Mutagen

Day 44 – 9:02 AM – San Jose, Antipolo, Rizal

While the sudden assailants pointed their spears at Karlene, Mark just sat in place without moving. He stopped Amihan and Miracle from making a move while he also made Chaflar who was disturbed by the commotion to stay put. There was really no need for any of them to make any move of retaliation. After all, it would be overkill to do so.

On the other hand, Karlene was troubled. She looked at Mark with the expression asking "What should I do?"

"You should be able to deal with them right?"

Mark said knowing what Karlene wanted to say.

"Deal with them?! You want me to kill them?"

Karlene was flustered with Mark's words but hearing her ask that question, the children around her flinched.

These children were not bandits or anything of sort. Mark knew that. The way the children tried to threaten them was too amateur. The way the leading child stutter as he spoke made it obvious that they were doing this for the first time. Even the way they surrounded Karlene was not organized. Some went out and charged first while others did lag behind.

The seven children surrounding Karlene started to hesitate when they heard her words. They were all very nervous and would surely try to run away in the slightest scare. After all, they just heard that they would be killed.

Among the seven children surrounding Karlene, six were boys and one was a tomboy. However, these seven were not all the children here. Behind the bushes there was still four more and they were all girls.

These children were surely naïve. Although it was a smart move that they aimed for Karlene first in attempt to take her as hostage since she looked weaker, it was not a smart move to target the place with more people. They might have more percentage of succeeding of they tried to target Edzel first but it seemed that they perceived him as dangerous since he was holding a weapon and had a gun when he went away. They did not even try to observe further as it seemed that they did not witness the time Chaflar Landed. They were totally oblivious that there was a dragon keeping silent near them.

Mark did not say anything about killing the children and Karlene just misunderstood it. These children were not enemies that would try to take their lives. They just wanted food and water and seemed desperate about it. However, since they pointed their weapons at Mark's group, there was no need to bother with them too much.

Since Karlene did not want to make a move, Mark sent a mental signal to Chaflar.

"ROAR!"

Chaflar slowly stood up and roared in a menacing manner. It was really an overkill.

"UWAAAHHH!!"

"Mo-monster!"

"RUN!"

"MAMA!"

The children's formation immediately collapsed. While some immediately tried to run away, there were those that were not able to. Two fell on their butts as they stared at Chaflar wide-eyed and shivering in fear.  One boy stood frozen as warm liquid flowed down his legs. The youngest that was five years old tried to run but ended up tripping on a rock and started crying while holding his knee.

Behind the bushes, three of the girls plopped down on the grass and started crying while one tried her best to not succumb to fear and started helping the others up to run away.

It became a disaster.

Only one boy who was the oldest stared at the dragon facing it with all the courage he had. His legs and arms were shivering but he positioned himself between the dragon and his friends.

"MARK!"

Karlene yelled in a fluster. She immediately ran towards the five-year old boy that tripped to help.

"I did nothing though? It's Chaflar's fault."

Mark feigned ignorance. Of course, Karlene would not believe him.

"I'm sure you made it scare them!"

"What? You're not making a move so it thought, you're scared stiff."

"You! I thought you want me to kill them!"

"I said nothing of sorts though."

"Hmpf!"

Karlene started to ignore Mark and focused on helping the crying children around her.

"It's Chaflar who scared them though."

Mark shrugged his shoulders. It seemed that he was enjoying the scene.

"Uhm, My Lord, you're behaving badly, you know?"

Even Amihan could not help but admonish Mark. Even though she was still afraid of humans, the scene in front of them right now was just too much.

"Geeze, alright." Mark then shouted at his pet. "Chaflar, you can stop it already."

Finally, Chaflar who was staring at the shivering boy in front of him went back to resting. The way it looked at the children was really smug. If Mark did not make it stop, it would probably push the children into fright even more.

Seeing that Dragon did not attack and actually obeying the man in black clothes, he plopped onto the ground. Although he did not cry out loud, the corner of his eyes had tears.

"Boss! Is something wrong?"

Edzel finally appeared. The roar Chaflar made alerted him. He thought that that there was danger and hurriedly returned. However, seeing the scene in front of him, he was not able to process it. He left with only their team in this place but now, almost a dozen children were scattered creating a huge ruckus with their wails of fear.

"Just… what? Boss?"

He could only turn to Mark but the latter only signaled to ask Karlene about it.

***

It took several minutes and Karlene managed to pacify the children. All of them already gave up on robbing the unfamiliar people in front of them. Not only that they failed but the other party even helped them calm down. Although they pointed their weapons on Karlene but she still took their sides.

Now, they hung their heads in shame. Not only they tried to rob people for the first time and failed but their supposed victims ended up helping them. They really thought that they would die just earlier and could not help but succumb to fear. When Chaflar suddenly roared, they thought that they were being attacked again.

Eleven children now lined up in front of Karlene. Unexpectedly, even though the one who wet himself was rather embarrassed, he did not go to the river to wash even though the river was just a few feet away.

"Why don't you wash yourself first?"

Karlene also noticed and asked. However, an unexpected answer came.

"He can't. It's dangerous."

The eldest child spoke.

"Why?"

Karlene could not help but ask.

"The river water is harmful in this area. If we want to wash, we should go downstream. We still can't use the water for drinking or cooking though."

Hearing that, Karlene shivered as she turned her head to Mark. It turned out that he was right and luckily, he stopped her from washing her face with the river water earlier. But how could he tell? She could not help but think.

Sensing her confusion, Mark spoke.

"Because there's not a single fish in the water in this area, there are no river insects either."

The child further attested to it as he spoke.

"Fishes that will enter this part of the river and the area upstream would die. The fish downstream are also already too few and small."

No wonder these children were desperate for food and even water.

Still, if the river became like this, it was bad news not only to these children but also to Mark and a lot of people. Not only the stretch of this river run near his base but also this river was the one that the military thought that would provide water for their new settlement. If the river became contaminated and harmful, it would be dangerous.

"When did it start?"

Mark could not help but ask since it would also affect his base and the military settlement he had cooperated with.

The child looked at him reluctantly and spoke.

"Just two days ago."

"No wonder it hadn't spread too much yet."

Mark murmured. He thought that it had not happened for long since the child had just said that they could still use the water downstream to some extent. It meant that the contamination had not spread too much yet.

"Did something strange happen that day?"

Karlene managed to catch up with Mark's thoughts and asked.

"Yes. It was about midnight before the river became contaminated. The sky was covered in thick clouds then, a bright red light appeared for several minutes in the forest upstream."

"It is really something strange! The red light covered the forest!"

Another child spoke, a girl about eight years old.

"Mimi, don't be rude."

The eldest child admonished the girl while glancing at Mark. Seeing that Mark did not mind, he felt relieved.

On the other hand, Mark scratched his cheek.

"Father, he's scared of you."

Even Miracle noticed in. It seemed that he really went overboard. In any case, it seemed that Karlene managed to get the hearts of these children.

"Are you all siblings? Where are your parents?"

Karlene asked. However, that question made the whole atmosphere down. Sensing it…

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to. Is there any adults around?"

Hearing her question, the children looked at each other and started whispering in a circle. Karlene did not mind it though but she wished that they would go a little farther since she could still hear what they were whispering about.

"Big Sister, Sirs. Can you help us? We have a few adults with us but they are sick and injured."

After whispering, the eldest girl who seemed to be eleven spoke. As she spoke, the other younger children started to show their begging look and puppy eyes.

Mark would notice what these cunning children were planning but Karlene and Edzel was the issue here.

"My Lord, can we at least check?"

Well, Amihan was another.

While the children were showing those looks…

GROWL…

A growling sound was heard. Some of the children hurriedly looked around to see if there was danger. However…

One of the boys looked down in embarrassment.

"Um… Sorry…"

It was his stomach growling in hunger.

"Mark, can we give them food and water?"

Karlene patted the boy on his head and asked Mark. That question made the children look at Mark with expectations.

"No."

The children became downhearted.

Now, even Karlene was looking at Mark with a begging look.

"Hah… Stop that you idiot."

"Who's an idiot?!"

Karlene snapped.

Ignoring Karlene, Mark looked at the eldest boy.

"Bring us to where you all live first. I'll give you some food and water if you all did that."

Of course, hearing that, it would not make them answer immediately. They did not know these people. Even though Mark said that he would give them food and water, they were reluctant to let strangers into their dwelling place. The children could not help but look at Karlene.

"You all don't have to worry. That guy might look like a criminal but he's not bad."

With those words, the children finally agreed albeit reluctantly. They were really desperate right now and the opportunity finally came. In the least, they were not harmed and they failed to do an evil deed either.

As for Mark, he really did not want to do this in the first place. However, the circumstances of this river could fatally affect his base. After all, the spring river in his base was also connected to Agos River. Although it was not connected by source and was just connected downstream, he could not take chances.

To address the situation, he needed more information. However, children whose minds were not ripe yet would not be able to give him enough and that was why she needed the adults. Fortunately, these children seemed to still have some guardians and not some vagabonds here.

Still, just how severe were the condition of the adults for these children to go out and find food and water on their own?