Jake remained completely still, acutely aware of the gun barrels aimed directly at him. His enhanced vision enabled him to see the index fingers tightly wrapped around the triggers, just a slight amount of pressure away from unleashing a barrage of shots. Despite the tense situation, he willed himself to remain still and non-threatening, crouching atop the roof of the rusted, dilapidated vehicle. He made sure not to make even the slightest of movements. He needed the survivors to keep their heads. If they got spooked and opened fire on him, calming the situation would be impossible.
The survivors were on edge. Luckily, despite being nervous, none of them fired a hasty shot at him. It was a good start. Jake remained absolutely motionless, crouching on the car roof with his palms resting on the rusty surface in front of him. He watched them through his large unblinking eyes. The fear emanating from them was almost tangible. Yet they managed to keep their cool. After surviving in this harsh world for a few days now, they had clearly learned to control their emotions.
Nothing happened for a few seconds. The only sound was the whistle of the wind, and the only movement was the swaying of tall grass pushing through the cracks in the road.
After the initial surprise faded out, the survivors stirred, whispering among themselves.
“What the hell is that thing?” one of them whispered. He slightly turned his head toward the person he spoke to but kept his eyes fixed on Jake. “I’ve never seen such a mutant before.”
Even though the group of survivors was some distance away from him and the man was speaking in hushed tones, Jake’s heightened sense of hearing let him pick up the words without any trouble, as if the speaker were standing right next to him.
“I dunno, man, but that thing looks dangerous,” another survivor replied.
“It sure is. I’m getting real bad vibes from it.”
“It’s not trying to attack us, though,” mentioned the sole female survivor in their group. “Why isn’t it attacking us? Mutants usually go after humans on sight.”
“Somebody scan it,” a cold voice cut in.
Jake turned his attention to the speaker, a man with a cruel face. He was taller than the others, and his head was smoothly shaved. He was noticeably better equipped than the rest for some reason. There was an aura of authority surrounding him, clearly marking him as the leader of the group. One peculiar detail stood out—a bright red scarf wrapped around his neck. Was it a symbol of something or merely a practical choice for warmth?
Nobody rushed to carry out his command. Each survivor hesitated to release their grip on their weapon and reach for their PDA, almost as if anticipating a sudden attack from Jake. Even though they didn’t know what he was capable of yet, primal fear of him had already taken hold.
However, the leader wasn’t easily scared. And he wasn’t having any of their disobedience. It really pissed him off. He turned his bald head to look at the others and bellowed angrily, “Have y’all gone deaf all of a sudden? Fucking scan him already or I’ll bash your stupid skulls in.”
He was yelling at them without regard for the noise he was creating. He really had a short fuse. Jake was already sick of that guy. He wondered why the others were putting up with his behavior and allowed him to boss them around. It was just one guy, so they could easily gang up on him and beat him up to teach him a lesson on good manners.
For some reason, they were truly terrified of him. They flinched at the sound of his harsh voice. While the survivors were scared of Jake, their fear of him was nothing compared to the dread they felt toward their leader. The man standing beside the bald leader was the first to react, reaching into his pocket and extracting his PDA. He slung his automatic weapon over his shoulder and aimed the camera at Jake, gripping the device with both hands.
Jake remained still, allowing the guy to scan him. He was curious to know what information would pop up on the screen of the PDA.
“Are you done yet?” the leader barked, craning his neck to peer at the PDA held in the man’s hands. “What does it say?”
“Not much, Frank,” the guy replied. “It’s called a morphus, and its level is eleven. That’s all.”
“No, just a regular mutant.”
The leader of the group let out a mocking chuckle. “Y’all nearly wet yourselves over a low-level common mutant.”
“We didn’t realize it was so weak, boss,” another guy interjected meekly.
“Shut your trap, Archie. Nobody asked for your opinion.”
“It does look scary, Frank,” the woman remarked, not letting her gaze off Jake even for a second. “And it managed to sneak up on us without a sound. I think we better not mess with it.”
“It did make a sound when it leaped onto the car,” Archie pointed out.
“Yeah,” the woman said. “It must’ve been chasing us silently. It could’ve attacked us before we even had a chance to notice it, but it jumped onto the car instead, making it creak. It’s almost as if it wanted us to be aware of its presence.”
“Isra, you’re giving this mindless freak too much credit,” the leader said. “It’s just a dumb mutant.”
“I don’t know, Frank. I think we should let it be. And it looks… very dangerous.”
“More dangerous than the other mutants we’ve killed?”
“Yes. Without a doubt.”
“Geez, Isra, listen to yourself! It’s just a regular level 11 mutant, dammit,” he said with annoyance in his tone. “What makes you think it’s any more dangerous than any other critters we have killed?”
“Let’s just say it’s a female gut instinct.”
The leader, Frank, made a scornful noise but chose not to respond this time. Isra stood her ground, pointing out the mutant’s fearful appearance.
“Just look at it, Frank,” she said. “You can’t deny it looks really scary.”
“Alright, everyone,” Frank cut her off. “Scary or not, I’m gonna kill that freak.
“You’re making a mistake, Frank,” Isra persisted. It seemed like she was the only one among them who had the courage to oppose their leader.
“Your opinion has been noted. You can quiet down now too,” Frank dismissed Isra. Glancing at the group, he instructed, “Don’t shoot at it. I want to deal with the bastard myself.”
“Why?” a nervous voice piped up from the group.
“Because, Rick, I’ve never encountered such a thing before,” Frank replied slowly as if explaining to a naive child. “I want to see how much XP I can gain from it. I don’t want the XP divided among us if we kill it together and then waste time adding our shares to calculate the total.”
As Frank took a step forward, pointing his weapon at him, Jake carefully lifted his hands off the rusty car roof and held them up, making sure not to make any sudden moves.
“What is it doing?” somebody exclaimed. “It looks like it’s trying to surrender or something! Frank, are you seeing this?”
“Do you think I’m blind?” the leader growled, staring at Jake in confusion.
“I think it might be intelligent,” Isra said.
Frank chuckled derisively. “And I think you’ve gone crazy, woman.”
“I’m serious! I think it wants something from us. Maybe it wants to communicate with us. We can’t just kill it, Frank,” Isra insisted.
She shouldn’t have said that. Frank wasn’t one to be told what he could or couldn’t do. Jake began to shake his head, but the leader of the survivors ignored the gesture.
“I’m gonna kill the freak.”
Just before he opened fire, Jake sprang into action, leaping down from the car roof as rounds whizzed over him. Fortunately, the other survivors obeyed the leader’s command and refrained from shooting. With only Frank taking shots, evading one barrage of fire was relatively simple for Jake. Knowing he needed them alive, he swiftly spun around and dashed off, hopeful that the survivors would chase after him.
As he moved farther away, the bullets Frank fired missed him by an increasingly wider margin. Eventually, Frank ceased firing, prompting Jake to glance back. He noticed the leader of the group breaking into a sprint toward him, while the other survivors stayed put.
After he realized they hadn’t followed, Frank yelled at them, “What are you standing there for, you idiots! Go after the freak!”
Reluctantly, they joined the chase.
Jake kept running. The situation was not unfolding exactly as he had planned. Not that he had an actual plan to begin with. His goal was to simply make them follow him and lure them into the building with the tower climb challenge. So ultimately his plan seemed to be working. Frank’s volatile temperament inadvertently made his task much easier.
Jake maintained a steady pace, ensuring that the group could keep up with him. They were so slow compared to him he could easily give them the slip if he chose to. However, that was not his objective.
Upon reaching the building, Jake halted at the entrance, waiting for the group to catch up with him.