Mutagen

As the woman continued to struggle and tug her leg off the man's grasp, she saw the man's head slowly slump down the puddle of his own blood on the floor. She thought that it was the chance for her to escape but to her horror, the man's actually tightened even more.

After the man had totally gone quiet, the zombie chomping on his neck stopped and shot a sudden fierce glare towards the trapped woman accompanied by the snapping sounds of its bones in its neck due to the quick turn of its head. It started adjusting its body getting ready to pounce on the woman who now already burst into tears due to her fear.

"Paula! Take the girl!"

One of the college girls, the girl with the chestnut colored hair, shouted as she burst into a sprint at the zombie. The other college girl who was called Paula hesitated a little before running after her friend.

As it saw the college girl sprinting closer, the zombie changed its target and quickly lunged towards the newcomer when she was about to come into its range.

After two uncontrolled lunges, the zombie sped past the woman and the child before jumping strongly as it pounced towards the college girl.

The girl stopped running for a moment as she saw the zombie jump at her. She brought her right foot behind to gain momentum and then mercilessly swung her right leg upwards with the force she can release. Her shoe made a vicious contact with the neck and chin of the zombie. As it was in the midst if its attack, the kick made it spin backwards in the air and it flew back for about three meters and had an unsightly landing on the floor.

Two more zombies running from behind fell down as one got its feet swiped by the flying zombie while the other stepped unstably one the bodied of the two zombies that fell down before it.

With that little time she managed to get, she immediately pried the dead man's hand away. Unfortunately, to her surprise, she failed to remove the hand and man's grasp was actually getting tighter and tighter that the woman started to wail in pain.

The dead man's body then started twitching violently but still not letting go of the woman's leg.

"Ange! Quick! They are coming!"

Paula who already secured the child in her embrace shouted at her friend as she saw the three zombies that fell down were getting up.

"Shit!"

The chestnut haired girl who was called Ange cursed unbecoming of a lady and gritted her teeth as she heard her friend's shout. She then looked at the twitching man.

"Don't blame me for this!"

Their situation was getting grim. Ange then removed her last ounce of hesitation. She then raised her right foot and brought it down with heavy force.

SNAP!

The eerie sound of bones breaking entered their ears. Ange violently stomped at the man's arm breaking his bones. Some of the bones were broken but strangely, the man's grip did not loosen. As she saw this, she made several more stomps breaking more bones in the arm of the dead man.

Stomp after stomp, the grasp of the dead man finally loosened.

However, the time Ange needed to release the woman was also enough for the three zombies to recover. Furthermore, the other zombies that were left behind were also catching up. Ange's pupils constricted as she saw the three zombies that had fallen earlier jump at her side by side almost at the same time.

"Ange!"

Paula shouted as she watched the plight of her friend.

BANG!

A deafening sound echoed into their ears. At the same time, the three zombies pouncing towards Ange are blown several meters away riddled with bloody holes on their bodies. Two of the zombies tried to get up immediately after but the injuries the two received gave them a lot of difficulty and zombies even started to twist their bodies in pain and growled. As for the last one, it just slumped to the floor and stopped moving.

The four females covered their ears due to pain because of the sudden gunshot but still looked towards the source of the shot by reflex. What they saw was the back of a man wearing a set of black clothes and hooded jacket who already stood between them and the zombies. The man stared at the incoming zombies and muttered.

"Finally got a headshot."

The girls heard the man's soft whisper.

***

Mark ran towards the group and saw them being picked down by the fast running zombies one by one. Seeing the dire state of their situation, he urged himself to run faster.

"Help! Please! Help us!"

A man who was running in front of the group shouted at him.

He then saw a zombie caught up to another man lagging behind the group and lunged at the man. He did not have much reaction to the man being caught but he could only frown as he saw what the man did.

"What a bastard."

'Only at the worst possible times can a man's true nature be revealed.'

It was something he always believed.

Mark heard the little girl who was thrown to the floor cry in pain and of course, the other people in front of the group also did. However, they only stole a glance behind their backs and continued running towards Mark.

Instead, the two college girls stopped and went to help the mother and child despite the danger they were facing.

The survivors who continued running was about to reach Mark and stop him to ask for help but did not manage to do as he shot them with a cold look and continued running past them.

When Mark ran past them, the ones who wanted to stop him gnashed their teeth in anger and left one last glance at him before they continued running.

The employee behind Mark saw what happened and also ignored the group of men fleeing as he followed behind him.

While running, Mark's uneven eyes grew large in surprise as he saw one of the college girls charge at the zombie that caught the man that was holding the mother's leg and sent it flying. He could not help but grin as he saw the girl's movements and the method she did to free the woman.

Unfortunately for the girl, she time she had was not enough for the time she needed and the zombies already jumped towards her by the time she freed the mother from the bastard's grasp.

Luckily enough, Mark also arrived by their side at this point without the girls noticing.

BANG!

Mark fired his shotgun towards the lunging zombies making them fly back several meters.

The three zombies disregarded each other and tried to lunge at the college girl almost at the same time sticking them together in a single line. As Mark shot the zombie in front, most of the shotgun pellets blew its head off into mush and the remaining pellets riddled the other zombies with holes.

He then shot a look behind him and shouted.

"What are you women staring at me for, hurry up and run!"