The buzzer sounded painfully, breaking the calming silence of the false night. Two orbs suddenly lit up in the darkness and Dr. James Haythrow sat up with a grunt. The vibrating annoyance that broke his slumber danced next to his nightstand. With a grimace he reached over and picked it up. Sensing his touch, it connected and a voice echoed out from the device, “Doctor! Are you awake?”
“I am now, you fool. What’s wrong?” came the doctor’s gravely tones. He was normally a rather cheerful being, but having been broken from a pleasant slumber, he wasn’t in the best of moods.
“There’s been a breakthrough!” ejaculated the voice, apparently oblivious of the gruff response. Instead it continued, “Dr. Mich worked into the night and believes he might have discovered the suppressive agent. It’s still rather soon to affirm this discovery, but the doctor is very firm in his assurances this is the one.”
“Alright, Randal, I’ll be in as soon as possible.” Haythrow’s tones were almost sad. He hardly ever got a pleasant rest, but it appeared this incident couldn’t be helped. His lab had been working on this technology for over eight years. If there really had been a breakthrough, he’d need to be there. Still, he wasn’t so sure about Dr. Mich. He was an aspiring young scientist, that was for sure, but that didn’t mean this could be anything of value. There was no actual head scientist on this team (the current government prevented one man to lead them all), so it would be vital that all three scientist be present before anymore work was done towards a solution. No doubt, Dr. Lavens was already on his way to the lab.
With agonizing slowness, Haythrow pushed himself out of bed, a bolt of pain shooting up his back. It had given him problems for a while now; just nature’s way of getting revenge on him for his work. Still, he pushed himself along, hobbling to his bathroom. The light burst into life and he squinted out of habit. As his eyes slowly opened, a middle-aged man stared back at him. In the mirror, he could see his bloodshot eyes and increasingly graying hair clearly. The stress at work had not been kind to him. First his back and now steadily his appearance.
He quickly washed his hair and found some suitable clothes. He didn’t have time to shave the stubs of hair forming across his face. He wore simple black pants with a simple white shirt. It may not have been an authentic stereotype of what a scientist should wear, but Haythrow wasn’t working on technology that normal scientists would either. Looking quickly back over his small dwelling, he double-checked that everything was in its place. He sighed solemnly, unsure of when he would see his home again, and close the door behind him. It automatically locked as he walked away.
The dark halls signified that this wasn’t the area of town you wanted to live in, but it was at least daylight outside. All the ****roaches would be consumed with the task of hiding from Mother. Mother was the agency that controlled the everyday life of the people. It was a name derived from “Mother Nature” and the seal of this agency was, in fact, a woman surrounded by plants and animals. Still, this “Mother” of the human race had never been kind to nature. It was Mother that ordered Dr. Haythrow and the other’s experiment into nature suppressing technology.
In recent years, humans had begun to see the error of their pollutant ways. Most of the world’s animals were already extinct, but the plants, oddly enough, were the most adaptive to the pollution. They had absorbed it in, the very makeup of their DNA changing, mutating. These plants had begun to latch themselves onto human dwellings, among other things, and tear them apart. They were classified as scandens repens or “Climbing Creeper”. These creepers had quickly subdued their weaker plant counterparts to become the dominant species in less than ten years. Almost as if they were controlled by some central mind for destruction, they turned their attention to their creators; humans.
When a creeper latched onto a dwelling, be it stone or steel, it could tear it apart in a matter of hours depending on how thick and dense the material was. In their tendrils was a potent acid that aided their powerful crushing power. Just brushing against one of these plants could burn a hole through the main of your arm and alert the plant that food was near.
Mother had tried countless times to exterminate the Repens like so many other animals and plants it deemed unnecessary, but the creepers resisted it all. From bombs to burning, the plants always survived, oftentimes, consuming the attacker. It was assumed that these plants would kill themselves off due to their aggressive nature, which proved to be half true. The plants seemed to differ according to what form of pollutants it had risen from. The strongest, and now only, plant was the Repens. It was determined by scout helicopters, seconds before they were snapped out of the sky, that the Repens originated from the fallout zones of nuclear test sites.
Haythrow’s lab had a living sample of the Repens. It was their subject for testing the plant’s resistances and weaknesses. So far the plant had resisted all their attempts at finding something to kill it. The sampler Repens was kept in a tiny four-foot by four-foot plot of soil surrounded by a large fifty-foot by fifty-foot stilenium cube. Stilenium was a man-made metal comprised by fusing lead and steel. At one side of the cube there was an array of sensors, cameras and a large beam cannon. On the other side was a mechanical lock and slide door. It was through this door that robotic mechanisms were sent into the cube to introduce certain compounds and elements to the Repens. Never once did a robot manage to escape the plant.
The beep of the monorail doors opening with a well calibrated hiss broke Haythrow from his stupor. He almost didn’t remember getting on the train as he reviewed the past eight years. Could his research finally be at an end? Haythrow rose, wincing again, and passed through the threshold of the monorail car doors to find a huge glass building bearing a seal featuring a woman in a draped robe with one arm around a tree and the other holding a small bird. He grimaced at the seal and began to approach the foot of the structure.
Thomas, the guard, stopped Haythrow with a look and pressed two buttons. The doctor stopped and looked up at a slowly descending square. This was the advanced security computer that regulated who and what passed through the doors of the Nursery, the headquarters for Mother. With a look at Thomas, Haythrow sighed and pressed his face into the appropriate crevice. “Please hold still and keep your eyes open.” came the smooth voice of the computer.
With a flash of light, a silvery needle shot from the side and lodged itself into the whites of Haythrow’s eye. “Please speak in a clear voice.” Called the computer and Haythrow responded, “Hello, Mother.”
A low humming came from the detector’s bowls as it processed the DNA obtained from the doctor’s eye. Finally, the same smooth voice announced, “Voice recognition: Confirmed. DNA recognition: Confirmed. Proper retina corruption rate: Confirmed. Please proceed into the Nursery, Dr. Haythrow. Mother welcomes you.”
Haythrow retracted his face as the machine pulled itself back into its overhead box. Rubbing his irritated eye, Haythrow nodded at Thomas and proceeded into the building. No matter how many times he took that test, the needle being thrust into his eyeball always irritated him. He stopped rubbing his eye to watch where he was going just in time to catch the elevator. Jamming his finger into the “L-9” slot, he felt the prick of blood being taken before the elevator sprang into life and carried him to Lab Nine, home of the Repens Repression Research.
The elevator doors opened to reveal a sparkling white room lined with chalk boards and tables covered in chemicals and compounds. In the center of the room was the cube for the Repens. Monitors on the wall of the cube displayed what the cameras and sensors on the inside saw. On the screens was the display of a small, innocent-looking green vine. Examining the room, Haythrow noticed a man standing at a table, wrench in hand. It was, of course, Devon, the robotics expert for Lab Nine. He made sure that the robot parts that they salvaged from the plant were put to good use in new robots. Recycling was very important in Lab Nine because their budget was low enough with the expense of the materials.
Devon looked up from his work and pointed towards the far side of the lab where the beam cannon controls were. “Lavens got here half an hour ago. They’ve been priming the cannon for the first fire. I think they’re just waiting on you to press the button.”
Haythrow groaned and thanked Devon before rushing back towards the beam cannon controls. If those two were ready to fire, he couldn’t be sure of any of Mich’s calculations. Chalk boards covered in scribbles were lining the walls but he couldn’t take any time to investigate them. He was rushing into this experiment completely blind and that was one thing he couldn’t do.
Lavens and Mich were standing around the cannon controls while an innocent, yet powerful humming was coming from the reactor. Lavens was leaning on his cane as usual, white hair flying freely around his balding scalp. Mich was wearing a naïve smile under his jet black hair. It was obvious on his young features that he was very proud. He thrust a set of papers covered in calculations into Haythrow’s hands as he arrived. “We’re set to fire. Both of us agree that these calculations are accurate. As you can see this compound caused a massive reduction in the plant’s growth at an atomic level.”
Haythrow scanned the papers, the pallor on his forehead growing as he saw the implications of the papers he was reading. In a shaky voice he said, “You’re misinterpreting these calculations… This is very dangerous stuff. You fire that beam and you will split every atom of every element in that plant.”
Mich palled in indignation. His face grew furious, the goofy smile now gone from his face. “What are you talking about?” he asked in an angered rush. “Both of us have checked those calculations! We’ve sent a robot in there with the uncrystalized compound! There can be nothing wrong here.”
Haythrow shook his head, looming over the papers in his hands. He said as calmly as possible, “You didn’t add in the crystallization factor. When you crystallized this compound you trapped molecules of H2O along with the compound. These water molecules are going to cause a radioactive reaction to the compound and the radiation already in the plant’s venom.”
Lavens said nothing. He just looked back over his own calculations and shook his head. Sensing mutiny, Mich backed up towards the controls. “You’re both wrong.” Mich declared. “This is my glory! This is my discovery! Mother will always remember me as the one who saved us all from the Repens! I can’t let you stop me.”
Mich turned away to the controls and Lavens took a step forward to block him. Mich stopped for a moment and looked from Lavens to Haythrow. “You two won’t stop me. You have no authority to. There is no head scientist here and this is my discovery. I can’t let you stop me from the salvation of our kind.”
Lavens finally spoke in his aging, raspy voice, “And we can’t let you put our kind at risk. Give it more time, kid. We’ll find another way that won’t endanger everyone.”
For a second it looked like Mich had finally gotten the point. He backed off for a second, putting his hands in his pockets and looking at his feet. Then, without warning, Mich pulled thick needle from his pocket, brining it up into Laven’s neck and pushing the plunger down. A pocket of air was forced into Laven’s jugular vein, blocking blood passage. Laven’s fell to the ground without a struggle, dead before he hit the ground.
Haythrow only stood there in shock as Mich continued to the cannon controls. Haythrow heard the beeping, among other sounds, of buttons being pressed and devices being primed. Haythrow only looked from Mich’s shaking frame to Lavens’s still one. He couldn’t move. He couldn’t believe what had just happened. Murders were extremely rare. Even in the gang fights they never killed. They just yelled at each other until they became too tired to continue. Every now and then a punch would be thrown, but most of the violence in common man had been driven out. Only those bred as soldiers were supposed to have the aggressive drive to kill.
It was obvious that Mich was no longer stable. He had killed someone against instincts and now he was about to push a button against all rational thoughts. Haythrow examined his options. What could he do in this situation besides incapacitate Mich?
Looking nervously at the stool next to him, he wormed his fingers under the rim. Mich had his back turned to him, most likely assuming that Haythrow would be too stunned with shock to do anything. With a stupendous effort, Haythrow wrenched the stool into the air, raising it above his head. Mich must have detected danger because he swung around to face Haythrow, eyes wide with either insanity or fear. Haythrow knew he had to at least knock Mich out until authorities from Mother could be called.
Half a second before the blow could be delivered, a powerful wave of pain rushed up his back. Haythrow crumpled backwards, twitching with pain from the overexertion of his back. Mich stared down at him for a moment and then let out a soft laugh of relief. He called softly as he turned away, “Can’t you see now? It was meant to be that I made the discovery! You get to watch my glory now.”
Haythrow turned to Mich and let out a pained moan. Mich ignored him as the “Primed to Fire” icon flashed on the monitor. Haythrow managed to exclaim, “No!” but it was too late. Almost in slow motion, Haythrow was forced to watch in agony as Mich’s finger activated the cannon’s auto fire control.
In the course of a second, the beam released its rays upon the small plant. In an instant, the plant was evaporated as every atom it was comprised of vanished, split into thousands of even smaller partials. On a more visible level Lab Nine, Mother, the city, and all human life was erased in a massive wave of chain explosions. In ten minutes all human life was destroyed, the world was set ablaze and almost just as quickly put out as all the oxygen was burned away. The world had become barren, caked over with burnt rubble and dead bodies. Everything was still.
Then there was the faintest movement. A chuck of rubble shifted and from a gap in the burnt crust, a thick green tendril worked its way to the surface, ready to feed on the mass of flesh that the humans had prepared.
“I am now, you fool. What’s wrong?” came the doctor’s gravely tones. He was normally a rather cheerful being, but having been broken from a pleasant slumber, he wasn’t in the best of moods.
“There’s been a breakthrough!” ejaculated the voice, apparently oblivious of the gruff response. Instead it continued, “Dr. Mich worked into the night and believes he might have discovered the suppressive agent. It’s still rather soon to affirm this discovery, but the doctor is very firm in his assurances this is the one.”
“Alright, Randal, I’ll be in as soon as possible.” Haythrow’s tones were almost sad. He hardly ever got a pleasant rest, but it appeared this incident couldn’t be helped. His lab had been working on this technology for over eight years. If there really had been a breakthrough, he’d need to be there. Still, he wasn’t so sure about Dr. Mich. He was an aspiring young scientist, that was for sure, but that didn’t mean this could be anything of value. There was no actual head scientist on this team (the current government prevented one man to lead them all), so it would be vital that all three scientist be present before anymore work was done towards a solution. No doubt, Dr. Lavens was already on his way to the lab.
With agonizing slowness, Haythrow pushed himself out of bed, a bolt of pain shooting up his back. It had given him problems for a while now; just nature’s way of getting revenge on him for his work. Still, he pushed himself along, hobbling to his bathroom. The light burst into life and he squinted out of habit. As his eyes slowly opened, a middle-aged man stared back at him. In the mirror, he could see his bloodshot eyes and increasingly graying hair clearly. The stress at work had not been kind to him. First his back and now steadily his appearance.
He quickly washed his hair and found some suitable clothes. He didn’t have time to shave the stubs of hair forming across his face. He wore simple black pants with a simple white shirt. It may not have been an authentic stereotype of what a scientist should wear, but Haythrow wasn’t working on technology that normal scientists would either. Looking quickly back over his small dwelling, he double-checked that everything was in its place. He sighed solemnly, unsure of when he would see his home again, and close the door behind him. It automatically locked as he walked away.
The dark halls signified that this wasn’t the area of town you wanted to live in, but it was at least daylight outside. All the ****roaches would be consumed with the task of hiding from Mother. Mother was the agency that controlled the everyday life of the people. It was a name derived from “Mother Nature” and the seal of this agency was, in fact, a woman surrounded by plants and animals. Still, this “Mother” of the human race had never been kind to nature. It was Mother that ordered Dr. Haythrow and the other’s experiment into nature suppressing technology.
In recent years, humans had begun to see the error of their pollutant ways. Most of the world’s animals were already extinct, but the plants, oddly enough, were the most adaptive to the pollution. They had absorbed it in, the very makeup of their DNA changing, mutating. These plants had begun to latch themselves onto human dwellings, among other things, and tear them apart. They were classified as scandens repens or “Climbing Creeper”. These creepers had quickly subdued their weaker plant counterparts to become the dominant species in less than ten years. Almost as if they were controlled by some central mind for destruction, they turned their attention to their creators; humans.
When a creeper latched onto a dwelling, be it stone or steel, it could tear it apart in a matter of hours depending on how thick and dense the material was. In their tendrils was a potent acid that aided their powerful crushing power. Just brushing against one of these plants could burn a hole through the main of your arm and alert the plant that food was near.
Mother had tried countless times to exterminate the Repens like so many other animals and plants it deemed unnecessary, but the creepers resisted it all. From bombs to burning, the plants always survived, oftentimes, consuming the attacker. It was assumed that these plants would kill themselves off due to their aggressive nature, which proved to be half true. The plants seemed to differ according to what form of pollutants it had risen from. The strongest, and now only, plant was the Repens. It was determined by scout helicopters, seconds before they were snapped out of the sky, that the Repens originated from the fallout zones of nuclear test sites.
Haythrow’s lab had a living sample of the Repens. It was their subject for testing the plant’s resistances and weaknesses. So far the plant had resisted all their attempts at finding something to kill it. The sampler Repens was kept in a tiny four-foot by four-foot plot of soil surrounded by a large fifty-foot by fifty-foot stilenium cube. Stilenium was a man-made metal comprised by fusing lead and steel. At one side of the cube there was an array of sensors, cameras and a large beam cannon. On the other side was a mechanical lock and slide door. It was through this door that robotic mechanisms were sent into the cube to introduce certain compounds and elements to the Repens. Never once did a robot manage to escape the plant.
The beep of the monorail doors opening with a well calibrated hiss broke Haythrow from his stupor. He almost didn’t remember getting on the train as he reviewed the past eight years. Could his research finally be at an end? Haythrow rose, wincing again, and passed through the threshold of the monorail car doors to find a huge glass building bearing a seal featuring a woman in a draped robe with one arm around a tree and the other holding a small bird. He grimaced at the seal and began to approach the foot of the structure.
Thomas, the guard, stopped Haythrow with a look and pressed two buttons. The doctor stopped and looked up at a slowly descending square. This was the advanced security computer that regulated who and what passed through the doors of the Nursery, the headquarters for Mother. With a look at Thomas, Haythrow sighed and pressed his face into the appropriate crevice. “Please hold still and keep your eyes open.” came the smooth voice of the computer.
With a flash of light, a silvery needle shot from the side and lodged itself into the whites of Haythrow’s eye. “Please speak in a clear voice.” Called the computer and Haythrow responded, “Hello, Mother.”
A low humming came from the detector’s bowls as it processed the DNA obtained from the doctor’s eye. Finally, the same smooth voice announced, “Voice recognition: Confirmed. DNA recognition: Confirmed. Proper retina corruption rate: Confirmed. Please proceed into the Nursery, Dr. Haythrow. Mother welcomes you.”
Haythrow retracted his face as the machine pulled itself back into its overhead box. Rubbing his irritated eye, Haythrow nodded at Thomas and proceeded into the building. No matter how many times he took that test, the needle being thrust into his eyeball always irritated him. He stopped rubbing his eye to watch where he was going just in time to catch the elevator. Jamming his finger into the “L-9” slot, he felt the prick of blood being taken before the elevator sprang into life and carried him to Lab Nine, home of the Repens Repression Research.
The elevator doors opened to reveal a sparkling white room lined with chalk boards and tables covered in chemicals and compounds. In the center of the room was the cube for the Repens. Monitors on the wall of the cube displayed what the cameras and sensors on the inside saw. On the screens was the display of a small, innocent-looking green vine. Examining the room, Haythrow noticed a man standing at a table, wrench in hand. It was, of course, Devon, the robotics expert for Lab Nine. He made sure that the robot parts that they salvaged from the plant were put to good use in new robots. Recycling was very important in Lab Nine because their budget was low enough with the expense of the materials.
Devon looked up from his work and pointed towards the far side of the lab where the beam cannon controls were. “Lavens got here half an hour ago. They’ve been priming the cannon for the first fire. I think they’re just waiting on you to press the button.”
Haythrow groaned and thanked Devon before rushing back towards the beam cannon controls. If those two were ready to fire, he couldn’t be sure of any of Mich’s calculations. Chalk boards covered in scribbles were lining the walls but he couldn’t take any time to investigate them. He was rushing into this experiment completely blind and that was one thing he couldn’t do.
Lavens and Mich were standing around the cannon controls while an innocent, yet powerful humming was coming from the reactor. Lavens was leaning on his cane as usual, white hair flying freely around his balding scalp. Mich was wearing a naïve smile under his jet black hair. It was obvious on his young features that he was very proud. He thrust a set of papers covered in calculations into Haythrow’s hands as he arrived. “We’re set to fire. Both of us agree that these calculations are accurate. As you can see this compound caused a massive reduction in the plant’s growth at an atomic level.”
Haythrow scanned the papers, the pallor on his forehead growing as he saw the implications of the papers he was reading. In a shaky voice he said, “You’re misinterpreting these calculations… This is very dangerous stuff. You fire that beam and you will split every atom of every element in that plant.”
Mich palled in indignation. His face grew furious, the goofy smile now gone from his face. “What are you talking about?” he asked in an angered rush. “Both of us have checked those calculations! We’ve sent a robot in there with the uncrystalized compound! There can be nothing wrong here.”
Haythrow shook his head, looming over the papers in his hands. He said as calmly as possible, “You didn’t add in the crystallization factor. When you crystallized this compound you trapped molecules of H2O along with the compound. These water molecules are going to cause a radioactive reaction to the compound and the radiation already in the plant’s venom.”
Lavens said nothing. He just looked back over his own calculations and shook his head. Sensing mutiny, Mich backed up towards the controls. “You’re both wrong.” Mich declared. “This is my glory! This is my discovery! Mother will always remember me as the one who saved us all from the Repens! I can’t let you stop me.”
Mich turned away to the controls and Lavens took a step forward to block him. Mich stopped for a moment and looked from Lavens to Haythrow. “You two won’t stop me. You have no authority to. There is no head scientist here and this is my discovery. I can’t let you stop me from the salvation of our kind.”
Lavens finally spoke in his aging, raspy voice, “And we can’t let you put our kind at risk. Give it more time, kid. We’ll find another way that won’t endanger everyone.”
For a second it looked like Mich had finally gotten the point. He backed off for a second, putting his hands in his pockets and looking at his feet. Then, without warning, Mich pulled thick needle from his pocket, brining it up into Laven’s neck and pushing the plunger down. A pocket of air was forced into Laven’s jugular vein, blocking blood passage. Laven’s fell to the ground without a struggle, dead before he hit the ground.
Haythrow only stood there in shock as Mich continued to the cannon controls. Haythrow heard the beeping, among other sounds, of buttons being pressed and devices being primed. Haythrow only looked from Mich’s shaking frame to Lavens’s still one. He couldn’t move. He couldn’t believe what had just happened. Murders were extremely rare. Even in the gang fights they never killed. They just yelled at each other until they became too tired to continue. Every now and then a punch would be thrown, but most of the violence in common man had been driven out. Only those bred as soldiers were supposed to have the aggressive drive to kill.
It was obvious that Mich was no longer stable. He had killed someone against instincts and now he was about to push a button against all rational thoughts. Haythrow examined his options. What could he do in this situation besides incapacitate Mich?
Looking nervously at the stool next to him, he wormed his fingers under the rim. Mich had his back turned to him, most likely assuming that Haythrow would be too stunned with shock to do anything. With a stupendous effort, Haythrow wrenched the stool into the air, raising it above his head. Mich must have detected danger because he swung around to face Haythrow, eyes wide with either insanity or fear. Haythrow knew he had to at least knock Mich out until authorities from Mother could be called.
Half a second before the blow could be delivered, a powerful wave of pain rushed up his back. Haythrow crumpled backwards, twitching with pain from the overexertion of his back. Mich stared down at him for a moment and then let out a soft laugh of relief. He called softly as he turned away, “Can’t you see now? It was meant to be that I made the discovery! You get to watch my glory now.”
Haythrow turned to Mich and let out a pained moan. Mich ignored him as the “Primed to Fire” icon flashed on the monitor. Haythrow managed to exclaim, “No!” but it was too late. Almost in slow motion, Haythrow was forced to watch in agony as Mich’s finger activated the cannon’s auto fire control.
In the course of a second, the beam released its rays upon the small plant. In an instant, the plant was evaporated as every atom it was comprised of vanished, split into thousands of even smaller partials. On a more visible level Lab Nine, Mother, the city, and all human life was erased in a massive wave of chain explosions. In ten minutes all human life was destroyed, the world was set ablaze and almost just as quickly put out as all the oxygen was burned away. The world had become barren, caked over with burnt rubble and dead bodies. Everything was still.
Then there was the faintest movement. A chuck of rubble shifted and from a gap in the burnt crust, a thick green tendril worked its way to the surface, ready to feed on the mass of flesh that the humans had prepared.
