Mutagen

Day 4 – 6:42 AM – Firenze Townhouse Complex Subdivision Main Gates, La Joya St., Buhay na Tubig, Imus Cavite

"Herrera! Where are the reinforcements?!"

One of the policemen hiding behind a police mobile shouted to the other policeman hiding behind a wall and was holding a radio.

"They said that they were being held up by another group from this damned gang!"

"Sh*t!"

The policeman who asked cursed as he unleashed several shots with his pistol back at their enemies.

They were currently in a dilemma. It was because not only they were outnumbered but also outgunned. The gang members were carrying firearms that were illegal to own in this country. Not even the army was issued with those kinds of guns. Furthermore, their leader was not in the settlement at the moment. They had just gone out half hour ago to look for survivors and bring them back. It had been their routine for the past two days after they managed to secure this place.

Who knew that these wretched people would take advantage of that?

If their leader was here, they would not fall into this disadvantageous situation. After all, their current leader was a superhuman who could turn his skin into steel. He was impervious to bullets.

However, they were nothing but sitting ducks right now under overwhelming fire power.

"Argh!"

One of the policemen almost fell down after his shoulder was hit by a bullet.

"Molina!"

"Don't shout! I'm not dead! F*ck! It hurts!"

The policemen were in despair. They already lost several brothers in arms and now, they were having a hard time to even shoot back.

"Damn. Only god can help us now."

One of the policemen lamented making their morale plummet even more.

***

On the line of the Gang Syndicate, everyone was on high spirits. Some of them were even laughing. It was obvious that those of them were under the influence of drugs. The weapons they had varied but it was sure that their firearms were on above the policemen in terms of firepower.

Of course, there were also casualties on their side but very minimal. Furthermore, for every casualty they incur, the more frenzied some of them became.

Behind the overturned vehicle on the center of the road was the current leader of this raiding operation. Despite the fact that he was a minor, he obtained his position due to him being a Mutator who gained the ability to strengthen his arm muscles to the degree that he could effortlessly overturn vehicles.

Their operation was not to raid but secure this place for themselves. They had been planning to do this even before the police rescued the women they gathered for pleasure. The latter event only led to the operation happening earlier. They were actually waiting for the police to gather more supplies but since most of their brothers were angry about what happened, they made their move today. Despite the operation being hurried, they were sure that they would be able to succeed.

What they did not notice however…

Their men behind them were being picked off one by one.

***

TSST! TSST!

On the roof of the house on the corner of the street, Mark killed another person after two shots of his assault rifle.

"What idiots."

Mark mocked.

After he was discovered, he immediately shot that person before he was able to alert the others. With that, he began on picking the gang members behind the group. He started from the furthest person and moved to others. Since the time he started picking them up one by one, he had already killed fifteen of their members without anyone noticing that the person shooting was from above.

At his position, they were all sitting ducks since the cover they were hiding behind could not cover their heads.

TSST!

Another one fell down in one shot. Mark was getting better at using his gun for sure.

Several of the gang members saw that person fall down but the idiots thought that the shot that killed him came from the front.

Actually, it was because Mark was using the police as decoy. Even if the gang members had no covers on their heads, Mark did not shoot them while they were hiding. Once their head emerged over their covers to shoot, that was when he strikes to kill.

His clearer eyesight really helped in this. There was no scope on his assault rifle yet, he could see his targets clearly.

TSST!

Mark continued killing the people behind until he managed to kill twenty-four people.

"It looked like they noticed it already."

Mark smiled. It was now time for the second stage.

***

"F*ck! What is going on?!"

The Mutator of the gang bellowed with a curse.

Many of them noticed that their fire power started to diminish. It was then when they looked behind that they saw the rows of bodies of their dead brothers.

Everyone immediately stopped shooting and lowered their bodies thinking that the shots that killed them came from the front.

"Gahh!!"

However, one of them fell down wounded.

"Argh!"

Followed by another one.

"Ahhh!!"

And another.

"Dammit! It's from above! GAH!"

One of them shouted and stood up in shock only to fall down with a bloody hole on his forehead. He breathed his last with his eyes opened wide.

Hearing that shout, the gang members immediately looked on the roofs and second floors of the houses surrounding the place when they saw a head poking out of the roof of the house on the corner of the street.

"There! Quick! Shoot that bastard! Gah!"

***

TSST!

Mark shot the gang member who pointed at him.

"Alright, time to go."

Mark retreated before the volley of gunshots bore holes on the roof.

Sliding down on the opposite side of the roof, Mark then jumped onto the roof of a storage room about three meters away. He then started to run fast and made his way not going away but closer to the gang members.

His eyes then glowed red.

[Emotion Induction: Panic]

Mark's existence that killed a lot of the gang members at the short period of time made panic sprout in their subconscious. He planned on increasing that panic to remove their ability to think clearly. The more panicked they were, the easier to pick them off one by one. Especially since many of them were under of drugs making their minds unstable and easy to influence.

***

"Sh*t! The bastard escaped!"

One of the gang members cursed but for some reason, their ferocious expressions vanished already and were replaced by panic. They felt threat as there was someone out there that was able to kill their brothers like he was killing insects.

"B-Boss! What are we going to do?"

"What the f*ck are you asking me that for? Continue and kill those people! Just watch out in case that f*cking bastard appears again!"

The Leader bellowed trying to pull his men together. However, he looked irritated. He could see that his men were panicking for some reason. He also started to feel that something was wrong.

***

"It looks like this ability have less effect on Mutators."

Mark frowned as he watched the gang members from a tree nearby their position.

"Well, time to pick them up again."

TSST! TSST!

Mark unleashed another round of shots. Now that it was slightly from the side, the shots showered the gang from their right side.

Four people fell down wailing in pain and yet, they did not see where the attack came from. It was because Mark had already slipped away after firing those shots.

The gang member's panic grew deeper and deeper.

The situation continued until some of them started to run into their vehicle and retreat. They had already lost forty people and yet, they could not find where the culprit was.

However, they found out that the wheels of their vehicles had been shot and those who came to check the vehicles fell down with bloody holes on their bodies.

"F*ck! Show yourself!"

The gang leader shouted loudly. However, the response he received was his men falling down on their own pools of blood.

On the other side, the policemen were dumbfounded.

They did not know what was happening as the gunshots coming from the other side stopped. Furthermore, they could see that the gang members were at disarray while some of them were falling down either dead or severely injured. They could not help but feel some hope. They understood that someone helped them.

They did not even realize that they had already stopped shooting and only watched the situation with glee.

TSST! TSST!

The gang members continued to fall one by one. They tried to call for their reinforcements that came to deal with the group of policemen that went out but every time one of them tried to take out a radio, he would be the first to fall. Furthermore, the shots would come from different direction every time. It made them feel that danger could come in any direction. It was like they were being haunted by a ghost.

"Get the f*cking hostages!"

The Leader yelled to his subordinates. They pulled in the two women who they used to get entry to this place.

"Bastard! Show yourself or I'll kill this b*tch!"

"Hiiiii!!!"

The woman who was grabbed by the leader could not help but cry as a pistol was pointed at her temple.

However, the answer that came was the same.

Several of his men fell down with bloody holes on their bodies.

The current number of the gang members who were in good shape fell to twenty-seven people. It was a complete defeat and they could not even see the shadow of who did it.

The leader's back was filled with cold sweat. He gained super strength after being bitten and started to build up his prestige with their gang and yet, he was in danger at this moment. The last time he felt like this was back in that forsaken cinema hall.

At this moment, they heard steps. Calm stead steps coming from the unseen corner of the street.

When the person emerged, the leader was dumbfounded.

"It's you!"

Mark sinisterly smiled and replied.

"Well, I did not expect that you're still alive either."

Mark stared at the leader of the gang. He did not expect that this guy would be able to leave the mall alive and even became a Mutator. The young leader of the gang in front of Mark was that same gangster Mark and his companions left unconscious at the cinema. When he heard Mei's circumstances back then, Mark regretted not killing this bastard. He did not expect that the he was still alive and the chance to kill him came too soon.

"Boss, you know him?"

One of the gang members behind the leader asked.

"He's that bastard that killed Owen, Lervil and Aries."

"What?!"

The member was shocked.

"I did not think that I will see you f*cker again. You ruined our month long chance to taste that beauty and now, you f*cking ruined our plans again!"

The Leader pointed his pistol at Mark and suddenly shot.

BANG!

However…

"How cunning… You tried to distract me with all that cursing just to shoot me right?"

Mark was unscathed. He avoided the bullet by tilting his head.

"You guys sure are easy to predict. You got too used to killing the infected that even dealing with people, you shoot the head first."

Mark mocked.

The way Mark avoided that bullet made everyone's eyes grow wide. As if they where staring at a monster.

It was then…

Mark's eyes glowed red, blood red. Along with his sinister smile, he looked like a devil.

The gang members felt their knees grow weak as some of them fell on the ground shivering. Some of them even started to leak the contents of their bladder.

[Emotion Induction: Fear]

Mark made the fear in their minds bloom after planting severe panic unto them.

Even the leader could not help but back off seeing that Mark's eyes were glowing.

"RAAAAAAHHHH!!!!"

In a final resistance along with his mind starting to lose his senses, the gang leader bellowed a loud shout and charged at Mark.

His arm muscles bulged grotesquely and he threw a punch at Mark. The punch was strong and could likely topple a small bus.

However…

What was the use of his strength of the attack could not hit his target.

Mark stepped to the side letting the leader pass by in front of him and whispered to his ear.

"This is for Mei'er. So die."

BANG!

A large hole was drilled on the chest of the gang leader as Mark shot his chest with a shotgun in point blank range.

As a Mutator, he did not die immediately. He even managed to turn his body around after he fell and looked at Mark with the entire remaining grievance he had. He then spat out a mouthful of blood along with the pieces of the broken organs on his chest. He died miserably under the glowing red eyes of Mark.

[Emotion Induction: Despair]

Mark did not let him die peacefully.