Chapter 469
Chapter 469
As Jake made his way across Base Catalina, his Feral Instincts suddenly alerted him to… something. It wasn’t exactly danger, but rather some hostility aimed toward him. Slowing down, he quickly glanced around. It didn’t take him long to detect the source of the hostility.
To his left, in the parking lot, two pickup trucks sat loaded with boxes of various resources. In front of the two vehicles stood Marcus, glaring directly at him. Jake came to a full stop, quickly sifting through the human’s memories.
It was great being able to use Mind Reader again. The Spartans had some kind of skill that shielded them from having their memories viewed, but since New Hopers didn’t have such an advantage, they couldn’t hide anything from Jake.
In only a few seconds, Jake reviewed several days’ worth of Marcus’s memories. He discovered that Marcus still held a grudge over the destruction of Base Samantha a few days earlier. Most of it had already been rebuilt, but Marcus clearly wasn’t ready to let it go. Mind Reader couldn’t reveal a person’s thoughts, but Marcus’s memories alone were enough to show that he hated Jake with all his heart.
The evidence was clear. Over the past several days, Marcus had been speaking with various people at Base Samantha, trying to win them over to his side, to pull them into his little camp of morphus-haters, so to speak. He’d tried to convince them that Jake was a threat to everyone and that they had to put their heads together and come up with a plan to rid their city of the obnoxious mutant once and for all.
However, not a single person supported him. Nobody had any desire to go against the morphus, not now, not ever. No one had a death wish. Moreover, Samantha had recently convinced her people that he, Jake, was no threat to them, that he was on their side. As long as they didn’t provoke him, he would remain their ally. The people were more than happy to accept that. They would far rather have Jake as a friend than an enemy.
So Marcus’s arguments had gone nowhere. Samantha’s people trusted her judgment far more than his, and since she was their true leader, no one took him seriously. He was completely alone in both his hatred of Jake and his determination to do something about him.
Even though Jake had learned all of this, he still wasn’t sure if he should leave things with Marcus as they were. Not that he considered him a threat. If Marcus ever dared to enter any of his lairs, he would never be heard from again. It was that simple.
Even if all the New Hopers decided to team up and go against him, it would end very badly for them. Their level of development was simply far behind his, and they had no hope of ever catching up with him.
The only human group that could potentially pose a bit of a threat to him was the Spartans. The reason for that wasn’t that their levels were higher than his. No, the real reason was that they had somehow managed to develop next-tier energy weapons powerful enough to harm him. But even so, their small group posed no real threat to him. If necessary, his army of monsters would crush them with ease.
Jake wasn’t even worried about what would happen after Dead City was cleansed of the Ravage Contamination and the Commander shared their tech with the New Hopers. Sure enough, once they learned how to create the same kinds of weapons the Spartans wielded, the New Hopers would update their entire arsenal, replacing their old weaponry with the kind the Spartans wielded.
But it would take some time, and Jake was constantly developing at a good pace. By the time the New Hopers armed themselves with the new weaponry, he would already be a step ahead of them anyway. And if he noticed the slightest trace of a threat from them, he would take the most decisive action.
Unless something really unexpected and unfortunate happened, humans had no chance of becoming a threat to him anytime soon. So, Marcus wasn’t dangerous and never would be. He could fume all he wanted, but no matter how much he hated Jake, he would never be able to do any kind of serious damage to him or his lairs.
Still, Jake didn’t like the mere fact that Marcus had been trying to form a group of like-minded people to go against him at some point in the future. Something needed to be done about that. He needed to show Marcus that such a way of thinking would do him no good.
The easiest way to solve this little issue would be to simply kill Marcus and be done with it. He could do it right there and then. However, he didn’t really want to do that, especially not in front of the other survivors who saw him as an ally. If they witnessed something like that, they would inevitably start questioning whether they could truly trust him. Once that seed of doubt was planted, there was no telling what it might grow into.
After all, how could you truly trust somebody who acted like your ally but was, at the same time, capable of killing one of you out of the blue? Jake wasn’t willing to destroy the relationship he had built with the humans. If he killed Marcus right in front of them, they would never forget it, and they would never look at him the same way again. The fear that he might one day do to them what he did to Marcus would always linger in the back of their minds, reminding them that truly trusting him was impossible.
But what was much more important was the fact that Jake didn’t want to lose the last remnants of his humanity. Encountering D not so long ago was a stark reminder of what he could become if he didn’t keep his dark urges in check. Starting to slay humans left and right simply because it was the easiest way to solve problems was the quickest way to become a mindless monster.
He’d seen what was happening to D. His counterpart was struggling badly with his monstrous side. Most of the time, the beast within him was in control, suppressing whatever remained of his human self. And D clearly hated it, but no matter how hard he tried, he seemingly wasn’t able to regain full control of his body. Jake had no intention of letting the same thing happen to him.
So, instead of defeating Marcus, he decided to reason with him. He spun on his heels and darted toward Marcus and his people standing behind him. They immediately tensed at the sight of him closing in, reaching for their weapons. Jake made no effort to placate them, however. If anything, he wanted to appear threatening.
He stopped a dozen paces from Marcus and went completely still. The humans didn’t point their weapons at him, but they kept them at the ready. For a moment, nobody said a word. Jake stared directly at Marcus, ignoring the people standing behind him. Marcus was trying to appear confident, but Jake could see he was barely able to keep it together.
Finally, Marcus couldn’t bear the silence and asked in a husky voice, “What do you want?”
“I know what you’ve been trying to do,” Jake said.
Marcus frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“You’ve been trying to rally other humans against me. You hate me and are looking for a way to deal with me.”
“What? That’s bullshit.”
“No, it isn’t. We both know it. So don’t bother denying it.”
For a moment, it seemed like Marcus was going to argue. Then he thought better of it.
“How the hell do you know about…” he began.
Jake cut him short. “Doesn’t matter. What matters is what I’m going to say next, so listen carefully because I’m only saying this once. If I ever find out you’re still trying to come after me despite my warnings, I’ll come. But not for you. I’ll go after everyone around you instead. Base Samantha will fall again, but this time it won’t just be the buildings. This time, every single human there will be killed too. And it’ll all be your fault. So, unless you want that to happen, stop trying to make plans against me.”
Marcus said nothing. The hatred in his eyes was just as strong as before, but now something else lurked beneath it. Jake wanted to believe Marcus wasn’t completely selfish, that he actually cared about the people around him and didn’t want anything bad to happen to them.
Marcus didn’t react in any way, so Jake continued, “You can hate me all you want, but don’t try to do anything against me. The moment you do, I will come, and everyone around you will be killed in the most gruesome and painful way.”
Marcus remained silent, but Jake caught a glimpse of concern in his eyes. So it definitely looked like his threat had worked. Jake also noticed that the humans behind Marcus looked really nervous. It was obvious that they believed him and that they didn’t want to be killed, especially not because of Marcus’s personal grudge.
“One more thing,” Jake added. “I know that those around you don’t want to go against me. They know they’re better off having me as an ally than an enemy. If you’re smart, you’ll accept that too. But who knows, perhaps you don’t care about those around you or what happens to them at all. Perhaps, despite my warnings, you’ll continue trying to brainwash those around you. If that happens, I’ll know. Perhaps not immediately, however. But know this: I’m not the only one you should be afraid of. The people around you definitely wouldn’t want to be killed simply because of your personal grudge against me. So if you keep pushing them, who knows what they might decide to do? Perhaps they’ll decide to kill you themselves in order to keep their base and everyone in it safe. Just think about it.”
Marcus glanced over his shoulder at his people standing behind him. They met his gaze with cold and hard stares.
“One last thing,” Jake said. “If you continue your attempts to turn your people against me, and they ultimately decide to kill you, I won’t come after them. I’ll leave them alone.”
The people behind him traded meaningful glances.
“You bastard,” Marcus hissed, finally understanding exactly what Jake had done. They all knew he was alone now. Word of Jake’s warning would spread fast, and no one would ever risk joining Marcus’s cause. And if he made even one more attempt to keep preaching against Jake, it would end badly for him.
With nothing more to say, Jake turned and left Catalina’s base. A few minutes later, he was back in his ten-story lair, stepping through the Fleshport and teleporting to Dead City.