Marcus' eyes stirred open and his body ached from the sitting position he was in.
The first thing he noticed as he blinked his eyes open was the change in the air.
The weather was so cold that the chill crept into the depth of his bones, his eyes seemed to glance at his body, then Marcus realised he was covered in snow thoroughly.
"What!"
He yelled, Marcus was stunned, and he immediately realised he was still in the alleyway he landed earlier, but was it really earlier?
It was the last week of September when Marcus was caught up in the mutant beasts' incident.
Judging from the snow on his body and all over the alleyway, the season was probably winter, which could only mean one thing, Marcus had been unconscious for at least three months.
The sharp bite of winter was unmistakable.
"Damn it! Wait... Why am I not dead? Did that system stuff really work?"
"Hupm hupm... So I managed to escape death" Marcus said and smirked, then he gagged from the odour coming out of his mouth.
'Shit! I haven't brushed for three months'
He sniffed his body.
Marcus made an irritated snort with his nose.
'I smell like shit even though I was covered in snow'
Marcus realised he didn't feel any pain except coldness, a coldness that numbed his body, or was it because of the cold that he couldn't feel any pain?
Marcus was sure to have broken some bone, he even hit his forehead before he blacked out.
'Well, it seemed I survived somehow'
Then as he looked up, Marcus saw a pair of bright hazel eyes gazing at him.
He was stunned and tried to shift back immediately but it seemed there was no space, his back was against the side of a building in the narrow alleyway.
"Hi" the sweet voice of a girl greeted, but her face wore a puzzled expression.
Marcus' eyes glanced at her from head to toe as she bent and gazed at him, she was pretty and had long black hair with bangs, she wore a yellow puffer jacket and grey gloves, leggings, and a scarf—which was wrapped around her neck, she also wore black boots.
Marcus noticed her straight nose twitching slightly.
"Are you alright?" She asked with a voice filled with concern.
Marcus was stunned immediately by the tone, it was a familiar tone, and then his mind shifted to his mum, he remembered, it was the same worried tone, and the girl's eyes, why was she looking at him like that?
It was the same look of the sea blue eyes that gazed at him years back, It made him yearn to be loved, It had been long since he felt like this, and that was when his mum was still with him. Marcus felt frustrated.
'Damn it!'
She then extended her gloved right hand to help him up.
"Nobody would have thought someone was in this alleyway, I found you thanks to my sense of smell," she said with a soft voice while beaming at Marcus as if she just found a prized possession.
Marcus was confused, he was nothing more than garbage covered in snow, his heart started racing slightly.
'Damn it! why is my heart racing, this feeling, yearning to be loved, damn it!'
Marcus shook his head, the girl noticed this and reacted with a confused expression as she tilted her head slightly while still gazing at him.
Marcus shook his head to clear the feeling away, he lived for himself, Marcus thought that she was probably crazy to help someone like him.
As if reading his thought, she extended the hand a couple of inches more to Marcus.
Then Marcus instinctively took it and she helped him up, the thick snow he was covered in fell immediately to the snow-covered ground.
"THUD!!..."
"I'm Mei Ling, what about you?"
She asked as Marcus stood up in front of her, there was still a stain of blood on his clothes.
"Marcus Cheng" Marcus replied half-heartedly while still looking at the girl suspiciously.
"I will call you Marc Cheng, How long have you been here? You looked unclean" she asked with curiousness.
"And the fact that you survived here in this neighborhood, I'm amazed"
In fact, unclean was an understatement, how Marcus' body looked was indescribable, even though he didn't see his face, he wondered what he looked like, sleeping through autumn while waking up in winter in an alleyway...
"What is today's date" Marcus asked curiously, although he was somehow curious about what she meant by survive, but he was more curious to know the date.
"10th of January, 4:30 p.m.," she said and gave Marcus a scrutinizing look.
"Fuck!" He yelled out unconsciously.
"What is wrong?" She asked alertly.
'My birthday has even passed six days ago'
"Nothing, so what do you mean by my survival here?" He asked the second thing that piqued his curiosity.
"The next neighborhood is Area—three, a double S-Grade Area, it is uninhabitable for people, it has been a den of mutant beasts since three months ago"
Then Marcus seemed to realise the building around were all dilapidated, as snow hung on the edges of crumbled walls.
But what was she finding in a desolate place, he wondered, as he glanced at her, she seemed to be gazing at Marcus with a puzzled expression, looking at her she was of average height of girls in their late teens.
"I saw a beast bee slumped at the entrance so I grew curious and came, then I smelled something odd and I traced it here then I saw you" she explained without being asked.
"I'm a biologist, and I've got a sharp nose" She pointed at her nose which was twitching very slightly.
It seemed to be the only thing weird in her beautiful facial features, although it would take a person to look closely enough and gaze at it in a narrow way to be able to see the movement.
Marcus wondered how he was able to effortlessly see it twitch.
'So that is her awakened power, an acute sense of smell'
Marcus' eyes seemed to glance at the entrance of the alleyway.
There was a beast bee there, but it was only about as big as a full-grown man.
It was probably dead by the way it lay motionless with tattered large and transparent wings and bent antennas.
He nodded in realisation.
"So do you have a place to go?"
Marcus thought aback at what she explained earlier about this neighborhood, and this alleyway led to his street, so the apartment complex and the whole street was probably being dominated by mutant beasts already.
He shook his head in response and her face was full of pity immediately.
She held Marcus' right hand and pulled him as she started walking, Marcus went with the flow.
They walked out of the narrow alleyway and passed over the dead beast bee at the entrance, and then Marcus felt something.
He felt an itching and throbbing sensation in about four areas of his body...