is still alive."

Maurice suddenly voiced, which caused the attention inside the room to focus on him.

Unlike everyone here who could only see what they could see, Maurice could see a bit different from everyone. He could see energies in the surroundings in the form of different colored lights.

Just now, when Morgan fell into the cloud of dust, he saw a streak of black energy fly across the cloud of dust.

There was only one person that he had seen with that energy, and that person was surely still around. It was definitely that person, and he caught Morgan from that deadly fall.

Before Maurice could explain, however, one of the soldiers monitoring the situation cried out.

"Survivor-011, Louie Morgan is still alive!"

"Switch it to the main monitor!"

As the Major commanded, the scene on the largest monitor in the room that everyone could see changed.

At the rooftop of the tower of the same building, Morgan lay unconscious. 

And beside him, a person sat on the edge of the rooftop, dangling his feet over the ledge.

It was a person with black, tattered clothes, two pairs of bat wings, long black hair, and an untrustworthy face. 

"Mark..."

Major McGuire could not help but voice out the person's name. 

Now, the Major remembered. Mark asked for the information on Morgan earlier. Nevertheless, his goals were unknown to them.

While they watched the monitor in surprise, Mark suddenly faced the screen. Even though they did not know why. They knew that the person on the screen knew that they were watching him.

Then, Mark stood up. With a wave of his hand, his whole body was covered with a cloak of black smoke.

His right hand stretched out, blood swirled out of his palm. With a showy wave in front of him, the blood formed a large reddish-black scythe.

"The Grim Ripper..."

Whoever the soldier that voiced that, everyone could only agree. With a swirl of black smoke, Mark vanished from that place, leaving a trail behind.

***

Day 126 - 1:13 PM - Bally's Casino, Atlantic City, New Jersey, United States of America

"Everyone, run to the higher floors! Hurry!"

Arnold shouted as he crushed the heads of two infected with his bare, fur-covered hands.

They were currently in the hallway of the hotel tower, two floors above the lower rooftop.

The mutators held the incoming infected as much as they could. The narrow hallways helped a lot in reducing the number of infected coming at once. Nevertheless, with just a few people holding the rear, it was not enough. Even if they managed to kill another infected, another one would replace its place. If they managed to kill another spider, the infected would undergo another burst of ferociousness.

CRASH!!!

Loud sounds of breaking glass could be heard everywhere as the windows of the rooms connected to the hallway was broken in by the infected.

"Abandon the floor! Quick!"

Arnold shouted out loud to everyone holding back the rear.

Unknown to them, the higher floors were already being invaded by the mutated spider latched infected. The number was not as many as below. However, the infected had already thrown the escaping survivors into chaos.

To flee from the onslaught of the ferocious infected, many of them got separated from the main group. 

"You kids! Run! We'll hold back the rear!"

Two men shouted as they ran with three children. The oldest of the three children was twelve, the second was eleven, and the youngest was just eight.

"But..."

The oldest voiced out his hesitation.

"Don't worry about us! Just run!"

One of the men pushed the oldest forwards. With that, the three children turned their backs from the two men and ran forwards.

Unfortunately, what they thought was wrong.

For most people in the apocalypse, children were nothing but baggage. They could not work. What they could do was limited. And their childish tantrums were hard to handle for most people.

Thus, it was easier to abandon them if they had no close relation to the adults. To unlucky ones, even if blood ties were present, sacrificing them when needed was possible.

It was also the case this time. The two men voiced it as if they wanted to protect the children. However, when the children turned their backs, the two men immediately ran in a different direction and hid. It caused the infected that was running after them focus on the three children that were running across the straight hallway.

BAM!

The oldest child heard the sound of a door closing. This sound never sounded as frightening as before.

Turning his head, what he saw was the infected rushing towards them. The two men were nowhere to be found, even just as a corpse.

The youngest one could not realize what happened. The two, however, were old enough to realize that they had been used as bait.

Nevertheless, there was nothing they could do but run away.

On the other hand, the two adults hid inside a hotel room, locking the door as they entered. Seeing that the window was still intact, they hurriedly pulled the curtains close, overturned the livingroom furniture, and created a place to hide.

From their relieved faces, they did not even feel guilty from what they deed. It was the survival of the fittest, after all.

It did not take long, and the sounds outside the door connected to the hallway vanished.

They did not even think that it vanished unnaturally. Nevertheless, they did not want to repeat the mistake of the idiot before and hid even with the sounds dampened.

But then...

CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!

Three sounds of breaking glass made the two deaf. Their heads turned to the glass window by reflex. There, they saw three infected that were lying on the floor.

But what was with the infected's appearance?

Instead of looking like they broke into the windows and landed upright despite unsteadily... Why were the infected sprawled on the floor?

It was as if they were thrown inside...

The two men had no time to think of anything. With their nervous hearts and unclear minds, the only thing they thought of doing was to run towards the already silent hallway.

After all, the three infected that crashed into the room were mutated ones. And they were already starting to get up.

Click! TAM! TAM!

"Huh?"

One of the men voiced out. The door was unlocked, but he could not open it.

Both of them tried to kick it open in panic. However, the whole door was already covered with reddish-black metal outside.

A few seconds later, only their painful screams could be heard.

"Go! Run!"

The twelve-year-old shouted as he grabbed a heavy vase that he could barely lift. Resolutely, he faced the infected that was running behind them. There was no way to outrun them as children. One needed to stay. Even so, it would not ensure the safety of the two.

Unexpectedly, the eight-year-old understood that fact. Instead of running, he managed to find an old ballpen that was lying on the floor and took it as a weapon.

The eleven-year-old girl was afraid. Nevertheless, there was only the three of them here, it was lonely to die alone. Readying the broken umbrella that she had been holding all this time, she joined the two boys.

Miraculously, the three children were smiling at each other. Mister Morgan had already brought them this far. They would die valiantly like him.

"You children passed."

But then, a voice made them freeze. Then, a black shroud covered the surroundings. They saw a man with a cloak made of black smoke and was holding a scythe stood in front of them.

The reddish-black scythe moved, creating black streaks of afterimages. The next thing that the children knew, blood already washed the walls and floor of the hallway. Blood dripped from the scythe the man in front of them was holding.

The man turned towards the three children, the first thing they noticed was his red glowing eyes.

Because of that, the oldest of the three immediately went on the defense and hid the two behind him.

And surprisingly, the youngest boy peeked out and asked a question that made the man laugh.

"Are we dead? Are you here to pick us up?"

"That is right, I'm here to pick you three up. But you three are not dead yet."

With those words, the man turned into black smoke and covered the three. They felt a hand grabbing unto their bodies. 

The surroundings turned dark, and they could see the whole place flash by their eyes very fast.

As fast as the surroundings passed by, the next thing they knew was that they stood on the rooftop of the tower.

Nevertheless, instead of being surprised, what they noticed first was the unconcious Morgan.

"Mister Morgan!"

The three children rushed towards their respected savior, not noticing the other people on the rooftop.

"Don't make too much noise. Morgan is just sleeping."

A familiar voice of a woman was heard. They finally noticed Felicia, who was tending to Morgan.

In the rooftop, aside from the three children and Morgan, there were already ten people. Most of them were the mutators that got trapped at the lower floors of the tower in order to hold back the infected including their leader, Arnold.

Arnold was currently staring at the man who saved them.

Covered in a black cloak of Miasma, Mark stood at the ledge of the building, monitoring the remaining people inside the tower. It also seemed like he was looking for something.

All of them here were glad that they were saved and Morgan was still alive. Nevertheless, they did not know what motives what this frightening person had for helping them.

"Found it."

They all heard the voice of Mark. He was looking at the middle of the swarming numbers of the infected.

Curious, some of them peeked out, trying to decern what he was looking at.

It did not take long for them to find what he was looking at.

On the lower rooftop, a pale-skinned woman stood. At the back of her head, a glowing spider was latched.

Mark already suspected it. From his knowledge of the infected, it was impossible for a horde of this size to not have a leader.

In this case, however, it was an Empress.