Jake had been waiting for this opportunity to present itself for some time now. He had been following the group of survivors as they fought their way up from the very first floor. He knew that to assume Aaron's identity, he needed to kill him alone when he was out of sight of his teammates. Unfortunately, the four of them stayed together most of the time. Even when they split up, they were always close enough to keep one another in sight.

It was only on the ninth floor that Aaron finally broke away from the others, bursting out of the vast room where the other three humans remained. They were so engrossed in fighting the mutants that they hadn't even noticed Aaron leave.

This was Jake's chance; he knew there wouldn't be a better opportunity to "steal" Aaron's body. So he silently crawled along the ceiling, keeping pace with the human below, who was being pursued by a chaser and a handful of walkers.

He saw Aaron quickly glance over his shoulder, and in the next moment, the mutants chasing him slowed. The human had obviously just cast a magic spell on his pursuers to slow them down. Taking advantage of that, he gripped his shotgun with his left hand while thrusting his right into his jacket pocket.

Fishing out a handful of explosive rounds, he loaded them into his powerful weapon. In his haste, some of the slugs slipped from his fingers and dropped to the floor, but Aaron didn't either notice them fall or care to pick them up.

Just as he topped off his shotgun and pumped the first round into the chamber, the slowing-down spell wore off. Aaron spun around, bringing his weapon up as the chaser and the walkers regained their normal speed.

The survivor fired the first shot at the most dangerous mutant pursuing him. The slug hit the chaser in the chest with such force that it sent it flying backward into the midst of the walkers behind.

The slug exploded, blowing a huge hole in the chaser's rib cage, killing the monster instantly. The shockwave staggered the nearby walkers but failed to inflict any actual damage on them.

Aaron didn't slow down even for a moment. Chambering the next round, he sent it crashing into a walker, blowing its upper body to pieces. Immediately, he pumped the shotgun and killed another walker with a single shot. Then another, and another, not allowing any of them to get close.

The survivor kept his cool, executing the motions he had perfected over countless encounters. His aim was steady, and his movements were honed to nearly computer-like precision. Jake couldn't help but admire the human's exceptional killing skills.

Suddenly, Aaron's shotgun clicked empty. There were a few walkers left, but he didn't have time to reload. In one fluid motion, the survivor dropped his shotgun and drew a heavy-caliber handgun from its holster on his hip.

Just as one of the walkers almost reached striking distance, extending its claws, Aaron shot the mutant in the head from nearly point-blank range. Before the now-headless body could even hit the floor, the human was already dealing with the remaining walkers.

Each shot he fired was well-placed, consistently hitting the mutants in the head. Aaron steadily retreated while keeping his aim true against the advancing creatures. There was nothing they could do against such an experienced survivor. One by one, they all fell like flies, each suffering a fatal headshot.

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Finally, the fight was over. The corridor before him was littered with the corpses of the mutants Aaron had just killed. A smile curved the corners of his lips as he savored his victory. He reloaded his pistol and slid it into its holster.

He quickly scanned the area for his shotgun and spotted it lying a short distance ahead, where he had dropped it. Just as he moved to retrieve it, Jake detached from the ceiling. The impact knocked the air from Aaron's lungs as Jake's weight crashed him to the ground.

The human's eyes widened as he realized something was on top of him, pinning him down. Jake's Cloak was still active, rendering him nearly invisible. Aaron stared up at him, eyes full of shock.

His mind struggled to make sense of the sudden turn of events. He had mere milliseconds to process what was happening. As for Jake, he knew he had to make a clean kill without leaving any blood. He needed to assume Aaron's identity without raising any suspicions among his teammates.

While the floor and walls behind him were already abundantly splattered with mutant blood, he needed to minimize the risk of being discovered by avoiding any additional spills of Aaron's blood that could be traced back to the human.

So Jake simply grabbed both sides of the survivor's head and gave it a hard twist. The human's neck snapped with an audible crack. Aaron died so quickly that he hadn't felt a thing.

Jake rose to his feet, dropping his cloak and assuming Aaron's identity. The transformation took all of a second. He was now indistinguishable from the human lying before him, except that his neck wasn't twisted at an unnatural angle, of course.

The transformation even created all the pockets that Aaron's clothes had. However, unlike the survivor's, Jake's pockets were empty. His ability couldn't create weapons out of nothing, so while it did fashion a holster on his right hip identical to Aaron's, it remained empty.

So he pulled the pistol from the dead survivor's holster and slid it into his own. Having watched Aaron for some time now, Jake knew that regular buckshot shells were kept in the left pocket, while magically enhanced explosive slugs were stashed in the right.

He leaned down and quickly transferred the shotgun shells from Aaron's pockets to his own. The survivor also had extra pistol mags tucked away in the pockets of his utility belt. Jake took that as well, sliding them into the pockets of his own belt.

He then lifted Aaron's body in one powerful motion and draped it over his shoulder. Now, he just needed to find a place to hide it. Off to his right was an empty shaft he had used to climb from the first floor to the ninth.

However, he didn't want to toss the body in there. Once the mission was over, the surviving humans would descend to the first floor. They would use the shaft with the magical platform, and once on the first floor, they would have no reason to look into the second shaft. Still, Jake wanted to minimize the chances of Aaron's body being discovered.

So he tossed Aaron's body into the open door on his left instead, which led into an empty room. He then closed the door. Now he only needed to prevent the three other survivors from checking this room while they were still on the ninth floor. But once they took the platform to the final floor, he wouldn't have to worry about it anymore.

The sound of footsteps rushing toward him caught Jake's attention. He turned just in time to see Kira emerge on the other side of the corridor. She stepped forward, inspecting the bodies of the mutants Aaron had killed. The look on her face made it clear that she was impressed.

"Great job, Mute," she called to him. "We didn't notice you were gone at first. I rushed over as soon as we realized you were missing. But from what I can see, we shouldn't have been worried about you. You sure know how to handle yourself."

Jake flashed her a grin and gave her a thumbs-up.

"Come on," Kira said. "The guys are finishing off the last of the mutants."

She pivoted and headed back into the room she had come from. Jake picked up Aaron's shotgun and followed her, carefully stepping over the mutants' dead bodies.

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