Chapter 141

  One of the Demons pulled a rge knife from where it was sheathed on his belt. Turning to the survivor standing nearby, he held out the khe man flinched as if he had been hit. Staring at the oook a step backward.

  “Whu—What’s that for?” he stammered.

  “Take it, Gee,” the bandit holding the knife demanded in an authoritative voice.

  “Why?” Gee asked nervously.

  “Yoing to hat for what yonna have to do.”

  “What exactly am I supposed to do with that?” Gee asked meekly. He appeared far more terrified thawo survivors kneeling close by with their hands bound behind their backs.

  The gangster holding the knife—who was clearly the leader of this group—was quickly losing patience.

  “Just. Take. The. Fug. Knife,” he said, punctuating each word.

  The look in the gang leader’s eyes was so intimidating Gee immediately stepped forward and finally took the knife, holding it carefully as if it were made of eggshell.

  “What do I do with it?” he squealed.

  The gang leader took a step bad poi one of the kneeling survivors—the male one.

  “Cut his face off,” he ordered.

  “What?!”

  Gee flirembling so violently that the knife nearly fell from his grasp.

  “No, no, no,” he stammered, taking a few steps back. “I ’t do it! Not to Anton. He’s my friend!”

  “Tyron,” the gang leader said as he looked at the imposing figure standing behind Gee.

  The giant yron stepped in behind Gee, pg his enormous hands on Gee’s shoulders, effectively trapping him in pce. Gee tried to break free, but it was no use.

  “Jose, what’s going on?” he squeaked, his eyes wide as he stared at the gang leader standing before him.

  “Let me break this down for you,” Jose began. “Pay attention, because I won’t say it again. Los Demonios was formed by someone who was a member of a cartel prior to the Colpse. They took the same principles from the cartel to create Los Demonios. That means anizatioes urict rules and resort to extreme violence when needed.”

  Jose took a small step forward, causing Gee to tremble untrolbly. He seemed on the verge of colpsing, but Tyron’s strong grip on his shoulders held him up.

  “Since you’ve shown i in joining Los Demonios, you o take a test,” Jose said. “Anyone looking to join must pass a test to prove their loyalty to the anization. Your task is to cut this guy’s face off. Once you do this, you’ll officially bee one of us. You’ll gain access to superior ons and vehicles that you ’t find on your own. You’ll be given the means to level up faster and bee a force to be reed with. You’ll be a part of a rge and powerful anization with plenty of members who will always back you up if you ever get into trouble. There won’t be any enemies who’ll be able to harm you anymore. Los Demonios is a huge and dangerous anization, and we don’t have any erong enough to pose any kind of threat to us. So tell me, do you want to be part of this? Do you want to bee one of us?”

  Gee nodded vigorously.

  “Then do what you’re told,” Jose said, nodding toward the kneeling survivors.

  Doubt washed ee once more.

  “Why does it have to be my friend?” he asked, his voice trembling. “’t they just be sent to work for the gang instead? Why must they die?”

  “They no longer have the option of w for us,” Jose said. “We tried to capture yroup, but you opened fire on us.”

  “Did you really think we would let you take us hostage without a fight?” the female survivor retorted defiantly.

  “Yroup killed two of my men and mao get away,” Jose tinued, dismissing her words. “Now your friends must face the sequences for their as. tured you, and you begged us to let you join us. You even revealed where your friends were hiding, which led us right to them.”

  “You bastard!” the kneeling at at Gee.

  “But that’s still not enough,” Jose said, looking directly at him. “If you truly wish to join us, you must pass the test. If you fail it, you’ll be tortured to death along with your two friends over here. The decision is yours.”

  Jose Tyron, and the giant released his hold on Gee’s shoulders. Gee hesitated for a sed, then began to slowly walk toward the male survivor named Anton.

  “Gee, what the hell are you doing?” the woman hissed at him.

  “I don’t have a choice, Enid, ’t you see that?”

  “Of course you do!” she said angrily.

  But Gee tio walk toward the male survivor, whispering under his breath, “I’m suys. I’m sorry!”

  When Gee finally reached Anton, the captive tried to get up, but Tyron suddenly jumped behind him with surprising speed for his size. He ed one arm around Anton’s neck while holding the back of his head with his other hand. Anton struggled to break free, but the giant was far to.

  “Gee, stop!” Enid screamed when he began t the tip of the knife across Anton’s forehead, drawing blood.

  Suddenly, he straightened and stepped back, his hands trembling, still gripping the bloody knife.

  “What’s the matter?” Jose barked. “Why did you stop? Finish what you started!”

  “I ’t… I don’t know how to do it. I’ve never done anything like this before!”

  “You just o cut around his face, then grab the upper edge and yank the skin off. Alright, just give me the fug knife! I’ll do it myself. You watch closely and learn, because yoing to have to do the same to her after that,” Jose said, pointing at Enid.

  Without waiting for a respohe gang leader seized the bloody knife from Gee’s hands and started walking toward Anton, who now had a long cut running across his forehead.

  “Get your PDA ready,” Jose said to Gee without gng back at him.

  “Why?” Gee asked.

  “Because once I’m done, you’ll o turn on the front camera and aim it at him to let him get a good look at himself.”

  pletely motionless and invisible, Jake tio g to the ceiling. Back when he was a survivor, he had seey of mangled dead bodies not to be disgusted by gore anymore. However, seeing mutited dead bodies was ohing while witnessing someone being tortured was somethiirely different. Human suffering was way more disturbing than inanimate viscera, and only those truly evil could remain indifferent to the sight of it.

  Being a morphus, he was as cold as id hardly ever experienced aions. Despite this, witnessing the cruel se unfold below, he felt a pang of anger rise inside him. He weled the feeling because it meant he wasn’t a plete monster yet. Still capable of sympathizing with human beings, Jake knew he wasn’t going to let the bandits torture and kill their captives.

  He detached from the ceiling and dropped to the floor. Twisting in midair, he gracefully nded on his feet, dropping to a crouch to absorb the impact. He nded so softly he hardly made a sound. By that time, Jose had already reached Anton, raising the knife smeared with blood. Tyron tightened his arm around Anton’s neearly suffog him as Jose brought the tip of his ko the captive’s face.

  A spectral figure blending with the shifting shadows and lights, Jake rose silently behind the bandits who were unaware that death itself came to cim them.