A Part of Research in Forest

Sunrise came the next morning. However, the bright sunlight didn't bring the promising vibe all of them had hoped, instead it brought another bad news to them. The heavy fog wandering all over the village, like it was the messenger of a bad news. 

"Wake up, Darwin," Rachel shook his body vigorously like she was very nervous. 

"What is going on?" Darwin sat up on his bed, rubbed his eyes, still feeling sleepy. "Who are making so much noise outside?" 

"It is the old man we saw yesterday in the forest," Rachel answered. "He was found sitting over there, delirious, let's come, Matthew and Alex are there now." 

"What? He seemed sane yesterday," replied Darwin with disbelief. 

He quickly got up. "Where is him now, let's go." 

"This way, quick," said Rachel, ushered him to go with her to the said place. 

It was not far away, they reached there in two minutes. The place was crowded, many people were around the old man, trying to offer him some help any way they could. 

There the old man was, still wearing his lab coat. "No, leave me alone, I want to die." 

"He keep saying that, it has been more than an hour now," one of the villagers said. 

The old man was lying on the ground, looking up and pointing at the sky, like he was talking to someone. "Go away, don't hurt me, it wasn't my fault, let me die." 

He covered up his face like he was too guilty to face everyone. 

"What is he talking about?" All of the villagers were murmuring. 

The old man sat up, bit his hand, as if trying to savour his flesh. "Back off, I will kill you if you take one step closer." 

He stared furiously at anyone who came close and threatened to punch them in their faces while continuing talking to himself. 

"Maybe his conscience is killing him," Rachel looked at him with compassion. 

"Or it is the research gone wrong all over again," bickered Matthew. 

Alex went closer, looked at the old man face. 

"Do you know him, Alex?" asked Darwin. 

Alex looked up from the old man and at the other three. "Perhaps we should talk to his son, I think we can get some clues out of him." 

"Wait, you know this old man?" Rachel glanced over at Alex. 

"His son and I went to the same high school, but I didn't know he was working in the forest," said Alex, as shocked as the three of them. 

"Where is the son now?" Darwin looked at the old man miserably. 

"How do we bring such a bad news to his son?" said Matthew worriedly. 

Alex looked at Darwin. "He is in another town, come on, I will bring all of you over, it is just an hour ride, can I borrow your car?" 

"Sure, here is the key," Darwin took it out of his pocket. 

The ride was uneasy, Darwin was thinking about how to break the news to the son that his father was doing some illegal stuff and he was now suffering from mental breakdown. 

Perhaps he could just not tell the son any of it, but then it would be odd to just suddenly pay the son a visit and asked the son about his father job. 

The ride soon came to a halt, and Darwin seemed reluctantly to jump out of the car because he didn't know how to start a conversation with the son. 

Alex, on the other hand, seemed more relax, went straight to the door and rang the doorbell. 

It didn't take too long, they heard footsteps hurry to the door, and a young man opened the door, he was tall and thin, with a pair of glasses. Much like his father, both looked like a professor involving in some kind of research. 

"It has been a while, James, how are you?" Alex started the conversation with a greeting. 

"I am fine, thank you, Alex, can I help you?" James answered and looked interestedly at the other three in the back. 

"As you already knew, I am with the government, four of us were sent here to conduct an investigation about your father's job in the village over there," said Alex, unexpected by the other three. 

"Alright, come on in then," James kept the door wide open to welcome the four of them in. 

They were lead to the living room, two long sofas with a table in the middle of them. There were a lot of research papers on the table, it was certain that James too was doing some researches, but they were all legal since he just laid them publicly on the table. 

"But why the sudden visit about my dad's job?" asked James worriedly. "Is he in any kind of trouble?" 

"No, just that he keeps his research secretly in the forest, and the government wants to know what it is all about, the government don't want to endanger the people around it," answered Alex casually, the other three were amazed. 

"Truth to be told, I have no idea what my dad is doing," said James, looking at the family photo on the wall. "There was this one morning, he told us that he was going away next week for a few months, he was excited, saying he was going to change the world if everything went according to his plan." 

"But my mom and I, we didn't know what the plan was. However, I did find out something about the research," he took out his mobile phone showing the picture of the research paper he took. 

The details were comprehensive, they were all about the biology of the human, the anatomy, DNA composition and others.

"I know my dad is a profession in biology, he is passionate about it, the DNA research is completely legal and safe, there should be no reason for the government to suspect that my dad will endanger someone," James looked up from the mobile phone to Alex. 

"Alright, I promise I will make sure I pass on this information to them," said Alex, avoiding to look at James. 

Rachel raised her hand. "Can you be more specific about the DNA research? What is it about?" 

James closed his eyes, trying hard to remember if his dad had mentioned anything about it. "I am not really sure but I know my dad is passionate about merging the gene of the wolf with another species, this is something he had been talking about to my mom for years." 

Silence arose. The three of them looked at Alex while Alex expressed a furious look. Alex felt the anger emerging, like the anger was going to burst out of his head, he needed to suppress it, he was afraid the transformation would occur, he couldn't let James see it, he didn't want James knew that he was a monster now and furthermore, he didn't want to hurt anyone in his wolf form. 

"Are you alright?" asked James when he realised that something was off with Alex. "You seem overly reacted to my dad's research." 

Alex stood up. "I need to take a walk outside, the information is too overwhelming." 

Alex walked out of the house slowly, trying his very best to calm himself down, he knew that he was temperamental after the memory loss in the forest, perhaps it had something to do with the wolf's gene. 

He looked down, trying to avoid eye contacts with the pedestrians, afraid it would upset him and trigger the transformation. He made a low roar, to channel out his anger, the pedestrians looked at him confoundedly. 

"You alright, buddy?" suddenly came a voice behind Alex. 

It made him jump and look back, the other three were standing behind him. 

"You are outside for one hour now, so we came out to find you," said Rachel warily. 

Alex looked at his watch, he hadn't realised he had been out for so long, he was so drowned in sorrow and anger that he lost track of time. 

"No, I am not alright, didn't you hear it, his dad merged the wold gene in mine, I am not even human anymore." Alex moaned. 

"If he could do that, that means he can also reverse it, I am pretty sure there is a cure in the forest," replied Matthew. 

"His dad is delirious now, how do you suppose we can get him to reverse my DNA?" said Alex indignantly. 

"He could be cured with proper professional help, besides, his research team is still inside, they will know how to help you," reassured Darwin. 

"I will go in again, alone, to look for the cure, it is too risky for all of you," Alex interjected and turned his back on them. 

"No, we will go in together, according to James, there is more to the research, you can't do this alone, Alex, you need help," Darwin said sturdily. 

"What do you mean? What did James said after I left?" asked Alex, turning back to look at Darwin. 

"His mom disappeared one week after his dad left for the research, and she has been missing since," continued Darwin sadly. "Moreover, do you still remember the fungi on your team? How can you explain it? There are still a lot of unanswered questions in the forest." 

Alex couldn't answer the question, he just looked from Darwin to Matthew and then to Rachel. 

All of them were bewildered, the burden of finding out the truth weighed so heavy on them, they knew they were going down an unknown road, filled with lots of thorns that could hurt them. 

"Come on, let's go back, there is not much we can do here," said Darwin to the other three. 

They went back to village, despair was all over their faces. This time Darwin was driving because Alex seemed too upset, which was understood. 

"We need to go back to the map in Darwin's room," said Rachel. "I am sure we can find some clues in there." 

Matthew supported Rachel. "Yes, we were distracted by Alex last night. Let's take another closer look at the map again." 

"No problem, let's get back to my room," replied Darwin. 

They went to Darwin's room as soon as they got out of the car. 

The map was still laid open on the table like last night, and all of them gathered around it. 

"Look, the x marks," said Rachel, startling. 

"What about it?" asked Matthew, clueless. 

"There are two kinds of x marks, one with flower and one with claw, these are important," answered Rachel while pointing her finger at both of the marks. 

"So that means fungi and animals?" asked Alex, disgusted by the marks. 

"Yes, I think they are, there is no wording attached to them, but I think the flower means the body was found with fungi and the claw means the body was found with animal attribute," answered Darwin while looking at Alex, afraid he would lose control due to his anger. 

"Any more information other than this?" asked Matthew, trying his very best to see if there were any small wordings on it. 

"I don't think so," Darwin answered. "I have been finding information on it for a few weeks now." 

All of them but Darwin looked disappointed, as if they wanted to give up, but there were so bodies that needed justice. 

"Come on, it is still too early to give up, we can still try to find more information in the library, the very place where I found this map," cheered Darwin who stood up going to the door. " Wanna join me in the library?" 

They all stood up immediately. "Let's go, the truth is waiting for us," said Matthew.