Mutagen

"Just what\'s up with that greeting, Big Brother."

Hearing that reply made the silhouette shrug his shoulders.

And then, with a flick of his hand, activating the crystal hidden inside his pocket, Mark lit up the whole room, showing himself to his younger brother.

It was one of the few reasons why Mark did not want any, even a slight, contact with his family.

There was a trait that was inherent to his family. It was more specific to his mother, Mark, and his siblings.

And it was...

They were all bad at remembering the faces of people. It did not matter even if they knew the person for a very long time. As long as there was little contact, it would be hard for them to recall the person\'s face. It was unless the person left a strong impression, no matter it was good or bad.

Then, how could they recognize people?

Except for the face, other different things could help them identify people. It could be the person\'s body shape, voice, clothing, movements, or even just the person\'s aura or by instinct. While the last two might be vague, it did help them recognize people.

That was why jokes like someone covering their eyes to guess the other person would not work on them. Even if the person that covered their eyes and the person asking the question were two different people. It would not work at all.

And now, it was shown here that even just Mark\'s silhouette allowed his younger brother to recognize him.

Mark even made some effort to change his voice slightly.

Actually, Mark was not any different, being uninterested towards people. He only relied on his Emphatic abilities to recognize people before he gained access to his subconscious.

Due to the sudden brightness, Michael could not help but cover his eyes. Nonetheless, he asked.

"Are you here to bring me to the afterlife?"

Mark almost stumbled from where he stood.

No wonder his brother was lacking expressions. It seemed that he thought that he was already dead and Mark was here to fetch his soul.

"Do I look like a grim reaper to you?"

Mark asked back.

"Not really," Michael replied. "But even if you\'re a total zombie apocalypse fan, there\'s no way you should have survived this sh*t and make it all the way here."

That...

That was reasonable.

Before the outbreak, Mark was nothing but a shut-in that lacked exercise in their knowledge. Even if he had some abilities, it was not enough to let him live this long and make it here alive. Back then, he only had emphatic abilities and his control with his adrenaline. The first one was only usable towards living people, while the other had a life-threatening side-effect. Although it would allow him to live for some time, it would be extremely challenging to last any longer.

That was if Mark did not have his fair share of fateful encounters, before and during, the outbreak.

"Don\'t curse me dead." Mark rolled his eyes. "I\'m still alive and kicking, you idiot."

Michael looked back at Mark as his eyes recovered and asked.

"So, I\'m still alive?" He then pinched his cheek. "Ow, I guess I am, huh."

Michael sighed in relief that he was still alive and not dreaming.

"I thought, I suddenly died in that freaking suicide mission."

Mark stared at his brother and his lacking expressions. It seemed that the situation was still surreal for him. This was very likely because of the effects powder that Pefile used and the fact that they could not remember things before they fell unconscious.

Of course, something was surprising. The attack on the settlement did not last too long. It meant that the preparation time of the rebels was much shorter. Even so, Mark\'s brother still remembered being on a suicide mission.

"How much do you remember before passing out?"

Mark could not help but ask.

Michael fell silent and thought about it a little.

"The last one was before we were about to enter the forest near the government settlement?" Michael then replied. "I don\'t really remember anything after that."

Mark scratched his head. It seemed that the effect of the powder was too little on his brother. It just meant that he had to shorten his conversation even more.

"Well, you know that it\'s a suicide mission. Why the hell are you even there?"

Mark asked, not giving his brother any chance to ask about him instead.

Michael looked at Mark, confused. He wanted to ask questions too, but his older brother was not giving him a chance at all.

Nevertheless, the question he was given was rather important too. As such, he could only answer with another sigh.

"Who wanted to? But we can\'t really disobey those people, especially that man called Renz."

Michael then looked down.

"Marian is under their custody, working in their factories. If I disobeyed the rebels and got her harmed, Mom won\'t forgive me, right?"

Those words made Mark frown.

Marian was their younger sister. And by the looks of it, she was the leash that the rebels used to force his brother into dangerous stuff.

Before Mark could ask the next question, Michael continued.

"We\'ve been caught while hunting in the mountains about a month ago. Since then, we\'re living under the roof of the anti-government faction of the rebels."

Mark felt a bit relieved to hear about this. As Mark asked questions to the two soldiers yesternight, he already had some information. The leader of the aggressive faction was not unreasonable, except for her extreme hate towards the government.

That was why he did not have any vision about his siblings getting in harm. And probably, even if Mark did not interfere this time, this brother of his would definitely survive this suicide mission due to various factors.

"How about Mom and Dad? Also, Thaddy?"

Mark asked.

"They\'re being sheltered by the Neutrals since the start of the outbreak," Michael replied. "They would be fine there since Mom is a VIP there. We are also living there before... Before we got caught by the Antis."

That was a surprising thing. Their mother was a VIP in the neutral faction?

"What do you mean by VIP?"

Mark, of course, asked.

"It\'s her Tarot Card Reading." Michael shrugged. "By the day, her readings are getting more and more accurate to the point that it was kind of terrifying. The Neutrals are consulting Mom in order to keep the safety of their base."

"Then why the hell did you two got caught?"

Mark could not help but notice that detail. As for their mother\'s fortune-telling abilities rising, it was not surprising to Mark in the least. He was the same in that regard. However, his two siblings were still caught by the other faction.

"That..." Michael sighed. "It\'s our fault. We sneaked out to hunt. Remember Thaddy\'s birthday? We wanted to give the kid a surprise birthday party. It became a surprise farewell, though. If we asked Mom that time, things won\'t be like this."

Mark clicked his tongue. Thaddy was their youngest brother and was just eight years old. It was quite a gap considering their sister was already twenty-three despite her size and appearance. The little guy was a goofy one with ADHD. They probably wanted to distract him with a surprise birthday party in the apocalypse.

As Mark was thinking, Michael finally found the opportunity to ask a question back.

"How about you Big Brother? We all thought that you\'re already dead. Mom can\'t even tell anything about you with her cards. Only the death card appears over and over. What in the world happened to you?"

At that question, Mark stayed silent. He did not want to answer. It was not like his answers would be remembered after this conversation.

"You\'re being silent again. Just as you always do." Michael glared. "As if everything else around you had nothing to do with you at all."

Mark shrugged, not answering Michaels\'s grumbles. Instead, he diverted the topic.

"Do Mom know where you two are?"

"Avoiding the topic, are we?" Michael sighed with a frown. However, he knew that he would not be able to squeeze anything from his older sibling even if he continued. "Mom probably knew where we are. But we didn\'t let the Antis find out that we are her children."

Mark nodded to that.

If enemies knew that Michael and Marian were their mother\'s children, they could be used to blackmail the neutral faction of the rebels. It was quite a smart move, albeit being a dangerous one. After all, Michael\'s safety was put into jeopardy. If the aggressive faction knew about it, both Michael and Marian would be safely secured for future cooperation.

In any case, both situations had good and bad sides.

"I want to ask." Mark decided to ask a question that was bugging him. "Why is everyone with the rebels instead of the Military Settlement? Is it because of Uncle Bert?"

That question was bugging Mark since he noticed that his family was not in the Military Settlement. Even if their Uncle had ties with the rebels, it was more rational to evacuate to the military in these kinds of emergencies.

"You think we didn\'t?"

Michael\'s eyes turned furious.

"During the evacuation, the leader of the soldiers took a fancy at our sister, you know that? When he tried to hit on her and got rejected, he threw us out. We had no choice but to accept Uncle Bert\'s invitation. We are glad we had that option at that time or we might have ended up like the others that did not make it to the evacuation."

Mark frowned, hearing that. It looked like he needed someone else to die later.

At this point, Mark already got the answers to the things he wanted to know. As such, he prepared to move out.

"Where are you going?"

Michael asked.

"Leaving. Don\'t worry, I will drop you back at the neutral faction."

Mark replied, looking at Michel over his shoulder.

"I can\'t!" Michael yelled. "Marian\'s still at the Antis\' base."

"Don\'t worry about her. I\'ll fetch her later. In any case, all the people with you that were sent on the suicide mission vanished during the mission. It\'s not wrong to say that those guys proclaimed you dead or missing. Returning will only make our sister\'s situation worse."

Mark replied.

Michael was at a loss. Nevertheless, he could tell that Mark was not joking that he was going to take their sister out of that place.

But then, Michael voiced out the last question.

"Don\'t you have any intention of joining us?"

And to that question, Mark did not reply and went out of the room.

"I guess not." Michael sighed. "It can\'t be helped, I guess."

And at this time, the wind blew inside the enclosed room. As the glittering powder fell unto Michael and vanished, so as his consciousness.

***

"Done?"

As Mark went out of the room, Pefile\'s voice echoed.

Mark did not reply and just threw the satchel on his hand back to its owner.

"You seem to be in a bad mood."

Pefile asked another question.

"Not exactly," Mark replied. "I\'m just thinking of something else."

Mark then turned to Pefile.

"By the way, your powder did not work that effectively on my brother."

"Is that so?" Pefile said, shaking his satchel and sniffing it a bit. "I don\'t think that the efficacy was reduced. It\'s probably because your brother is not normal, pretty much like you."

That was probably right. Who else could Mark get his bloodline as a Blood Demon? Then, his siblings might be the same, albeit the purity was different.

"Then, what are we going to do with these guys?"

Pefile asked another question. However, he was not talking about the other rebels they caught.

Instead, he pointed at the five little people that Pefile caught while Mark spoke with his brother.