Mutagen

p 1:14PM - City Mall Bacoor, Service Corridors, West Wing

Mark stood inside the eerie corridor and keenly observing the area. Just by his foot, there is a corpse with a decapitated head. When he entered the emergency door earlier, this Eater just happened to pass by. He preemptively hacked the Eater's neck to avoid more disturbances.

The corridor is almost empty except for a few straggling Eaters and the scattered debris. It looked like most of the zombies inside the corridor had been lured out by the racket he planned. Still, he did not think of letting his guard down. Not even a little bit. He knew that even if managed to deal with most of the zombies here, it's just 'most' and not 'all'.

Looking at the eastern side of the corridor, multitudes of bloody footprints littered the floor while dragged hand and arm prints which are also made from blood decorated the walls. All the footprints came from a single direction and all ended up going through the door behind him. There's no other need to think who these footprints belonged to.

At the other side of the corridor, there is almost nothing but three Eaters that already walking his way. No, another one just appeared. It seemed that there is an open door at that side though, he can't see the door due the angle he is looking at.

The zombie that just entered is a female Biter. This Biter is probably a student from a Japanese themed college nearby as it is wearing a set of white blouse and white knee length skirt. Well, her clothes are white previously but right now, it's already dyed in red. It looked like she took a literal 'bloodbath'.

Upon seeing Mark that stood openly on the way, it immediately sprinted towards his direction.

Mark saw the Biter sprinting at him and is about to counter by decapitating its head but he held himself back at the last second. He thought of confirming something and it is the best time to do so since there is only one Biter and the Eaters are nowhere close from his position.

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The Biter immediately lunged at Mark after running close but it noticed that its target vanished. Without anything to cushion its fall, the Biter landed harshly of the floor.

When the Biter lunged at him, Mark side-stepped and hid behind the opened door letting the Biter fall on the floor in front of him.

When the Biter looked up, it saw Mark standing by its side. The Biter immediately propped its arms trying to stand up but before it could even lift its body, its body sunk back on the floor due to a sudden weight on its back. It then lost its balance as its arms were pulled towards its back.

Mark is currently stepping with his right foot on the Biter's back while tying its arms with the leftover wires he had. Tying its arms wasn't easy as it struggled to pull its arms free but he still managed to so with a bit of difficulty. After tying the Biter's arms on its back, he proceeded on tying its feet. The Biter continued on struggling even after being tied up but is seemed that it had no notion of ripping off its limbs just to escape.

The Biter was rolled by Mark towards the wall and he moved to deal with the three Eaters that are already nearby. Mark decided to only kill two of the Eaters and went to decapitate the their heads. He decided to kill those two since their chests are already a mangled mass of flesh. It looked disgusting and is not suitable to what Mark had in his mind.

The other Eater that he decided to keep, though unintended, seemed to be another female in her teens. It wore a spaghetti strap and short jeans. The Eater had several bites on its body revealing its mangled flesh and its left arm is only hanging by a thread of skin and flesh. The most important part for him, the chest, is mostly intact.

The eater fell on the floor with only its torso and head remaining. Mark amputated its arms and legs preventing it from moving. The Eater's blood gushed from the stumps where its limbs are previously attached. Still, despite the amount of blood leaving its body, it doesn't seem to get weaker. Not even a tiny bit.

Mark left the two disable zombies and went towards the direction where the female Biter came from. He spotted an open door leading into a storage room of a shop. Stepping into the storage room, he found nothing but tall storage stands filled with stacks of shoeboxes and another opened door that seemed to lead towards the storefront.

Cautious and silent are the two things that can describe Mark as he approached the door. He slowly prodded his head out of the door but he immediately retreated backwards. Just a few steps to the right of the door, a zombie stood idly with its back facing him. Past the zombie is the storefront of a shoe store and the scene outside the glass walls of the store is not something he can deal with.

With that, he slowly closed and locked the door. He also closed the door leading to the corridor but did not lock it.

Since he was already close to the corner of the corridor that leads to the westernmost shops of the mall, he decided to check the area just in case that there are straggling zombies. Fortunately, the only things he found are the stairwell that connects all the floors in this wing up to the rooftop and the cargo elevator. Mark looked around and found a mop and several rags. He jammed the mop between the handle of the double doors leading to the stairwell and picked up the rags to use later.

Before going back the way he came from, he stopped and stared on a large door nearby. If he is right, this door should lead to the arcade center that he wanted to go to earlier. The arcade is totally closed when he saw it last time. Even the steel shutters of the arcade are pulled down and are secured with padlocks. He grabbed the doorknob and tried opening the door but it won't budge. It was locked.

He went back to the zombies he left behind. The Eater remained in place but the Biter is already on the other side of the wall. More filth is sticking on the Biter's clothes as it kept on growling and rolling on the floor. It wanted to escape but it really had no plan to decapitate its arms by itself.

'Maybe I can use this one as a mop later.'

Mark looked at the part of the floor the Biter rolled over and it looked cleaner. Even the puddle of blood that was left after Mark decapitated the limbs of the Eater is mostly cleaned.

He then grabbed the wire that tied the Biter's arms and pulled it back to the other side. When he put down the Biter, he gagged the two zombies with rags. Naturally, he did not put the rags using his hands. He prodded the rags on the end of the metal pipe and shoved the rags into the mouth of the zombies.

It is now time to find out if one of his theories can be confirmed.

Mark removed a part of his gloves on his right hand and covered his hand with the ecobag he is carrying. Afterwards, he kneeled and extended his hand towards the Eater's chest. Not in a lewd way that what most with dirty minds think of but with just a straight palm. His palm landed on the Eater's left chest, not on the breast, above the Eater's heart.

He felt nothing.

He did the same towards the Biter. Because the Biter is livelier than the Eater, it can't be helped that his hand touched something soft several times but he still managed to land his hand at the Biter's chest.

THUMP… THUMP…

There is a heartbeat.