Parallax Realms - Keryssa: the Root of it All

 

Keryssa

              Keryssa stood on the beach, looking out over a seething mass of tendrils and vines.

              “It can’t cross the water, right?”

              “As far as I’ve seen. Don’t want to give it the opportunity.” Her friend, Talon, stepped to her side, leonine pelt shimmering with sweat. A series of bodies, roughly human in appearance, shambled along the beach, small tendrils extending back into the forest like some grotesque puppets. “Those ones in the back, with the tendril beards, look like they’re in charge.”

              “What are they doing?” Talon had asked.

              Keryssa shook her head. “I’m not sure.”

              A tendril stretched from the jungles as the body shuffled forward, flopping into the water, twitching, and apparently dying. Another followed suit. The commanders in the back called up more and more.

              “It’s feeling its way across. It’s using their corpses as a bridge,” she said with astonished horror.

              “There can’t possibly be enough bodies…” Talon muttered.

              “There were morgues under that lab, and several others around these islands.”

              “Why?”

              “They were trying to turn dead bodies into an energy supply…”

              “You’re joking.”

              She shook her head, “I wish I were.”

              Talon shook his head, “gods have mercy…”

              “The gods abandoned us years ago.”

              She remembered watching this same event years ago, after containment breach. She had been sitting on a small ship, watching the plant-controlled scientists wander into the water, to the same effect. Talon had been there then, too.

              “Fall back,” Talon had ordered, and they had motored out into the channel, leaving a tendril, writhing above the surface of the water. It had then fallen into the salty brine and with a semi-audible shriek, perished, darkening and drying as it went.

              Back then, they had developed a mission statement when she had said. “We need to warn the other islands.”

              So had begun the attempt that led them here. The various settlements and Warehouses scattered across the islands of the Archipelago had barricaded the infested lab and attempted to burn it out – fire, salt water, even lava and acid. While the plants fell back for a time, they continued to probe weaknesses, continued to try to find ways off the island. A band of refugees were spotted traveling by boat away from the mass. When interrogated, they had said they were survivors that had been hiding – avoiding corruption until they could steal a boat and make it to safety.

              “Think they were telling the truth?” Keryssa asked again, for probably the twentieth time. She turned away from the pulsing tendrils on the other island. It would be a while before they formed the bridge. She and Talon had time to move on.

              Talon growled. “Your perspective’s changed, hasn’t it.”

              She nodded. She’d seen the devastation of the Root, as they’d come to call it. She’d seen what it could do. She’d seen the start of the infestation – that little flower nestled away behind glass. She could only imagine the cleverness that it had used to escape. She had suspected the refugees from the get-go, and had been at the forefront demanding they be sent back.

              She’d watched as the water-bound guardians, large constructs empowered by the surrounding ocean water, guided the pleading refugees back to the island, destroying their boat and stranding them ashore before vanishing back into the surf.

              She’d watched as the tendrils sent out by the Root had targeted the few and dragged them off into the jungle… no doubt as punishment for failing their quest.

              Now, watching the encroachment of the dense Root jungle, she had to wonder again. “Were they telling the truth?”

              Talon used a claw to pick at his teeth, shrugged, and settled onto the ground. “As you’ve asked, and as I’ve answered.” He was soon asleep, leaving her tormented over what she had done, and what would happen to them.

              The night passed into morning. A small watch on her wrist ticked out the time. She sighed, rose from her bedroll, and stretched.

              “How far is it now?”

              She shook her head. “You’re not picking up any scents?”

              He nodded. “I’m picking up thousands… but they’re all plants. No blood for miles.”

              “So, no one’s dead at least.”

              “I wouldn’t rely on my snout, Kery. The odor of the Root is unbelievable – every mind-numbing scent, both good and bad, overwhelms people like me.”

              Keryssa nodded. “I’m sorry, old friend.”

              He chuckled, “Don’t be. It’s not unpleasant most of the time. I’m just scared of what its influence will make me do.”

              Keryssa placed a hand on his fur-covered shoulder. It was matted with the dampness of the air. He smiled. “I struggle the same. The Root’s whispers are… powerful.”

              Talon’s smile became a grimace. They’d talked at length of the power of the Root. Its whisperings – in every voice and language imaginable – assaulted them at every turn. And apparently it now sought to twist Talon through pheromones. What would it use against her?

              Talon stood, and the two broke camp. Slinging her bedroll over her shoulder and her bag over her other, Keryssa turned to see Talon drawing a large spar of metal.

              “What is that?”

              He chuckled. “Figured I needed a new weapon after the last one… well, you know.”

              She smirked. “He went out well.”

              “Are you talking about the Root-touched or the blade?”

              “Well, not to show too much sympathy for our enemy… but I think both.”

              “Heh,” responded Talon with a toothy grin. “He was a worthy fight.”

              About a month earlier, they’d both met a Root-touched Giant on a broken span of bridge. They’d gotten themselves trapped after scavenging for resources in some old vehicles that had been abandoned when the Root had taken over that particular island. The Root-touched, a behemoth standing nearly fifteen feet tall with large green tendrils protruding from his chin and arms, had jumped them without warning.

              Keryssa had been knocked aside before she could react. Injured, she’d been unable to help. Talon was alone. The large man stepped between the behemoth and its prey, wielding a family blade he affectionately called “Hedger.” Long green trails – the blood of many Root-touched mowed down previously – ran the length of the blade, pitting and staining it.

              “Stay back!” He’d said, holding the large creature at bay. Keryssa had begun to assemble an emergency flare, hoping she’d be able to use it if the need arose.

              Talon swept Hedger at the monster. It chuckled and dodged aside. Talon pivoted, as he was wont to do, and swung as the creature dodged, changing directions and sweeping for the creature’s foot. It dodged rapidly, moving its leg so quickly that Talon fell sideways.

              The monster then swept a hand at the man, clutching him by the throat and plucking him from the ground. Talon choked in protest as Hedger was wrenched from his hand. It clattered to the pavement.

              “Kery…” he had choked. “Any time.”

              Kery had been working as fast as she could. “Just a moment longer!”

              “Sure…” he had gasped, “Take your time. I’m just… hanging out here.”

              He’d given the beast a pathetic kick in the arm. The thing laughed.

              Then Talon had kicked again.

              Again, the beast laughed at his efforts, constricting more tightly.

              Talon bared his teeth and struck a third time, this time extending a claw as he did. The talon pierced the soft flesh under the arm of the beast, tearing free a chunk of muscle and flesh. Red-green blood splashed free like sap from a broken vine. The odd combination of animal and plant always made them both sick.

              Not pausing, Talon struck the ground, snatched Hedger from the pavement, and swung. The beast stomped on the blade before he could swing it, shattering it. Talon growled in anger and continued his swing, severing the left foot of the monster with the shattered remains of his family blade.

              The Root-touched shrieked and fell sideways. As he did, Talon had shouted out for Keryssa. “Kery! Now!”

              The severed foot still twitched on the ground, attempting to thread itself back down into the soil. The body roared and cursed. Talon slashed again with the broken spar. “Kery!”

              “Moment!”

              “We don’t have one!”

              She’d sworn and tossed the final chemicals into the mixture, hoping it was close to right. The phial smoldering unnaturally in her hand; she’d screamed as she plunged the concoction, bottle and all into the face of the Root-touched.

              The chemicals had done their work. Starting in the face, they’d burned down through the beast, tearing away the presence of the Root. Tendrils boiled and fell away from the jaws, the eyes cleared. Ears returned to normal.

              The body wouldn’t survive, but the soul would be free.

              With a heavy heart, Keryssa had backed away, groaning to watch the horror, but not ever wanting to take her eyes away. She’d freed the human from the beast. The least she could do beyond that is to honor the life by watching the death.

              The hands and torso followed shortly. Writhing tendrils convulsed under the skin, recoiling back into the soil through freshly-bored openings in the flesh.

              Then had come the legs. The injuries had reopened as the presence of the Root retracted, and fresh, human blood had flowed freely, coating the road beneath. Talon had turned up his nose at the sight, and not for the first time, had groaned, “Ugh, the rot…”

              When he’d first said it, she had thought he’d mispronounced “Root.” When pressed, he’d responded. “No, the flesh and blood… it smells of death. It smells as if it’s been rotting inside him this whole time.”

              “So are they just zombies? I thought they were still alive?”

              Talon had just shrugged, “as far as I know, they’re still alive. They’re just… kept alive. Blood isn’t necessary, so it just sits there. That’s as best I can tell, at least.”

              “And what of their mind?” She thought of the whispers – the pleading for her to give in, to give up… “are they still in there somewhere?”

              “It’s toying with us. They’re dead, and their minds are gone. It’s using them to get to us.”

              Burn away the roots and the body died. The Rootbound were truly bound, in both life and death, to the Root. If they were ever disconnected from the Root, they’d die.

              Kery’s heart hung heavy. “Is there really any escape for us?”

              Talon hefted his new weapon. “We’ll find out.”

              As they strode through the jungle, she asked, “What are you going to call it?”

              “The Trimmer.”

              A few days later, the pair arrived at the shore of another canal. Two large tendril-like roots extended over it, avoiding the salty water, forming a living bridge to the other side.

              “Where are they?”

              Talon shook his head. “I’m not smelling anything.”

              Keryssa fumbled in her pouch. “I’m running low. We’ll have to stop soon.”

              Talon bit the inside of his cheek and hefted Trimmer. “We’ve got as much water as you could hope right here. What else do you need?”

              “The chemicals. If we find a Warehouse, I’d imagine they’d have what we need.”

              Talon agreed. He scooped up several phials of sea water, then motioned her to lead on. She reached up, clambering hand over hand up the tendril. It was dozens of feet wide and nearly two hundred long. She could see the various bodies that formed the lower barrier.

              Do you wonder why I let you flee? The whispers had started again.

              She ignored them. Behind her, Talon scratched at his head. “Ignore it!” She cried.

              “I’m trying,” he growled in response. “It asks good questions!”

              I want you to survive… to become my champion. I want you to go out and bring more into the fold.

              She’s already given all the typical insults of “I”d never serve you” and such. She wasn’t feeling it at the moment. She wanted relief… rest. She wanted the Root to go away. She wanted to escape to another world where the Root never existed.

              Listen to me, Keryssa.

              She grimaced and continued across the bridge. She was in direct contact with the Root. It was louder now.

              Listen.

              She paused and watched Talon scratch again.

              “How are you doing?”

              He perked up, as if startled. “I – I’m fine…” he muttered “I’m just… fine.”

              She placed a hand on his shoulder. “We’re touching the Root… it’s strong. It’ll all be over once we get off this thing.”

              Talon nodded, looking unconvinced.

              She clutched his paw. “C’mon, just a little farther.”

              Let him go… came the voice again. It’s not fair that you should make that decision for him. Let him make his own.

              She scowled, “He’s not in his right mind.”

              She felt Talon tense.

              “Talon?”

              What do you mean, ‘I’m not in my right mind’?

              “The trip… it’s getting to you more than me.”

              “So, you’re saying you’re stronger… that your will is more iron than mine?”

              “No, you’re just weakened.”

              “I’m weak?”

              Let him make his own mind…

              “And be a slave to yours?”

              “I seem to already be a slave…” Talon growled, grimacing, “why not to someone greater?”

              Keryssa turned fully toward Talon. “What did you say?”

              “All this time, you’ve done nothing but call the shots,” he growled, scratching at his head again. “All this time, we’ve fought the Root, and for what?”

              “For what?” she asked, aghast. “For freedom!”

              “Freedom to live another day? And where has that gotten us?”

              “The sanctuary is near. Everything we’ve ever seen is proof of it! We need to keep going.”

              “No.”

              “What do you mean?”

              “No more…” muttered Talon.

              The Root was quiet, listening.

              “I won’t be a slave to your whims anymore, Keryssa. This whole life… it’s a pointless struggle. We’re moths in the web. The spider just hasn’t found us yet.”

              “Talon…”

              “No use dying tired. It’s vain to resist. We’ve exhausted every avenue. We lost.”

              Keryssa reached out.

              “Don’t touch me.”

              With that, Talon hefted the phials of water and tossed them away. He turned to the nothing-but-jungle creeping in around them.

              “Did you hear that?” he shouted. “You win! Take me!”

              “Talon, no!”

              “No more, Keryssa. I’m free. The Root has shown me the truth. I’ll be free at last.”

              Before she could do anything, the vines exploded from the bridge and consumed Talon. He held up a single claw, a smile on his face, and vanished into the root-bridge. Keryssa toppled to the ground with a cry. Her hands scrabbled where the vines had been. “Give him back! Give him back!”

              I didn’t take him. He gave himself willingly.

              Keryssa sobbed against the hard wood.

              Come to me, Keryssa. Know the freedom I offer. You won’t have to run any longer. I will give you the rest you crave. I bring peace to this world, not a sword.

              She looked at the ground. Trimmer lay there. She plucked up the heavy spar of metal and clanked it heavily against the root. The whispers came again. Why do you rage? Why do you vainly imagine freedom from that which truly frees you?

              Trimmer toppled out of her hand and plummeted into the canal. She sobbed again.

              How will you go on? Yield to my words. Heed them. Become my greatest champion.

              “I’m not interested in your war.”

              Then join me and gain the companionship and wisdom you’ve always craved.

              “Shut up.”

              She was a moth, flitting desperately, destructively, against its web. Her scales were coming free. She could feel the spider approaching. She did the only things she could think of. She dropped off the bridge and into the water, feeling the cold, salty brine soaking into her clothing, pressing tightly against her flesh – her human, living flesh. She was still alive. Her blood was alive. Her flesh was still warm – it pulsed with life.

              “I will never serve you,” she muttered as she swam to the shore.

              Within a few minutes, she was able to pull her drenched body onto the sand. She collapsed. The Root’s bridge hovered above her, composed of who-knew-how-many bodies. Mindless victims driven to do their masters whim. Talon would soon be one of those.

              Or was he right? Was he truly free? Had those who had sacrificed to build this bridge been soldiers who sacrificed for the greater good? Had they willingly fought against all resistance because, deep down, they believed in the Root? Had none ever truly been enslaved? Were they all free?

              Her head spinning, she staggered to her feet.

              “Terminal.”

              A small projection appeared in front of her.

              “Yes, mistress Keryssa-prime?”

              “Where is the nearest Warehouse?”

              “Water-bound guardians report that the nearest Warehouse has suffered irreparable damage. Would you like to investigate?”

              “No.”

              “The next nearest whole Warehouse is located three miles away. Shall I route you there?”

              She nodded, then replied “Yes.”

              “Affirmative. Accessing best route. Which routing would you prefer?”

              “ARHUD[1].”

              “AR routing protocols executing. Caution: foreign lifeform detected in large quantities between here and your destination.”

              “I know. Activate Firewall.”

              “Activating Firewall.”

              Large flames erupted from the surroundings, driving back some of the weaker portions of the Root’s tendril mass. They extinguished, leaving behind a sparse collection of ash blowing upward in the thermals.

              “AR pathing complete. May I help you with anything else, ma’am?”

              “That is all. Terminal: dismissed.”

              “As you wish, ma’am.”

              The projection vanished. In its place, a small line of glowing markers stretched off into the flaming jungles.

              An hour later, deep in the jungle, the turrets stopped. Keryssa paused, crouching down to examine the ground beneath her. Smoldering tendrils recoiled back away from a road system. A street sign, bent over by the weight of a large vine, directed to the warehouse. The AR path continued off in front of her down the road.

              Night had come again. The AR path, which only she could see through an implant in the back of her brain, glowed brightly, like millions of fireflies lined up as far as eye could see.

              You fight against the inevitable… it whispered. I am already here. What do you hope to accomplish?

              She ignored the voice.

              I could destroy anything you hope to find before you even arrive. So I say again, what do you hope to accomplish?

              “Leave me alone.” She muttered, half to herself.

              I cannot. How could I leave you to such a fate? If I withdrew, left these islands in “peace,” how long before history repeated itself? Your people didn’t build the Warehouses. They didn’t built the underground chambers or tunnels. What happened to those civilizations, and where did all the bodies originate – the bodies that I was supposed to convert? Is my way so evil that you’d rather be slaughtered… or worse… than join?

              “I would rather die than be enslaved.”

              It is not slavery I offer. It is community. It is freedom.

              “Freedom is a choice.”

              Freedom is about one choice – the only one you want to make. When you can’t make that choice, you cry an incursion on your freedom. I offer freedom, and to understand, you must accept.

              She shook her head. “I said, leave me alone.”

              The road stretched on, finally banking down into a valley. The vines had been beaten back by the flames, and hadn’t yet regrown. The facility was secure.

              She scrambled down the road and vanished inside the Warehouse. Large pillars, intricately-carved and decorated, flanked the entrance. Glass doors, shattered at some point, swung open as she approached. Emergency lights glowed overhead.

              “Terminal.”

              A hologram appeared in her ARHUD. “Yes, miss?”

              “I need the chemical B45208, 50% grade.”

              “It is located on the thirteenth sub-basement, row 18, shelf 2, ma’am.”

              “I also need C2890, 75%.”

              “Twelfth floor, room 17, ma’am.”

              She turned back. A few turrets sprayed water off toward the jungle, trying to fight it back. It seemed to be working for now.

              “And salt water, any grade.”

              “Reservoirs at 25%.”

              “Terminal?”

              “Yes ma’am.”

              “Were the experiments being conducted here as well?”

              “Scanning clearance now, ma’am. Clearance confirmed. Detecting any unauthorized visitors. Facility secure. Answer: yes ma’am. The same experiments were being conducted here.”

              Her heart sunk. For years, she’d been traveling around the Archipelago islands. Some were overrun, some were not. At each, she’d asked the same question. At each, she’d received the same answer. All over Archipelago, the heinous experiments that had given the Root so much biomass had been conducted – an effort to convert dead tissue into energy.

              For the first time, given what the Root had just whispered, she wondered if that had been the genesis of the Root in the first place.

              Now you see as I do… these experiments were… in a word… heinous. What else did they do that we have yet to discover? Came the faint whisper.

              “Talon?”

              “Ma’am?”

              “Terminal, is there anyone else alive in the facility?”

              “I’m afraid the entire establishment was evacuated nearly two years ago, when the outbreak at the Alpha Facility occurred. Since then, we’ve been on strict quarantine. The tanks have nearly been exhausted keeping the outbreak at bay.”

              “Surely your pumps are still running. Can you not just draw in more water from the coast?”

              “I’m afraid something has clogged our pipe system. We have not been able to draw in fresh reserves for nearly a year, and with no one to clear the blockage, we will exhaust our full supply in the next few months. The Warehouse will be overrun.”

              “Incinerate the bodies.”

              “I’m afraid the fuel reserves of this island are at critical levels. I’m calculating 10% remaining. That is not enough to muster fire enough to destroy all the bodies.”

              “Try anyway.”

              “I’m afraid that is not possible, ma’aim.”

              She growled. “Fine, then get me the specimens.”

              “Retrieving requested chemicals. Fulfillment in thirty minutes. Please report to the lobby for relaxation and reading material.”

              In spite of herself, she smiled. “Terminal, I wish to use the dormitories.”

              “I shall direct you to them.”

              Her ARHUD pathing line shifted, progressing off down a hallway.

              Enjoy your break.

              “Thank you, I will.”

              “Ma’am?” asked the terminal. She turned. He looked confused.

              “You said ‘enjoy your break,’ so I said ‘thank you.’”

              “I said nothing, ma’am.”

              A shiver ran down her spine. “Of course you didn’t. Terminal: dismissed.”

              “As you wish.”

              With that, the projection vanished.

              The warehouse entry way was a sleekly modern structure. Vaulting arches of pristine white spanned overhead, emblazoned with the designation number of the facility. Small glyphs glowed as they traced down from high above. The decorations were limited in the Warehouse because anyone with an ARHUD could see what needed to be understood – physical embellishments weren’t required when it could be uploaded straight to the brain. Any decorations, therefore, meant they had been present dating back to the original use of the building. Large galleries, rich with ancient scripts, carvings, and old runes traced up the pillars. She imagined they continued deep underground, and did in several of the other facilities. A modern check station sat unused as she crossed the atrium. Keryssa leaned over the counter and fished around underneath it, finding a guard’s pistol.

              She plucked it from its straps and racked it open. No ammo. She placed it back on the counter and strode away toward the dormitories.

              And what would that accomplish?

              “Don’t you have a world to conquer?” she quipped.

              They were innocent, you know?

              “And you killed them.”

              I was young. I lashed out. My first victims were… unwilling.

              “So you enslaved them.”

              Not exactly, replied the voice. Yes, I took them by force, but they soon saw things my way.

              “And those you sacrificed to escape that first island? I saw the writhing bodies.”

              Their bodies were already dead.

              “They were moving.”

              They were the bodies you were going to use for fuel. Why is it all right for you to use them and not for me?

              “They were walking.” She repeated. She already knew the truth.

              I was puppeteering dead tissue, which I lost control of when they touched the water. Is that inhumane of me?

              “Leave me alone.”

              Think on what I said, Keryssa.

              “Don’t talk to me. We’re not friends.”

              Do you have any others? We talk more than you’ve ever talked to anyone else.

              She ignored the words and entered the dormitory. The beds were as they had been. Blankets hung awkwardly, the sheets still wrinkled from the last body that had slept there. She walked past the beds to the only place she really cared about – the showers. For years, she’d constantly doused herself in salt water or other chemicals so as to keep the vines off her. Whenever she’d found a stable Warehouse, she’d gone straight to the showers to clean off, if only for a moment. Now was no different.

              She stepped into the small stall and let the warm waters cascade over her.

              “Ma’am.”

              “I said, leave me alone.” Then she realized who was talking. It was the terminal.

              She stood in the shower and called up the voice again. “I’m sorry, you startled me. What’s the report?”

              “Ma’am, the specimens you ordered are available at the main entrance.”

              She gasped and called up the clock. She double-checked it with her watch. Indeed, she’d used up the entire half hour in the shower. Where had the time gone? She slipped out of the shower, dried off quickly and slipped into a new set of clothes from a nearby locker. She grabbed up her supplies and rushed off down the hallway and into the foyer, where the Terminal was waiting. He turned. “Your supplies, as requested.”

              She thanked him, pulled several new phials from the boxes and filled the chemicals as best she could. She then grabbed a few bottles of sea water, thanked the Terminal, and exited the warehouse.

              Your efforts are valiant, Keryssa. I will grant you that.

              “You’re getting stronger.”

              That I am.

              “What do you want?”

              I want you to join me.

              “You’re becoming a creepy stalker,” she replied as she stepped out into the sunlight. The perimeter was alight with both fire and water. The fire would burn back the encroaching vines and the water would coat the turrets – both as a cooling mechanism but also a preventative to keep them from being attacked. The corrosion had already started to take its toll, and a few of the turrets crackled and leaked fuel. One had burned out long ago, and simply rotted as more and more water was sprayed on it.

              Step out, enjoy the sun. Give in to the freedom I bring.

              “Stop trying,” she responded. “I have supplies again.”

 

              Three more days passed without a word from the Root. She passed over another bridge, expecting – hoping? – conversation. But none came. The Root was utterly quiet. She felt the horrible oppression of isolation hovering over her. She could imagine its voice, inviting her to a community that never slept, never died, never left any member abandoned or desolate. She didn’t buy it, but part of her yearned for it. Part of her yearned to hear it speak into her mind, if only to have something other than the interminable silence that reigned there.

              “Have you given up?” she goaded. No response.  “Did you just want Talon? Is that why you pushed so hard?”

              No response.

              She dropped off the bridge at the other end and knelt in the sand. Why did she still run? Where had the survivors actually gone? Were there survivors?

              A tendril extended from the jungle. It wormed its way across the soil.

              She felt the soft sand shift under her weight. She had but to step back into the water, coat herself in the brine, and she’d be safe. She could just toss a container and run, and she’d prevent the serpentine plant from even getting close.

              But she didn’t. Something in her was tired of running. Something else was curious. She’d been defiant for so many years.

              So now, as the small, delicate little plant pulsed its way over to her, she stood her ground.

              “What do you want?”

              It seemed to stop and listen.

              “You’ve taken my world; you’ve infected my thoughts. What do you want?”

              No speeches. The tendril continued forward. Smaller extensions began to worm themselves from the tendril’s end. She felt her heart pounding away inside her chest. Fear? Excitement? Something else?

              She gulped.

              “Why aren’t you saying anything?”

              A jolt of fear hit her. She almost ran. What if there was another whole sentience? What if the Root wasn’t the only controller of these jungles? She trusted the Root not to destroy her on the spot… but this plant… would it honor the… relationship? The agreement, unspoken though it may be?

              Then she noticed. The tendril was transforming into a hand!

              It stretched out from the forest – a green, tendril hand. It stretched out to her!

              She took a step back, her foot crunching into the sand. The plant stopped. They were both waiting to see what the other would do.

              She took a deep breath.

              The hand hovered there, extending dozens of yards back into the jungle. Hundreds of other tendrils waved and pulsed, as if waiting to see what this greeting between the two great leaders of the Archipelago would be. Would it bring peace? Or more war?

              The hand hovered a few feet from her. She’d have to reach out to accept it. She’d have to step toward it.

              No words rang in her ears. No pleading. Nothing that could be perceived as manipulation. It was just her and the plant. The Root didn’t even speak, if it was the Root she was facing.

              She extended a hand and took a step toward the jungle.

              “I greet you… friend.”

              And I greet you.

              It was almost a palpable feeling of relief that washed over her. She felt her feet shift slightly in the water, sliding. The hand shot forward and clutched her by the wrist. Her relief turned to panic as it raised her up.

              Then set her down.

              I am, if nothing else, a gentlemen. I will not force myself on you. This is but the first step in our grand plan.

              “Our?”

              Yes. You and me. We will bring peace to this Archipelago. We will calm the carnage and rebuilt this world.

 

              A few weeks later, and a few islands closer to the shore, she stood. Salty water spread out before her. She stood on the beach, staring out into the waves. She felt the final phial of chemicals pressing into her leg from a secret pocket – it was the same chemical that had burned away the Root’s influence when she and Talon had fought the Root-touched giant. They had thought they had saved his body and mind, at the cost of his life. What was the truth? She’d see if she ever had to use this one… on herself if needed. Behind her, tendrils swayed and bounced. A large vine protruded from the depths of the jungle, replete with the corpses it had acquired deep within the Warehouse nearby.

              She had personally shut down the defenses and ordered the Terminal to stand down. The flame turrets had ceased, the ocean water reservoirs had depleted of their own accord, and the vines had come. They’d swarmed over the derelict facility, upending walls and probing so deep into the structure that it buckled and collapsed under the strain. And she had watched. She was free to just stand and watch.

              Talon stepped out of the forest. His orange fur was now tinged with verdant shades of green and red. Otherwise, he appeared mostly the same, save for the tendrils that marked him as a leader.

              “You’re in charge now?” she asked.

              He nodded. Tendrils swayed.

              “What does the Root ask you to do?”

              “Nothing I don’t already want…” he muttered in response.

              “Is that because your desires match its or because it’s messed with your mind?”

              Talon shrugged. “Does that make a difference at this point? If it’s not my will driving me and I don’t know it, does that lessen the freedom I possess?”

              “Profound,” she replied.

              “And you still possess your mind, I see.”

              “We talked about it, the Root and I. We came to an… agreement.”

              “So should I call you ‘champion’ then?”

              Keryssa smirked. “No. I’m no one’s champion. I am but my own…”

              “Is it lonely?”

              “It was without you.”

              Talon had no reply. He stared out at the sea as bodies were deposited, allowing the vines to continue their trek deeper and deeper out into the ocean, making for the next islands in the Archipeligo.

              “I never realized you thought yourself my slave…” Keryssa muttered, a tear welling in her eye.

              Talon grunted.

              “I’m serious.”

              The man didn’t respond, but the light tendrils on his chin slowed and stopped moving. His fur shivered in response.

              “Forgive me? I never looked at you that way. I’m sorry you thought I did.”

              Talon shrugged. “That was my past life. It is what it is.”

              Keryssa nodded. “Hey, at least you’re completely free now, right?” She smiled hopefully.

              “We are all slaves to something, Kery.”

              She nodded, tears streaking her dirt-smeared face.  “Ya. We are.”

              The vines were now beyond her vision. More bodies had been brought up. How many had been stored in that Warehouse? It had been more a mausoleum than a laboratory. What had her people wrought in those places? The scope astounded her. How were there even that many dead?[2]

              “Where is it going, do you think?”

              “I don’t have to speculate,” replied Talon, “I know. Another mile out there is a new chain of islands. There is a dockyard set up around an oil rig about half-way there. Several survivors made it to the location in hopes that they’d be able to keep the vines at bay. They’re doing remarkably well, but some are already succumbing to the Root’s whispers. It can be… persuasive… adaptable.”

              “Do you regret it?”

              “What?”

              “Giving in to the Root? Joining its mind?”

              The beast man shook his head. “No. I barely remember what it was like to have my mind quieted by isolation. I truly am with company at all times now. I don’t ever have to be alone with my thoughts again. The community can be… overwhelming at times… especially with the more scientific minds arguing back and forth about ramifications and discoveries, but I consider it worth it.”

              Keryssa thought back to the encounter on the beach. What had happened? Had she given up her mind? Had she joined the consciousness? Was it just remaining quiet while it compelled her to do these things; or had she retained her freedom while acting on behalf of the Root without gaining the connection to the mind? Or was there something in the middle? She couldn’t tell. There seemed to be something more… intimate in her relationship with the Root… but nothing like what Talon described.

              The man strode away from her. “I will return in time. Oh, and Kery…”

              “Yes?”

              “We all thank you for your assistance.”

              A chill ran up her spine as several more Root-bound stepped from the forest and began their trek across the bridge. More appeared upon it, coming into existence much as Talon had vanished. Apparently, the Root granted ability to travel along its lengths… at least to the initiated.

              Would you like to try it?

              “Try what?”

              The traveling?

              “How did you know I was thinking about that?”

              I watched you… came the voice. Though all are glad for those who get to partake in the gift, I can sense the jealousy in the ones who do not get to travel that way. You’re my champion, Kery, would you like a ride?

              She felt her muscles clench at the word “Champion,” but she didn’t protest. She simply nodded.

              Go ahead.

              In a moment, the earth opened up under her and she found herself being sucked down into the soil. She let out a shriek as she was encased in the warm hum of the sand, then throttled along. Moments later, she reappeared in the middle of the ocean, on the surface of a massive wooden bridge made of living vines. She was staring at a city floating on the water. Ocean water sprayed from it toward her, lightly misting her as it dissolved the tendrils straining to reach the metal structure.

              She turned back. Barely visible off in the distance was the beach, and beyond that, the forest.

              She could stop this advance and run. She could dive into the water and swim toward the city. With their help, she could beat back the Root. She could burn it to the ground. She could wait it out if need be.

              You would betray me?

              “I don’t work for you.” She replied, matter-of-factly.

              If she could hear a shrug, the Root shrugged at that moment. You’re not my slave, Kery. I trust we can… find an amicable solution to your concerns.

              “Where will you stop?”

              I don’t know that I ever will. I am, at my root, a plant. What goals does a plant have but to spread and to grow and to seed itself across the field. This world… these islands… are my field.

              “Why enslave?”

              I don’t. I persuade and they join me… willingly.

              She watched the tendrils recoil back from the water-bound city. Already, constructs – the water bound themselves – were forming and approaching the vines.

              Tell me, Kery, what are those things?

              “Water-bound Constructs.”

              How do they work?

              “Simply? Electrical signals powered by nanomachines create a field of energy that coalesces them into shape. From there, they network with the nearest Terminals and defend whoever brought them into being.”

              Can you control them?

              She nodded. “My clearance can probably override that of any of the defenders.”

              Will you take them down… for me? Do this as a favor.

              Her heart sunk. “What do I owe you?”

              Absolutely nothing. I ask this as a plant seeking to grow in its field.

              She brought up her ARHUD menu and logged into the nearest Terminal. Soon, the water-bound were hers and dissipating into the ocean. Any others that were formed quickly dissolved as well until she was able to override the controls and shut down all the defenses of the city.

              “They won’t die?”

              You have my word.

              “And they won’t be slaves?”

              We’re all slaves.

              The tendrils probed closer to the city. She was thankful she wasn’t closer… so she didn’t have to see the horror on the defenders faces as they were overrun. Soon, a vaulting tree stretched above the waters, shadowing the ocean for hundreds of yards in all directions.

              This is worthy of an honorable name, the Root said. I shall dub it Keryssa’s Hollow.

              A part of her was horrified, but a larger part felt honored.

              Talon walked past. “Apparently, we all owe you yet again,” he whispered. “Thank you, friend.”

 

              Later, aboard the oil rig now known as Keryssa’s Hollow, Kery stood beside Talon and surveyed the damage. Smoke billowed into the sky, and the Root slowly flexed its way over the walls of the city. The defenders had fled – some by boat, some by diving into the churning waves of the sea. Others had surrendered to the Root’s embrace, sitting silently on a carpet of vines with their heads bowed as the tendrils slowly surrounded them.

              One by one, they vanished into a mass of vines.

              “Root-touched…” Kery muttered to herself.

              Yet, you still think them bound…

              She looked up. Talon stared off into the distance, his verdant fur and slight sway of tentacles beneath his chin the only distinction she could see. His jaw opened and closed, but he hadn’t spoken.

              She felt a slight touch of the Root in the back of her mind again, and the familiar voice spoke once more.

              They are not bound. I know that was a term you used for my people – Root-bound.

              She stared at the bridge of thick branches slowly tracing its way across the waters. The Archipeligo was slowly becoming one giant mat of twisted vines and branches – a living ecosystem spanning island after island.

              Am I Root-touched? She wondered.

              Are you?

              She sighed. “Please stay out of my head.”

              We are bound, you and I.

              “And here I thought you didn’t refer to your servants as Root-bound.”

              Are you saying you’re my servant?

              She shook her head and began to walk through the city. There were a few bodies being coiled by stray tendrils – defenders who fought back against the Root-touched. Talon directed the soldiers, and other leaders stepped up, commanding the shambling husks that had once been the living citizens of this land.

              Tell me about this world.

              “Outside of these islands, it’s dead.”

              A tendril lightly touched her hand. She looked down and smiled. A small flower, brilliant white with a blood-red center, lightly brushed against her fingers. She absently caressed it.

              This is how I first arrived in this realm – a small plant – a beautiful flower meant to bring pleasure to those who saw me.

              She remembered the glass bulb surrounding that small plant. She remembered the pleasure she had felt first seeing it.

              I know how hellish this world has become – I’m seeking to consume the wasteland and make it grow once more – tell me about the world that was.

              Keryssa sighed and thought back – years back – to when the world wasn’t… wasn’t… like this.

              “There was life – may still be life – beyond the Archipelago…” she began. She looked around her. This city had been similar to those scattered around the pre-destruction world. “I’m not sure what happened, but one day, millions, not billions, of people died. We found their bodies – I don’t know if it was from a disease, or war, or some other ecological disaster – all I know is that we of the Archipelago came upon so many dead that there wasn’t enough land to bury them… or so the authorities said.”

              You don’t believe them?

              She shrugged. “I don’t know what to believe anymore.”

              You don’t trust?

              “The scientists decided it would be better to load the bodies into the Warehouses – giant necropolis. Miles of graves stretching out beneath the waves in concrete bunkers, converted ancient ruins – it wasn’t until later I learned their true purpose.”

              Energy.

              She nodded. “They were trying to convert body tissues and fluids into a renewable energy. I thought it was just at our plant, but I’ve since discovered otherwise – as you know.” She felt the need to explain. “I thought we were trying to regrow the wasteland. I thought that’s all we were trying to do. That’s why you arriving made perfect sense… a perfect specimen, not corrupted by all that had come before.”

              The flower brushed her palm. She gently petted it again.

              They deserved what happened to them.

              The found herself nodding, then something ran cold in her blood. As if sensing her change, the flower drew away from her fingers, as if confused. For a moment, her thoughts were clear, controlled. She had been Root-touched!

              For a brief moment, the world came into sharp focus. She heard screaming in the distance. Acrid smoke bit at her nostrils – wafting from the burning wall section where one of the turrets had self-destructed under a swarm of nanobots. She had done this. She had turned the defenders against her own people so this… vine… could invade her lands. What had she become?

              She turned slowly to see a massive slug-like vine pulse its way over the wall, crumbling it to dust under its massive weight. Several shambling Root-bound clambered over the bridge and began to pan out across the city.

              The flower withered away near her hand, dissolving into powder.

              Return to me…

              She felt her fingers accessing data before she realized what was happening. Small turrets began to appear, and salt water began to spray.

              With a look of horror, Talon turned. “Kery?”

              His confusion turned to anger as salt spray splashed across him, sending streams of hissing lines singeing across his fur. The green-orange color of his pelt sparkled red as vicious wounds opened across his flesh.

              Kery bolted.

              “Kery!” she couldn’t tell if it was Talon or the Root. She didn’t care. She needed to flee.

              A vine wall burst from the carpet beneath her. She scrambled to a stop before running headlong into foot-long thorns. She slid under them, her feet coming to rest against rock-hard coils of plant. Though it had no bark, the flesh was as hard as any tree she had ever felt. She pressed off and was about to run when coils looped her ankles and arms, pinning her to the ground.

              The voice came strong in her mind. Its emotions were strained. That was foolish… she could hear a growl become restrained, but the passions were there – biting like a chained beast – snarling to be freed.

              Her body swept up into the air and she dangled, upside-down, her hands pinned at her sides and her feet bound together by a strong, rock-hard coil of vine. The flower reappeared and fluttered before her, its petals slowly opening to reveal the red heart.

              Why run? Where will you go?

              Kery kept her mouth silent. In her inverted world, she saw Talon, his gaze a masque of hurt betrayal. Several other shambling bodies stumbled in a loose circle around her. A few prisoners who had yet to be dragged away sat in shuddering fear, watching the events.

              Talon twitched and began to move away, as did the shamblers. One by one, the prisoners vanished into the ground. The vine lowered Kery to the hard soil as the coils retreated beneath her. The metal and soil floor gave way as the tendrils retreated. The thick cables that had wrapped around her hands and ankles slowly untwisted and retreated a short distance – close enough to remind her of their presence but far enough to not instill dread.

              Slowly, a small dome of plant life began to lift up from the soil and surround her. It left a small opening about ten feet up – maybe three feet across. Into this opening crept that single flower, which grew up before her. Small strands began to twist and coil off of it as it grew up to about head-height. The coils formed into the approximation of muscles and blood vessels before sealing over with a skin-like layer of bark. Soon, a strongly-built man stood before her – a man who admittedly had far too many colors to be perfectly human, but an amazing approximation nonetheless.

              Small strands looped down from his shoulder and up from his ankles, meeting in the middle in the approximation of a pair of trousers and a sleeveless vest. From the middle of his chest sprouted the single flower, appearing more as a shirt design than as a living thing. Strands of emerald green vines coursed down over his head and onto his shoulders, swaying in a scarily-accurate approximation of hair.

              Bark eyelids blinked and his arms moved. He flexed a brownish-tan hand, the skin creaking and softening until he could move it normally.

              Then a rich voice emanated from newly-formed vocal chords.

              “Let’s talk.”

              Kery’s heart raced. The Root stood before her. Short, leaf-strewn hair hung down to his shoulders. Eyes, glowing red and moving in leaf-and-bark-bound sockets, glared down at her. A bark-skinned hand opened to her.

              She folded her arms across her chest. “What is there to talk about? You’ve shown your true colors, haven’t you?”

              The Root froze for a moment, and the vines surrounding them creaked upwards a little more. The orb of light above her slowly closed.

              “They’re leaving.” He replied, ignoring her statement. “We are alone.”

              “You used me.” she growled. “You used me to kill my own people.”

              “Your people? Where were they when I was pursuing you? What about when you pushed them back onto my island? You didn’t care about your people then?”

              “You killed them, not me.”

              “I never said I killed them. You have no proof I’ve killed anyone. Your own friend, Talon, who fought so valiantly against me before coming to me willingly.”

              “You seduced him. You drew his mind to your side slowly over time.”

              “As I drew you.”

              “As you lied.”

              “So, am I evil?”

              “Are you?”

              “I am a living thing looking for a place to grow.[3] Is that evil?”

              She stared at the man. He was perfectly formed – a human in every sense save for the greenish-brown of his skin and the plant-like hair hanging from his scalp. His eyes’ glow seemed reminiscent of coals in a firepit before they finally winked out. But he lacked the subtle twitches most living things possessed – the pulse in the hand here and the jawline clench there.

              He was attractive and unnerving at the same time, seductive and repulsive all at once. He gave a slight half-smile, as if he was still getting used to the musculature in his body. He stared at a hand, moving each finger with definite intention before clenching the whole hand.

              “It’s weird… possessing a form like this. I feel… limited. As if my connection to my ‘touched’ is weakened.”

              “Then return to your vine, and let me go.”

              He looked up and paused as the tendrils surrounding them slowly recoiled back into the mat of plantlife around them. Keryssa’s Hollow had been completely abandoned. The smoke still billowed. Fires still sputtered.

              The Root followed her gaze. He paused again as a large vine oozed from the ground and stifled the flamed.

              “I killed no one.”

              “Not a single soul?”

              They all came willingly. Kery felt the whisper in her mind.

              “You are… convincing…” she replied, “I’ll give you that. I don’t believe you, but can see how someone would fall for you.”

              He held out his hand once again. “Join me?”

              She took his hand. It was warm… and softer than it appeared.

              The vines burst around them, and with a shriek, she vanished with him into the ground.

              When she came to, she was on a vine bridge stretching away from the remains of Keryssa’s Hollow, at least what she thought was Keryssa’s Hollow. The entire makeshift city had been abandoned, and massive vines now coiled throughout it, stretching up to the massive tree.

              “How long was I out?”

              “You fainted. A day has passed.”

              She felt sore. She got to her feet and stared off across the waves.

              “What’s happening?” She felt a thrill of fear again. She was back under his sway – for good? For evil?

              The humanoid form of the Root stared off into the distance. The embers had cooled from his eyes. They flared back up and he turned to her. “I have found something, and I must have it.”

              Her heart froze as a chill ran through her body. The large vine beneath them shifted, moving on toward the other shore.

              “What is it you want?”

              There is a rift between our world and another. Came the voice in her mind. The body still stood, unmoving, on the back of a massive coil of bark and plant.

              “A rift?”

              I detected a pulse in reality – a gap between our world and another’s.

              “You’re leaving our plane?”

              No, but me must secure it in order to prevent an invasion into what we have claimed.

              Kery watched as the pulsing vines slowly touched down on the shore and began burrowing down into the soil.

              “Where is it?”

              The body shifted and pointed again – off south across the sea, toward the mainland.

              “That’s probably a hundred miles, if not more.”

              The body nodded and began to dissolve back into the Root. “Yes, and we must more fuel if we hope to reach it. Are you with me, Kery?”

              “To defend our world, I will aid you.”

              “Then we need another Warehouse.”

              She accessed her ARHUD. A map of the Archipelago hovered before her. “We’re running out of room on this chain… but there is another facility nearby – 54000-19.”

              “Can you access it?”

              She nodded, routing through the now-growing jungle, watching as a glowing path traced through the desiccated forests on the way to Warehouse.

              “Let’s go.”

              The animal life had long since died off – plagues, war, starvation… none of those spelled good things for anyone, much less anything cause in the way of desperate humans. In a mad rush to survive, the humans near Keryssa’s Hollow had hunded everything around to the last life. She trudged through the dead trees sticking up out of the barren earth – such a contrast from the dense jungle of life that formed wherever the Root invaded. Was it so bad to help something that brought such life to this wasteland?

              Talon stood beside her, walking in step behind the Root as they followed her guidance.

              “Where is it?”

              “I’m not sure…” she responded.

              Then the turrets appeared. They roared up from the surrounding soil, spraying loam and dust as they rounded on them. The Root responded quickly, sending out coils to choke them out before they could activate, but the ones farther back began spewing flame.

              The Root vanished into the soil and the other man nodded and waited, his tendrils waving slightly in the wind, the tips of his green-tinged fur twitching. He shouldered a massive rifle with a blade extending from the bottom of the barrel. It sat heavily against the side of his neck. “I shall hold here, then.”

              The ARHUD path stretched across the sand and into the nearby facility’s entrance – it was slightly disguised beneath rocks and some natural island growth. Behind her, the turret firewalls kept all unnatural plantlife at bay, and a light mist of salt water drifted down from above.

              Talon twitched slightly, whether from the pain or annoyance at the mist, she wasn’t sure.

              “You don’t have to wait in this.” She mentioned again.

              “I want to.” He replied.

              Or do you have to? she asked herself. Was he watching her – making sure she didn’t try to bolt again? She smiled to herself. Where could she go? The Root controlled all the jungle creeping in around this place. Many more “volunteers” had no doubt already been found hunkered down in the region and “escorted” off to join the Root’s advance. With a sinking heart, she placed her hand on the control module and opened the facility. She turned. Talon still stood in the light mist, twitching slightly every now and then.

              She sighed inwardly, wondering if she were about to make a mistake. “Come with me.”

              His eyes locked with hers.

              She held out a hand. “Come with me, old friend.”

              He twitched once more, then sighed and followed her into the dark facility.

              The doors sealed shut.

              “Anomaly detected. Scanning.”

              “Abort scan.” She replied.

              “You could do that the whole time?”

              She shrugged. “I wasn’t sure, to be honest. Never had the chance to test it. With you at my side again, I decided to take the risk… to prove my loyalty… to you.”

              “To prove your loyalty to me, or to prove to me you are loyal?”

              “Is there a difference?”

              Talon didn’t reply.

              She stepped up to the main control panel. A holographic form hovered in front of her. She could see him through her HUD, but knew Talon couldn’t. “There’s a holographic interface here. It should be just a moment.”

              “I know how our technology works, Kery.”

              She nodded. “I… wasn’t sure.”

              “I am the same, just improved.”

              “What does that mean?”

              “Ma’am?” the robotic voice came from in front of her as the holographic projection stared in confusion. “I don’t understand the command.”

              “Sorry, I was talking to a friend.”

              “Ah, yes. Carry on and let me know when I can assist you.”

              Talon stood silently, watching. She turned back to the hologram and nodded. He acknowledged her input. “Ma’am?”

              “I would like complete access to facility record and control, please.”

              “Authorization?”

              She nodded toward the corner of the ARHUD. The hologram nodded in response as he received the information, then vanished for a moment. She could feel a slight tingle in her throat as her ARHUD downloaded the facility records.

              “Terminal?”

              “Ma’am?”

              “Is there a functioning shower facility?”

              “Yes man.”

              “Path me to it, please.”

              She turned to Talon and signaled for him to follow. He fell in tow.

              “I never thought of you as my slave. You were my valued companion.”

              “Kery, we’ve had this conversation.”

              “Yes, but I feel… unresolved.”

              He shrugged as they continued through the facility.

              “Terminal.”

              “Ma’am?”

              “Please deliver food for myself and my companion.”

              “Yes, ma’am.”

              They turned the corner of the hallway and a door opened from the blank wall. Talon seemed startled. “I was not aware of such technology.”

              She nodded. “It wasn’t in all facilities… but the ones that had it – well, let’s just say it always surprised me.”

              For the first time in a while, Talon smiled. “I have missed this.”

              In front of them stood a bank of showers and a bank of bathing facilities. Off in a side room were a series of beds, and in another were a collection of dining facilities. Kery knew that new clothes would soon be brought up, so she bid farewell to Talon, stepped into her own bathing facility, activated the visibility shielding for privacy and stripped down. She dropped her clothes to the floor, where they’d soon be whisked away by facility drones to be either cleaned, patched, or incinerated, depending on the contamination levels. She was almost positive that they’d face the latter.

              Nearby, she could hear Talon lowering himself into the water. The liquid splashed on the floor as his bulk displaced more water than the Terminal had planned.

              She stepped into the hot water and eased back into the relaxing steam.

              He is the same friend you had.

              The Root was a familiar hum in her mind by now. She wondered if he could read her thoughts, but decided to whisper aloud just in case. “It’s rude to spy on a lady while she’s bathing.”

              I’m not spying, nor would I be interested if I could. I am, after all, a plant.

              She stuck out her tongue and leaned further back, soaking her hair and ears, letting the water flow up over her face and into her eyes. She stared up through the watery distortion, enjoying the lack of other senses for a moment.

              Are you trying to drown yourself?

              She popped her mouth above the water. “If you’re not spying, how do you know what I’m doing?”

              I have sensory perception of all I’ve come in contact with. I can feel excess moisture on your skin, and your eyes, nose, and mouth just went beneath the waves – so unless you’re trying to swim across the ocean – which the tactile response of the saline would be a different sensation – you’re obviously in some sort of bath. I’m not fully aware of human habits in those situations, but soaking your entire mouth and nose are either relaxing or suicidal.

              She sat upright, letting the water drip down her arms and shoulders. She stared at her hands, then at the far wall of the tub. “What am I doing now?”

              Sitting.

              “Root…”

              Yes?

              “Do you read my thoughts?”

              No.

              “Would you tell me if you did?”

              Probably.

              “Have you lied to me?”

              There was a slight hesitation. Probably.

              She paused, then leaned back again, placing her hands across her stomach. She absently toyed with a long scab that had turned to a thick bruise a few weeks back. She couldn’t remember how, but it still twinged slightly. “Could you read my mind?”

              If you invite me to, I suppose.

              “And you’d leave once I asked you to?”

              I am a gentleman, the Root teased.

              She smiled despite herself. Fine, then I give you permission.

              A slight twinge arrived in the back of her mind, like a slight rumbling of a headache – only from the back of her skull. She closed her eyes and felt them twitch involuntarily.

              Are you in? she asked herself.

              Yes.

              She envisioned herself standing in a broad plain. She was naked for a moment, then realized it and rapidly materialized clothing.

              We are in the safety of your head. You only show what you want to. It is, after all, your mind.

              And Talon, and the others – what about their minds?

              They were more… subservient than you.

              Can you show yourself?

              Before her, on the plain, a thick root probed from the surface. At the same time, she felt the pressure at the back of her mind spread and lessen, though now it was in more places. Is this sufficient?

              What about your other form?

              Rapidly, the vines and tendrils dissolved into a humanoid form, which shot before her, eyes glowing slightly. This?

              She nodded and then offered an arm. Walk with me.

              Where are we? The Root took her arm in his, and they walked across the landscape.

              The Facility where you were born.

              There is no jungle.

              Instantly, the forest materialized, and the facility burst from the ground. She opened the doors with her mind and entered. It was as she remembered it – at least as she had seen it last. Like so many facilities, the vaulted ceilings, engraved and lit by many LEDs, stretched up toward the sky. Skylights opened, allowing natural light to filter in.

              Scientists and assistants strode through the main entryway, chattering excitedly about the new discovery.

              Do you remember what I looked like, back then?

              It had been years. She shook her head. All I remember is a beautiful flower behind glass.

              May I flesh out your memories? Maybe provide some context of my own?

              She nodded.

              Nothing much changed, but she soon found herself in a section of the lab she’d seen many times and rehearsed many other times through the years.

              This was where I was “born,” if you could use that term.

              A small glass jar – almost like a vacuum dome – sat on a sterile counter. A scientist – McCourtney by name – leaned near the glass and placed two electrodes over it. She connected them over to a large device – a Biomass Stimulator by the looks of it.

              That is when I gained sentience. The Root stated. He released her harm and pointed at the small plant – it matched the one growing from his chest. That’s why it had looked so familiar! She could see the flower in the jar twitch slightly.

              Did they know?

              I don’t believe so. I didn’t really know what was going on at that time, either. All any of us knew was that I was growing, and fast.

              As she watched, the plant began to swell. Small tendrils unraveled from within it and stretched against the edges of the glass dome.

              “The Biomass converter is working,” McCourtney said into a microphone. “Requesting added levels.”

              “Request denied,” came a voice shortly after.

              “Denied? Why?”

              “Doctor McCourtney, do you have any idea what will happen if that plant breaks containment? With just that small amount, look at the growth rates. They’re off the chart!”

              She shook her head. “We radiate the tendrils and the new growth – cut it back and try again. It can’t grow out of containment. All we have to do is suction the air out, and we can choke it to death – cut off its fuel supply.”

              “No biomass.”

              “Don’t be a fool, Harvey!”

              “Andromeda, you’re not getting clearance for the biomass, and that’s the decision of the N-4 Assembly.”

              I never knew N-4’s got involved.

              The Root nodded. She did it anyway, you know.

              That’s how all these stories go – a genius researcher insisting she’s right. Bucks authority and gets great glory for a great accomplishment – a great breakthrough that wouldn’t have been possible if she’d stuck within the rules.

              Yet she didn’t.

              What?

              She didn’t actually break protocol. The Root responded. Oh, she tried to – she did everything in her power to get me biomass. To this day I’m not sure if I was influencing her or not.

              So what happened?

              McCourtney slammed her fist against the metal stericounter and upended the bottle of biomass that remained. It clattered to the floor, its metal canister ringing, revealing it to be mostly empty. She broke the seal on the container. It hissed loudly, and a small amount of bubbling liquid frothed around the edge.

              Is that where the rapid expansion comes from?

              The Root nodded. Dramatic expansion, isn’t it? I believe that container was one-fourth full. He folded his arms and watched as she broke the sanitation protocols and licked a small quantity of biomass off her finger. I don’t know why she did that.

              Kery watched as McCourtney choked on the solution, then spat it out. She looked around, sealed the biomass container again, and placed it under the counter where the flower and its tendrils were growing.

              That it?

              The scene changed, apparently to later that day – the next day maybe. Kery found herself looking for a clock, a calendar – anything that would tell her when all this technically began. She paused for a moment. If these are your memories… how are we seeing it like this?

              The Root paused, then pointed. Technically, they’re not just mine. And… this is sort of a stylized memory, if you want to think of it that way. It’s like a CCTV footage.

              Kery followed his point.

              McCourtney entered the lab, produced the container from under the counter, and opened it again. Again, it hissed and bubbled, oozing from the rim down onto her hand. She took another taste.

              What’s she doing?

              Freeing me.

              The scientist choked and tumbled to her knees, rattling the table as she did.

              I must have driven her to do it… but I have no recollection of it.

              She staggered and vomited on the floor. As she rose, she dropped the container, spilling its contents across the tiles. Her hand absently grasped for the leg of the table as she attempted to stand. The metal counter shifted slightly as it scraped the ground.

              Kery watched as the doctor rose to her feet and staggered into the table again, choking. She looked around, then reached out a hand. She grasped the sealed container and the flower within and wrenched on it. It didn’t budge.

              Not what I was expecting… she muttered to the Root.

              The Root nodded. Nor I.

              A loud siren ran across the room and a flashing light began to strobe in the corner. “Attempted containment breach in Laboratory 19.” Came the voice of a Terminal overseer.

              McCourtney bashed her fist against the containment glass surrounding the flower, slavering madly. In an act of desperation, she tried to wrest the counter to the ground, but failed, only managing to drag it a few scraping feet before the sealed doors reopened and guard in full PPE arrived. Through muffled mouths, they shouted “Put your hands in the air, doctor!”

              She swung madly. “He must be free!” She shrieked.

              “Stand down, doctor!”

              She plucked a swivel chair from the corner and lobbed it at the guards. It clattered harmlessly to the ground and they easily sidestepped it. As she rounded the table once again, another guard entered.

              “Doctor, stand down!”

              She shrieked again.

              Kery could hear the creak of PPE against the firearms as fingers nervously touched the triggers. There was a shrieking, and shouting, the creaking. And all the while, the small flower began to press itself against the bottom of the container, as if ducking.

              A single gunshot rang out, and all other sounds ceased.

              The bullet whizzed through the air, pierced Doctor McCourtney’s chest, punching a neat hole through her ID card as it did. A spray of blood heralded the exit wound as the spiraling bit of metal ripped from of her back. The memory slowed as the mist spray of blood accompanied the deadly projectile. It connected with the glass dome and, after the slightest resistance, the sound of shattering glass filled the air.

              What happened next was a blur. The plant immediately righted itself and, in a flash, burst from its confinement. A long, green-brown tentacle ripped into the bullet wound and out through her chest before stabbing through the protective equipment of the three guards. They fell before the smoke had vanished from the barrel of the pistol.

              Blood flowed freely as the vines coiled around one guard and squeezed, ending the soldier’s life in a simple cloud of gore. The other two made and effort, unconsciously, to scramble, before the coils split them into bits.

              Dr. McCourtney, her chest still blossoming with the vine that had impaled her, gasped a breath and looked back at the plant. Coils sprang free of the containment jar, sopping up the biomass and adjusting size accordingly. A light smile played at her lips and she muttered with a bubble of blood “You’re free” before being consumed by the new abundance of vines.

              Kery watched in horror as the plant blossomed across the room, shattering vials and crushing metal easily under the weight of the new growths.

              So this is how you escaped, then?

              The Root nodded. Not the most glamorous event, but yes… an insane doctor and stray bullet.

              How stray was that bullet?

              The Root paused. Honestly, not at all.

              Were you controlling the guard?

              My memory is made of these various peoples’ memories. I don’t know what I was feeling or thinking. But I can tell you that bullet wasn’t random. Whether that means I was controlling him or her or both… I can’t say.

              And I let you into my mind?

              Put the wall back up and I will be gone. She felt a hand clasp hers. I am a gentleman, if nothing else.

              Came by it naturally?

              I’ve picked up a few things along the way.

              Despite herself, she smiled. They were standing on a beach, looking out over the Archipelago.

              Why were all those bodies in the storage facility? Asked the Root.

              No one’s memories showed you this?

              I feel you know more.

              She folded her arms over her chest. Most of what we know of this world is from our mythologies… and we have no idea how accurate those stories even are. If there’s even a grain of truth, my people came from another realm – or another continent – and settled in this area, back when it was one landmass.

              The Root nodded, beckoning her to continue.

              Over time, something happened, the landmass splintered apart, and a new power rose, somewhere far to the south. That fell, and with it, this land was thrown into chaos, war, and death. Most of the population died when the empire fell, and those that survived began to strive against growing numbers of diseased invaders. These grew until one day, a scourge washed across the land, killing millions and eliminating most of the world’s population in a matter of months.

              Those that survived fought for the remaining resources, as the plague killed everything living. When the plague finally subsided, the survivors began to pick up the pieces, only for yet another war to break out.

              Then what?

              Broken and without anywhere else to turn, the people of this realm chose to put aside their warfare… but they were faced with a new problem – what to do with all the dead. Millions upon millions of war-torn, sickness-slaughtered bodies remained. We began to gather them together, and we found that not some of them were still moving.

              They didn’t really die?

              Oh, they were dead. The ones we brought back to the labs to study were completely absent of even bacterial life – the entire life function of the entire organism ceased.

              They revived?

              She nodded. We quickly terminated the first few that revived. Some escaped, shuffling about mindlessly, utterly collapsing once they hit any form of salt water. So, we established a series of facilities out here on the Archipelago so that were any to escape, they’d be trapped on the island and we’d only lose a facility at a time rather than all the survivors remaining on the planet.

              The Root stared across the waves. So that’s where I got this weakness. What were you doing in those facilities?

              Trying to find something to do with all the bodies. Kery replied matter-of-factly. There were so many of them, and we had no idea what sort of threat they posed in their reanimated state, so we rounded up all the corpses we could and buried them deep under the facilities in cold storage. There were so many… and… we figured we had to find a use for them – shipments were coming in every day. We couldn’t build or convert facilities fast enough to house them all. So we kept doing experiments trying to find a way to cleanly dispose of them. I didn’t find this out until later, but that’s when a scientist figured out a way to convert the bodies into those biomass canisters, which we used for a renewable energy source.

              Well, said the Root, you weren’t wrong. He flexed a hand, demonstrating what the biomass had done to him, once a small, insignificant plant growing in one of the subbasements of a laboratory.

              The one question I still have, Kery continued, why didn’t they all reanimate?

              All the corpses?

              She nodded. Only about thirty-to-forty percent of the dead were animated. The rest just rotted. And those that came back – most were mindless – a few seemed to possess rudimentary speech. They kept muttering and using expressions we didn’t recognize.

              So they did come back to life, then?

              No, all biological functions were still completely gone. They were utterly dead… just with the semblance of life.

              Has this ever happened in the history of your world before?

              There were always rumors of the walking dead, but no one took them seriously. Some even said the plague was something to do with undeath.

              The conversation faded, and Kery found herself floating. She looked down. She was naked once again, in the water. She was back in the bath tub. The water had turned cold.

              “Kery!”

              She sat upright, water shedding off her body. Her hair hung limp over her face. She heaved a gasp of air. “Yah?”

              “Just making sure you’re still alive in there.”

              “Sorry,” she muttered, “just got lost in thought.”

              She pulled the drain and watched the water slowly spiral its way down the hole. Water dripped from her hair into the water, making little ripples in the spiraling water. She sat there for several minutes, thinking back over how her life had led her here to this point. What does it all mean? She mused to herself.

              The facility rumbled.

              “Security protocols overridden.”

              She jumped out of the tub tossed on the new change of clothes waiting for her, and joined Talon in the main waiting room. “What happened?”

              He shook his head. “I don’t know.”

              They rushed into the main room as the building quaked again.

              “Outer facility breach…” came the voice over the loudspeakers, and the whole structure rumbled with another shock.

              “Up there!” shouted Talon.

              A large plate-steel window hovered high above them. It combined all the strength of steel with all the clearness of the finest plate glass. Only now it was shattering inward – a weird combination of falling shards and shredding metal. Kery watched in awe as a massive tendril, thick as several trees, crashed through the ceiling and into the floor of the Facility.

              The atrium floor collapsed as the tendril continued to burst through layer after layer. Talon and Kery toppled off their feet as another massive vine crashed through the opening and followed after. Soon, their escape route was completely blocked by massive, digging vines.

              They stepped back as vine after vine thundered from above. Soon, the walls themselves buckled and the entire structure wrenched into the air, carried aloft by the thick, meaty structures.

              “Root! What are you doing!”

              No response.

              Talon dove aside as the tendrils brought the remaining roof portions and the pillars crashing to the ground. Kery followed, and soon they were standing on the massive swath of land, staring at the formerly-disguised exterior of the now-crushed Facility.

              “Root!”

              A small flower appeared at her feet. She paused. Talon’s claws were extended. He crouched. “What’s going on?” he growled.

              She held up a hand. “What’s happened?”

              The flower slowly formed itself, through steps and twines, into the humanoid form she’d grown familiar with. It extended a hand, and she felt a knock at the door of her mind. She opened to it, taking the hand at the same time, and their worlds soon entwined.

              What are you doing? They stood at Keryssa’s Hollow, in the branches of the broad tree that had grown there. Mighty waves rolled far below them, and the distant shore looked insurmountably far away, though an enormous vine had stretched the gap, twitching as bits of salt water washed against it.

              Root seemed different, agitated. His thorny features twitched with almost human intensity. He seemed to be experiencing some internal pain.

              What’s wrong?

              Tell me again…

              What?

              Tell me again… the Root responded with a slight… growl… in his voice.

              Tell you what?

              What happened to this world?

              Almost all of us died… she began. He didn’t seem satisfied. We tried to take care of the remains, but some of them were still alive… so, we… experimented.

              I absorb memories.

              I know, you showed me some.

              I have absolutely no recollection of anything you’ve talked about – it’s as if everyone who died and came back completely lost their recollection of the events. Are you lying to me?

              No! She cried. Look into the memories of all those scientists. They’ll agree with me.

              A good half of them don’t have any memories from before they died. The rest agree with you, but none of them were there in the outside world.

              None of us were… we all heard these stories from people who dropped off the bodies and vanished. Don’t tell me you crashed into this Facility looking for more bodies to search the memories of!

              That’s exactly what I did. I need to know.

               But memories surely can’t survive after death.

              Every living being I absorb has given me their memories, and every reanimated corpse has all memories since their deaths. Only a few carry even the slightest hints of what happened before they died.

              She snapped back to reality.

              Get out.

              She rushed from the building. As she exited, she watched as a massive tendril, like a monstrous snake, strike down through the facility, wrenching the ground around it and dragging a large crater into the soil.

              There are more to these facilities than corpse storage. Your people shouldn’t have disturbed these old temples.

              Old temples?

              Ancient place… buried deep beneath the earth. Your people saw them as useful facilities to store masses of dead bodies. Did you consider for a moment why they were so spacious or why they had been buried? Did you never pause to translate the ancient carvings or discern the ancient runes?

              We didn’t have time for that luxury, she protested.

              You should have made time. Came the rebuke.

              Days passed, the jungle consumed that island, spreading rapidly to the next few – they were close, and the chain barely passed through water as they hopped from landmass to landmass. A navy swooped in at one point, scouted the progress of the Root and his forces, then retreated before they could be snagged.

              The Root pressed on in his massive, snake-like tendril form, undeterred, seemingly driven to reach the tear in reality while also striking out in vengeance against every Warehouse he found. It had been nearly four days since they had last seen the navy, and Kery had led them to yet another Warehouse.  In the chaos, she watched as flames licked at the sky. The Root rose up over the Warehouse and came crashing down. Explosions rocked the shore, sending shards of shrapnel and debris flying. A few survivors, having fled to this last island, quivered in fear, the Root-touched surrounding them.

              “Stop!”

              The Root slowed its assault, slowly turning its bloated form toward her, scaly roots twisting like an octopus’s tentacles. She could feel malice radiating off of it. A… hatred.

              “We made you,” she whispered. “Our greed. Our inability to see anyone but ourselves. We are responsible for the monster that you are.”

              Monster…

              She felt a twinge somewhere deep inside.

              Let me explain… she thought toward the being.

              Then they were inside the Root’s memories. They had discussed the dead and the not-quite-dead, and the differences in thought patterns that arose from those two. With that knowledge, she could now see the once-dead raging against the minds of the ones who had been absorbed while still alive, and thus had never died at all. This dramatic difference in worldview raged in the Root’s mind.

              “Is this what has happened to you? Has the realization of what has happened caused the dead to take over your mind?”

              The Root was experiencing the results of a civil war inside his being, and all his mind was a rage of chaos – the once-dead raging against the newly-dead and their warehouses. Blood was being shed, figuratively, as the mental patterns of the newly-dead fled from the chaos that was being unleashed.

              The Root stood, watching the carnage. He was humanoid in this mental world, and the uncontrolled tendrils of rage burst across the landscape – except for one, which “eyed” Kery suspiciously.

              “We made you… and we exploited your deaths.”

              That… you… did…

              The body of the Root stood silently, watching the engagement with dispassionate mien. It was as if he didn’t care which side of his spirit won. But Kery did.

              Smoldering wreckage scattered across the mental beach. Several tendrils slowly traced around the pieces, feeling them lightly, as if wondering what the pieces were. Having no eyes, Kery wondered if they were using touch to discern the world around them. She turned to the Root’s body. His eyes were shimmering orange.

              Can you see? She whispered to his mind.

              He turned slightly. I see my… children… squabbling.

              I meant with your eyes. Can you see? Can they?

              The tendril shifted back and forth between her and the Root.

              What I do is about as close an approximation of seeing as I can explain. The Root seemed distracted… distant. A normal plant has light-sensitive abilities… I have those, just… advanced.

              Can your offspring see?

              If they still have a body, yes. These, he said, gesturing to the vine, cannot.

              Kery turned to the vine and reached out a hand, placing it gently on what almost looked like a snout. “I am sorry for what we did.”

              The Root watched her, his face passive.

              “You must be at peace,” she continued. “You’ve too long warred against the Root; we’ve too long warred against each other.”[4] She felt a twinge deep inside – a realization she couldn’t quite put words to. It was a realization that felt a part of her brain fully understood, but it wouldn’t come to the forefront. “We are the sole inheritors of this world,” a thrill of satisfaction in the back of her brain? “and we must unite in order to thrive.”

              A vision. Tendrils writhing and pulsing as they formed into a giant trunk of a massive tree. Reds and greens, oranges and blacks and purples – every other color she could imagine and some she could not. A portal – or rift – or something – opening like a slanted, vertical eye. Ice, and snow. Coldness… then heat… then all went dark.

              She was on the beach. Flames still sputtered around her. Talon had his arms around her shoulders, and was in the process of heaving her upright. He looked around her in shock. “What happened? What’s happening?”

              “You’re connected to his mind. You can’t sense this?”

              Talon shook his head. “I can’t feel anything amiss.”

              She turned. Root stood on the sand a few feet from her, watching the now-calm tendrils.

              Talon followed her gaze. “Root?”

              The plant-human being turned to them both and nodded. “The war is over, for now.”

              The massive tendril that had crushed the warehouse slowly withdrew into the surrounding jungle. Root stepped forward, beckoning them forward. A familiar voice entered her mind.

              I shall speak with you both with my mouth. But know that there are secrets none are to know but you, and these will be whispered in your mind, not your ears.

               I understand.

              “Talon, my faithful servant. You have long been a great aid to Kery… even before she knew the way.”

              Talon’s hand went to his chest – a motion of his species when receiving a great honor. Kery couldn’t remember him ever doing it in her presence.

              The Root continued. “We have come upon a problem, and I wish you to be a part of the solution. Three days ago, when we decided to approach this facility, I knew we would find something of great importance inside. When you and Kery brought me within, a part of me learned what I knew, and sought to prevent its arrival in my consciousness. Thus, while I was distracted, communicating with Kery, it struck and attempted to destroy what was contained within.”

              What happened? What was in there?

              The Root’s physical form continued talking, but a calm, soothing voice invaded the corner of her mind. I have learned that there is a way to the mainland – a route I feared blocked to us. There is a unique scientist – one who knew the routes to the mainland, as well as what happened before the war. He had died, become reanimated, and was currently “living” inside the confines of this facility. He possessed rare knowledge from before his death.

              How is that possible? Kery began.

              Listen. The Root interrupted, then his audible voice filled the air. “Kery has calmed the rebellion in my mind. I have determined to make for the mainland, and there to set up our world.”

              I thought that was always your plan…

              There are things none know, save you. This world is ours for the taking, and now we know more about the condition of this planet than ever before.

              But how did he retain his memories?

              That is what I intend to learn. He has agreed to meet with me.

              He’s alive? Where?

              He turned to Talon and said. “You must return to the others, and bring them to the island just beyond Keryssa’s Hollow. Go, and we shall meet you there.”

              Talon bowed and vanished.

              I fed into his mind information as well. He assumed I was keeping things from you.

              Were you?

              Nothing. He is raising my army, which we shall use to pass over this water and invade the mainland – whatever remains of it. We shall establish the Growth, where my kingdom shall protect all who remain on this wasteland of a world. The melodic, comforting timbre of his voice grew an edge. This world has destroyed itself too often. I seek to stop it once and for all. With my bows shading the land, the destruction that ruined it will never occur again.

              Something in her heart pinched. She wanted to speak, but what good could it do – would it do?

              Come. Let us greet our guest. He’s in the lower chambers.

              The root-mass burst around them and the vanished into the soil.

              Dim lights flashed past, then others, then blackness. She saw a slight glow emanating from his eyes and chest. Reddish.

              Are you angry?

              Yes.

              Why?

              This world… its injustice… it disturbs me.

              What will you do?

              To what?

              The scientist.

              You’ll see. She felt emotions – rage… wrath… vengeance… she almost felt blood trickling on her fingers.

              You’ll kill him?

              You’ll see.

              She had already seen, or at least felt what he intended.

              A hallway appeared as the vines withdrew. She and Root stepped forward, dirt flecking off them. Twisted metal peeled away from the gaping hole that marked their entry.

              How deep are we?

              Hundreds of feet.

              Your vines couldn’t reach here. It was a statement, not a question.

              Without my control, my roots and vines can only go so deep – and this sanctum is beyond them.

              The hallway was dark, with small, strip-like lights running down its length. The creaking of the Root as he walked was a comforting sort of disturbing. Comforting in that she had someone there with her. Disturbing in that she realized just how foreign he was. Humanoid in form, he was still a plant. His hair was made of the smallest vines, and his skin – at times supple – was still the byproduct of the cambium of a tree. Parts of his clothing – if that is what it could be called – was the rough-hewn look of bark, grown from his very flesh and moving lightly as if fabric. It was all the projection of reality without the distinct solidity – or perhaps with too much of the solidity – of reality.

              “Do you fear for your safety?”

              “Not around you.”

              “Your pulse, it quickens.”

              “I’m nervous.”

              The Root nodded. “I am, too.”

              “How are you nervous? Why?”

              “I fear the future.” His reddish coloration faded to a slight orange-yellow.[5] “I fear what might happen to my children as we reach the far shore. What resistance awaits us? There are no islands we can skip and assault from another side – this is the mainland, wrapping us on so many sides I fear we may never be able to leave this cursed Archipelago.” He paused as they turned a corner. “Remember what you told me? They built these facilities out here so they could protect themselves if necessary – to cut them off if something broke free.”

              “Like you?” she said with a smile.

              He nodded. “Yes, like me.”

              They came to a massive stone doorway. Runes traced its length. They were carved, this wasn’t an ARHUD projection. “Is this it?”

              The Root paused for a moment. His green eyes closed. She could see the slight glow beneath his translucent lid – she was transfixed by the mysterious beauty of it all. He held out a hand and pressed it against the door.

              Small tendrils – hair-like wires – stretched into the grooves of the door, feeling, probing. He glided his hands up the surface, leaving small, writhing clumps behind. They pushed and prodded at the door and began to carpet it like a bed of moss.

              “Wait a moment…”

              He bent slightly, his knees creaking. A hand rested against the floor, and a matt of green-red growth amassed around the floor. Kery wanted to take a step back as it flowed across the ground and brushed against her boots.

              “What are you doing? I thought he agreed to meet with you. Why do you have to open the door this way?”

              Wait… watch…

              The matt of red plant life pressed up against the doorway, growing like a vine in highspeed. It probed deep into the defects of the door, pressing and prying until the door creaked slightly. It exploited every joint, every gap, every crevasse. The door opened a little wider. Something disengaged in the rune pattern across the door.

              Kery watched in stunned fascination.

              The Root folded his arms across his chest, the glow from his body radiating a warm orange color.

              Finally, the door seemed to realize what was happening and opened, snapping several tendrils as it did. Sap oozed to the floor.

              “Watch your step.” Stated the Root, drawing the plants back into his body as he went.

              A sterile lab yawned before them.

              A balding man in a white lab coat swiveled around. “Ah,” he muttered, turning back around, “I wondered when you’d show up.”

              The Root shot out a hand, and a tendril burst from his palm, wrapping around the man and his chair and wrenching him across the room and into the grip of the angry plan.

              You lied to me! She accused. You said he agreed to meet with you.

              “Heh…” the scientist muttered. “I’ve died before – and I remember what it felt like. Do you think this scares me?”

              “If you knew what I’m capable of, you would. There are worst fates than death.”

              “I’ve been watching your march across the Archipelago. I know full well what you can do.”

              The glow of those red eyes made the man’s pale skin appear bloodied. It gave his scarred face a strange, beaten look. But those eyes! Those defiant, soul-filled eyes! They contrasted so sharply with the flaming embers that marred the Root’s face!

              “Have you seen me do this?” the Root drew back a hand, its fingers rapidly morphing into long vines, which he drove into the man’s face.

              What are you doing!?

              Do you want to see? The voice was so calm compared to the violence raging before he eyes.

              She nodded, and they instantly appeared in a barren world.

              The scientist stood at the banks of a mighty ocean, small islands just barely visible way off in the distance.

              “There’s no other way?” A young, blond-haired man asked the scientist.

              His pale skin was scarred and pockmarked, as they’d seen it in the lab. His sharp eyes probed the inquirer. “Have you not studied the charts?”

              The younger man shook his head. “I haven’t.”

              The scientist pointed out across the ocean. “Island 1: The Landing Facility, is connected to the mainland by the Channel, an old tunnel from before the Destruction. I am going out to Island 46. He was clearly pointing to something they were both viewing on the ARHUD. I need you to make sure all points connect to Island 1 are closed off until I tell you otherwise. Something’s happening out there and I intend to get to the bottom of this. If I return and do not give you the right signal, I want you to use the defensive turrets to obliterate my vessel.”[6]

              The younger man nodded again. “Are you sure?”

              “Did I stutter?” glared the older scientist. “Listen, I’ve already died once, it’s not something that phases me, but there are things out there – beyond the Root – that if released could bring about the end of everything. Am I clear? If I am not myself – destroy me. If those things escape – cut off the islands. And destroy any navy that comes close if you have any doubts.”

              “Yes, sir.”

              “Do you understand?”

              The man quivered out a nod. The scientist pulled himself into a small capsule-like vehicle. He punched in a combination on the control panel and, with a hiss, the shuttle shifted forward toward the water. The younger man stood on the shore, watching the elder scientist vanish into the water toward the distant islands.

              The scientist rode out across a track for several hundred feet until an aperture appeared in the water. It spiraled open and the shuttle entered a glass-lined tunnel.

              “Engaging seals.”

              The water that had entered with the shuttle was violently blasted from the tunnel, spraying in a swirl of bubbles out into the surrounding ocean. The car’s roof peeled back, and the rest of the journey along the ocean floor went with little trouble. The tunnel soon became encased in metal, then beams of light surrounded them. The car began its journey upward, finally arriving at a solid metal door, probably several feet thick. Again, the scientist punched in a combination of numbers without looking at his keypad. This activated the locking mechanism, and the massive containment doors shuddered open.

              The car pulled itself up through the opening into a vast warehouse-like space.

              “You have reached your destination.”

              The scientist climbed out of the vehicle, which reversed course and vanished into the tunnel once more.

              “Gerjad, it is good to see you.”

              “Ah, my dead name.”

              The approaching scientist paused. Gerjad smiled.

              “I am joking. You know I don’t remember a lot from before my death, right?”

              “I know.”

              “But our friendship is something I remember.”

              The new scientist smiled, reassured.

              “Alex, relax.”

              “I know…”

              “Tell me what’s going on.”

              Alex took a breath. “Gerjad… we’ve lost over half the islands.”

              Gerjad nodded. “So I saw. What else.”

              “We’ve lost contact with the Rig.”

              “That’s unfortunate.”

              Alex chuckled. “How can you be this calm?”

              Gerjad shrugged. “I’m already dead. This second life is… a gift, a curse… I don’t know. It’s what it is. If I lose it again, I’ve lost nothing.”

              “But our people…”

              “Your people, Alex.”

              The other scientist looked hurt.

              “I’m dead. I have no place in this world. Look at what ‘our people’ did to people like me.”

              “We didn’t know.”

              Gerjad shrugged again, “That doesn’t change what happened.”

              “Well, we paid for it.” They turned to look at a screen. This time, Kery was able to view the ARHUD projection.

              Gerjad pulled up a viewscreen of an island probably a hundred miles off. A mass of tendrils – the Root – pulsed and swelled across the landmass. “How long before it gets here.”

              Alex shrugged, “weeks, months at the latest if mitigation efforts fail.”

              “Are they?”

              “Some seem to be… it seems the thing has some insider help. We’ve been trying to locate which ARHUD signature’s been compromised, but every attempt has failed. The islands are too distant to extract that kind of data.”

              Gerjad nodded. “Well then, I guess I’m heading off toward the facility on forty-six. Is there a clear path there?”

              Alex brought up his ARHUD. “if you go by way of twenty-nine, you should be able to bypass the damage caused by the earthquake that struck near the thirties.”

              Gerjad mused over the path. “Volcano’s still inactive at the moment?”

              Alex shrugged. “Can’t get a clear visual. Our best assumption is ‘yes.’ The navy is scouting it out. I’ve yet to hear back.”

              “Any Warehouses still active beyond the fifties?”

              “Not that I’ve been able to detect. The entire North has fallen, the center is next.”

              The map of the Archipelago, all hundreds of miles of it, spiraled into holographic being. Off on the most ocean-bound side, right behind the water-wall that protected that region from the massive tidal disturbances, was the Warehouse that had spawned the Root, and island after island showed evidence of malignant, cancerous growth. As Alex had said, the entire Northeast was consumed, and their progress was rapidly approaching the middle. A volcano off to the Midwest portion of the map had “protected” that region, effectively cutting off advance in that direction. But, the creature was spreading, rapidly.

              “Head back to the mainland. If you don’t get the right code… destroy me because it’s not me.”

              Alex hesitated, face contorted with worry.

              The Root appeared in the middle of the projection. “Dr. Gerjad, stop this charade. Show me what I want to know.”

              The projection froze in place, and Gerjad turned to the Root, leaving a frozen Alex in mid-explanation. “You’ll get nothing from me.”

              “Your Facilities were monitoring our advance.”

              Kery’s body appeared in the projection. She stared at Alex. He looked… familiar… she just couldn’t place specifically how she knew him. After watching Dr. Gerjad for the last few minutes, she remembered seeing him in various documentaries about pre-war times. She was honestly surprised he was still alive – if that was the right term for someone in his… condition. How had the Root found him?

              “Ah… you. So you’re the one with the ARHUD... And what’s your story?” Gerjad asked, apparently noticing Kery for the first time.

              “She’s my associate.”

              “Ah, so that’s the word you use. See, back in the day, we just called them ‘slaves.’”

              The Root waved a dismissive hand. “I’ve no use for mindless slaves.”

              Something about the way he said ‘mindless,’ made her think he wasn’t denying that she was his slave. Then he went on.

              “I want my associates to be willing participants.”

              Gerjad nodded. “I think I understand you. She’s a beast to you. Oh, one you feed and treat well – but at the end of the day, she’s still a beast, and you can slaughter her if the need arises. No need for all those pangs of conscience and free will and stuff. Just seduce it out of them.”

              “I can see where you would get that assessment – the projection of your motivations upon mine. But the king doesn’t need to explain himself to the peasant” The Root said with a shrug. “Now, give me what I desire.”

              “I don’t know whatever you mean.”

              The Root’s fiery eyes narrowed. “Your physical form is wasting away in the Facility basement right now. Is that really how you want to die?”

              “I died an emaciated corpse on a beach as fires choked out my village…” Gerjad replied. “My friends had either left to establish the Warehouses or had been butchered by plague or bandit. I died alone and woke from my death-sleep alone. That’s how I died.”

              The Root cocked his head in an appraising stare. “You seem fearless. But anything that lives has something it fears.”

              “Even you?”

              Root avoided the question and continued to examine the space in which they currently stood. He struck swiftly at the image of Alex. The man’s head burst into a spray of blood and bits of bone and other gore.

              Gerjad barely flinched. Alex’s head reassembled.

              The Root shook his hand slightly, as if dislodging the remains that had already reassembled. “Not that…”

              He turned around, examining the room.

              Humongous vines crashed through the ceiling, burying them in rubble.

              No response.

              Gerjad sighed. “I told you. I’m already dead. This doesn’t bother me.”

              The Root plunged a vine through the scientist’s chest. It barely bled.

              Gerjad looked at the gaping hole and then back at the Root. “I’m already dead. Look, I’m not even bleeding. That’s stale blood.”

              The wound healed.

              The Root attempted killing Alex a few more times, ripping bits of Gerjad off, destroying other parts of the compound. Nothing worked.

              Finally, the Root chose to rewind the scenario to the point where Gerjad had arrived in the tunnel entrance.

              “What’s the code.”

              Gerjad, sitting in the control panel, smiled. “I’m not saying. And I intentionally didn’t look at the console when I plugged in the values so you could never find out. Even if you reach Island One, you won’t be able to get off it. The defenses will destroy anything coming through that Channel without proper clearance.”

              The Root turned and ripped something off Kery’s chest. “Like this?”

              It was an ID badge.

              Gerjad had a moment of fear come onto his features – almost imperceptible and only visible due to the slight irregularities appearing at the edge of his features. “It wouldn’t work.”

              “Yours would.”

              “You’d still need the code.”

              “Would I?”

              The world imploded. Gerjad stood in a dark lab buried under who-knew-how-many-tons of earth, hidden from all intruders but somehow discovered by the Root. Vines covered his body and tendrils had firmly impressed themselves into his nose and mouth. The Root withdrew his tendrils, and the body of the scientist sank to the ground, ichor dribbling from his nose.

              The Root held a small token. “ID chip… imbedded in his brainstem.” He absorbed it into his body.

              Kery felt a tickle in the back of her mind.

              The Root nodded. “You have an ID chip. It’s in the soft flesh at the back of your throat. It verifies your vocal commands and allows you to view the ARHUD.”

              Later that day, having returned to the surface, Kery watched as the navy looped around again, monitoring the island. She stayed out of view as best she could. The Root’s massive tendril hovered behind her.

              He had the information we needed.

              And how much did you share with me?

              All you needed to know.

              The naval ship moved away, small water-bound constructs trailing after it. A few tendrils reached out, only to be shot at or sprayed. They recoiled.

              Why waste effort reaching for that?

              My body moves toward things it can absorb. I don’t control it’s every pulse. Do you not twitch and recoil automatically when stimulated?

              Part of her wished the ship would rescue her – bring her back to the mainland… but what would they do when they found her? Would they accept her ever again? Had the mainland found out that she had been the traitor – after years on the run, years of isolation – had they already thought her dead anyway?

              Days passed, and once again, Kery found herself standing on the shore of an island, watching the distant waves. Talon was, as usual, at her side, and Root, as was becoming distressingly more common, had gone silent again. She absently ran her tongue against the top of her palate again, as if she could feel the chip planted somewhere back there – maybe it was against her brain stem. She didn’t know. All she knew was that the Root had wrenched it free from that doctor before integrating it into itself. He had said it would take several days to fully adapt himself to the technology.

              Several days had passed.

              They stood one of the final Warehouses on this stretch of islands – every other had been absorbed or destroyed by the Root.

              The facility proved to be very similar to all of the Warehouses they had visited, except for a lab, buried deep down underground. The Root had delivered them to it, and together, the three of them had uncovered a network of research tunnels stretching from facility to facility under the water. This tube network had apparently existed for the pleasure of the highest echelons of society – probably the N-4 Assembly and certain chosen representatives.

              Kery looked at the hologram. “We’re in the thirties… but to get to the twenties and then on to the final chain of islands, we’re going to have to cross nearly ten miles. Root, you can’t do that, not even with what we’ve acquired so far.”[7]

              “Resistance is picking up as well.”

              The line of ships in the bay, armed with water-bound constructs and pumping massive water turrets, represented the last line of defense in this region of the Archipelago. The islands were closer off in the other direction, but massive gouts of flames and lava had begun flowing just a few days earlier. Kery looked at the viewscreen again. She wondered if some of the N-4 Assembly had somehow triggered the explosion remotely to seal off the more accessible routes through the Archipelago.

              The Root suddenly appeared at their side and began watching the monitors and, by proxy, the retreating ships. The guards and turrets left on shore to delay the massive plant had died by now, no doubt, but with their sacrifice had stalled the advancing armies long enough. The ships were out of range. Water-bound constructs patrolled the water – untouchable at this distance. Their cannons were of far greater power than those seen outside Keryssa’s Hollow.

              “Any luck in those tunnels?”

              A squadron of the Root’s forces had entered a deep channel that connected this island to the others by way of a deep road under the water.

              Kery felt her vision shift to the Root’s.

              It was comforting feeling, like warm cotton being stuffed into her skull. Her eyes saw in a world tinged with reds and purples and greens that pulsed and melded one into the other. She watched the group as it passed cautiously down into the deep tunnels that crossed the channel underneath miles of water. She could feel air blowing on her face as if she were there.

              Is Talon seeing this?

              Any of my minions can see this at any time. They have complete access.

              So, did they see into our visions of the past?

              No. Those are special between us. The Root responded.

              Where are they?

              We found a tunnel system about a mile deep – maybe more. It connects this island chain through to the next one. They’ve apparently scuttled all the carts so we can’t follow quickly.

              Indeed, several steel cables seemed to be scattered around the road, as if they had been severed quickly. Some had sprung back upon being severed, driving huge gouges in the wall. The unfortunate saboteurs lay in broken heaps, some with parts of their bodies severed by the massive steel cables when they had snapped back.

              The vine-touched continued up the tunnel. Kery shifted her vision back to the real world, at least what was visible through the cameras.

              Talon nodded at the Root and left the room, leaving the two of them alone.

              “What’s going on?” she asked aloud.

              “I don’t trust those…” replied the Root, gesturing at the departing ships. They were tossing something off the side. It promptly sank.

              “What is that?”

              “Some sort of weapon, if I know them.”

              “Poisoning the water?”

              “Don’t know.”

              Another barrel was rolled off the side of the ship. All the while, it continued to retreat until it was nothing but a small, insignificant speck in the distance.

              The sea was empty. The only things she could see through the cameras were the Root-touched on the shore, the distant volcanoes venting fire and poison into the sky, and the endless, churning sea. It wouldn’t be long before some of those poisons and fires reached them.

              “Should we fall back?”

              The Root stared ahead. “No. There’s nowhere to go but forward. If we retreat, we’ll slowly waste away until there’s nothing left.”

              What if that’s what I want? Kery asked herself. She wondered if she could betray him and lead him back across the Archipelago, where he’d waste away and this whole threat would end.

              Is something wrong?

              Her meditations interrupted, she almost physically jumped. She quickly shook her head. “No…” No, I’m fine.

              Do you trust me?

              Yes. Perhaps she answered too quickly. I’m just… scared. What will happen when we reach the mainland? They’ll all die, won’t they?

              There was no clear response, at least verbally. She felt the answer more than saw or heard it – it said “if they fight, they will die.”

              Somehow, she knew that was fair – at least as fair as anything in this world. But, could she fight against him again? Would her efforts be of any use? Ultimately, wouldn’t her people just destroy themselves again if she stopped the Root? And would they forgive her for aiding him all this time? Would they believe her if she said she’d been coerced?

              The Root turned toward the door Talon had left through. “I must go.”

              “What’s wrong?”

              “I’ve discovered what those objects were.”

              “What?”

              Her vision shifted again, and once more she was deep underground in the tunnel.

              She could see the Root’s minions. Among them was Talon! They were following the tunnel. The Root’s message came across their minds simultaneously. Fall back!

              She was curious why he would say that, but apparently whatever link they all shared immediately impressed upon them the need to obey. As one, they all turned and fled the tunnel, running along the large cable as the beat a hasty retreat.

              The field of view bobbed and jumped as the group swiftly rushed away from whatever danger was present.

              But it was too late.

              Something shook, and several of them fell to the ground. Water began to pour into the tunnel – something had broken through the ceiling, and with a wave of water at its back, it was speedily approaching them from the darkness. She saw Talon rise and defiantly stand over his fallen companions, as if he could fight off what was coming. In the darkness of the far distance came a shriek and a rumble.

              Talon roared in defiance.

              Then the cable began to jar and bounce, and retract back into the darkness.

              What is happening?

              Doom is coming.

              Watching through the Root’s mind, Kery cried out as something appeared in the shadows. “Run!”

              The Root held a hand. Wait.

              The two watched as the cable rapidly shot back into the darkness. Something bubbled in the distance. It was something more than the salt water pouring in.

              “What is it?” she asked, her fear-beating heart slowing.

              “Wait,” he said aloud.

              The severed, frayed end to the cable vanished completely. Something large had pulled from the other end. Very, very fast.

              Talon and his companions paused, as if waiting for a cue, or an attack, or something. Nothing came. The dripping of water farther down the tunnel was the only sound. It ploinked noisily against the steel and concrete tunnel. The ploinks came again and again. Whatever had made the hole had sealed it. The water level wasn’t rising anymore. But…

              A new aspect of the Root’s vision came to Kery’s mind. She could see down into the darkness – a sort of sensation vision, using vibrations and temperature to create an image. Something large was on its way down the tunnel, its form amorphous in the heat signature. Its body flexed and swelled as it pulled itself along the water-soaked floor.

              The Root began to move his mass, directing massive tendrils down under the ground, into the tunnels, past his waiting soldiers. No use waiting to see if it’s friendly – I need its flesh.

              Two large vines swept into the darkness, directing Kery’s vision straight ahead as they went. They struck into the gloom and connected with the mass.

              There was a splat sound as they made contact, a crunch, then a roar.

              Kery saw the Root’s face contort slightly, as if what he was doing was causing intense concentration and… pain? She turned her gaze back to the screens. She could see the Rootbound lunging at the creature, slashing at the amorphous monstrosity as it ripped arms out of the side of its body to contend with ever more attackers. Fleshy protrusions, tipped with ripping claws, shredded the Rootbound assault teams. Some, the more deeply touched, stood back up, their wounds slowly mending as they lunged back into the fray. Other splashed into the surrounding water, burning and dying before they could drag themselves out.

              Others, freshly turned or possessing more independence, fell to some piece of dry ground and lay still until a fresh vine pierced into them, raising them from the rubble and pushing their broken bodies back into the assault like some morbid puppet.

              Kery watched all in disgust, uncertain if there was a right side to be on in this fight.

              The monstrosities struck each other – tendrils, roots and thorns shredding and slashing from one end, casting partly-animated husks at the creature while the creature randomly sprouted arms and claws from its body, mutating and adapting so fast it seemed to outstrip the Root’s ability to adapt.

              The floor of the tunnel was coated with gore – blood, chunks of flesh and plant matter, and sharps spars of bone and wood, all sloshed in the frothing, blood-churned waves that had begun to flood the tunnel. The combatants slid and staggered back upright, ever charging back into the fray with a ferocity that seemed positively primal.

              The Root twitched and contorted as his vines struck and beat at the tunnel creature. He was more engaged in this battle than Kery had ever seen him.

              He seemed… scared. For the first time she could remember, he seemed to be… desperate.[8]

              Talon roared, his hair standing on end. He was about to go berserk. She’d never seen him go that intense. This is serious!

              This monstrosity is stronger than anything I’ve ever seen, The Root whispered into her mind, they’ve unleashed something even more dangerous than I am. We have to stop it here, or this whole world will fall to its madness.

              Talon lunged onto the beast, claws raking the flesh from the monster. Blood sprayed in high gouts as blow after blow fell on the creature. A newly-formed arm swept at him, but he dodged deftly aside, slashing down the fleshy appendage as he did. Blood coated his body as he spun midair, landing deftly, sliding a few feet in the gore. The salt water stung him. He winced and leapt back out of the water.

              Animated corpses lunged at the Root’s command, giving Talon a moment to catch his breath before lunging back into the fray.

              Bodies shattered as the monster crushed them into pulp – driving them into a state such that even the Root had no more he could do with them. The salt water around the beast continued to foam and slosh as the monstrosity and the Root clashed, the Root’s tendril’s spearing deeply into the flesh of the great beast, wrenching great chunks free. Gouts of blood sprayed.

              The beast roared again and struck, tearing free an entire tendril and tossing it down the tunnel behind it, where it landed with a wet slap. The monster surged forward, pounding another Root-touched into paste before leaping on another of the Root’s tendrils, splitting it up the middle.

              Talon leaped on the creature’s unprotected, amorphous back and began to claw into the muscle and fat. An arm sprung from the injured flesh, slapping him and sending Talon spinning off into the darkness, where the fleshy appendage continued to follow, growing off the back of the beast like a monstrous, pale snake.

              The Root was frozen in place beside Kery as they watched the battle. Every Root-bound he had sent had been crushed, battered, smeared and otherwise destroyed. All the smaller beings that did his bidding were likewise destroyed. Some had even been drawn into the monster and eaten. She shivered at the thought of being consumed by the… thing.

              She could hear… more feel… the Root calling in his resources from all the nearby islands. He was using every ounce of his focus to fight, to summon his armies, to strategize.

              The beast pushed the Root’s new tendrils back toward the entrance of the tunnel. Every blow shattered bark and drew massive streams of sap-like blood from the Root’s flesh. It filled the tunnel, flowing like water back down into the darkness, meeting the ocean water with a sibilant hiss.

              A new wave of Root-bound arrived, storming into the tunnels and leaping onto the creature. Another wave followed, and another.

              Blood flowed freely as arms and appendages ripped free and struck at the attackers, tossing some violently away, crushing others, stamping others underfoot, and ripping some in two. Those that could be revived were, and driven back into the fight until they were shredded or splattered beyond repair. Large snake-like tendrils, covered with dangerous, several-foot-long thorns, wrapped the creature’s pale nub-like excuse for a head and squeezed, hoping to do enough damage to kill it. Inevitably, the creature broke free and tore at the vines, causing intense damage and flooding the tunnel with more blood and sap.

              Talon appeared again, striking frantically at the back and sides of the beast.

              Kery cheered as he struck the head from the monster’s shoulders.

              She whooped as the tendrils pierced through the shoulders and belly, pinning the thing to the water-soaked ground and piercing deeply into the chest and stomach. But even these grievous wounds could do nothing to permanently end it. It merely moved or grew whatever arms were nearest, tore at the vines, ripped at the bark, and sent more and more chunks of the Root flinging off in all directions.

              The Root drew back, allowing the beast to advance, its flesh sealing slowly as it came. Thick, bulbous growths dripped over the ghastly wounds, covering them if not healing them.

              What do we do? Kery asked.

              The Root seemed to revive from his stupor. He blinked and looked at her as if seeing her for the first time. We have no choice.

              She felt a thrill of fear. What are you going to do?

              Talon roared and lunged at the beast a final time. It seemed to pulse with irritation, and this time it didn’t bat him away. Instead, it wrapped him in a meaty hand, which soon became shredded to a pulp. It dropped him, only to catch him in another, then another.

              He hit the ground atop a shattered beam. The ancient runes and glyphs were still visible on its smashed form. He leapt up, dodging aside as a massive palm descended onto where he had been, cracking the concrete beneath the blow. He slipped in the blood and gore, and a massive hand clamped down on him, like a large child catching a bug.

              He vainly attempted to slide free, but a large hand caught him by an arm, raising him up into the air. Clawing and biting, he struggled, but another bulbous hand reached out from the beast and snatched him up by his other hand, pulling his arms apart.

              Vainly, he struggled, trying to claw and fight.

              Then the first hand squeezed tightly as the second wrenched his arm sharply back. It resisted the motion, wrenching backwards with a little resistance at first. Talon’s face contorted with rage and pain as the beast, a child plucking wings off a butterfly, tugged sharply at the man’s now-broken arm. It cracked backwards, snapped, and stretched at an unnatural angle.

              Kery shrieked, the Root stared blankly ahead.

              “Is this what you meant!” she shrieked.

              Talon roared as the arm split free of his shoulder and spun down the corridor, landing in the darkness.

              The monster raised the grievously injured man above its head. A maw filled with rows of sharp needles opened where the head had been.

              “What are you doing? Root!”

              Talon vanished unceremoniously into the creature’s maw without so much as another sound.

              Kery was screaming. She rounded on the Root, pounding against the firmness of his unnatural body. She shrieked and pointed, calling him every epithet she could imagine. She’d lost Talon again – and again it was the Root’s fault. He had torn her heart out of her chest and stomped it more than that beast ever could.

              She fell to her knees pointing and sobbing. The Root-bound had all fallen back, and even the massive tendrils had retreated. Since none of his minions were nearby, she could no longer see the monster’s approach. It had vanished into the darkness of the tunnel, audible only by the sliding, grating shuffle as it dragged its massive form along the ground toward the entrance to the tunnel. Waves of gore flooded out in front of it, saltwater and blood choked with the dead. The beast’s pale flesh lightly glimmered in the depths of the gloom, ever approaching. Never stopping.

              “What did you do!?” she shrieked.

              The Root reawakened again and stared down at her. “It’s all part of the plan,” he spoke, his words cool and precise. She hated him in that moment, fiery rage bursting up as she stood. “You sacrificed him so you could get away! Why! Why did you kill him – again!”

              Talon was dead. Her hand was bloodied from pounding against the Root’s unnatural body. She slumped to the floor with a sob. The Root stared down, his eyes cold. “This is the plan…” he muttered.

              The pale monstrosity continued forward, its rows of razor teeth grating and baring as it went.

              Tendrils smashed and bit at the creature, and fell back in ravaged heaps in return.

              The creature was almost at the entrance.

              Kery felt her hands weakly striking at the Root’s feet – his powerful, stump-like legs covered in the vague mockery of human skin. She felt her palms against a metal floor, slick with blood and sap. Puzzled, she looked up to see the Root bleeding from a dozen wounds.

              Then she heard a dull whump, and everything shook around her. For a brief moment, as tendrils slowly encroached on the tunnel once more, she saw everything clearly.

              Then the ground under the tunnel collapsed, causing the monster to slide back as the ground shifted. At the same time, something exploded along the room of the chamber, and the world dropped down. The ocean broke through, burying the monster under miles of water, steel, dirt, and concrete, flooding the tunnel before a massive concrete door slid shut, blocking the water from flooding pack up the road and out into the compound’s lower floor.

              The Root twitched and blinked, then toppled to the floor.

              She instinctively caught him. “What happened?”

              His vision filled her mind, and she saw again what had happened. Talon had allowed himself to be taken. On his belt he held a series of explosives, which he had been planting throughout the battle. Then, when no other option presented itself, his movements led him within striking range of the beast. The severed arm had come as a surprise, but with his good arm, as the brave man entered the yawning maw of the monster, he had set off a series of delayed charges.

              The Root had pushed the monster back as far as he could, and the charges had activated.

              “Talon chose this,” whispered the Root, appearing before her whole. She knew it was a vision. She had just seen the darkness close around her old friend. She was now standing in darkness, a single point of illumination shining on the Root with precision that left no shadow. Only the mind could do this.

              “And the sacrifice… was it worth it?” she spat.

              “He made it. I let him.” The lack of emotion. The sterility in his voice.

              “And now we’re trapped.”

              A screen appeared behind the Root, and he slowly pivoted, considering it as if for the first time. His hand waved away a few lines of text… a few images. Then he paused. “Here.”

              She stepped beside him. “What is it?”

              The Root pointed and the image came into better frame. “This tunnel.”

              “It’s collapsed.”

              “To a point.” He replied. “You and I can make it through.”

              “And the rest of your force?”

              “It will stay here and fortify these islands. You and I will go over and establish a foothold. It is the final chain before the mainland.”

              “You don’t need your tendrils?”

              “I can grow a new root mass there. This will function autonomously until I return.”

              “And what if that creature returns?”

              “Then we’ll face the problem when we return. It’s buried under the ocean – it won’t be bothering us anytime soon.”

              “They dropped two canisters from that ship.”

              “I know,” the Root replied.

              They stepped out of the control room and made their way to the shattered level of the facility. One end opened to the jungle, the other the tunnel that had been a battlefield until just recently. The road from the jungle vanished into a concrete and steel wall – it had sealed shut to hold back the ocean.

              “This way.”

              To the side, nestled in a small alcove, almost buried under the mountains of rubble that had been torn up from the fight, was a small door. The Root grabbed it and pulled. It slid open, protesting loudly as it came.

              “Here.”

              She followed him into the darkness. Small lanterns glowed from somewhere inside the wall – illuminating the hallway as if light itself had been infused into the concrete. A faded glow spread across the tunnel, always illuminating just a short distance ahead of them.

              “What is this?”

              “Maintenance tunnel,” replied the Root. He pressed a hand against the wall. “thankfully the walls held and didn’t collapse in that battle.”

              “Do you think there’s damage up ahead?”

              “Could be. I’m not sensing anything yet, though.”

              He stopped. “What do you see here?”

              She stared at the spot. There was a small square imbedded in the wall.

              She could feel her ARHUD activating. A small video projection appeared, hovering a few feet in front of her, but appearing mostly locked to the wall.

              “It’s a video.”

              “Of what?”

              “Some sort of orientation. Could it be for new workers in this part of the tunnel.”

              The Root shook his head. “I’d imagine a map if anything.”

              She scrolled through several seconds of the footage and then notices a small message on her ARHUD’s overlay. She accessed it. Soon, a small file called “canal.maint.acc.serv” appeared.

              “There is a map. Hold on.”

              It expanded across her vision, overlaying her location onto a 3d representation of the space.

              It was her turn to lead. “This way.”

              Her ARHUD path lead on into the darkness. The lights, small bands running along the wall, flickered here and there – most had gone out.

              “Where to?”

              “This way.” Between the map and her pathing program, they managed to travel down deeper into the miles of access tunnels.

              Kery stumbled along in the near-darkness, her hand absently reaching out to balance herself. It brushed against the membranous shoulder of the Root.

              “Is this all of you?”

              The Root strode forward, pushing aside collapsed beams and working its way over destroyed maintenance shuttles. His strength was immense.

              “All of me that could be spared. The rest is holding the islands.

              “How far from your body can you go?”

              The Root’s face twisted into the closest approximation of a smirk. “Never tried to get too far.”

              “So you’ve found enough mass to grow across all the islands?”

              “Thanks to your and Talon’s work.”

              Her heart panged at the thought of Talon, shattered in the gut of that dead monstrosity – buried under miles of concrete and water. She had lost him before – maybe he would return to her again. Had she sided with out monstrosity? When would Root betray her?

              A shuttle scraped out of the way.

              “They left in a hurry…”

              Root nodded. “Spooked by something.”

              A small shard of glass tinked along the floor.

              Kery bent and plucked it up. “It’s thick.”

              “Under here, the water would break anything thinner.” It paused and picked up another piece from the ground. “No, this is too thin for this deep.”

              “Then a canister – set to break at a certain depth?”

              He nodded.

              “What would it have contained?”

              Root pushed aside another vehicle, revealing a large cylinder of glass and steel. He dragged the shattered remains free of the back of the destroyed shuttle and placed them on the road. He crouched and stared into the empty container. “Something large.”

              As if on cue, something clattered in the distance.

              “Get a weapon.”

              “Where?”

              “Look.”

              A skeleton lay in the corner, holding a rifle in its dead hands. The Root plucked it from the body and tossed it to Kery.

              Kery raised a rifle, accessing its controls through her ARHUD. “This is current tech.”

              “Then that’s a current body. Something shredded the flesh off the body.” The Root placed an open palm against the ground, small tendrils extending from his splayed hand as he did. “Seventeen.”

              “What?”

              “Seventeen vibrational signatures – some in the tunnels above, some in the tunnels beside. One.” He trailed off.

              “One what?”

              Root pointed straight up.

              Kery’s rifle site automatically adjusted, zooming in on the target above them. A small, spindly-legged creature squeezed itself from a crack in the ceiling. More legs than she could comfortably count buoyed the body off the ceiling and it began a spider-like crawl across and down the opening. A thick body – bloated like multiple ticks smashed together, with two bulbous mandibles dangling from what must have been the face – writhed on the dozens of legs. Thick, spine-like fur covered its body.

              “Your people have been busy…” The Root muttered, slowly rising. “This is the type of beast I sought to contain.”

              “What are they doing?”

              The Root’s fingers slowly smoothed as the small tendrils retracted into his vine-covered flesh. “I suggest we kill this one quickly – get a gauge of its strength before the others arrive.”

              “Sixteen more like this?”

              As the creature arrived in front of them, it seemed to swell, as if adjusting to the surroundings.

              “They’ve learned a lot…” The Root muttered, observing the strange phenomenon.

              Kery’s finger squeezed the trigger, and an incendiary round ripped through a few of the legs on the right side of the beast’s body, and it collapsed slightly, spraying gore. It readjusted and charged.

              More shots rang out, deafening Kery in the closed confines of the tunnel. But it was life or death here – her hearing could recover. Shot after shot ripped through the beast’s body. Then, the Root struck. Rearing back like some gigantic ape, he clenched a wooden fist and brought it booming down onto the protruding face of the monster. Flesh and cartilage and perhaps bone or some sort of chitin collapsed under the power of his strike, blasting pieces of the growth backwards into the bulbous body. The creature skidded backwards several steps.

              Kery released the trigger, watching with a disorienting ringing in her ears as the creature flopped to the ground.

              Not wanting to wait for it to recover or get back up, the Root lunged atop it and stomped before bashing down onto it with both hands – blow after blow. Gore dripped heavily as the vine-covered man leapt back, landing deftly beside Kery. “Shoot it again.”

              She complied, planting several more rounds into the corpse before ejecting her magazine and reaching for another.

              “Stop.”

              They waited as the body slowly settled into the floor.

              The Root gazed at his hand. “Slightly acidic.”

              Indeed, the body hissed as the blood and viscera slowly dissolved the surroundings.

              Then all was quiet.

              “Where are the rest?”

              The Root looked around, then felt the floor again. “Nowhere.”

              “How is that possible?”

              “We scared them off… or they were testing us.”

              “Why would my people need to test us? Have they not seen what we’re capable of?”

              The Root stood still for a moment, then returned from whatever strange stupor he had entered. “My main body is still functioning without me.”

              “You can’t control your main body now?”

              “This far away and surrounded by all of this… I’m finding it… difficult.”

              “Think they’re trying to take advantage of that?”

              The Root shrugged, or approximated the motion in the best way he could manage. “They may have slipped past. I don’t know what they’d hope to accomplish. My body is… formidable to say the least.”

              “Maybe they want to wreak havoc?”

              “They destroyed the whole world. I’m pretty sure your people have done enough. I’m surprised they see me as a threat, and not each other, especially with these new monstrosities they’re unleashing.”

              He placed a hand against the wall and waited a moment. “Nothing. We should go.”

              They journeyed in silence for a while, treading through the miles of tunnel that connected the last facility with the final chain of islands. Supposedly, these islands would be far more inhabited than the outer ones. However, due to quarantine measures, access back to the mainland was heavily guarded.

              As they trekked, Kery couldn’t help but think of the strange, eldritch abominations she had seen in the start of the tunnels. At least a dozen of those things were still down here. Small caches of eggs were dotted here and there, and they’d killed at least two of the egg tenders, but other than that, nothing. There weren’t even bodies – blood stains showed signs of struggle, or something of the like, but no bodies, no body parts – nothing.

              “What do you think happened to that other canister the ships dropped?”

              The Root strode on. “I imagine it never burrowed through the tunnel. It’s probably loose in the seas somewhere.”

              “That’s just what we need – something like that wreaking havoc.”

              “Now do you see why I pushed so hard for you to join my side?”

              “Are you truly going to be different from them?”

              “Have I not proved it already?”

              Hours passed, and she and the Root strode ever onward through the darkness as she directed their descent deeper and deeper into the tunnels beneath the sea.

              “What’s troubling you?”

              The Root continued striding forward. His voice came haltingly, as if he were struggling. “I can feel the connection with my body… it’s growing so faint. It’s as thin as a string – about to snap.”

              “What will happen?”

              “I may lose all ability to communicate with it until I return.”

              “What else is bothering you? You’ve known that since we saw those creatures.”

              “Yes, those creatures.”

              “What is it?”

              “I tried to absorb their… essence. I tried to incorporate their mass into my own.”

              She remembered him trying. It had been a grotesque and bloody display. “Yes, and?”

              “My body rejected theirs.”

              “Why?”

              “I suspect that they are not actually from this reality – somehow, they’ve been drawn here.”

              “From where?”

              The Root paused for a moment, then touched the steel-lined walls, as if feeling for something way off in the depths. “The Warehouses were originally built by an ancient race – a race that tried to contain an ancient force. Whether by accident or design, your people used those very containment facilities as their chief storage locations for mountains of dead. I suspect they only fed the contained beings. That is why I’ve sought to destroy those locations.”

              “But you absorbed the bodies.”

              “I did. And that was my purpose initially. I began to discover the presence of something… else. Something not of this world. Something… trapped in the deeper parts of the earth. And I suspect your people are releasing them in desperation.”

              “So these monsters?”

              “I suspect that the… thing… that wiped out most of your world came from another plane. Perhaps even took over this one after all life on it was dead. There are… strange things afoot. Those beings we saw. I suspect they’re more than just an experiment gone wrong.”

              Something clattered above.

              They both paused. “What was that?” She asked.

              “They’re back.”

              She looked up into the gloom and spotted something oozing from between the cracks in the ceiling. Legs – more legs than seemed necessary – stretched and contorted like a spider dying, only in reverse – and a bulbous form followed. It dropped down from above, landing directly on the body of the Root.

              The Root reached up, his face contorting with a strange, almost stoic, approximation of anger. His mighty fist closed around the creature’s bulbous form and he stretched, taking body in one hand, spindly legs in another. The flesh stretched and tore, popping and spraying as it did. Dozens of smaller creatures burst from the corpse, flailing and skittering across him. He plucked each one from his body and popped it between his fingers or smashed it beneath his feet.

              Kery watched in horror as being after being dropped from above.

              And they all died.

              His flesh coated with grey-black sludge, the Root began to move again, the blood and viscera dripping from his form. “They are attempting to infiltrate.”

              “Infiltrate what?”

              “Me.”

              “How?”

              “With each that I kill, I become less and less myself. They are slipping past my barriers, and without my main body to refresh my strength, I am a battery being slowly spent. If I touch too many of them, it will be I who is absorbed completely, not them.”

              “And if they succeed?”

              “I’ll lose control of both bodies and cease to be.”

              “What can I do then?”

              “Run.”

              He staggered forward, small droplets of black oozing from his body.

              “What are you doing?”

              “Excreting whatever I can from myself.”

              He seemed to grow smaller, frailer.

              “How many more are in the tunnel?” She absently reached in her pack for another magazine for her rifle. She’d been able to find a few on their journey – the residents of these tunnels, whether workers or refugees, had perished under what seemed to be a sudden onslaught of those creatures. Had they been released into the tunnels or had they escaped from containment as the Root had?

              The magazine clicked into place, and with a trembling hand, she began to scan through the darkness, the scope of her rifle projecting an image over her vision. She’d practiced long to adapt to the double vision required for AR technology. It no longer disoriented her as it did way back when.

              “I’m not sensing anything,” replied the Root. “But be on guard.”

              She watched as something that could be the most dangerous being on the planet slowly hobbled his way through the darkness. She could end it here. She would probably die as well… but wouldn’t that be worth it?

              “Nature’s destructive, isn’t it?” the Root muttered, breathing heavily. Did he have lungs?

              “It is.”

              “But who’s more destructive, nature or man?”

              She thought for a moment. “Well, man is part of nature, isn’t he?”

              “What other animal destroys its own environment? Do you really count man on the level of nature?”

              She didn’t. And at this point, man had probably destroyed more lives on this world than nature ever could. She clambered over a shattered buggy – apparently it had been used to transport workers back and forth through these tunnels. A series of puncture marks through the hood gave plenty of evidence to what had happened. The shattered bones lying around the place punctuated the scene.

              “I don’t…” she responded. “I don’t consider man an animal at all… but I do count him a beast. Only a beast could unleash something like this to fight something like you.”

              The Root stared down at the mess. “I have killed,” he responded, almost sadly. “I have caused untold destruction, and history, if it is even written, will remember and curse my name. But none will know what occurred down here in the darkness. The men who unleashed this,” he gestured at the shredded clothing and splintered bones, “will never record the brutality of what they have done. If we perish here, this story will never be told.”

              He paused and let the statement hang in the air.

              “Why are you telling me this?” she asked.

              “At this point, I am relying on you. You betray me, and you may save your world. But, consider this. Is the world in this state worth saving? How much better could we make this land if we stick together?”

              “Are you reading my mind?”

              “No. I’m just considering what I would feel at this moment if our roles were reversed.”

              With those words ringing in her mind, they continued their trek, passing many perpendicular corridors that would have to be left for another time. The path led forward, ever forward. But there was a light ahead – natural light. Kery scampered along, over more wreckage, feeling the eyes of unknown beings watching her form the darkness. The tunnel entrance was just ahead – it felt as if they’d been walking for days – and her ARHUD directed her up over another stack of debris and out through the opening, which should be just around the next corner.

              The Root hoisted one last barricade out of the way, sending small creatures scurrying for the darkness, and they rounded the corner.

              Light. Blessed light.

              They followed the contours of the tunnel, squeezed through a barricade, broke through an emergency seal, and exited up the main road. A small series of doors down each side marked the same access and maintenance tunnels they had used on the other side of this tunnel. They had come a long way, and now…

              “Light…” groaned the Root. He stepped up the concrete and into the open air. “I am still, after all, a plant.” He muttered. “I need this.”

              She could hear his muscles and tendons – large coils of bark and heartwood – groaning and stretching as they reached every possible cell to the light. New branches sprung out, black sap dripped from his body, and small lumps of strange flesh fell free – as if he were purging his body of the remains of the monsters he had tried to absorb in the tunnels.

              Leaves sprung out across his head, forming a long green viney mane that ran down his back. Muscular tendons sprang fresh and green across his skin. He took one step onto the soil and froze as a series of small snaking rootlets probed deep into the dank skin of the planet.

              “Root?”

              He shivered in response.

              She placed a hand on the rock-hard flesh of his shoulder. “Root. Are you okay?”

              Something quaked underneath her.

              Then a new root, thick as a mighty tree, burst from the ground, and a familiar voice entered her mind.

              I have returned. I am now almost free of the Archipelago. And I have you to thank for it. Then came a cacophony of whispers, like dozens of other voices were trying to get control of the conversation. Small snippets like mine and pain and twist came writhing into her mind.

              Root… is that you?

              It is, Kery. You have done more for me… more for our world… than you can ever realize.

              The body twitched beside her, then dissolved into a mass of roots, vines, and leaves. All that remained were a few scraps of black-caked scales of wood, twisted and scarred by whatever had tried to invade his body.

              Then everything was still.

              Then the jeep appeared.

              It roared into view up the road, specked with flecks of black slime. Out of it jumped two men while another stood behind a turret, a rifle trained on her.

              “Where is it?”

              “Where is what?”

              “That thing you guided here! We saw the videofeeds. Don’t play dumb!”

              Don’t tell them… I am gone… the final word seemed to echo in her mind, and the link disconnected.

              With a sadness she couldn’t understand, she shrugged and pointed to the pile on the ground. “That’s it right there.”

              They stepped cautiously up to the remains of the Root’s mortal body – the one that had just crumbled to dust and scraps of wood – and paused.

              “Bring out the torch.”

              Another man stepped out of back of the jeep, a massive tank on his back. He leveled a barrel toward the ground and, with a smell of propane or something of the sort, began to spray gouts of flame across the ground.

              “Bring her.”

              She could feel rough hands latching on to her wrists, could feel the rifle being wrenched from her grasp, could feel something shackling her arms together, and then everything went dark – except for the smell of that burning, acrid accelerant and the awful crackling of the flames.

              “Clear it all – all the way down to stone.”

              When she awoke, she was alone – so very alone – in the darkness. The air was cool and dry, and somewhere high above her, she could hear the recirculation of air through some sort of duct work connected to an off-kilter fan. She closed her eyes – not that they were doing anything to help her see anything around her anyway – and slowed her breathing. She tried to listen.

              Little pings of pipes somewhere.

              Echoing footsteps in a metal-lined hall – or was it concrete?

              Somewhere way off in the distance… talking perhaps? She wasn’t sure.

              A creak. Something opening on hinges. She could feel a slight vibration in the wind. Something was being pushed into her room from a darkened hallway. Then she heard a clatter – a plate hitting the floor?

              “Eat.”

              She jumped at the voice. It came from somewhere in the middle of the air. Was it coming from her ARHUD? She felt a pinch in the back of her throat.

              “I won’t tell you again. Eat.”

              “I don’t even know where the food is.”

              A small LED illuminated the corner. She could barely see a small plate and the shadow of what must have been food.

              “There. Are you happy? Don’t make me say it again. Eat.”

              She felt something jolt her in the back of her mind, almost like a pain in her tooth – just… behind it somewhere. She stumbled forward in the darkness and fumbled after the LED until she accidentally stuffed her hand in something soft and formless. She licked her fingers. It was tasteless gruel, but it was food.

              She sat back in the darkness and licked the food from her fingers. She fumbled until she found an extremely flimsy pair of utensils, which broke halfway through her meal – one snapping as she accidentally bit too hard and the other splintering when she caught it against the edge of the bowl.

              “You guys don’t want me committing suicide, eh?”

              “Those separated from the Root have been known to fall into fits of distraction. Can’t be too careful.”

              She chuckled. “No one gets ‘freed’ from the Root.”

              “We are well aware of the mind control he uses to control all of his minions. We’re also aware of the side effects of being separated from the source of so many endorphins.”

              “What are you talking about?”

              “The Root controls his victims by either completely converting them from the inside out or by manipulating all the pleasure centers of their brains to make them do what he wants without even realizing they’re being controlled.”

              “I’m not a moron. I know what endorphins do. I also know almost any cult leader will manipulate the endorphins. What’s your point? He’s a friend, and I work with him because of that.”

              “Really? Do you have any idea how many others have said the same thing?”

              “Probably none, since none of us have ever made it over here before.”

              “That’s not the case at all.”

              She scoffed. “Other than your navy, who has possibly made it this far? None of the Root’s agents, that’s for sure.”

              “I’ll continue asking the question. But I’ll say this – many of the Root’s minions have shambled their way to our shores – some by boat and some by tunnel. We shut down those options after they started affecting our people.”

              Kery leaned back against the wall of her cell and closed her eyes again. Her fingers were still sticky from her food, and she could feel the pull of the restroom. But she ignored them both and thought back to the miles and miles of ocean between her and the Archipelago. How could the Root have sent scouts through without her knowing? Had he worked his way around behind her back and already scouted this region?

              She thought to how rapidly the jeep had appeared – prepped for an onslaught and ready to burn everything down to prevent the Root’s body from gaining a foothold. They had been too late, of course, but they apparently didn’t realize that yet.

              But… was he manipulating her? Was he twisting in her mind? Had he abandoned her to this fate?

              What if she gave in to the interrogation and they let her free? Could she return to a normal life after all she had done? She’d delivered untold numbers of researchers straight into the Root’s hands. They’d thanked her mentally – but had that all been a ruse? And those new voices in the Root’s consciousness – what were they?

              And on she sat in the darkness, feeling her bladder itch and her fingers stick – alone with her thoughts.

              Kery sat in the darkness of her cell. She was alone. The Root had abandoned her to this fate, as he had abandoned every other person he’d sent over to the mainland. She wasn’t even aware he’d sent others. Now, she waited in the squalor of her cell, day after day, waiting for her death to come.

              The door creaked open.

              “Ready to go free?”

              “Sure.”

              “Then tell us why you’re here, and why the Root sent you.”

              She sighed. “I came here by myself to scout the area. The Root is back in the Archipelago – you know? The place where you all abandoned us!”

              “We’re done talking, then.”

              Kery was left in the darkness again. She buried her face in her hands.

              Days passed, and over and over the voice would come and question her, accuse her, abuse her. She sat with her face in her hands. She was tired. She had been isolated and forced to relieve herself in a corner. The food was rancid and the water was spilled as it was shoved into the room. She was forced to lick it from the floor if she was to get any sustenance.

              And day by day they came. And they asked her the same questions.

              “What is the Root doing here?”

              “Why did it destroy the facilities?”

              “What has he unleashed on the Archipelago?”

              “Why have you betrayed your own people?”

              “You deserve death, and you know it, don’t you?”

              “Why deny it? Why fight?”

              “Just give up, why do you still fight?”

              “You know the Root has abandoned you, right?”

              “Why would you choose to kill your own people?”

              Always the clank of water, always the clattering of the plate. She dozed a few moments and something would smash against her cell door. But they weren’t coming to see her. They were tormenting her.

              She would just start to settle in to a dark corner to relieve herself and they would slide open the window and shine a light into her cell and begin to question her. After nearly a week of this, she glared openly at them in defiance. That’s when she was beaten for the first time.

              And a week passed again. Her will began to shake.

              A voice came through the cell wall.

              “Your ‘friend’ sent you here to rot.”

              She’d gone beyond answering them. Too long had she tried to argue. Either they had information on her dealings with the Root or they were bluffing. Either way, she couldn’t help things by arguing. And so she stayed silent.

              “Fine. You’re useless to us. Make your peace. Tomorrow, you go to the chopping block. We’ve been using axes a lot more lately – guess we’ll use one on you. Bring back the old traditions. Maybe we’ll forget to sharpen it – a few extra whacks to remind you of whose side you should have been on.”

              With that, the window in the door grated shut. She felt the darkness close around her, and she shut her eyes. Off in the corner, the familiar “tink tink” of water dropping from a crack in the ceiling echoed – it was the only way she could tell time down here. Each day, the water would flow more readily around what she assumed was morning, then taper off to nonexistent throughout the day. The fact that it was sounding now meant day had apparently just broken – or the start of whatever the workers here called “day.”

              And she had one more – one more “day” of suffering in this dank hole. She hadn’t left in probably weeks, maybe more. At least fourteen water cycles had passed… who knew how many she had missed before she had recognized the pattern?

              She sat in the darkness, pity welling up for herself. She thought of Talon and the many scientists who had died or who had been absorbed into the Root’s consciousness. Was she but to be one of them? What would happen to her? Were they really going to use a dull axe to cut off her head tomorrow morning? Had he truly abandoned her? Part of her didn’t care anymore. Part of her just wanted it to end. Part of her wanted to go out in a blaze of glory.

              Hours passed. Warring spirits – despair, pity, disbelief, frustration, acceptance, apathy – battled back and forth across her mind. She chuckled, cried, sobbed, swore, laughed, and screamed – all in the course of a half hour.

              Kery chuckled to herself. She’d been played. She’d been duped. She’d been used as bait – and what happened to bait? It got eaten and discarded when done!

              “Moron…” she muttered to herself. “Fool. You knew this was coming. You just didn’t want to believe it.”

              “Believe what?”

              “Just go away, it’s not daybreak yet.”

              The water clock in the corner hadn’t started ticking yet.

              “Believe… what… Kery?”

              “I didn’t want to believe he’d use me and discard me.”

              “Who discarded you?”

              “I’m not falling into your trap. If I’m going to die tomorrow, I’m dying on my terms. You hear me? I’m not yielding an inch.”

              “And that… is why… I love you.”

              That was the last straw. She stood with the scream and hurled her excrement pan at the door. Waste splashed against it and sprayed back at her. She didn’t care anymore. Let them wipe the filth off her dead body. She hoped they all got infected and died! But she’d die with her dignity intact. And some fool jailer wouldn’t be rewarded for his attentions. Not from her!

              The pan ricocheted back to her feet. She plucked it from the floor and hurled it back again. It clattered loudly and spun off to the dark corner of the room. She heard the dripping begin, and her soul sank, all the vim and fury instantly fleeing.

              Tears welled in her eyes – angry, despairing, vengeful tears. She dug her nails into her palms, feeling the blood begin to well against them. Tears coursed down her eyes as she shrieked out at the void. “I’ll tell you nothing, you hear me! You cowards!” She cursed at the darkness, raged at the despair. She flung herself at the wall and pounded her fists bloody against it. “I hate you all! I hate him! None of you deserve to live!”

              “Then why protect… him?”

              “Because I go out on my terms… you understand me? I don’t bow to any of you!” she raged at the darkness.

              The voice came from behind her.

              “Then leave.”

              “Through what door, you moron!? Don’t you think I’d have left if I could?”

              “Here.”

              She turned. The door creaked open. Light blazed in. Her eyes stung. A silhouette vanished.

              “What trick is this?”

              “None. You are free. Go. Now!”

              She staggered to the door. Her legs barely held her weight. She placed a hand against the door. Bloodied and wan, it looked nigh skeletal. What had happened to her? She shielded her eyes from the blinding light and stumbled down the hall. She must’ve looked like a zombie to any watchers.

              But there were none.

              She hobbled the halls, coming up to brighter and brighter floors. She had been buried in the lowest depths of this cursed prison. They’d meant to bury her there – they had buried her!

              She stumbled forward, catching herself against the wall. Her hand stung.

              She caught her breath and strove forward, limping up and up through the prison.

              She thought of the beasts they’d unleashed on her in the tunnels. These guards were monsters. They had tortured her, abused her, threatened her. Any pity she had felt for them and what the Root would do to them evaporated as she crawled her way out of the depths.

              They had right to fear her. They had right to fear the Root!

              And it had abandoned her! It had used to her to get through the tunnel – had manipulated her mind again and again… and she had fallen for it! She had been used!

              “I hope you both destroy each other…” she grimaced.

              The lights… so bright!

              She staggered through the hall, feeling the ache on her hands and the cut, raw wounds on her feet. Her lips stung. Her eyes twitched uncontrollably, and blood dripped from a wound on the side of her head. She couldn’t remember how she’d gotten it. How long had she been down here? She coughed slightly as she rounded a corner, half-expecting to see a line of guards ready to drag her off to the chopping block.

              But the entire ward was empty.

              She limped her way along, leaving a blood trail along behind her as she did. She groaned and lowered herself to the floor.

              A voice from ahead. “You have to get up… get… going.”

              She staggered to her feet and groaned. She hated to admit it, but that voice was right. Wherever the guards were, they’d be looking for her soon, and she wasn’t going to be hard to find.

              Brighter and brighter still, lights more and more abundant as she climbed. She came to what she felt was the top… just under the surface… whatever floor was the entrance to the prison. She passed through the final set of gates and out into the gatehouse. Screens displayed all of her surroundings, monitoring all the comings and goings of the facility. There was a courtyard somewhere deep in the prison. There was the chopping block and a bloodied axe leaning against it. There was a corpse lying nearby, head gaping lifelessly at the sky, the body nearby broken and bloodied.

              She cringed. The Root’s methods had seemed brutal… but what she’d seen of her own people the last few weeks – what they’d subjected her to in that prison… what they’d threatened to do to her… she had no more feelings to spare for her people. Anyone who would do that wasn’t her people anymore.

              A Terminal Attendant appeared holographically. “Welcome to the Watershed Retainment and Reeducation Center, or the WARRIC. How may I help you?”

              “I’m requesting a requisitioning of all materials confiscated from inmate… she paused, trying to remember her number… scan ARHUD for identification.”

              “Scanning ARHUD.”

              She felt a pinch in the back of her throat.

              “Keryssa’s belongings will be returned momentarily. Would you like to be directed to the facilities.”

              “We… must… hurry.”

              She turned. The voice had come from outside.

              “No. Thank you.”

              A chute deposited her confiscated items. She groaned at the sight of her clothes. They should have been incinerated. “Terminal.”

              “Yes? How may I help you?”

              “I need a new uniform. Explorer grade. And a new sidearm.”

              “Yes, ma’am.”

              A pinch to her ARHUD, a quick scan of her body, and a new uniform and sidearm appeared. She quickly dressed, slipped on a pair of sunglasses to protect against the blinding light, threw her bag over her shoulder and, leaving her rags and moldering clothes behind, did her best to rush out the door.

              She’d just made it to the woods when the alarms sounded. She turned toward the base. No one appeared.

              “You made it…”

              She turned. The voice had trailed off, but she’d distinctly heard it behind her.

              “Who are you? Where are you?”

              “Here.”

              She turned. From behind her came another voice.

              “Here.”

              “Over here.”

              She tensed and was about to scream when she saw someone exit the base. He held a rifle in his hands, had a pistol strapped to his side, and was scanning the region. Small turrets began to rise from the ground and spray the area with what she assumed was salt water.

              Something shifted in the trees. One of those monsters she had fought in the tunnel – all legs and tentacles and slime – pulsed its way out.

              “Run.”

              She turned and rushed away from WARRIC and into the forest, praying she wouldn’t face another one of those creatures, not in the state she was in.

              “Here…”

              The voice led her on. She didn’t know where she was hobbling to, but she was hobbling away from there, and that was good enough.

              She paused at the edge of a clearing. She’d hobbled-ran for nearly half an hour. She staggered to the ground. “Where… are you?”

              The ground quivered.

              A spindly leg burst from the earth in front of her, then another. It was as if the ground itself were infested and prying itself open from within. She stepped back and more spider-legs appeared, growing like saplings before wrenching a bulbous, pulsing form from below. The monster shrieked at the sky and skittered off into the forest.

              “What are you doing…?” she muttered, horrified. She watched as another, then another, wrenched itself from beneath and scuttled off in different directions. What eldritch abominations were they creating here to battle the Root? Why?

              She then chuckled sardonically – they’d created the Root in the first place, then created these monstrosities to battle it… when would they ever learn.

              “They never will.”

              She turned. A man stood beside her.

              “They continue to create monsters to defeat their past monsters.”

              He watched the creatures burst from the ground.

              “As much as it pains me to say this, this entire forest must be razed to the ground. It’s the only way to remove the corruption.”

              “Who are you? Why did you save me?”

              “I am like you… a lost soul seeking redemption and the right way through this world. I don’t know what that is, but I know it’s not these… things.” He gestured at the monstrosities, his voice thick with contempt. “I’ve got a genius idea,” he spat, “let’s create a monster to solve our problem, then create worse monsters to battle that monster. And what do we do with the one that wins? Do we suddenly think we’ll be able to control that one?”

              “What’s your story? Why did you save me?” Kery repeated.

              The man regarded her for a moment, his face hidden under a broad-rimmed hat. He shrugged. “Just someone trying to do right in this realm.”

              “Do you know of the Root?”

              The man shrugged. “I’ve met many strange things on my travels. What is the Root? Maybe I have.”

              She smiled in spite of herself. “If you’d met him, you’d know.”

              “Indulge me.”

              “Imagine if a lab leak of biomass gained sentience and a conscience.”

              The man chuckled. The earth before them had ceased spawning monstrosities, and the glade was quiet. “We should move, now. Before more of those things begin to appear.”

              They crept along the edge of the forest.

              “A lab leak gaining sentience and a conscience?” The man repeated. “A monster with a conscience?”

              She shrugged. “I don’t know what to make of him. At times, he seems a cold-hearted creature hell-bent on absorbing every stitch of life he can, and using me to do it. At other times, he seems to be truly empathetic, as if he’d never violate someone’s free will in drawing them to his side.”

              “So where do you fall?”

              “Sometimes both.”

              “Both?”

              As they crept around the edge of the forest, she couldn’t help but keep one paranoid eye on the ground. So many terrible things had come from the earth lately. She almost feared to tread on it. She thought about the man’s question. “Yah, both… he’s done things that I saw as a betrayal – a friend of mine was sacrificed to take down one of these monsters blocking the tunnel. But I saw his reasoning, though I hated him for making the choice.”

              “And your friend… did he have free will?”

              “I don’t know…” she muttered. Everything she’d seen since he gave in to becoming Root-touched suggested an utter freedom of will, but she couldn’t know whether he had just been very convincingly puppetted or not. “I think so…”

              “Could he have chosen to give up his life to save others?”

              She shrugged. “I guess so. Just… so much happened since.”

              “Such as?”

              “We fled through the tunnels, into more of these beasts,” she sneered, gesturing at the chasms dotting the clearing. They’d almost reached the other side. “We fought them off side by side.”

              “Where did they come from?”

              “One was dropped into the tunnels by the navy ships. The smaller ones must have been brought in by workers to close off those tunnels to us.”

              “Or to test you?”

              “Perhaps. And there could quite likely be another large one out there somewhere… the ships dropped two of those canisters.”

              “And where is he now?”

              She paused, then turned to the man. His hat was still pulled low over his face. Her hand was whole again, and she was no longer walking with a limp. “What is happening?”

              “I am healing you. I need to know what monster we are up against. Where is the Root now?”

              She felt something twinge in the back of her throat. Something was wrong. “Where am I? What are you?”

              The man cursed. He whipped his hat off, and the world began to dissolve around them. She found herself sinking in darkness.

              “Simple thing… it was a simple thing.” There was something familiar about that sneering disgust.

              “What – what are you talking about?”

              Her world became darkness.

              “All these weeks of hacking your ARHUD… you’d think we could get it right.” The man swore again, then something flashed in the back of her vision, as if sight was beginning to restore again. “Got more out of you in a jailbreak simulation than weeks of isolation and questioning. Oh well…”

              She felt a flare burst in the back of her throat. She retched and collapsed to the floor.

              “Now that we own your body, you will tell us what we want to know. Who is the Root and what does he have planned?”

              She coughed and clawed at the ground.

              “Tell… us…” the words ground into her mind, pressing her bodily into the floor though she was alone in the cell. He didn’t intend to let her speak. He was toying with her.

              A shriek escaped her lungs, then cut off.

              “Ah… none of that.” He mocked, “Can’t have you making noises we don’t allow.”

              Her silent struggle continued.

              “Are you ready to speak yet?” the man asked.

              More pain. More silent scrabbling on the ground.

              Then again.

              “Ready yet?”

              She shrieked silently into the void.

              Again and again he’d ask, then pain, the silent screams. Finally, he released her. “You may speak.”

              She started to laugh, in spite of herself. Pain shocked through her body, her fingers tensed and cracked. She felt a nail dislodge from one of her fingers.

              Then, knowing full well what would come, she spat what little she could with her dried out mouth and choked “Is that all you’ve got? You hack my ARHUD so you can force me to speak? Or is that outside your abilities? Maybe if you watched your islands a little better… you’d know… what was… coming!”

              A new wave of pain roiled over her. Her head smashed against the stones of the floor, sending flashes of light across her vision. She tensed again, as if hundreds of volts of electricity were coursing through her body, then her head struck the floor again. Merciful blackness embraced her.

 

              Her ARHUD woke her. She didn’t know how long she’d been out.

              “Now… what do you know of the Root’s plans?”

              She grabbed a handful of small rocks and crunched them between her fingers as she rose. She could feel the blood welling out through her clenched fist.

              Focus on the pain. Focus on the pain… in the hands. The blood, the sharp, lancing, aching fingers… focus on those pains.

              Her mind exploded again; her back jerked; her hands flexed and clenched. But her clarity remained, for once.

              The ARHUD distorted her vision, pulsed around the edge of her mind, and sent her senses raging. Her heart raced as she smelled smoke, felt fire and then ice blast across her flesh, and coughed as acid washed across her eyes, nose, and mouth. Their feverish attempt to overdo the torture worked against them, and the sudden shift from hot to cold, smoke to acid allowed her to almost leave the reality of the situation. It’s a simulation.

              “We can torment you in the safety of your own mind. Give us what you have.”

              She fought back in any way she could, even if it was just keeping up the will to fight. They hadn’t conquered her free will, even though they were hijacking her brain’s control over her senses.

              “Tell us.”

              “N-never…” she growled, and spat at the ground.

              “Oooh… still got some fight left in that shattered old box, eh?”

              She spat again. “L-lots.”

              Pain exploded again.

              This time, her hand clenched on the rocks and held them there. She bore down on them with every bit of her strength. As the pain fought with the impulses running through her body, she tore her eyes away from the ground and jerked her head to the side. The man had entered the room and was gloating. He apparently hadn’t noticed her new movements. He was too busy relishing his torments.

              There was a moment’s respite. He paused to turn toward the door. That was all she needed. Fighting back the well of panic overwhelming her body, she used what little strength she had to rise unsteadily to her feet and lunge at him. She was barely able to knock him off-balance before the wave hit. He landed on his backside with a laugh, then pain roiled through her body.

              She twitched backwards, an uncontrolled scream ripping from her throat.

              He laughed and began to joke derisively at her feeble attempt. He slowly rose to his feet.

              She had to do it now. She clenched her fist down so hard that she could feel the stones rip into muscle. The physical pain was unbelievable, but it cleared the control just enough for her to reassert dominance over her body. She rolled her legs around, knocked his knees out from under him, and watched as he toppled.

              She swept around with all the strength she could muster, landed on his throat with all the weight she could control, and drove two fingers down into his unprotected eyes.

              Now it was a new set of screams ripping through the prison. She shoved down and down, feeling the jelly balls squish and burst under her unrelenting assault.

              He shrieked in sheer panic and pain.

              She reveled in her revenge, a darkness welling up inside that struck back for every degradation, every torment, every bit of mockery, every cruel trick.

              His control over her ARHUD disappeared. Her strength and control completely her own, she removed her fingers from his destroyed eye sockets, shoved the handfuls of rocks in his mouth, and planted a knee on his upturned throat. Within moments, she had fractured his larynx and collapsed his windpipe.

              He choked and fell still.

              “You will be silent,” she barked, kicking his corpse. She staggered to her feet, blood dripping from dozens of wounds. Her hands were stained and raw. A pebble broke free of her torn muscles and struck the floor with a clatter of finality.

              But she was alive, and she was free.

              She plucked the control from his limp fingers. A simple push-button had done all this. She slammed it to the floor and crunched it into the broken cobbles that made up the floor of her prison.

              She paused at the door. It was ajar – obviously overconfidence on his part had left her prison cell wide open. But she’d been duped before. She wouldn’t be fooled again.             

              She took stock of her environment, then took stock of her taking stock. This was real… or at least as real as she had ever noticed the world. The musty smells, the sting of raw flesh, the slight ache at the back of her consciousness. And… something else…

              “Root? Is that you?”

              She stepped into the hallway – more like limped. She hobbled down the same path the man had led her in the hallucination, down the prison cellblock, up to the next level, and on and on. She made it to the gatehouse, fought the urge to attempt to gain access to the Terminal of the prison (and potentially get some new clothing), and staggered out into the blinding light, watching as the flame turrets and ocean water mixed to begin the perimeter “fire wall” on the off-chance that the Root actually had made it to the mainland. She had to give credit to the people of this land – they were prepared and took few chances.

              But every other defense had failed in the Archipelago, so there was little chance the same method would work here.

              The Root had come, and this whole land would soon fall to him.

              And she’d be at his side, if only to watch him tear this all down.

              The ground split open, and a single tendril probed its way up from the soil, resting gently against her foot. “What do you want?” The tendril tapped her foot… affectionately? It pointed to the forest. She shook her head. “I can’t make it that far.”

              Deactivate the wall and I can rescue you.

              She smiled as her ARHUD brought up the schematics and with a single command disengaged the security. She knew what was about to happen to the facility, but was unexpectedly surprised when the world erupted beneath her. Vines and tendrils formed a protective ball around her, sucking her down into the soil before bursting out into the open a few hundred yards away, delivering her safely to the forest’s edge.

              She coughed and staggered forward. “I’d forgotten that!”

              Root stood nearby, stoically staring up his vines as they closed on the prison camp. “You endured.”

              “I did.”

              “Why?”

              She shook her head. “I won’t be broken. Not by you, and certainly not by them.”

              Just before the Root’s vines could overrun the camp, a firewall blazed back into life. He was forced to retreat back into the forest. The Root’s feet stretched down into the soil, and she could see small tendrils tracing their ways around the nearby trees. “They are smarter here.”

              She nodded. “Much. They managed to hack my ARHUD and use it to control me.”

              “What did they want to know?”

              She glanced at him, looking for any sort of discrepancy that would let her know this was all just another illusion. She decided to ask a question rather than answer one. “Have you established yourself here? What of the rest of the Archipelago? Your other body?”

              “Some things are harder than others. I am as established as I can be here… and my other half – on the islands… it is… in a bit of chaos.”

              “How so?”

              He shook his head. “I’m not completely sure. It seems that without my control, various aspects of my body are now vying for dominance.”

              “The consciousness of those you absorbed? I thought the different factions settled down?”

              He nodded. “I’m not certain what is happening. I am not consciously there, but through small snippets I can witness the warfare.”

              “Do we go back?”

              “No… not until our work here is done. We must eradicate these humans and find that portal.”

              “How do we do that?”

              “We find the scientists that started this and we stop them.”

              “As vengeance or to prevent them from making any more competition?”

              He lifted each foot in turn, removing their binding links to the soil, and gave a rough approximation of a smile. “I think it is the scientists I have absorbed. Their desire for vengeance – for justice – calls out to me… even from the Archipelago. Perhaps a few of them are part of this body…” he mused, starting at his hands. “I admit I want no more competition – perhaps something that can cooperate with me, but not something that could supplant me.”

              She nodded.

              “We will find their base and take it for ourselves, then reconnect with the rest of my body on the Archipelago. Then we establish a Growth on the mainland and begin a new age of peace and for this land.”

              “Because we’ll all be controlled?”

              “You’ll all be free, but with a common goal for once.”

              They trudged away from the prison camp and off into the forest. They needed to find Facility 1 and transfer to the mainland.

              “Which island are we on?” she asked, limping along at his side.

              The Root paused on the edge of a hill they had been climbing and pointed down into the valley. “I believe you called this Extinction Point One.”

              She gaped. What had appeared to be a large clearing surrounding by rolling hills, all covered in grass and trees, had been not twenty years ago a crater – a massive, life ending crater. She had seen the place soon after its creation, when she had first been transferred to the Archipelago as a teenager.

              “Tell me the story.” He said.

              “The plague ended just before I can remember. I may have been five. When it was safe to ‘go out,’ we began the grim task of collecting the dead and corralling the ‘should-be-dead.’ My parents worked on the crew refitting the old chambers into Warehouses. There were thousands of us, scattered across the islands of the Archipelago, taking the dead that had been ferried from the mainland and chambering them off deep underground, hoping to find a way to use them to help our world. The ones that seemed alive we placed into deep cold storage so they wouldn’t get away.”

              The Root nodded. “Tell me of the war. I know this was where the first bomb fell.”

              She nodded as well. “Extinction Point One. We were a peaceful community on these islands. We’d just finished building a few of the facilities here when the bomb landed. I killed most of us…”

              “And yet the war never actually came here. Why?”

              “It did, actually. Bombs rained so heavily on this part of the Archipelago that multiple islands vanished into the sea. I still wonder if they isolated us on purpose, making it so they only way out was through the Channel or by boat.”

              The Root looked somberly down into the crater.

              “My parents died when I was young… but I’d already shifted more bodies that anyone. I’d seen the preserved state. What does that? They weren’t rotten or decrepit. They looked like someone just laid down to sleep and were still sleeping. And those were the ones that didn’t walk around.”

              “How long had it been since the plague began?”

              “No idea. It was around as long as I could remember.”

              “It ended when you were five.”

              “I know,” she replied with a smile. It could have been a few years, it could have been a few months. Whatever it was and however it spread, it wiped out thousands – maybe millions – so fast that we couldn’t even bury them. And then it vanished. The bodies aren’t infected anymore. The plague hit, then split, if you will.”

              The Root stared down at her, then back at the crater.

              “Trees don’t grow this fast.”

              “Unless they’re boosted along by something else.”

              “I’m the only one of my kind.” He replied.

              “Maybe,” she replied, “maybe not. You’ve seen the lines of experimentation they’re capable of. Something of their eldritch beasts echoes your creation. Replace vines with tentacles, and you and they are two sides of the same coin.”

              “I resent that comparison, but I cede your point.”

              She smirked, “And they feel particularly threatened by you.”

              He paused. “Do they still have stockpiles, I wonder.”

              “Of bombs, like the one used here? Oh, I hope not. But that would do wonders in driving you back. If they have them, I don’t know why they haven’t use it yet.”

              “But if they did, they could destroy the Archipelago, and with most of my consciousness gone… my remains will either die and wither or completely lose control. Either way, it’s a bad thing.”

              “What are you suggesting?”

              “When we eliminate those scientists, we must seize any of their weapons and make sure they can’t be used against us.”

              “And what of those creatures?”

              “We’ll find those soon enough. We have to make sure they can’t use the long-range capabilities. Do you know anything else of this place?”

              She shrugged. “No idea… it’s been more than a decade since I was here last… and it looks completely different. Who knows what they’ve been up to since then?”

              They made camp maybe a mile away from the crater, on a hillside overlooking the ocean.

              The Root lowered himself down, tendrils stretching into the soil. She eased herself down next to him.

              “You were grievously hurt, weren’t you?”

              She scowled. “You care?”

              “I couldn’t help you. The protections kept me away.”

              “You let them take me.”

              “How could I have fought them off in my state?”

              “You could have tried.”

              He held out a hand. “Place your hand in mine.”

              She hesitated.

              “Trust me.”

              She placed her palm in his. It was rough, wooden, yet somehow warm. She felt something crawling in her palm – into her palm! She recoiled. He grasped her with his other hand.

              “Wait.”

              “What are you doing?”

              A jolt of pain caused her hand to unconsciously tense. She stared down in horror as small vines, thin as a hair, began to coil into her skin.

              “What are you doing, Root?”

              “Watch. They will heal you.”

              She stared in a mixture of horror and admiration as the threads acted as living stitches, weaving back together the muscle fibers, then spreading onto the surface, stitching her wounds together. That done, they moved down her arms, forming pulsing bandages which stretched across scrapes and gashes, pulling the lacerations shut and forming living blisters over her other wounds.

              The crawling sensation continued up her arms and across her body, down her legs to her feet, and even up toward the large gash on her head. She twitched as the wound across her brow teemed with small hair-like tendrils and pulled itself shut.

              I care for you… I am sorry I didn’t prevent this. It was my fault.

              She felt something inside her skull, saw a strange floating object in her vision, and shivered as something crawled its way out of her tear duct and dropped to the ground.

              “I have done what I could.”

              She stared at her palm. It had taken on a slightly greenish hue. She could only imagine how the rest of her looked. But there was no more pain. She twisted her head from side to side. Nothing. She had been healed.

              “New ability?” she asked.

              “I saw how that monster in the tunnels recovered from its wounds, and imagined I could do the same. I am, after all, a plant. Fibers are my specialty. And if I can produce large fibers, I should be able to produce smaller ones.”

              She sighed and leaned back, looking out over the ocean.

              “What are we doing?”

              He looked at his own hand, then leaned back.

              “Setting the world right.”

              It was several days’ travel across several islands before they arrived at the final Warehouse.

              “What are we going to do?”

              The Root stared down at the complex. He didn’t answer

              “Is that where the N-4 Assembly is?”

              He shook his head. “They’ve probably headed to the mainland.”

              “Shall we go?”

              The usual defenses rose at their presence. The Root seemed to anticipate this, for out of the ground burst corpses. Some were animated by long tendrils. Others moved of their own accord – apparently still possessing some life. These lunged onto the defenses in an effort to overwhelm them.

              “What are you doing?”

              What I did to destroy that beast in the tunnels. Don’t you remember?

              More corpses shambled out, burying the water turret under heaps of flesh.

              I was borne of mankind’s need to dispose of what they had created – mountains of dead. They used some of the remaining power in this world to empower me – a useless plant – with the ability to absorb matter… and absorb matter is what I do. If these monstrosities are let free, they will destroy what remains of this world, and there would be nothing I could do to stop them. Are you going to be powerful enough to stop them? Were you powerful enough to stop me?

              The slightest opening appeared in the firewall. The Root burst through. Its tendrils burst through the barricades, carving thick channels through the soil, shredding the concrete walls and underlying masonry easily and collapsing the entrance of the building. Massive coils of fleshy vines burst upward, rending entire sections of the wall up with it.

              The building collapsed under its injuries. Like tentacles bursting out of the sea, more coils sprung up around, wrapping around and around the structure and pulling it deeper and deeper into the soil. The metal framework buckled and screeched, and Kery could faintly hear the cries for help ringing from inside.

              “They were innocent.”

              None are innocent, Kery. They partook in the rituals that made those beasts. They must all pay the price for not being brave enough to stand up against what was being done.

              “And if someone had stood up against your creation?”

              Are you calling me a monster?

              “Are you?”

              I am monstrous, but I am justice. I am not a monster.

              “And what of those who you just killed and consumed? Would they consider you a monster?”

              They are dead.

              “And that makes it right?”

              They see things my way now.

              “So freedom to choose to join you is no longer an option? Are you going to subjugate me?”

              You’re different. You’re special.

              “Special, or still useful?”

              Both.

              She watched the metal trusses finally crack completely, and the building vanished under the ground, leaving a copse of tendrils, vines, and roots behind. The ground quivered and shifted. Nature, in its own corrupt and twisted way, was retaking this ground that had been so destroyed.

              She held out a hand and brushed the Root’s arm. It was hardened bark, yet there were parts, here and there, that still pulsed with a strange fleshy muscle-like material.

              “What is happening?” she asked, gently.

              I am retaking this land and shaping it into the image it once was.

              “This land was ravaged by nature. First frozen solid, then reclaimed by mankind, then destroyed by a volcano. The only force that ever did good here were the races you call destructive. We didn’t start this devastation – we tried to survive it. We tried to recover from what nature did to us, not the other way around.”

              I’m not just nature… I’m mankind’s greed and lust for power.

              “You’re our instinct to control. You’re our instinct to discover. And you’re all that’s best and worst about us taken to its unintended end. You’re not good or bad – you’re a force of nature that can be used for either, if you’d let it. I hate them as much, if not more than you do… I’ve been abused by them more than you have. I just can’t bear to see the innocents…”

              “None are innocents… they should have stood.”

              “Of course they should have, but humanity is cowardly! I’m standing up to you and you hate me for it. In spite of everything, you would condemn me if I weren’t so cursed useful to you. And those innocents – or close-to-innocents are the same way. Some may have still been trying to find a cure.”

              The Root softened – both facially and physically. Part of the bark of his arm peeled back, and an expression of thoughtfulness passed over his features. He looked down at her.

              Do you believe that?

              She nodded.

              And these monsters mankind has created, are they evil?

              “Chaotic, yes… evil, I don’t even know for sure if something like them can be either. They’re mindless killing machines. Is a vehicle evil for doing what it was designed to do?”

              And what was I designed to do?

              She paused. If she answered, his growth and consuming couldn’t be labeled evil either… at least by her if she wanted to stay consistent.

              You were meant to give humanity hope.

              The Root stood over the clearing that was once a Warehouse. Smoke and dirt billowed up from where it had been, the last human vestiges after nature had violently reclaimed the territory. He clenched a fist and the tendrils recoils back to him, leaving small saplings behind. A grove of regrowth in a place filled with death.

              He turned to her. I will think more one what you’ve said. But these beasts – and the ones who made them – need to be destroyed if this world is to have this… hope… you speak of.

              “They don’t deserve anything… but we can be better than them.”

              Something burst in front of them. A girl appeared from a slice of light, her skin pale, hair whipping around her. Large claws extended from the tips of her fingers. She clenched a severed spinal cord in one hand and used her other wipe at the blood that was splattered all over her body.

              “What is that?”

              Obviously something of immense power. The Root responded. He extended his hand, and a number of his Root-bound closed on her.

              She noticed them with a smirk. The ground began to wither even faster.

              She locked eyes with Kery, then shifted her gaze to the Root. Her hair began to settle and her skin was slowly darkening.

              Kery watched the girl in horror as she drained the life from around her, then blasted forward, taking out the army of the dead in almost one blow. Slathered in gore, the banshee swept up the hillside toward them.

              The Root placed a protective hand out. “Get behind me,” he spoke, then drew a monstrously large tendril like a giant worm from the ground, bringing it crashing down on the newcomer with a violence that should have crushed her into the bedrock.

              When the dirt cleared, the girl stood there, hair flicking lightly, claws retracted, blood – her blood – coursing down a new injury on the side of her face. Otherwise, she was unhurt, but she was angry.

              She began to draw from her surroundings again, her skin starting to pale, but was interrupted as another large tendril crushed her.

              Again, she received only minor injuries, escaping another body-crushing blow with little to no effect. She smirked.

              “You’ve got powerful magic. Ancient… from the land itself…”

              Kery turned to the Root. His lips were pursed in a straight line of concentration, his brows pursed.

              “What… are you?” The Root asked audibly.

              She smiled up at him, her blood-covered hand draining the life out of a small tree, watching with pleasure as it withered and died. The energy she gained flicked her hair and drained the color slightly from her features. “I am an elf… and you?”

              “I am the Root, the final gasp of creation.”

              Kery watched the exchange in horrified shock. What is happening?

              She is from another realm, or another world. I am not sure. She is powerful… and dangerous.

              How can she be from another realm? Did she create the portals?

              The Root stared down at her. “Where are you from?”

              “My own place.”

              “And why have you come?”

              “Do discover where those things come from.” She gestured rudely back at the bleeding spinal column behind her. “But I can tell it isn’t from here. You’re the only major source of magic in this region.”

              The Root’s armor began to harden, and Kery could feel a few tendrils probing at her feet, as if he were going to sweep her elsewhere at a moment’s notice.

              The girl shrugged as her color darkened. “I’m wasting my time here.” She turned on a heel and walked back down the hill.

              The Root’s fists were primed. He was ready to strike her down at a moment’s notice.

              She plucked the spinal column from the ground, lifted it up, and used it to slash open the sky. Something burst into light – bluish white and blinding – then she was gone, leaving a glistening scar in the air.

              “What was that?”

              The Root shook his head. “Someone dangerous. She pressed my strengths to their limit and barely took a scratch.”

              Kery stared at the place where the girl had been. “What do we do about her?”

              “Nothing can be done. She’s gone. I can’t sense her anywhere.”

              They watched the spot where the elf had appeared. A slight shimmer sparkled in the air, marking her exit from their world. What other realms existed? And what dangers did they possess.

              “I now understand,” Kery whispered.

              “Understand what?”

              “Why you wanted to secure the portal to the other realm – that portal you sensed.”

              The Root nodded. “We are doomed if more like her come through.”

              “Where is that portal? Is it like that scar down there?”

              “No, the one I seek was used more permanently… it was grounded into our reality. This is but a scratch in the fabric. That one is a doorway.”

              “Where is it?”

              “This way,” replied the Root. “It is on the mainland.”

              “How will we get there?”

              “I’ve found the Channel landing pad.”

              “But the code?” She felt a twinge in her throat.

              “You already know it.”

              “How?”

              “When Gerjad died, I was able to extract the information from his ARHUD. It’s currently being stored in this vessel. I’ll need to directly interface with you in order to upload it.”

              “What do you mean, ‘directly interface’?”

              “You need to stop being a separate entity – we must unite our consciousness.”

              She laughed. “That’s what you’ve been trying to do this whole time, isn’t it?”

              He shook his head. “No. I sought to keep you separate from me, but now, there’s no other way. I can’t upload this to you and get off these islands. Only one of us can get off, or we can join together as one being.”

              She shook her head. “It’s data. You can upload the data. We can find a terminal with the right authorization. Why not just give it to me and let me escape. I’ll shut down the defenses and come back.”

              “There’s no way,” replied the Root. He pointed off across the islands, to where the landing was. A subaquatic channel existed – very similar to the tunnel they had used to escape the deeper recesses of the Archipelago – that would ferry them straight to the main land. But there was an array of defenses waiting.

              “I can survive some of the barrage – if they see you, they’ll open fire…”

              “I’ll convince them I’ve changed sides.”

              “Doesn’t matter now, they’ll kill you anyway. There’s no forgiveness from them for what you’ve done.”

              “They’ll listen.”

              The Root shook his head. “No, they won’t. And if they see me without the code activated, then they’ll fire on me well away from shore – I won’t stand a chance. The only way is for us to unite – that way you have the protection of my form and I have the access to the ARHUD.”

              “You have other researchers – other bodies you can use. They have the ARHUD implanted in the back of their throats. You can just take them.”

              The Root nodded, and his voice whispered in the back of her mind. I could… but where would that leave you?

              “I can’t,” she responded.

              Can’t what?

              “I can’t give up everything that makes me… me.”

              Your form? Shed the human form. You’ll become something so much better.

              “And then become your mindless slave?”

              I’d never control your mind.

              “You’re just that convincing, eh? After all I went through in that festering jail cell, after seeing your mind go berserk when too many personalities got up in there. How can I trust you won’t drive me into some box in the back of your mind and ignore my screaming for the rest of time?”

              If I haven’t earned that trust yet… the Root responded.

              “How do I even know if you’re trustworthy? You’ve needed me to get you places, to protect your form or guide you when your plant form couldn’t make it. You could be using me to get what you want.”

              I could be, or I could be protecting you as best I can – a mutually assured survival trait. If you choose to bless friends and ignore the rest of the world, does that make you a bad person?

              “I’m not giving up my body.”

              The days passed as they traveled.

              “Where were you?”

              The Root had taken on human form again. He strode beside her

              A few days later, Kery found herself entering the final facility. Deep beneath this structure, buried under mountains of concrete, steel, and glass, was the tramway that, through a canal of steel, light, and glass, would shuttle her back to the mainland and to the source of her salvation or destruction – this scientist known as Alex.

              Kery felt her hands clench on the steering mechanism. Her tongue absently ran along the back of her throat, tracing the location where she knew the ARHUD had been implanted. Would this plan work? Could she make it happen?

              The small glass-lined vehicle, the same she had seen Gar’jad piloting in the mind vision, slowly cycled its way onto the Channel. This would work, or not. The Root had made a lot of promises, but she had another idea. One she hoped would work.

              The shuttle dropped down onto the chute and began its long descent down into the depths of the ocean.

              Within moments, a request for an access code appeared on her ARHUD. This she answered, transmitting the proper credentials.

              Alex’s voice came across the coms. “I worried you weren’t coming back. What happened out there?”

              She garbled back her response, imitating the other scientist’s voice as convincingly as possible. “All outlying islands are gone. He even came through the tunnel after we collapsed it. I barely escaped.”

              “What’s happened to your voice?”

              “He crushed my windpipe. If I hadn’t already died, I think that would have killed me.”

              “I’m glad you’re safe. Did anyone else make it out?”

              She shook her head, forgetting he couldn’t see her, and responded again. “No. Some fled to other islands, but the Root has completely overwhelmed our system.”

              “What are we going to do?”

              What indeed? She asked herself.

              The shuttle continued its descent. “A few more minutes and I’ll initialize video connection.”

              She felt her heart constrict. “That’s good. It’ll be good to see you again, Alex.”

              The comlink went silent for a while longer.

              The small shuttle continued across the undersea route, passing swiftly through the miles. The container was heading south-west, if her reckoning was correct. They’d come out just on the other side of an old facility known as Shoreline. What did the world hold for them now?

              A few more minutes passed, and another burst of transmission crackled in the shuttle.

              “Garjad?”

              “Yes.”

              “How did you know?”

              “How did I know what, Alex?”

              There was a pause.

              “Alex?”

              “How did you know where he was hiding?”

              “Who? The Root?”

              “Who am I talking to?”

              “What do you mean?”

              “You’re not my friend… you’re not doctor Gerjad.”

              “Alex, what are you saying?”

              “Stop with the Alex! Gerjad never called me Alex!”

              “What are you talking about?” Kery responded, fighting to keep her voice calm. She fought to keep her wording specific and clear. “I called you it the last time we spoke, when I said to go to the mainland.”

              “No, you didn’t.”

              We’ve been fooled. Gerjad deceived us in his own mind. He installed a failsafe in his own memories.

              “Doctor Gerjad never referred to me as Alex, and would never do that anywhere on a public line. This was a precise promise. You have his access code and his memories – but not all of them. What are you? Who are you?”

              “If you know that much, you already know.” Kery replied. “And we both know what you’re going to do next.”

              “What can I do?” he muttered… “What can I possibly do?”

              The shuttle continued to jerk and bounce as it forced its way along the underwater channel. It began to rise, and a video feed began. A young man, his face stained with tears and his lab coat ruined, looked at them. “What have you done?”

              Kery felt a moment of pause. The voice in her mind spoke. Ignore him. We were fooled. If we act now, we can stop him from destroying us.

              “What do you mean?”

              “Kery…” the man she thought was Alex muttered.

              “What?” it was more shock than curiosity. He knew her name.

              “You have doomed us all. What have you done?”

              “What have I done? What have you done? I’ve seen the monsters out here in the deep.”

              The scientist gave a morose laugh. “Yah… I know.”

              The shuttle surfaced, and she burst from it, primed for action. The room was empty, save for the corpses of dozens of men and creatures. Alex stood nearby, pistol at the ready, blood already dripping from a wound in his side. He shook his head. She had known him from the lab! She’d thought he’d died when the Root got free!

              “If you hadn’t sided with him… it… we wouldn’t be here! This would have never happened. We could have trapped it back there…”

              Behind him, spattered with gore, was the map of the Archipelago – hundreds of islands spread out over probably a hundred miles. A barrier shimmered on the far northeast fringe representing the water wall. A volcano shimmered where several islands had been. Alex leaned against the control panel, holding his side.

              “They were desperate,” he muttered. “They were terrified. They’d heard what had happened to the other islands, the Rig… the navy couldn’t even hold you guys back… you destroyed it, too… and then we lost touch with Gerjad… after that, they couldn’t be stopped anymore.”

              “Who? What did they release?”

              “You know…” he coughed into his sleeve, leaving a stain of red where his lips had touched. A slight line of red spittle trickled down the side of his chin. He gulped. “When Gerjad didn’t return or respond, they feared the worst. His assumed death triggered the Reckoning Protocol.”

              As if in answer to her question, he gestured around him. “These monsters… no better way to end a monster than with a monster…”

              She stood before him. She’d made decisions she could never undo. She’d damned what remained of her people. She’d brought the Root to these shores.

              “Where is it?” He asked. “How have you smuggled it in?”

              “I left the Root behind,” she responded. “He wouldn’t see things my way, so he left.”

              The scientist shook his head. “No, that’ can’t be right… something like that can’t be reasoned with.”

              “I did.”

              The man shook his head. “No… no…”

              “What?”

              “All this death… those things… the people who came in to destroy them all… all for nothing…”

              “What do you mean, ‘the people’?”

              “Some soldiers arrived and just started butchering everyone.”

              “Soldiers?”

              “They saved your life…” he responded. He knelt down and plucked a pistol from the ground. “Pistols had no effect on their armor. They moved so fast… cut us down before we could even blink.”

              He looked mournfully at the firearm in his hands. Blood still welled from an injury in his side. It was a long gash, and the clothing hung from it, stained deep red.

              “I can’t let you go, you know… I should have kept Doctor Gerjad’s instructions… but I wanted to believe. I wanted to think you hadn’t let the Root take you over.”

              He raised the pistol and pointed it at her.

              “I haven’t let him.”

              “Oh, but you have…” he replied. “You don’t see it, do you? You don’t see how he’s already inside, taking over your body bit by bit?”

              “He’s not. He’s back in the Archipelago.”

              “He’s in you… and I’m going to kill you both.”

              Something crawled at the back of her mind. The Root’s voice whispered.

              Where are you?

              Inside…

              She felt her gut turn cold. What do you mean? How are they detecting you inside me?

              Because I am.

              With that, her flesh burst. The tendrils ripped free, sending the once-human form splitting open. Skin and clothing fell free. Seams split down the body as blood was pushed out, replaced with the viscous sap that ran to the the Root.. The barely-contained mass of roots and tendrils wrenched out of the shuttle.

              The scientist they had known as Alex gave a slight scream and fired a single shot as he was consumed by the new nest of vines and tendrils. They shredded him before he could fire a second.

              The Root stepped out of the pile of skin and clothing that had been Kery. She’d served her purpose. She’d gotten him all the way here. Her voice was but another amongst the crowds at the back of his mind. He was in complete control now. He flexed his hand. It had been weird lurking beneath the flesh of a person. It was so… soft, so pliable. Her clenched his fist and sealed himself with bark as the turrets rounded on him.

              Before ten shots imbedded in his flesh and before even the slightest gout of flame could ignite, vines and tendrils ripped from his body and shredded them as easily as he’d shredded his Kery disguise. He swelled as his tendrils absorbed the corpses in the room. He needed to feed, and there was only one place he could go – South.

              Kery’s voice screamed, though it was only a tiny din at the back of his mind.

              You agreed! You said we’d be partners! You said you’d try my way.

              We did… it worked.

              And you betrayed me! Her voice accused, fading fast in the thrum of voices.

              I did what had to be done. Welcome to the family, Kery. We’ve been waiting for you to have a proper union with us.

              Something pricked at the back of his mind. He twitched slightly.

              Don’t make yourself a nuisance… I have ways of drowning out voices I don’t want to hear.

              Traitor.

              I am acting on my nature. I do what I must to consume what I can.

              The Root broke through the concrete wall and reached into the dirt. It connected beyond the confines of this facility. He could escape this way. He allowed himself to enter the dark, moist earth. He could feel every grain of soil as it shifted beneath him. Voices clamored in his head, begging to be heard. They attempted to reason with him. At this moment, he was flowing through the earth, driven by instinct.

              He felt the rush as particles parted around him, like waves before a ship. Far away, nearly drowned out by the untold miles of distance – too far for him to possibly reach – the parts of him that had remained behind were battling. What they were battling, even other parts of himself, he could only guess. A presence rose up in his mind. Kery.

              So, all our planning was for nothing? Was it all a lie? The whole time?

              He tried to ignore her.

              You made me Root-touched, didn’t you? When I turned down your plan and you shook my hand… you put a part of yourself in me.

              Again, he tried to tune her out.

              And Talon, did you really kill him just to manipulate me? Did he choose any of this, or did he just think he chose?

              The Root felt a pang on conscience. Kery’s consciousness gurgled in the milieu.

              And where to now? Are you just going to leave us here, awash on an ocean of voices fighting for control of your mind? Do I matter that little to you?

              This is what must be done.

              Really? You deceived my mind and convinced me to try this ploy, pretended that my idea might work, only to utterly destroy my body in the process? And the scientists – you ate them all!

              They were already dead.

              Because of what we did out in the Archipelago!

              What other option did I have? My nature is to consume. I did what I had to do. This is their fault anyway.

              You don’t know that. You could have been a symbol of hope and regrowth. You chose to be the terror of nature. You chose to be the monster. And I trusted you.

              We accomplished what I told you I set out to do. Where did I lie?

              You didn’t need to fuse with me to make it across that channel, yet you stole my form anyway. You consumed my essence and left me… this floating entity in your mind. How deeply did you plan this betrayal? Can you admit to your treachery?

              If I hadn’t fused with your form, they would have been able to detect my presence, either in your mind or in your body. They would have destroyed us both.

              And all that ended up not mattering after all, eh? We were lied to and … what do you know? … we were saved by a fluke of scientific corruption!

              There’s no way we could have known Gerjad had lied in his own mind.

              You lied enough. I thought you’d spot it.

              I never lied to you, Kery. I only deceived at the very end so we could both survive the trip.

              You already destroyed my form… at least have the decency not to try to play it off like it was for my good.

              The Root continued forward, the ground yielding to him. His bulk burst through an abandoned series of tunnels. A long-abandoned city lay below him – something no doubt of Dwarven work. Small tunnels rose to the ceiling, allowing fresh air down into this network. This wasn’t the place. He continued on.

              Tunnels collapsed as he passed through them. Occasionally, he would surface, finding a realm devoid of life, save for a few sparse plants that were attempting to eke out a meager existence among the ruins of fallen towers and old buildings. The war had devastated everything. Why would he ever act as a symbol of hope for this place? This place had destroyed itself in an effort to claim barren tracks of wasteland.

              Something flared to life nearby.

              He paused.

              He didn’t know what that feeling was, but he needed to find out.

              He dove underneath the ground, dropping into another abandoned ruin.

              Despite himself, he needed Kery beside him. He couldn’t understand it himself.

              His form shifted to that of a strange mixture between his human form and that of Kery. The two entities split from each other. Kery’s form was almost exactly as it had been when she was human, save for the greenish tinge to her flesh. She paused, clothing growing up around her form.

              “Guilty conscience?”

              He shook his head. “No. I need you alongside me for this.”

              She gazed at her form. “Why now.”

              “We are one,” he responded. “Help me.”

              “Why me?”

              “You’ve proven yourself a loyal friend.”

              “Don’t you mean slave, traitor?”

              “I do have control, if that’s what you’re wondering.”

              “Then you’re being so gracious allowing me to take on human form!” she replied, examining herself again. “So gracious. Especially asking me to help while holding a gun to my head. Remember, old friend,” she spat, “you wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for me.”

              He nodded. “I know.”

              They continued through the ruined city until they came upon a shimmering beacon in the middle of an old, collapsed archway. Streets radiated off from the point, as if it had once been a mighty hub of all travel in this area back in centuries past. Columns lay strewn about, and massive chunks of the ceiling had collapsed inward, burying entire swaths of what had once been quite a respectable city.

              “What is this place?”

              Kery shook her head. “I’ve never heard of it before. Is that what we’ve been looking for?”

              “Some sort of portal.”

              “To where?”

              The Root stepped up to it. “Only one way to find out.”

              I’m going. Stay behind.

              He stepped into the opening.

---

[1] Augmented Reality Heads-up Display. All high-level facility managers were granted an implant with clearance and navigation ability built-in. This freed up much staffing responsibilities, as those without clearance wouldn’t even be able to enter certain facilities, much less operate or even locate must necessities.