Mutagen

<strong>Day 239 - 6:49 PM - Municipal Building, Barangay Salvacion, Municipality of Murcia, Province of Negros Occidental</strong>

The girl stared at the lifeless body of her mother. She looked sad, but she also emitted a feeling of relief.

From now on, her mother, that turned into a monster, would not be able to harm anyone anymore.

Mark watched the scene with a sigh. This girl sure was a good child, and her unlucky mother raised her daughter right. It was something pretty rare to see in this era.

Then, the girl began to make her move. Well, she was just standing beside her mother's body. But slowly, little by little, the mother's body was being nudged away. It was clear that the girl was trying to move her mother's body. However, even if she could push and pull Mark, there was no way that she would be able to move someone's body entirely. Not to mention that her mother was now a rather tall mutant.

The girl was strong despite being an existence created by a strong lingering sentiment. Even so, she had her limits, pretty much like how most poltergeists could move small objects but could not lift the body of their victims.

Mark shrugged and approached the girl.

"Let me do it. Where do you want to bring her?"

Mark asked.

Of course, he did not receive any reply. Instead, the girl looked at him before suddenly disappearing.

As Mark tried to sense the girl, it was not hard to find her. The girl appeared on the northwest area of the roof of the municipal building. Without hesitation, Mark carried the corpse of the [Mutated Infected]. He then walked to the girl.

At the same time, Mark took the opportunity to see if he could get a [Physical Crystal] or a [Mutagen Stone] from the corpse. Unexpectedly, he got both. He did not think of giving this [Physical Crystal] to anyone and decided to only add it to his collection for now. After all, the mother's mutation looked rather uncanny. Her limbs did not stretch like some aspiring pirate king. It looked more like her arms had layers that would slip through each other to stretch and contract like a folding umbrella or an old television's antenna.

The girl looked at Mark. She noticed the light emitted by the [Physical Crystal]. However, she did not show any interest in the crystal, considering the limited range of emotions she could have. She only watched Mark as he approached carrying her mother's corpse.

It was when Mark noticed that the girl was standing beside a hole on the concrete roof of the building. It seemed that this part of the roof collapsed to what appeared to be an office space below on the second floor.

And the girl was pointing at a visible door in that very office space.

The problem was...

That door was blocked by a rather large piece of the collapsed concrete roof.

Mark glanced at the girl. He could not help but wonder how this girl planned to carry her mother's corpse through hat blocked door. He was also curious as to why the girl wanted to bring the corpse there.

After jumping down the hole, Mark put the corpse down in the northeast corner of the office. This corner was rather clear of debris since most of the broken concrete was on the west side where the door was.

Mark moved out the debris. It was not that much of a hassle to push away the chunk of concrete that blocked the door for someone like Mark. Of course, it would be really hard for a regular person to do the same.

The way was clear. Mark opened the door crankily because of the rusted hinges. Even so, he opened it as carefully as possible since he had no idea what was inside.

And Mark could not help but frown after the door was opened. The room was a small storage space for office supplies. But that was not the issue here.

At the furthest corner of the storage room, sitting in a fetal position while leaning on the walls...

It was a rotting corpse of a child that had mostly liquified already. The floor around the corpse was stained with disgusting black rotting liquid.

Mark turned to the girl that now stood beside him. There was no doubt.

It was the girl's body.

The girl stared at the corpse. It seemed to trigger feelings of fear, hunger, thirst, and despair in her as memories were transferred to Mark once more.

Before the mother turned and mutated, she told her daughter to hide if something dangerous happened. And when the mother began slaughtering the other survivors, the daughter ran into this storage room to hide.

Inside the room, the girl covered her ears, trying to muffle the sounds of fighting and screams from outside. She closed her eyes, wishing that things would end soon.

It was when she heard an explosion from outside the door. The explosion caused the already crumbling building to shake, and the explosion was soon followed by the sound of collapsing concrete.

By the time the girl realized her situation... she was already trapped inside. She managed to open the door. However, the outside was blocked by the fallen debris. The only gaps she could see among the debris could only fit her arms or legs.

She tried to call for help, only to end up calling her mutated mother, covered in blood.

The girl closed the door in a hurry. She was afraid that her mother, who turned into a monster, would find her and eat her.

Unfortunately... she was trapped there, without food or water.

After two days, out of desperation, the girl even tried to eat the dusty pieces of paper still stored inside the room and even drank her urine that was spilled on the floor. It was all for her determination to survive.

Even so... there was no way she would make it. In the least... she died in her sleep, slumped in that very corner of the room.

The memories flashed in Mark's eyes as he noticed the bitten pieces of paper by his foot. He let out another sigh as he turned to get the corpse of the mother.

Mark carried the corpse into the storage room, carefully walking through the dirty floor. And there, Mark placed the mother's corpse beside the girl's corpse and positioned the mother to embrace her daughter.

Seeing what Mark did, the girl emitted happiness and gratitude unto Mark.

Mark retreated from the room and closed the door. From now on, the mother and daughter would remain here together forever.

"Do you know where the food is stored?"

Mark asked the girl, who did not remain inside the storage room.

In response to Mark's question, the girl vanished and appeared at the door of the office that led to the second floor hallway.

Mark followed the girl, and he was led to another office room, which seemed to belong to the highest official of this building. There, a few boxes were stored with several blue containers containing purified water.

The boxes contained food. Mostly canned food and packed instant noodles. The quantity was not that much. Even so, it was more than enough to last a small group of survivors a week or two if eaten sparingly.

Mark stored the boxes of food in his ring. However, he decided to leave the water containers. He was pretty sure that these would not be safe for consumption anymore.

After getting the boxes of food, Mark searched the second floor a bit. Unfortunately, there was nothing of interest in this place any longer.

Thus, Mark decided to return to the camp.

***

After almost an hour and a half of exploring the town, Mark returned to the camp.

When he arrived, Mei and the others were in the middle of serving the food. It looked like Mark arrived just in time before everyone started eating. This was a good thing since if he did not arrive now, Mei would end up not eating with the others and would end up waiting for him to arrive.

The moment the new three children received their food, they immediately started eating. It was the first time they had been provided proper food ever since the apocalypse began.

"Hey! Eat slowly! You kids will choke yourselves with your food!"

Donna scolded the kids, though it barely had any effect.

After washing his hands, Mark joined the group to eat dinner.

"How is the town?"

Mei asked Mark as she sat beside him.

But before Mark could answer...

<strong>"HUUUWAAA!"</strong>

Donna, who was scolding the kids just now, stood up in a panic and screamed. She even almost ended up wasting her food.

"What's wrong?!!"

Bella grabbed Donna's bowl, which almost fell.

The younger sister did not reply but shakily pointed in a certain direction.

Mark shrugged as everyone looked in the direction Donna pointed at.

At that place, a shadowy figure of a girl stood silently, watching their group.

Mark's group watched in surprise. On the other hand, the new members looked at the girl in shock.

Only Mark did not look surprised.

While everyone was looking at the girl, she suddenly vanished.

<strong>"WAH!"</strong>

Another shout was heard as one of the kids saw the girl standing beside Mark.

Of course, everyone became cautious. While the new members were afraid, thinking that it was a ghost, Mei and the others did not have a good impression of shadow people either.

Only Mark remained seated, facing the girl.

The girl then stretched out her closed hand towards Mark, seemingly wanting to give something to him.

Mark, without hesitation, opened his palm under the girl's hand.

The girl opened her hand, making a pebble fall unto Mark's hand.

And there, everyone heard the girl speak. She spoke in the local language. But for some reason, everyone could understand her words.

"Thank you. Bye-bye."

The girl sounded happy.

And there, as if her whole body began turning into dusty particles vanishing into the air, the girl began to disappear.

It took only a few seconds. The girl was gone, permanently.

"Her time is up, huh."

Mark shrugged.

In the first place, the girl was not a spirit or an earthbound soul. She was nothing but a sentiment, a strong attachment, that was left by the strong emotions of the girl before she died.

And now that the reason for the girl's existence was gone... The mother was finally at peace and was reunited with her daughter.

Her job was done. It was time for the lingering sentiment to disappear.

"Gege... what is that?"

Mei asked Mark. It was not only Mei. Everyone was interested in what was going on.

There, Mark finally answered Mei's first question. What he found in the town and all he did there. Everyone listened as if listening to a campfire horror story.

The end was more of a drama, however. Everyone found the girl pitiful, now learning about her demise.

This story also increased the opinion of the new members toward Mark. It could not be refuted as the ghost girl appeared in front of everyone to thank him before vanishing.

"You're really something else," Donna commented on Mark's story. "I felt chills after seeing her. Did you not feel any fear at all? That's a ghost, right?"

"Why should I be afraid?" Mark turned to Donna. "I'm a Demon. I'm far more dangerous than a ghost of a girl."

Donna could not make a retort to that.

"Anyway, you guys should finish eating. It's getting late and I have to bring you all to the base."

Mark said, urging the new members to hurry to eat their dinner.

Spera approached Mark, looking at his hand.

"What did the ghost give you?"

It was reasonable that she was interested. It was something from a ghost, after all.

"Probably, her treasure."

Mark said, showing the pebble to Spera and the others.

Yes, it looked like a normal gray-colored pebble that some kid would pick up from the streetside or parks. I looked quite unique, however, considering that it had a single pinkish and a single yellow unbroken line streaked around it.

"A wishing stone." Mark identified the pebble to everyone's surprise. "Looks like it also had amethyst and citrine lines. Must be rare."

A wishing stone was said to grant wishes if one put it in their pocket or around the person as they made their wish. This stone must be in the girl's pocket when she died.

And if its lore managed to manifest to the girl, this stone might be the reason such a strong sentiment was born after her death.

Now, the wish was granted. The girl then passed the stone to Mark before she vanished.

Mark did not believe the lore of a wishing stone that much. This pebble did not have any sort of magical energy either. It was just a regular pebble that was a bit smelly.

Even so, Mark did not feel bad about thinking to carry it around. After all, it was an unexpected reward he got for doing a good deed.