The Mutant King In Apocalypse

Chapter 7

Rufus looked down at the trembling mutant bleeding against the wall.

"I am the one that is going to rid the world of this curse," he replied.

Something flashed in his eyes as he said it. Not anger or pain or the hollow emptiness that had been eating him alive since he found Mia in another man's arms.

Something that had no name yet but felt like power.

The mutant saw it and trembled with so much fear, unlike anything that it had seen before.

The creature had spent years being the thing that made humans scream and run. It had never been on the other side of that terror. It had never felt small and weak and completely helpless.

Until now.

"The leaders," it muttered, its voice shaking badly.

 "The leaders have to know about you. You are trouble. You are something that should not exist. They need to know before you become..."

Before he could finish, Rufus moved fast and delivered one final strike that crushed what was left of the mutant's skull against the broken tiles. The creature went still instantly, its living eye finally closing.

Rufus stood over the body for a moment, wiping the dark blood from his knuckles.

"I will be waiting for these so-called leaders," he muttered.

He took one last look around the room that had almost been his grave. The scattered zombie bodies, the blood on the walls, the empty space where Mia and Julius had stood before they ran like cowards.

Then he stepped outside.

Meanwhile, the moment he walked into the corridor, he could feel a strange knowing and power rising deep within him.

Every step felt different. His body moved like it had been upgraded overnight and his senses picked up sounds from floors away, smells from the street below, the faint heartbeats of survivors hiding in the rubble.

The power was real and it was his and it was growing.

He wanted to discover more about himself and what he was capable of. He wanted to understand where this ability had come from and why it had chosen now to wake up.

More than anything, he wanted to know more about his family and the ring that his mother had given him.

His fingers moved to the ring automatically, turning it slowly on his finger. His mother had pressed it into his palm like she knew something she would never have time to explain. She had told him to keep it on at all times, no matter what happened.

Now he was beginning to understand why.

He was so lost in thoughts that he did not realize when he bumped into someone.

The impact knocked him off balance and he looked up to see who he had run into.

It was a girl that had been crying.

Even with tears streaking down her face and dust in her hair, she was stunning. Her skin was like milk, smooth and pale against the grey light of the ruined city. Her curves and her shape were irresistible, the kind that made men forget what they were thinking about.

She was with an old man who seemed to be her father. He leaned heavily against a piece of broken concrete, his was breathing short and labored.

When Rufus looked closely at the old man, his new senses immediately picked up the details.

 The man had been beaten recently. His skin was pale and gradually turning black around the bite marks on his arm. His breathing was heavy and came in painful gasps.

These were all signs that he was already turning.

When their eyes jammed, her eyes flickered with hope for just a second. Like she had been expecting someone to come around that corner, someone who could help.

Then she actually saw Rufus and her gaze fell.

She took in his torn, bloody wedding suit, his battered appearance, and worse, the wild look in his eyes. 

To her, he probably looked like every other scavenger that roamed the ruins during rampages.

She growled with irritation seeing how he looked, thinking that he was another scavenger.

"Great," she muttered under her breath. "Another vulture looking to pick through the dead."

She adjusted her grip on the old man and tried to move past Rufus, clearly deciding he was not worth her time.

Then a flood of information came rushing through Rufus's mind seeing the old man's wound. It was not just medical knowledge. It was like a detailed map of what was happening inside the man's body, how the virus was spreading, where it had reached and where it had not.

"I can help him, your father!" Rufus didn't realize when these words sizzle off his lips with so much confidence even before he could stop them

And for the first time, the heiress turned with their gaze interlocking.

Tina, raised her brows in rasped mockery, pretending she did not hear what he said whereas she did.

What he said just sounded like what could come out only from a mad man as everyone knew that this was impossible. Nobody came back from zombie bites. Nobody stopped the turning once it started.

She looked him up and down with complete disbelief and rage hidden right under her gaze and twisted into heightened irritation.

"What did you say?" Her voice dripped with so much sarcasm when she finally spoke.

"Because I thought I heard you say you can help my father. Maybe the Apocalypse finally made me lose my hearing too."

Rufus met her gaze steadily.

"I said I can help him not to turn!"

At first, there was silence in the room, then Tina lets out a short, bitter laugh.

"Are you insane? Do you think this is the time for jokes? Look at him. He has been bitten and he is changing. There is nothing anyone can do now except put him out of his misery."

Rufus did not flinch at her words. The information was still flowing through his mind, showing him exactly how far the virus had spread and telling him it was not too late.

"He has not fully turned yet," he said quietly. "The virus has not reached his brain. That is why I can still help him."

Tina stared at him, her hand moving to the knife on her belt. She was torn between calling him crazy and grasping at the tiny hope hidden in his words.

"You are lying," she whispered, her voice cracking. "Nobody can stop the turning. Even the government doctors could not find a cure after three years."

"I am not a government doctor," Rufus replied calmly. "And I do not need a laboratory."

He looked at the black veins creeping up the old man's neck.

"But if we stand here arguing much longer, the virus will cross into his brain. Then there really will be nothing I can do."

Tina looked down at her father, hearing his rattling breaths getting weaker. The black lines were spreading higher, painting a picture of the monster he was about to become.

She looked back at Rufus, searching his eyes for lies or madness.

She found neither. Just a strange certainty that made no sense in this broken world.

For a brief moment, it seemed like she actually believed Rufus, or she wanted to, then she scowled.

"What dirty tricks are you really trying to play here beggar?" She sneered.