Team 3 carefully made their way through the city, avoiding zombies left and right, although they were more than capable of handling zombies, they didn’t want to attract the more dangerous creatures out there, those were incredibly strong and hard to defeat, even a team of elite members wouldn’t be able to take them down, let alone a team of new recruits.

Relying on their training and Dylan's excellent leadership skills they reached the hotel, at first glance, everything seemed okay from the outside, but as soon as they made their way inside, the place was eerily quiet and desolate, and there was no sign of any living being, other than a few freshly turned zombies here and there, eventually, they reached Jayson’s room, where they discovered his gruesome remains.

“WTF happened here?” Emily was the first to speak out of the five while everyone seemed lost for words.

“I will tell you what happened we were fucking late” Dylan was infuriated.

“Does this mean we failed our mission?” Emily asked anxiously.

“That can’t be, this is not fair” Roberto hit the wall beside him in anger.

“Fuck if we didn’t fuck around, and came here faster, we could have prevented this” Dylan started thinking back to how long it took them to prepare and arrive here, he couldn’t help but feel that he failed as a leader.

“Everyone please calm down and let’s think straight, this person must be the leader of this group, and the one we were supposed to protect, from what I can see he died at least 12 hours ago, so it wouldn’t have mattered how fast we got here” Binna was in med school before, so she knew a thing or two about body decomposition.

“That’s great news, this is not our fault then, will just report back to the manager, and get a new mission” Emily happily said.

“yeah, this mission was doomed from the start” Binna responded.

“NO, we can’t go back empty-handed like this, even if it wasn’t our fault, we should at least investigate what happened to these people” Dylan didn’t want his first mission to end like this, it was hard to get opportunities to rise in rank.

“How are we supposed to do that? Where do we even begin?” Makoa asked in confusion.

“Roberto can track down the scent of whoever killed these people, will find their whereabouts, and then we can at least report back some useful information” Dylan quickly formulated a plan and said.

“Are you sure, this wasn’t part of our mission, if we go back, we will just wait for a new mission” Makoa cautiously said, he didn’t like fighting that much, and would do anything to avoid it at all cost.

“I agree with Makoa, I don’t think tracking whoever killed these people, is a smart decision” Binna also felt like they weren’t ready to deal with whatever happened here.

“I’m not going to sit back and waste this opportunity, if we go back now, then we would have to wait for weeks for another mission, and it’s not like we are the only team waiting for an official assessment,” Dylan said in frustration.

“Then let’s vote, after all this decision concerns all of us, who wants to go back?” Binna immediately suggested she felt like the others would share her sentiment.

Binna and Makoa both raised their hands, but surprisingly the other three remained silent.

“The majority has spoken it is settled, we will investigate and then report back” Dylan excitedly declared.

In the shadows, Major was discreetly hiding and keeping an eye on the team ‘What are these kids up to now', Major approached Jayson's disfigured body After team 3 left the room, he thoroughly checked and observed the room and the bodies trying to find out what happened here, after a few minutes Major couldn't help but get excited and say to himself 'but I can’t lie, I’m curious too, this was the work of a single man and he is highly skilled to be able to kill his way through the entire building is nothing to scoff at, and Jayson wasn't your average awakened, even though he was a bit arrogant, his ability was a real pain in the ass, to kill him this easily whoever did this, he is a scary opponent'.

Roberto used his ability, immediately his face started changing, his mouth and nose protruded unnaturally, and resembled the snout and mouth of a wolf-human hybrid, he started sniffing around like a dog until he picked the scent of a man, the team followed Roberto as he led them to Fletcher’s camp.

“I’m pretty sure, whoever we’re after is in there” Roberto reverted to his human form and pointed toward the golf club.

“Great job, Roberto” Dylan was delightful, he wanted to prove himself by completing this mission, and hopefully get a high assessment mark, so he can join an elite team.

“So what now, what are you planning on doing?” Binna asked Dylan.

“We will watch them for a while, after that will decide what to do” Dylan responded confidently.

“Alright, as long as that is all we are doing” Binna was relieved at least he wasn’t dumb enough to try and rush inside.

A few hours later.

“It’s weird why are there zombies, positioned around the entrances of the building?” Emily asked in confusion.

“I think they are tied with chains” Roberto added.

“Are they doing it for protection or to keep people away?” Emily said.

“We won’t get much information by watching from afar, we need to get closer” Dylan was frustrated, they have been watching for hours, but they saw nothing.

“Dylan if you are thinking about going inside forget about it, we won’t do it,” Binna said adamantly, she could see that Dylan was thinking about it.

“Binna you need to keep your mouth shut, I’m the leader of this team, not you” Dylan glared at Binna and said furiously.

“I agree with Binna we should not go,” Makoa said in support of Binna.

“You ungrateful bastard, after making us wait for you to visit your orphan niece, now you selfishly want to run away and do nothing” Dylan screamed at Makoa.

“I’m not running away, it’s just not safe” Makoa responded he was not the type to abandon his teammate.

“SAFE, are you kidding me, do you think this is a camp trip, you guys need to reevaluate your simplistic mindset, if you want to get stronger you can’t pick the easy way out, what happens when you don’t have a choice, then what will you do?” Dylan knew his teammate was under the wrong impression that they can avoid danger by always hiding, but he was different he witnessed a strange creature wreak havoc on the defense lines of the 12^th base, the attack happened so fast it took everyone by surprise, he watched as the monster easily killed powerful elite awakened with ease, the horrific images hunted him until this day.

Binna approached Dylan and patted his shoulder, trying to calm him down she could see from the way his eyes looked, that he was clearly agitated for some reason.

“Dylan, you…”

“DON’T TOUCH ME” Dylan accidentally jerked her hand pushing her away, Binna fell hard on the floor.

For some reason seeing Binna on the floor caused Roberto to react, he throw a punch toward Dylan, the latter dodged to the side, kneed Roberto in the stomach, and kicked him to the ground.

Roberto had anger issues since he was young, and his temper got worse after he awakened his ability, he got up quickly his face was red and hot “AHHH” he let out an ear-piercing howl as he transformed into his Lycan form, his body grew a size bigger, with sharp claws and fangs protruding from his mouth and limbs, Dylan also activated his ability, his body engulfed in flame like a human torch, everyone immediately distanced themselves from the scorching heat that is radiating from Dylan's body.

The two stared at each other for a moment, before they attacked, Dylan extended both of his hands, shooting a stream of condensed fire akin to a flamethrower at Roberto, while the latter relied on his quick leaping ability to dodge and jump at his target at the same, just when he was close to making contact, a huge figure stood in between them, Makoa received both of their attacks, but thanks to his ability he was able to stand firm, his body was currently covered by a visible blue layer of energy that absorbed most of the damage.

“Stop both of you, are you trying to kill each other” Makoa said angrily.

“Get out of the way Makoa, today I will teach this bastard a lesson” Roberto screamed.

“No one is allowed to intervene, I’m sick of having to put up with this dimwit” Dylan also added.

“Dylan, Roberto are you both crazy, this is not the time or place to do this” Binna also stood in between them and said.

On the other side inside the camp, Fletcher who was currently looking at a map in his room, stood up quickly, he just heard something in the distance, and his enhanced senses wouldn’t miss such a big commotion even if it was a few kilometers away, he put on his armor and grabbed his new weapons, two military grade axes, and rapidly headed to investigate the noises.