Mark looked first to Hannah, stuck inside the torn-down building she claimed was safe from those flowers. She brought him one, very carefully and inside a sack for him to examine. He did many tests on the thing, using the supplies he carried in his backpack for further research. "When did you say these things showed up, Hannah?" He asked her as she sat across from him, behind the flower.

"Oh, perhaps a few months ago. I think they came from the woods nearby."

"The woods? Impossible. This flora doesn't look familiar to me, even by it's biological signature." Mark stated, looking through a microscope at one of the spores.

"What is it?"

"The spores. It seems to dislike any other cell near it. It pushes them away, or devours them. Do you know what that means, Hannah?" Mark asked, zooming in and out in the viewer.

"No, what?" Hannah innocently replied.

"If we don't stop this somehow soon, the villagers may lose all ability to have any free will at all. They'll be like slaves of the spores, nearly. Unable to gain any thought." Mark said, pausing to put a large coat on from his backpack.

"Where are you going?" Hannah asked, wanting to come with him.

"You stay here, Hannah. I'm going to get help. We're going to need it. There must be some others that can explain to me more of what's going on. We need everyone we can get. I'm checking, and you wait." With that, he left.

__________________
Thanks to Alti... HAH. ... Sorry. Selene, Mark, Raziel, Arlen and Kate