Mutagen

12:16 PM - City Mall Bacoor Rooftop, Central Area

Mark comfortably sat on the metal roof eating sandwiches for lunch. At first, he thought of bring cardboard boxes to sit on thinking that the roof would be hot since it's just a little bit past noon. To his surprise it was the opposite. He thought of the reason and he looked at the sky by reflex. He thought that it's just a bit cloudy but now that he can see a wider view of the sky, the clouds are very far from being just a bit. Thick clouds covered the sky.

It won't be surprising if rain would fall anytime this afternoon.

Mei sat beside him hugging her knees that she inserted inside the jacket that she is wearing. Luckily, the jacket Mark lent her is too long and wide for her that the jacket covered even her toes as she sat like that. If not, her thin grassland would be exposed for Mark to see as she was practically naked. The clothes she had before, there is not a single piece is salvageable. It looked like that gangster took his time ripping her clothes apart, piece by piece.

Mark ate his food with great relish while watching the situation below which is very far from making his food appetizing. At the highway, blood covered zombies are moving at their own pace chasing after the few people who are still struggling as they try to escape. Blood splashed around as the people escaping are caught, bitten and eaten. Puddles of blood can be seen in different places and different sizes. The screams of frightened people can be faintly heard.

Seeing all those things, most people might have already thrown up what they ate before.

Yet…

Mark ate and watched like he was inside a movie theater.

Mark suddenly looked at the overpass to his left. Someone just jumped off. It seemed that that man unknowingly climbed up the overpass just to get cornered. Without any other way of escape, he jumped off over the walls at the side. Not the brightest idea.

The man successfully jumped and landed on his feet just to cry out loud. There is no need to guess, with that height, his legs would sure be broken. The man, not giving up, tried to crawl away dragging his broken legs. Well, of course, he can't even outrun the zombies with his fine legs, would he be able with those broken?

The man's cries echoed across the highway as he was caught and eaten by several slow moving zombies that are shambling below the overpass.

Mark calmly watched the scene while analyzing things. He concluded that the man's mind was clouded in fear. If he tried to carefully maneuver through the zombies coming from the southern side of the overpass and jumped a few meters south of where the man did, then he would have landed on the roof a bus parked, no, its abandoned, under the overpass with no particular injuries. Well, of course, none of what Mark is thinking happened.

He finished eating while watching all the things happening below.

That time, he opened his bag and took out a small black colored leather covered notebook and a gel ink pen. He always bring this notebook every single time he go out of the house and scribbling and writing things on it when he felt bored, though now, he decided to use it to record his theories, plans and findings about this zombie apocalypse. There's no particular reason why he decided to record those things, other than because he might forget as there are quite plenty of things to remember. As for the pen, it's just his preference.

While he was writing, he glanced at Mei who seemed to be a little fidgety. She seems to be trying to decide on something.

As she remained indecisive, Mark decided to ignore her and continued writing. It remained like that after a minute or two. He then heard her speak.

"Thank you."

Mark looked at her and saw her staring at him.

"Thank you for saving me."

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She looked away from Mark and looked at the gloomy looking sky.

"I'm sure… It was the end for me that time. I already gave up on everything. I already thought that I'll just become a doll they would toy with and probably discarded like trash after they are tired playing with my body."

She hugged her knees tighter while Mark continued listening and not interrupting her.

"At that time… At that time, I only wished that they would kill me sooner. I felt humiliated, dirty… I- I…"

Mei is already crying.

She then felt a gentle hand patting her head.

"Seriously… If you want to thank me, do it properly. I won't accept your thanks if you will just end up crying like that."

"But…"

"Just forget everything. Everything that happened there, those things was just a nightmare."

"T-Then, won't you also become part of that nightmare?"

Mark froze as Mei doesn't look like the type to joke like that. And that joke, how she delivered that is really familiar. He sighed.

"That joke… You shouldn't really try to imitate me. It doesn't suit you."

"Is that so? You looked amazing when you saved the situation several times earlier. I- I made the atmosphere gloomy so I thought..."

"Also it won't really work the right way when you are the one that made the mood worse."

"Is that so…"

"That's right."

"Uuuhhh."

She felt embarrassed. Mei also realized that she felt better, no, with just a few words, he changed her self-pity to embarrassment. Though feeling embarrassed don't really feel good, it's way better that the sad and dark feeling she had earlier.

"I want to ask something."

Throwing away her embarrassment, she looked at Mark curiously.

"Sure, what is it?"

"Are you familiar with Chinese naming customs?"

"Chinese naming customs? Why do you ask?"

Mark felt confused.

"The way you call me, Mei'er. Only my grandparents called me that before…"

"I see. Well, I just did it on a whim. If you don't like it then I'll just call you whatever you like."

Mei shook her head.

"It's fine. Rather, I want you to continue calling me that... I'm just curious…"

"Well, I do know such customs. Actually, I liked reading novels. Japanese, Korean or Chinese, as long as it interests me, I'll read them. So I just learned those things in the process. Actually, it started when you introduced yourself surname first so I just did that without thinking."

"Is that so… Then…"

She looked away from Mark blushing.

"Can I call you Gege?"

Mark looked at her.

"That came out of nowhere."

She looked back at him.

"Is it bad?"

"Not really. You can call me what you want."

"Really?"

"Really. Actually, I don't care much about what everyone wants to call me. In the past, when I was a kid, there are two boys who kept calling me Weirdo. They kept shouting 'Weirdo this' and 'Weirdo that' in the middle of the street. I didn't really care."

"That's… Shouldn't you feel angry?"

"Why should I? They kept shouting this and that but if you heard the adults around us who saw those two. They are whispering 'what a pair of weird kids.' or 'what kind of parents raised such weirdos?', so, why should I get angry?"

"Pfftt. Hahahaha."

Mei felt angry at first but can't help but burst into laughter afterwards.

Mark looked at Mei. Her happy face really looked refreshing and her laugh sounded soothing. It is more suitable than the gloomy face she always wore since the first time he saw her.

'Gege, huh…'

If it was another man who knew this custom, then, they might have misunderstood. They would mistake that Mei liked them.

But Mark is different. This girl seemed to be mistaking her feelings. What she is feeling right now is not love or like, but dependence and looking for a hand to hold onto. And the person she found is Mark who saved her.

'Well, I'm not really bothered. As long she is happy.'

But then Mei's laugh was cut short… She covered her mouth with both her hands and looked at Mark teary eyed.

Mark patted her head.

"I will look for a lip balm later alright?"

Mei nodded.

"And so? What's your business for eavesdropping?"

Mark raised his voice and looked behind Mei, straight at the ladder they climbed on to get on the roof. Mei also looked at the ladder but she didn't see anyone.

Mark kept on staring.

Then, knowing that she had been found out, Ange raised her head above the roof laughing awkwardly.

"Sorry for interrupting your date but Uncle Bernard said that the materials were ready."

"Alright. Mei'er, let's go."

Mark cleaned up his things and stood up before extending his hand to Mei to help her stand without bothering to correct Ange's misconception. Still, while Mei accepted her Gege's help, she hung her head low with her face red like a tomato.

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For those who don't know about the 'er suffix that Mark added in Mei's name and "Gege" that she decided to call him.

'er is pretty much used as suffix for nicknames of children and can also be used by couples and close people. Mark mainly used it because Mei is quite younger than he is.

Gege on the other hand is used as salutation to an older male. Similar to Da'ge, both indicate older brothers specially to blood related people. It can also be used as an intimate salutation when a younger female used it to call an older male who isn't blood related.

I could be wrong but that is pretty much what I know. :P