Mutagen

The screams of the men did not last long but those who heard them could not help but shiver. Not far from Mark's vehicle, the vehicles of the other survivors also stopped as none of them dared to stray away from Mark's group. Since that was the case, the people on the other vehicles also saw what happened.

"Big Brother, you just… Is that really necessary to kill them?"

Charmaine asked. It was not new to her to anyone dying since she already saw a lot of people fell drenched with their own blood when the infected appeared but it was a different issue when she saw her Big Brother killing another person without batting an eyelid.

Mark looked at her shrugging his shoulders.

"I did not kill them though."

"You just did shot them."

The nurse added.

"Yeah, I shot them but I did not kill them. I only shot their legs you see?"

Everyone in the vehicle was speechless. It was true that he did not kill them but he totally sent them to their deaths.

They just did not know that Mark already planned to do this since he and Abbygale returned after that hair-raising fight. If the event on the rooftop where three of the congresswoman's bodyguards died did not happen and Garcia came in front of him to apologize, Mark would have had let them go. However, that was not the case fueling Mark's desire to eliminate them.

After they returned, he noticed that the three were trying to hide away from him. As if they would be able to since it was Mark that we were talking about. Since they were hiding, Mark made they hide some more. At the time he was standing by the entrance, he was actually blocking the way making the three not dare to pass by.

When the three could not hold it anymore and wanted to go out, Mark immediately sent a strand of energy to the three. Since Mark could still not control it perfectly and he was not using his hand as a targeting medium, the effect was weaker. However, that weak intensity of the energy was enough to give the three a strong splitting headache. If one was to see the three on the room they were hiding at, they would be able to see three men kneeling on the floor while clutching their heads. They were just normal people after all.

The last part of the plan was to let them out after the vehicles left. He then shot their feet making them not able to escape. Mark shot the incoming Biters afterwards. It was to ensure that the three would not have an easy way out. The Biters would only bite the three and go away. Since that was the case, why not turn the Biters into Eaters? Then, the Eaters savored every bite of the three men's flesh.

Mark glanced at the clustered infected feasting on the bodies of the three one last time with indifferent eyes before looking away.

"Odel, let's go."

With that cue, Odelina drove the vehicle away and it now led the other cars since it was the only vehicle in the convoy that could deal with the obstacles on the road.

Charmaine and the nurse could not help but stare at the ruthless man in front of them. It was good that they were in his good side. When the thought of becoming enemies with him entered their minds, they could only shiver. Still, the two could not help but be confused. None of the other people in the vehicle was bothered with what Mark had done. Rather, the beautiful girl and Abbygale were even sticking to him like glue.

'Hmm?'

Mark suddenly sensed something and quickly turned his head towards the rooftop of the City Hall. His eyes widened but then, he let out a helpless smile.

'So, that really was the case.'

***

On the City Hall rooftop, an eleven year old girl sat on the edge of the roof. Anyone who would look at her would know that she was not normal. She had a green colored hair and her pupils also had the same color. Her lips were rose pink and there were small pink flowers hanging on her hair…

Wait... no...

The pink flowers were actually growing out of her hair.

As she sat by the edge, she was watching the vehicles leaving the compound while holding a golden fruit on her hand. She noticed someone looking at her from the black van leading the other cars. She then waved her hand with a smile.

The girl looked at the huge tree behind her. Her smile vanished and her face showed a worried expression.

"Lil bro. How long would you stay like that?"

To her question, the whole tree shook making slight tremors on the building.

"You really can't turn back into a human?"

The tree shook again making her disappointed.

The girl skipped towards the north side of the roof top and looked below with a sad face. Below, on the street, thick smoke started to rise into the air while the huge Mutated Woodman started to turn into ashes.

"Dad turned into that monster, Mom is still unconscious and you turned into a huge tree. What should I do now?"

The green haired girl said while on the verge of crying. She remembered what happened after the infected came and started the slaughter.

Her name was Emika and her little brother was named Mikio. They had these names since their father was a Japanese that married their mother who was a local. They had a family of four. Her, her Dad, her Mom, and her four years-old little brother. They came here since her Dad had to submit papers for the family business they were going to start. Then, the outbreak came.

Emika, their dad and Mikio were all bitten and their mom hit her head on the edge of an office table when she fell by accident. She fell unconscious since then. The most severe bite was on her dad who was bitten on his shoulder. She was bitten on her foot and her little brother was bitten on his hand that he even lost three of his fingers due to the bite.

With all the strength they could muster, they managed to found a place in the first floor to hide. However, things had gone wrong after that. Her father started to turn into one of those who bit them. In order to not implicate his family, her father ran out of hiding in the last second. As the two children were also bitten, they knew that they would also turn.

They then pulled their unconscious mother and hid her inside a smaller room that had cleaning tools.

After that, both of them soon fell unconscious. When she woke up, her hair was differently colored and she did not find her brother anywhere. She then realized that the room was gone and she was trapped inside a huge tree. Surprisingly, she could communicate with the huge tree and was shocked that the huge tree was actually her missing little brother.

With her little brother's help, they found their unconscious mom and hid her inside Mikio's huge body.

Strangely, she could seem to grow small pink beautiful flowers on her hair. When plucking the flowers, it felt like she was pulling a hair strand out of her head. She could also recall abilities she had after she woke up. She could grow thorns on her skin and she could control her green hair. She could make her hair change length and even move her hair as if it was her arm.

On the other side, her brother said that he could create a fruit that should be able to wake up their mom. However, none of them could understand how or why they turned into this and how they had those abilities. The siblings did not care about it anymore. They only wanted their mom to wake up and took this chance with the fruit.

Back to the present, Emika looked away from the burning body of her Dad and approached the tree. The trunk of the tree opened up and let her in. Soon, she returned to where her mom was lying down.

"How can we feed this to mom now?"

Emika sat beside her mom murmuring. The tree then shook taking her attention.

"Smash the fruit you say? Like how mom feed you vegetables?"

The tree shook again.

With that idea, Emika opened her mom's mouth and squeezed the fruit above her mouth. Soon, the juice of the fruit along with its flesh fell into the mouth of their mom. Emika closed her mom's mouth and helped her ingest the contents in her mouth.

"I wonder if this would really work."

***

"Gege, what are you looking at?"

Mei beside Mark noticed him staring at the City Hall behind them. She also tried to look at what he was staring at but saw nothing.

"I just thought of something."

Mark replied with a smile. He then looked at the nurse who was watching his interaction with Mei.

"Since you're with us now, can you introduce yourself?"

"Oh, right. I forgot."

The nurse was surprised and then fixed her posture before continuing.

"I'm Melissa Santos, 24, a Nursing Associate. My hobbies are—"

"Well, stop. You're not in an interview for work or a beauty pageant. You don't need to say too much. Geez."

Mark did not let her finish talking and stopped her. Noticing her blunder, Melissa lowered her head in embarrassment.

After that, everyone's introduction came in order.

"Big Brother, what about her? Why is she tied up?"

Charmaine said pointed at the infected student tied up at the end of the seat.

"You don't have to worry about her. She's Jannette I think? She's an infected."

Melissa and Charmaine were shocked.

"Big Brother? Why do you have one in here?"

"Don't worry about her, she won't bite. She's also not aggressive like those outside."

"Really?"

"Well, maybe?"

"Big Brother! That's not reliable at all!"

"Hahaha!"

Everyone started laughing as they noticed that Mark was playing with Charmaine. With a red face, she retorted.

"Big Bro! I hate you!"

She then turned her face away and crossed her arms in front of her. Charmaine really looked serious that it made the scene even funnier.

Melissa on the other hand observed the group and the interior of the vehicle, she sighed inside. The vehicle was comfortable and even looked luxurious. It was equipped with a lot of things. Then, Mark's group had a different atmosphere compared to the other survivors she was with before. His group was lively and energetic compared to the people inside the other vehicles that were lifeless and lacking energy. His group was enjoying the current situation of the world while others could only live in fear.

She felt that she really made the right decision. Melissa became really confident about it. After the laughter died down, she asked Mark.

"Uhm. Can I ask a question?"

"You can but whether I will answer depends on your question."

Mark nodded indifferently.

"Back there you told us about Mutators but you never told us what you and Abbygale are."

"Hmm. I can answer that. Abbygale here, she should be a Mutator. As for me, I'm not."

Melissa and Charmaine were surprised.

"But Big Brother you…"

Charmaine interjected.

"I know what your next question is but I can't answer that. The only thing I can say is that Mutators are people who were bitten by the infected but did not turn and mutated in to something else. As for me, I was never bitten by the infected so I'm not one."

Mark's answer to the two only made them more confused. However, Mark already told them that he won't answer so even if they tried to press for any answer, the two would not receive one.

"Odel, there is a convenience store near the area we stopped earlier right? Stop by that place to get more supplies. We have more vehicles right now so we can carry more."

"Alright Master, leave it to me."

With that, Odelina led the convoy outside the convenience store. After stopping, Mark and Abbygale jumped off the van and started to clear the infected outside and inside the convenience store. They did not let the other group to help as their guns were not equipped with suppressors. With them participating, it would only bring more infected towards area.

When the very few number of infected was wiped out. Madam Lanie and Chief Mallari went out of their vehicles and approached Mark.

"Are we here to get supplies?"

Madam Lanie asked.

"That's right. You should get your people to take as much food and other necessities as possible. We might not find or stop at other places on the way."

Mark replied making the two nod in understanding. The only reason they could stop at this place was because there were too few infected in the area. In the other places however, no one knows what they would encounter.

RUMBLE!

As they were about to start, they all heard a rumbling sound. The sound seemed to have come from far away but it was too loud that they even managed to hear it. When they tried to find the direction where the sound was coming from, the all turned back towards the City Hall compound.

What they saw surprised everyone.

The huge tree started to wither. Its large leaves started to fall off from its branches and the branches snapped like brittle sticks. Soon, the tree started to fall and the building that lost the support from the tree finally collapsed. It created a huge cloud of dust along with the crashing sounds.

It was lucky that they had already left the compound or else, what had just happened was enough to bring them into another round of danger.