The Complicated Plant People

The night became day and the full moon that was once above me became the shining bright sun with not a cloud in the sky. The air around me was extremely quiet and when I looked around me there was nothing but the sight of a simple hospital room that I swear I had never seen before. I looked down at my hand and saw that I was clutching a small heart-shaped locket which I had also never seen before.

As I turned it over and over in my hand trying desperately to recognise it I realised I didn’t even know who I was, not my name, who I was or where I was, other than a hospital room. I slowly turned the locket over one last time to the front and opened it up. There were words inscribed in the locket that read; Find Yourself. I frowned because I was hoping I would find a picture that would give me a hint as to who I was.

I looked out of the window at the bright comforting sunshine and slowly stood up out of bed to get a closer look at the outside world. I noticed as I was walking that I had a very sore leg and was limping, but other than that I seemed okay. After looking out the window at the quiet street with no cars or people, I went into the bathroom and looked at myself in the mirror.

I didn’t really recognise myself in the mirror, but there was some sort of familiarity in my face that was oddly comforting. I used the hair tie that was around my wrist to put up my long sandy blond hair and splashed my face with some cold water which seemed to instantly make me feel a lot fresher. I kept my hair up as I looked through the closet to find some clothes. I dressed into the jeans and t-shirt that were in their and put on the sneakers that were beside the door.

As I found my way out of the hospital I noticed that there were no signs of people around. I thought if it was some sort of zombie apocalypse, surely there would be dead bodies right? On my way out, I grabbed a pen and notepad from an office and jotted down the words; “Zombie Apocalypse?” I also jotted down the words; “Find Yourself” from the locket that now hung around my neck.

As I walked around the empty streets carrying nothing but my pen and paper, I noticed that there were cars that looked like they were completely abandoned with their keys still left in the ignition and with women’s purses still sitting on the passenger seat or behind the front seat. I walked up to a Louis Vuitton shop and noticed that the door was left unlocked. I wandered in and absently ran my hand along the shelves knocking some of the purses down to the ground. I may not have known who I was or what city I was in, but I did know that I wanted to grab myself a Louis Vuitton purse.

After I picked myself out a backpack and purse, I moved onto to the department store next door to pick up some clothes and supplies to fill my new bags. I picked a couple of pairs of jeans, underwear and t-shirts and some cans of food. I had a feeling that I would have to possibly travel some to find some more people.

I walked for many hours until I got out of the city and into some of the less populated suburban areas. I decided that I would check to see if I could drive a car – the thought hadn’t occurred to me until then. I jumped into the first one I saw with the keys in the ignition and started it up. Although it started fine, I found that I really had no idea what I was doing, so I got back out and continued to walk.

Eventually I walked so far that I was hungry and tired. I stopped at a farm house outside of town, ate one of my cans of food then fell asleep on the stranger’s couch. I slept soundly through the night and awoke to the sound of birds chirping in the trees outside. At least there were still birds around. I wondered what other animals would still be around.

When I finally set off again on the road I could see a field off in the distance with what looked like people shaped plants growing. As I got closer, I couldn’t help but gasp! They weren’t people shaped plants, they were people that seemed to be turning into plants! As I got close enough to touch one, I was really scared. I reached out my hand to touch the once man-turned-plant creature. Although he still felt like a person and still had on a business suit, he was embedded into the ground where his shoes and feet would once have been and he had leaves growing out of his hands, face and head, particularly out of his eye sockets where most of the growth seemed to be.

I stood back away from the man-plant creature and looked at the field full of them – women, men and children all turned plant creatures. Although it was eerie and initially made me gasp, I really felt like the people were at ease and they looked kind of happy with all their faces slightly turned towards the sun like sunflowers. Although they looked happy and content, that was the first time I felt truly alone. I sat on the ground, looked up at the plant people and cried. I was in a new world, I had no idea who I was, but I knew that something terrible had happened to make these people turn into these creatures. I hoped that if I kept travelling, I would one day find some real people left alive.

I travelled for what felt like weeks, stopping in at small towns to re-stock my food supplies and to wash myself and my clothes. I came across hundreds of fields each with hundreds of plant-people creatures. Although I initially felt weird, I picked myself up a sleeping bag and took to sleeping in the fields with the plant-people. During the night they were even more peaceful as they all bowed their heads down and kind of drooped, looking like they were sleeping.

One day, as I was walking along the road, I came across a military style compound with a big gated fence around it. As I got closer, I saw the most amazing sight of my life, a person pacing back and forth along the wide gates perimeter with a large shot gun. They actually looked like they were dressed in military clothing. As I walked up to the gate, the man came to talk to me through the gate.

“Good morning Miss.” He said.

“Hello,” I answered, feeling strange because I couldn’t ever remember talking to anyone, ever.

Just saying hello must have allowed me to pass some undisclosed test because he led me straight to the gates opening where he led me through then up to the main building where there were more people in military outfits. They didn’t say anything to me as they grabbed my arm and let me towards a room that looked like a laboratory.

Once in the room they sat me down and started to test my vitals, first taking my temperature, then my blood pressure. They then left, leaving me waiting until a man came in wearing a doctors coat. When he saw me and read the notes the others had written about me he looked at me and smiled.

“So young lady, where have you been for the last year?” He asked.

“Umm.” I replied sheepishly, “I’m not sure, I really just woke up in a hospital room about a month ago. I’ve been walking around ever since.”

After some more tests, they took my blood and swabbed the inside of my mouth, they took me to a small but comfortable room where there was a neatly made up bed and desk as well as a small cupboard. I sat on the bed as the man who led me there left the room and locked me in on his way out. I really started to worry. Was I a prisoner? Or were they going to help me?

After five days of them feeding me prisoner style through a hole in the door, the doctor finally came in to see me. He had with him a soldier and a doctors bag which didn’t instil much hope for me or my future.

“We’ve done some tests. It seems that you haven’t contracted the virus yet. It means that we have time to turn you and save your life.” He said, looking at me with sadness in his eyes.

“What do you mean ‘turn me’?” I asked. “And what virus are you talking about?”

“You really don’t know what’s happening, do you?” He answered, shaking his head.

“No!” I screamed back.

He then went on to explain to me that one and a half years ago, a virus plagued the world. Three quarters of the world’s population died within a month and everyone else lived in fear of the horrific death the virus ended in. The military created a cure, however, only one in one thousand people who took the cure were totally free and clear of the virus, while the rest of the people became something else – they turned into the plant people, ‘complicated plants’ they called them. That was what the fields were filled with. The people who survived ran the military bases like the one I was in.

“What happens if I don’t take the cure?” I asked. I felt absolutely fine and couldn’t believe they would make me take a cure that really wasn’t much of a viable option.

“We can’t allow that. Even though you feel fine now, if you don’t take the cure, you could get a mutated strand of the virus and put everyone in danger.” He answered, reaching into his bag and pulling out the biggest damn needle I had ever seen.

Before I knew what I was doing, I stood up, barged the doctor out of the way and attempted to run. Unfortunately, I was no match for the soldier who simply grabbed me by the throat and forced me back onto the bed. He held me down as the doctor injected me with the needle. I screamed and screamed, but there was no one there to help me. All these people were acting out of fear and I should never have come through those gates.

After the injection I just sat on the bed and cried. The doctor explained to me that if I were going to become a ‘complicated plant’, that it would happen within the next four hours. I basically felt like I had four hours to live and I was stuck as a prisoner in a small room.

So, this is my short story. I now sit in a field close by with my face to the sun during the day and my body drooping to sleep by night. What the people in the military base don’t understand is that we are all conscious here as ‘complicated plants’ and we are not happy with how we’ve been treated. We will rise and take over, and those bastards can’t do a thing to stop us.

The End...