Mutagen

Day 21 – 5:20 PM – Mountain Village, Mount Malabito, General Nakar, Quezon

After bringing Nicole inside the house, Mark let her lie on the bed comfortably despite the fact that the bed made of wood was really not that comfortable. This time, the emotionless Mark felt a bit strange while looking at the unconscious girl. Before he revealed his face to her, he could see how much she struggled despite being ill. The moment she recognized him however, she let go of her struggle and left herself completely defenseless in front of him. Just how much trust did it take? Or was it just because she had no other choice?

No, her relieved expression told that it was the first one or else, why would she let out that expression. Why though?

"My L-…"

Did she not trust her group at all?

"My Lor-…"

Maybe, she did not really know the members of their group at all aside from Hallie.

"MY LORD!!!"

"What is it?"

Mark turned his head towards Amihan who was already screaming on his ear.

"Why are you spaced out? Do you know this female human?"

Amihan asked pointing at Nicole.

"I'm not spaced out. I'm just thinking about something and I do know her. Why?"

"Uhmm… Nothing, it just looked strange that you're blankly staring at her."

Mark then picked up the sylph from his shoulder and stared at her.

"Wha-what are you doing?"

He ignored her opposition and put her down on another pillow.

"You're tired yourself so rest up."

What Amihan did to the other man with a gun was unexpected but it was not surprising since she was a spirit of the wind. However, it seemed that it had taken quite a toll on her since her already light colored skin looked even paler. It was very likely that even if she could do that, controlling the wind to the extent of making a full grown man fly at that distance, it was not something she could do as she willed. If she could, then there was no reason for her to receive too much fright even from the enlarged animals and insects in the forest.

The little sylph did not want to rest since there were other humans around but her resistance was futile. After Mark used his finger to push her head unto the pillow and caressed her head comfortably, she fell asleep almost immediately. She succumbed to her own fatigue from overexerting herself not to mention that she must not have enough rest last night. When the wild boar wandered into the village in the previous evening, Amihan was still not around. It was likely that she returned already past that time.

Looking back at Nicole who was flaring up with fever, Mark's eyes became resolute. Since she trusted him that much, then he should return it in kind. Mark rather had bad relationship with his family so he valued friendship too much. It was just that he find it hard to mingle with others no matter how he tried causing him to stray away from almost everyone.

There was also that case he experienced in college that caused Freed to seal most of his memories at that time. Unfortunately, the method Freed used to bring him in his subconscious also opened his subconscious memories freely for him. Even the memories he did not want to remember anymore started to haunt him from time to time since he woke up. He remembered that what happened in college almost driven him to commit suicide. It was just lucky that Freed already existed inside him at that time and prevented it.

That kidnapping incident with Mei was not the first time Freed saved his life.

The unconscious Nicole made him feel something that he never felt for a long time from a friend.

Still, this would be a huge problem. Nicole's fever was not caused by Evolution so she needed proper medication. Unfortunately, the whole village was devoid of any kind of modern drugs for illnesses. Just how did the people in this village treat their ill people? Maybe, because it was a forested mountain, they might be using herbal medicines. He remembered that he saw some dried up leaves in one of the nipa huts in the village. If those leaves were the medicine, then it was no wonder since the village seemed abandoned for a long time now.

After shuffling around the house for a bit, Mark went out.

***

Since the time Mark brought Nicole into the house, the people outside were talking in whispers.

"Is it really fine to leave Nicole to that guy? What if he did something to her? She fainted you know?"

Trisha asked Hallie but it was Huey who answered.

"What about that? Even if he wanted to do to any of us, we won't be able to resist at all."

"Says someone who chickened out."

Jollene looked at Huey with dissatisfaction but the latter just shrugged at her.

"I know what you want to say but I'm just being rational. Someone who can slash a bullet into two is not your average person so from the beginning, we have no way of winning. Besides, since you have a liking with Jefferson, then why don't you help him? I'm sure he'd appreciate that."

Huey looked at Jefferson who was unconscious covered in organs of the large dead monkey. That also made Jollene look at Jefferson only to turn her head away in disgust. It was no secret that she had a crush at Jefferson even back in the company but even though she had already experience encountering zombies and such, disgusting things was still disgusting. Even if she wanted to help Jefferson, there was no way that she would touch him right now.

While they were talking, Mark went out of the house making them silent. The three men who were taken down first had already recovered to some degree but none of them had the courage to look at Mark and just sat behind the group that did not participate in the fight. None of them tried to help Jefferson or Sherwyn due to an obvious fact. The two were the main offenders and looking at how Mark treated the unconscious Jefferson, it was likely that the person who would help him would be subjected to ill treatment.

They were not mistaken about that. The moment Mark went out, he only swept his eyes at the others sitting on the grass in front of the house and went toward Jefferson.

"Tsk."

Mark clicked his tongue as he observed the state of the hanged monkey. His eyes turned colder as he looked at the unconscious man beneath it. There was no saving the hide of the monkey as it was stabbed and cut all around. Even the back was not spared. It seemed that this unconscious guy played around with his knife too much. Since the hide was cut and the flesh and organs were exposed, it would sure take lesser time for the meat to go bad.

Unfortunately, he had no time to process it as it was already late and considering how large monkey was, it would take too much time. In easier words, the monkey he painstakingly lured back here became nothing but a worthless carcass.

Taking the knife that this guy even tried to hide in his pocket, Mark started cutting the ropes that tied the monkey making it fall on the unconscious man. He then lifted his right foot and stepped on the back of the monkey and started squishing it with his foot. This caused the unconscious Jefferson to be covered in disgusting stuff even further.

"Hey, isn't that enough?!"

Jollene could not endure watching that scene anymore and bellowed after she stood up. However, when Mark turned his head towards her, the way he moved his foot above the carcass intensified even more.

"You… Why are you doing this? We know we're wrong intruding like this but that's not enough to torment us like this right?"

She asked emotionally.

On the other side, Mark tilted his head without emotion on his face and spoke.

"I'm not tormenting you though."

Jollene was stunned and did not know how to reply. What he said was true since he was only doing that disgusting thing on Jefferson but no matter what, it gave them a tormenting feeling.

On the other hand Huey seemed to have an idea why.

"Is it because of that monkey? Perchance, you have something in plan for that?"

Huey noticed that only Jefferson was receiving the worst treatment and it was as if Mark was venting his anger on him for something he did. The only thing he did however was to take that knife out of the house and played with it using the dead monkey.

Mark looked at Huey and did not have any notion to deny it.

"I planned to process the both meat and the hide of this monkey. It's all worthless now."

"It's just a dead monkey!"

Jollene shouted.

Her shout however turned Mark's eyes colder making her step back in fright. Mark then spoke in a very cold tone as if sentencing them to the worst thing possible.

"So, it's just a dead monkey right?" Mark kicked some of the spilled guts making Jefferson's face covered with it. "Since it's just a monkey, you can give me another one then? It should have the same pristine condition that both meat and hide can be processed."

Jollene started to regret what she had just said. What he said was not requesting her to compensate him another similar animal. He basically asked her to die. There was no need to mention about exchanging one with the similar condition, there was no way for her to even escape from one alone without dying.

Fortunately, Hallie and Huey did not want to have pointless deaths on their group anymore. They already lost a lot just to get this far. With Mark around, this place was rather safe since it was obvious that he could live in this place alone. Dying here was nothing but a pointless matter.

"We're going to compensate with anything else we can do so please, don't send us to death just like that."

"Yeah. Be a little lenient, just for Nicole's sake alright?"

Huey and Hallie interjected respectively while both of them stared at Jollene signaling her to not make things worse.

"Tsk." Mark clicked his tongue which made it look like that he was looking forward to Jollene dying. He then continued. "Remember what you two said, I'm going to work you people like slaves."

"Slaves… That's…"

Trisha could not help but voice out her hesitation making Mark look at her.

"I don't mind if any of you can't accept that. Those who can't accept can step out of the village now."

Mark then lashed another kick on Jefferson's head before he turned around and left. He went to take his things back at the entrance of the village. As for the others, he did not really mind if they left. When he went back, none of the people moved from their positions though. Even if they did not what to accept what Mark had just said they could only stay. It was almost night time and given that most of them were injured now, it was a complete suicide for any of them to leave this place.

While everyone was debating their plans, Mark passed by carrying a metal basket, his bag and a gallon of spring water as he entered the house. It did not take long though and he went out once more. This time, he was carrying a shovel and the black cooking knife. He then threw the two tools towards the group.

"This is your first task. Go and dig a hole and bury the monkey outside the village. You all can also get meat from that monkey if you want to cook and eat something. After that, you all can pick any house to rest in aside from that one." Mark pointed at the nearest nipa hut. "Hallie, follow me inside."

Mark then turned around without waiting for their reply. The way he spoke was saying that they had no choice but to follow his orders.

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