Chapter 722 - Night at Madrijelos, The End of the Meeting and the Village in the Forest (1/2)

Day 153 - 6:12 PM - Principal's Office, Madrijelos National High School, Barangay Madrijelos, Municipality of Algeria, Province of Cebu

The meeting continued after Doctor Janice briefly explained her findings and Officer Emilio summarizing the crucial points of his conversation with Mark.

Nonetheless, it all boiled down to one single question.

”Can we trust them?”

The fisherman, Caudillo, asked.

Even though Doctor Janice said that they were a powerful group...

Even if their goal was to deal with the Tamawos, as Officer Emilio mentioned...

There was still the issue of trust.

And Officer Emilio's answer, of course, was...

”I can't say for sure that we can trust them.”

Officer Emilio shook his head.

It made everyone sigh but also relieved. Officer Emilio was a cautious leader. He would not just trust anyone they met shortly. He was not careless towards himself or his people.

Nonetheless, Officer Emilio continued with an argument that none of them would be able to deny.

”I don't know if we can trust them, but... They are our only chance of getting past that accursed town. And maybe save the people enslaved there along the way.”

Everyone fell silent in a disheartening way.

After their settlement in Liloan suddenly fell because of that monster leaving less than ten percent surviving the tidal wave, everyone could barely cling onto any hope that was left.

They manually carried all the supplies they could find. They even put the injured into ragged carts and carried some on their backs. They used what was left of their strength to travel north.

Using vehicles before the outbreak, the distance between Liloan and Madrijelos would only take a little bit more than an hour to traverse. But for the survivors of Liloan Settlement after its collapse, it took them more than two weeks.

They could not travel continuously because of the injured and their limited supplies. The survivors had to stop and find shelter at different intervals to have rest and replenish their supplies. It was hard to maintain enough water and food for several hundred people, especially with most of them injured because of the settlement's destruction.

And the attacks they received from both infected and evolved animals in their journey made everything worse.

After those hardsh.i.p.s, they reached this place. It was barely halfway their estimated route north. But no one expected that the road would be blocked by some hostile creatures from the urban legends.

The group tried to reason that they would only want to pass by, only to have spears pointed at them. Luckily, those Tamawos were also afraid of the soldiers' guns and did not provoke any kind of battle. Nonetheless, the survivors were not allowed to pass through and were driven away.

It had been about a month since that happened. Since then, the survivors were stuck in this place. They had no choice but to find an opportunity to pass through that town occupied by the Tamawo.

Fighting their way through? It was easier said than done. They observed the Tamawos stealthily using various methods. They learned that the Tamawos enslaved the people that lived in the town. They also used their legendary charm ability to beguile the women to become their partners.

The worst part was that... The useless people were actually turned into food for these vicious creatures.

Learning about what happened to the residents, the soldiers and the survivors were angry. However, they were also helpless about the situation.

The survivors in this place were in the worst situation.

There was also no way for them to go on a different route. From this school, instead of going north, they could take a detour eastward. However, it was far more dangerous than staying stuck in this place.

Although it was a paved road, the route east would go through the mountainous center of the province. It would be expected for them to encounter evolved animals on a regular basis. Furthermore, safer places where they could stay would be far distant from each other. It would be likely that they would need to camp out every now and then.

That would be the worst thing to do in the middle of the mountains during this apocalypse.

Not to mention that going east would bring them closer to the territory of the infected. Having too many people traveling near the infected territory would definitely draw the infected to their group.

That was why they were here, stuck.

Now, Mark's group appeared. Trustworthy or not, that strange group was their only hope in their hopeless situation.

”Even if they are powerful, will they be able to succeed against those human-shaped monsters?”

Denver asked.

”We can't say for sure.” Officer Emilio replied with a sigh. ”Even so, we will have nothing to lose in supporting them. We all know that, sooner or later, we will have to take even more dangerous measures to survive. Our supplies won't last forever either. This might be our last chance.”

The meeting continued on with this decision. And even though Mark's group said that they only needed information, Officer Emilio and the others decided that they would prepare as a backup in case something unexpected happened.

***

Unknown to them all, just outside the window of the principal's office, Mark was listening to their meeting.

”They're pretty decent, aren't they...”

Mark nodded in commendation. The leaders of this group were pretty decent ones, although one seemed to have some hateful quirks.

”I might want to take some of them in, especially that doctor. She had such an interesting ability. To think that she could see Mutagen forming patterns. Her ability is useful for studying Mutagen. It's a pity, though. She seemed to be unable to see Psypathogen. Probably because it's an entirely different pathogen despite coming from the same root.”

But then, Mark shook his head.

”I'll just let nature take its course.”

Recruiting people with concrete goals will be hard unless there was a good opportunity. It was like with Berrak, Geronimo, and Padua. The three joined his group due to circ.u.mstances around them. It would not have happened if there were no good opportunities at that time.

”I don't need anything else from this meeting. I better go back. Crimson and Ignis are about to return.”

With those words to himself, Mark turned into a surge of black mist. The black mist then flew across the window in the darkness of the night.

***

”Huh?”

BANG!

Suddenly, Doctor Janice stood up from in the middle of their meeting. Her chair even fell causing a loud bang on the floor.

Everyone fell silent and looked at her only to see her rubbing her eyes while staring at the window.

”What happened?”

Officer Emilio asked the doctor.

”I thought I saw something outside the window.” Doctor Janice said as she picked up her chair. ”I must be seeing things.”

Someone went out to check. However, they saw nothing.

”Then, let's get back to the topic.”

Officer Emilio said as they continued after the slight intervention.

However, Doctor Janice was silent, still staring at the window.