Mutagen

Day 132 - 7:34 PM - The Pagoda, Mount Penn, Reading City, Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States of America

On the first floor of the Pagoda, the group of survivors that came here before was all confused. It was because about half an hour ago, most of the people running this place went out for some reason.

And now, the woman called Odelina, the person leading the operations in this place, was guiding new people into the building.

Soon after, Huey, Jolleen, and Spera that were known among the survivors were following behind two people and were talking in a language that they could not understand.

The man that the three were talking to did not look like someone of importance. The woman behind him, however, she was gathering their attention. Nevertheless, it seemed that she was quite uneasy because of the unwanted attention on her and was hiding behind the man.

Because of her reaction, the other survivors tried to look away. Well, except for the five men that kept blatantly ogling at her.

The men were even talking about the woman without hiding it.

"Dude! Look at that babe!"

"Is she an angel?"

"What are you talking about? She must be a goddess."

The five hoodlums exclaimed one after another. Upon hearing that exchange, the others that were with the five wanted to hide their faces. Those words might sound like a compliment. However, to the others that had been with these five for a while now, those words had a totally different meaning.

Talking unnecessarily loud, even though they were talking among themselves. Those five wanted that beautiful woman to acknowledge their existence.

Of course, there was nothing pure about their intention. After all, that kind of approach was more or less used by some gang members when picking up women in bars and night clubs. And sure enough, nothing good would end up in that kind of encounter, especially for the woman.

At first, they would shower the woman with compliments, playing with her mind and emotions. The moment she reacted, the bait would be cast, and things would escalate further.

But before things could even start, the five became silent.

PUFF!

"AHH!"

The other survivors were surprised and let out a shout as they retreated.

It was because one by one, the five vulgar men spat out a mouthful of blood while their eyes, ears, and nose were dripping red.

"W-what is going on?" A woman stood up, shocked with the current happening. She held on to another woman, pulling her away. "Vera, let's get away from them. They might be sick!"

The woman called Vera looked at her best friend and the five men alternately before nodding. In fact, not only the two but the rest of the group took distance away from the five vulgar men.

Since something odd was happening, Vera turned her head to the people managing this place. They should do something about this. But there, she saw them all doing nothing but staring at the five, especially the man that was taking with Huey, Jolleen, and Spera. He had a deadly stare at those men.

Vera then rubbed her eyes.

"Vera, is something wrong?"

Vera's best friend, Nanette, asked, seeing her rubbing her eyes and staring at the Huey and the others.

"No-nothing."

Vera replied like that. However, her eyes were staring at that man. Why? She was sure that she saw his eyes glow red for a second.

The survivors all turned to Huey and the others. Of course, they would be alarmed about what was happening. Unexpectedly, Huey and his group did not make any movement at all. Instead, they seemed to be asking the man that they were talking to just now.

Then, when they finished talking, the survivors thought that Huey and Jolleen would do something. But they actually turned around and left.

"Wait! Are you leaving them just like that?"

The oldest of the survivors, the middle-aged man named Lucas, called out to Huey's group.

Unexpectedly, instead of Huey, it was the man who turned around and replied.

"Don't worry. They're not sick." But then, the man snickered. "They might die, though."

They were surprised by that reply, and none of them were able to say another word. There, the man embraced the beautiful woman with his right arm and led her towards the stairs. They then climbed the stairs together with Huey's group and the three girls that they had seen before.

And as the group climbed up to the second floor, the five hoodlums fell down, unconcious. This caused the survivors to panic more. However, none of them approached to help the five either. At first, one would think that these survivors were afraid of the current situation. But looking at their faces as they stared at the five, they looked more or less happy at the state of these vile men.

***

"Mei'er are you okay?"

On the second floor of the Pagoda, Mark asked Mei. She had pretty much recovered from her trauma, at least, and could endure it in mild situations. However, this time was different.

"I'm okay. But the stares of those men are scary."

Mei was quite afraid of the stares from those five.

Mark was not surprised about this, though. Those five Mutators seemed to have traits about lust and violence. Compared to normal instances, the stares of those five could make a woman feel that they wanted to swallow her whole in the worst situations.

"We're sorry about this," Huey apologized. "We also wanted to deal with those five already, but we were waiting for you, Boss."

Hearing that, Mark nodded, understanding what Huey was implying.

Those five were Mutators. And thus, Huey and the others waited for Mark, of course, to harvest those men's mutations. It seemed that even if the personalities of those men were trash, their mutations were not.

"What mutations did they have?"

Mark asked, making Huey and Jolleen tell.

First, the leader of those five men called Jeffrey could breathe out fire.

Next was the right hand, Malcolm. This guy had a full body transformation of a gorilla. Huey and the others were not familiar with what kind of gorilla it was, but while transformed, Malcolm seemed to be able to pull a ten-wheeler truck with one finger. Listening to the appearance of the transformation where Malcolm had a black upper body fur and white lower body fur, Mark concluded that this guy's mutation must be a Western Lowland Gorilla.

The third guy, the runner of the group, he was called Aulsen. And when it said runner, it was literally a runner. This guy's zebra legs mutation allowed him to run very fast.

And the fourth guy, Silvester, was actually the most dangerous. His sweat had turned explosive and would ignite at contact with fire. This guy was a walking disaster if not managed. The most amazing thing, however, was that his body was immune to his own explosions. It was like the chemical reaction within the explosion that was caused by his sweat was different from a normal one. There was a problem with his mutation, though. Silvester could not control the secretion of his sweat, which made it useless during combat.

For the last one, it was the man called Vince. He was the fattest among the five, though his mutation had nothing to do with his weight. This guy could grow spikes on his body like a hedgehog. Furthermore, it could be used for both defense and offense. The most interesting in this ability, however, was that he was able to launch his spikes.

"They really have some extraordinary mutations." Mark murmured. "How did you all get this information, anyway?"

"It's not really hard to know," Huey scratched his head as he replied. "We told the group when they arrived that people with abilities would be treated differently, and those five immediately came to boast about their abilities. They hid their weaknesses, though. So, we had to rely on the CCTV's we installed for that."

"What different treatment did you gave those five?"

Mark asked.

"Well, nothing much, really," Huey smiled. "We only gave them a bit more food than others, clothing too. Then, told them that the treatment will be improved if they were to actually join us after you return."

"It's not likely to happen. Impossible."

Jolleen joined in.

In short, those five were bamboozled to reveal their abilities easily.

"Good work then."

Mark praised them. There was no need to hold back on taking advantage of people like them.

Hearing what he needed to hear about those five, Mark turned back to Mei.

"You should take a rest. Spend some time with the girls."

Mark said as Miracle was also itching to do so.

Here, Spera interjected.

"Sister, want to take a bath first?"

It was an invitation that Mei would not be able to decline. She immediately nodded. She was quite excited about this.

"You going to open a portal?"

Mark asked Spera.

"Ah, no!" She immediately denied. "We made a bath on the top floor. The view there is great!"

Hearing that, Mark shrugged. The mountain base had a stable water source. It would not be surprising that they brought enough water here to be able to take a bath.

"Go and take a bath, then."

Mark smiled and patted Mei's head.

In the past days that they were traveling, the most that they could do was wipe their bodies with a wet cloth. They also had to mind the water supply and could not clean their bodies thoroughly. Now that they reunited with the others, they could finally take a bath once more.

Well, in this apocalypse, being able to take a bath for most people was already a luxury. They could take a bath in oceans and rivers, but it was not without risk either.

​ "What about Gege?"

Mei asked.

"What? You want me to join you?"

Mark dropped a joke. Mei's face turned red immediately.

"My Mei'er is really cute." Mark then said as he planted a kiss on her forehead. "Just go already. I'll just take out the trash."

Take out the trash. There was no need to ask what that meant.

With a red face, Mei and the girls were led away by Spera and Jolleen. Now, it was only Huey and Mark that was left.

"So, Boss already moved to kissing."

Huey suddenly said. It made Mark freeze with a wry smile.

It was not hard to tell that Huey saw this as a huge improvement, knowing Mark and all.

Mark decided to change the topic.

"Get someone to move out those five bastards. I'll eliminate them immediately."

"As you wish."

Huey replied. In his expression, it seemed that he was also itching to remove the pests for a while now. It was not surprising if those five behaved the same way towards Jolleen.

And there, the survivors were surprised as Huey led some people to drag out the five unconscious men.

"W-were are you bringing them?"

Vera was suddenly pushed forward and asked Huey. She seemed to be forced to ask that question as she was stuttering.

But to that question, Huey, who was kind to almost all of them, replied with an unexpected thing.

"We're bringing them to be executed."

Huey did not even play with his words and directly said what was going on.

And of course, the survivors were shocked at the sudden event. Before any of them could ask more questions, Huey beat them to the punch.

"If all of you wanted to know why? It's because they offended someone they should not offend while staying here. The pair that I'm talking to before was our leader and his wife. They just returned, but the Mistress is already subjected to vulgar intentions. Boss will not tolerate that."

The survivors froze. There was no hesitation on Huey as he declared that. It just meant that the fates of these five were set in the stone. There was not much problem with that as these five were trash in its actual meaning.

However, this event made the remaining survivors question the place they went to seek shelter and protection.