Something about Elias has been bugging me for a while. I remembered him saying that he, Rosey and that other resource adventurer had come from a civilization not too far from Hallowsville. About a thirty minute drive. Yet, every time that I looked in the map that Jesus input into the SB, I never saw anything close to a city or town near Hallowsville.

According to him, the people in the Underground cities were the ones who created and distributed the Status Boards to all the various surviving towns and cities. The map feature was a big part of this invention as it allowed for an easier way to trade materials and other resources. The problem with that system was that newly established civilizations were not added into the map until they were “fully” established.

Apparently, wherever Elias came from was one of them.

Although, that wasn’t the only thing about Elias’ story I had a problem with. The sole reason they came to this part of Brooklyn was to find Brandon and that kid, yet there he was, pointing the spray bottle of herbicide at her.

Without hesitation, I rocketed towards him with my palm aimed towards the bottle. All I intended to do was snatch it from him, but my body had other things in mind as vines shot out from me, wrapping around the man’s neck and torso. I almost thought that the plant zombie had attacked me again till I noticed something was different about these ones.

They didn’t just have energy flowing on them. They were made of it. And they were coming out…of me!

“Wh-What the hell is this!?” screamed Elias, raking at the energy vines. “Hey! Zombie costume guy, get this off me already!”

“Sorry, but I can't do that. I'm the one who's doing this to you,” I admitted, gripping my wrist.

“What!? Why?”

“You mind explaining why you were about to spray that girl with your herbicide?” I questioned, approaching the restrained man. “That’s Rosey’s daughter, right? We need to get her out of there!”

Elias scoffed. “Don’t tell me that costume blinds your eyes too. That girl is already de-”

“She’s not dead!” the Type Two interrupted, crawling towards my feet. “She’s only sleeping; I would never kill my baby.”

“Jesus, am I the only one with eyes here?” Elias remarked. “She’s literally made of grass!”

“That is… a temporary form,” she responded, holding out her hand. “At least, until I can completely… change her.”

I quickly stomped on her hand. “You’re not doing any more of those plant moves, got that? Now, how do you change her back?”

Sure, wasting my time by asking her these questions only delayed me absorbing her. But I couldn’t risk the possibility of that girl somehow disappearing if I absorbed the Type Two.

“Don’t worry… Sunflower,” she muttered. “Mommy’s gonna protect you from all these bad men that want to take you away from me…again.”

“Hey! Do you even know how to change her back? Don’t tell me she’s stuck like that?”

“I’ll get rid…of all the bad men. Then, we can work on those flowers you always loved…”

“Answer my question!” I yelled, my patience lowering. “That’s not your daughter! That’s someone else’s-”

“Save your breath!” barked Elias, now pulling at my vines. “The bitch is straight out of the goddamn looney bin! Spouting nonsense and other bullshit. You’re going to tie me up, but not the zombie!?”

“I can't risk letting you kill that kid,” I said, my voice stern.

“She’s dead!” He sprayed my vines with his herbicide but they weren’t affected. “Damn it! Let go of me!”

I yanked him away from the unconscious kid and he landed right behind me, hitting the soft ground with a thud. I then turned my attention back to the zombie and said, “Listen, you have to be perfectly honest with me. Is she alive?”

“Yes.” Her voice was growing weak as daylight began to fade.

“Then you need to understand that whoever this ‘Sunflower’ is, that kid isn’t her. Her name is Victoria and she has a mother in this city desperate to see her again. If you truly care about motherhood and being a mother, then you should understand that being under your control isn’t what that girl wants.”

“What…are you trying to say to me?”

I ignored Elias’ babbling and continued. “I’m saying that a child will never be happy if the parent is constantly forcing them to do whatever they think is best for them. Or…forcing them to be something they don’t want to be. I have…experience with that. Experience…doing that. It hurts but you gotta let them go. Let that girl go.”

She paused for a while, pondering what I just told her. Then, she finally spoke.

“Tomorrow…”

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“Huh? What do you mean tomorrow? You’re going to let her go tomorrow?” I asked, confused on what made her believe she was in a position to make demands.

“Tomorrow…we’ll decide who’ll keep the girl for themselves,” she said, the rose stretching toward her as the kid was pushed back inside. “Me or you.”

“Don’t think you’re getting away!” I directed my palm toward the rose, aiming to fire out another set of vines to stop its movements. To my dismay though, the only thing that came out was a small flower, pathetically drooping forward.

Abandoning that plan, I charged forward, but my body had lost all control of my new abilities. Leaves sprouted from my feet, tripping me, while vines emitted from my body and curled around me—the energy I had absorbed earlier seemed desperate to make me fail.

“My plants that you…absorbed; it seems like they don’t want…me to get hurt.” The rose picked up the Type Two and slowly retreated. “And you still call me…a bad mother.”

“Come back!” I wriggled, trying to free myself. “I’m not wasting another day on you!”

”You see…the thing about plants is that they get pretty tired when the sun begins to set. No sun means no energy and…the sky is losing that light. It’s only fair for you, a father, to give the mother time to rest before we play again and…mess around.”

“I’m not gonna wait! Once I free myself, I’m storming that arena and finding-”

“I should let you know…” she cut off, the rose lifting her to the sky. “If any one of you intrudes into my home…I will kill this girl.”

The second I heard this, my body began to boil profusely. Here I thought she was just some demented former human driven, insane by her new form. Maybe she was a mother in her past life, and that kid had stirred up confusion and a strong emotion in her. For a fleeting moment, I almost reconsidered my vow to absorb her…

“What do you mean kill her!?” I shouted, attempting to use any other technique in my arsenal, but more plants burst out instead. “I thought you said you would never hurt your daughter!”

“Let’s just say…there are a few ways to get to the preferred outcome I want for my Sunflower. Wait until daylight returns…and you’ll get your own preferred outcome.”

Her voice echoed with a chilling finality as the giant rose drew her further upward. There was nothing I could do but helplessly watch as she retreated back into the arena as the night sky finally loomed over the city.

*****

“This is so bullshit! The hell’s the matter with you!?” snarled Elias, kicking down the door to the hotel’s third floor. “I was about to make the biggest grab of the whole goddamn apocalypse and you come and stop me?”

“Just keep moving, Elias!” I shouted, my fingers aimed at his head as we speed walked through the hallway. “You heard her. We try anything funny and that little girl’s dead. You want that on your conscience!? Knowing you could’ve saved a kid but made the wrong decision.”

“Man, fuck her!” he spat, stopping at a door labeled “315” and turning to face me. “How many times do I hafta tell you? She’s dead. Dead, dead, super dead! And why’re you wasting all this emotion on some kid. Kids die in the apocalypse. It’s normal!”

“Victoria’s still alive, Elias! I don’t believe a lot of things my enemies tell me, but I know that Type Two isn’t lying about that. And tell me one thing before you run that big mouth of yours again. What’s in that arena that makes you disregard the life of that little girl you supposedly came all this way for!? Don’t tell me a damn status board is-”

Elias snorted. “A status board? I mean, yeah I want to get that thing too but you can't be that dense to think I’d risk my life for something replaceable.”

“Huh? Then what do you want there?”

He sighed, furrowing his bushy eyebrows. “Jesus Christ almighty…it’s the weeed! The weed.”

Weed…? Weed!?

I decked him in his slimy face, knocking him to the ground. “You want to kill a little girl to catch some temporary high!? You junkie piece of-”

“The hell are you babbling about!?”, he groaned, grabbing his jaw. “There’s an epidemic going around the past year! Got people dyin’ because of this random ass disease and no one knows where it’s coming from. But the weed…the weeed relieves the issues kinda. How do you not know this?”

An epidemic? Wait…does that mean what those Radius guys weren’t lying about Sunshine infecting people? But more importantly, this weed…maybe it could save her.

“So this weed in that arena…is it like a cure?” I asked, hoping he would say yes.

“I-I don’t know…could be! Those Underground cities don’t tell us anythin’—just forces us to get it, farm it, whatever they want. I just know it helps…with the pain.”

I grabbed him by his camo jacket and yanked him up. “Does it help with…coughing up blood? Or keeping you awake at night? Or-”

“You’re asking me these questions like you got infected,” he remarked, hands shaking.

“Yeah, I did…so does it do all those things or what?”

“No you didn’t,” Elias denied, sneering. “You can’t get the disease. You’re a zombie.”

Upon hearing this, I released my grip on him. “What? How’d you-”

“You think I’m deaf?” he asked, standing back up. “I heard that Mother Nature freak practically say you’re a zombie. Loud and clear too. She tied me up in the air, remember?”

“Well, clearly you saw from our time together that I don’t act like a regular zombie. I actually used to be a human.”

“Every zombie used to be a human,” he retorted. “You’re not special—just a different case.”

“So, what? You think you got some leverage over me ‘cause you know what I am now? I can easily stop you before you contact anyone that could actually hurt me.”

He snickered, taking a few steps back. “Technically, I already had them contacted.”

“What?”

“You know that beacon I was trying to activate while you were wrestling that bear? Well, while that light usually is there for someone close by like me to find it, it also sends out a signal to every single goddamn person in good ole’ New York. Including all those superpower people.”

Without thinking, I grabbed him by his neck, choking him with one hand. “Turn the thing off. Now!”

Despite the situation he was in, Elias still found it appropriate to laugh in my face. “Even if I wanted to, I can’t turn that thing off. Someone’s gonna come for that SB even if I don’t. You could kill me right now and…somebody will still come.”

Damn! I finally get the appeal of this weed he wants so bad but still…

“However, I can delay the process by an hour. Just let me go to that arena tonight and gather some of that weed up.”

“How would you delay it? Tell me.”

His lips curled into a smirk. “A press of a button on my SB is all it takes. And if you’re thinking of stealing my shit and doing it yourself, just know you need a password to get inside. And obviously I’m not going to tell you that.”

This is just great! It’s not like I didn’t want to nab some of that weed for Sunshine, but could I risk that kid dying like with…Johnny.

I guess in the grand scheme of things…Sunshine’s life matters more to me. It’s not like she’ll know about any of this anyway. Besides, I could barely beat one Radius on my own. Imagine more of them.

I didn’t even realize that I let go of the man until he asked, “Does that mean we have a deal?”

I hesitated to answer for a bit. Then, I said, “Yes. Just uh…don’t make a lot of noise in there.” I couldn’t even hide the defeat in my voice. “Maybe she won’t notice you if you’re quiet.”

“That sounds like a waste of time, zombie man.” He proceeded to walk out of my sight and down the hallway. “I’ll just use this spray and I’ll be out of there in a few hours….probably. I usually have slaves do this shit for me.”

“Slaves?”, I said, whirling my body around.

“Oh yeah. Since we’re not lying to each other anymore, guess I’ll tell you where I’m really from.” He turned his head to me and stared at me casually. “I’m from the Slavelands.”

He continued walking away, not even waiting for a response back. But what the hell was I gonna say, right? Me helping a Slavemaster in the apocalypse…it couldn’t be that bad…

Maybe I should just go with him and absorb that Type Two while she’s still weak. Then, I’ll just take all that weed for myself. Who cares if that kid dies in the process? I…I don’t know her. She’s not my daughter.

I was doing this all for Sunshine. This is what my daughter wants. This is what she needs.

Who cares about some stupid epidemic? Screw the apocalypse! I just gotta-I just gotta keep doing what I have to do to make sure that she has a good future.

That is…That’s something…my father would say. Damn… Now that I think about it, I never actually told Sunshine her disease was infectious.

Giving lectures to a plant zombie about being a good parent…

What does Sunshine want?