Zorome X Miku: The Forgotten Plantation

39: The Gruesome Truth

The other squad members immediately came into the room to see what the commotion was about. Miku barely noticed them. Her eyes were fixed on the horrifying sight that lay on the floor only a few feet away from where she was standing.

A corpse was curled up on the floor in a fetal position. An adult copse. It was basically mummified now and had begun to decay a long, long time ago by the looks of it. Miku couldn't tell whether the adult had been a male or female. The corpse's clothes appeared to have been half-eaten by insects, though its head was still covered by the strange hat that each adult wore for some reason. 

The body itself reeked. The rancid scent filled the air around them, prompting Futoshi to pinch his nose shut as he stared in shock at the dead adult lying before him. Several patches of skin had given way to expose the skeletal remains of the person that had once inhabited the body.

Miku's stomach began to churn and she cupped her hand to her mouth. Gagging, she fell onto her knees because she was suddenly too weak to continue staying upright on her feet. From there, she was unable to stop vomit from pouring out of her mouth. It dripped through her fingers, which only made her puke more. 

Her squad mates looked at her and Kokoro immediately went to crouch by her side. Miku allowed her friend to pull her into an embrace and rest her head against her stomach.

"It's okay," Kokoro soothed her, though Miku could tell she was just as horrified as she was about their gruesome discovery. 

"Are you alright?" Ichigo tore her gaze away from the adult's decaying body and turned her attention to Miku. Although her eyes remained sharp and focused, she was clearly distraught by the awful sight as well. 

"N-no..." Miku felt incredibly weak. She felt like she was going to pass out from what she saw mixed with the awful stench that filled her nose. The smell of her vomit wasn't exactly helping matters either. 

"Kokoro, please take Miku outside again." Ichigo gently rested her hand on top of one of Kokoro's shoulders. "And take Ai with you. She's too young to witness this type of thing."

Kokoro nodded and stood up again.

"I'll go with them," Mitsuru volunteered immediately. "I'll make sure they're alright." His brow furrowed with concern as he looked down at Miku and his partner. 

"Good." Ichigo nodded approvingly. "Everyone else, please come with me if you think you can handle more discoveries. I have a feeling this isn't the only dead body we'll see in here."

Kokoro helped Miku to her feet while Mitsuru ushered Ai in front of him as they all left the room together. Once they got outside, Miku let out a groan and fell onto her knees once more. The reek of the corpse was still fresh in her nostrils despite having left the scene. She could feel that her gut was still unhappy and the urge to vomit was growing again.

"Miku, are you okay?" Mitsuru's dark eyes were dark with worry as he looked down at her.

"No," Miku admitted truthfully. She clutched her stomach with one of her hands while using the other one to keep her from falling face-first onto the hard ground. "I'm not. That was awful..."

"We should've known we'd come across that," Kokoro sighed as she went to sit down on the ground next to Mitsuru. "I don't feel very good either." She suddenly pulled Miku into another hug. 

The two girls then began to sob. They cried and cried for what felt like far too long. By the time they were done sobbing, Miku's head hurt from having cried so hard and she felt like her tear ducts had dried out entirely.

Mitsuru had been standing there watching the two of them while holding Ai in his arms. Ai wasn't crying, though she seemed concerned about her mother's well-being and was staring anxiously at her and Miku.

Miku's belly still felt ill. Her head felt light and dizzy as well and she wondered if she would fall over if she tried to stand up. Everything seemed foggy and confusing to her. She decided against getting up in case she passed out.

Once the two girls were done crying, Mitsuru set Ai down on the ground and crouched down beside Kokoro. He spoke soothingly into her ears and she leaned against him and buried her face into his uniform. 

The four of them remained where they were until, at last, their friends emerged from the building. They all seemed subdued and had expressions of shock and fear on their faces. They were all ghostly pale as well, as though what they had witnessed was enough to make them all physically ill.

"What happened?" Mitsuru asked. He stood up again and helped Kokoro to her feet as she did so. Miku stayed on the ground, deciding that she would probably pass out if she tried to stand up after crying so hard. 

"We managed to get into a bunch of other rooms on each floor," Ichigo explained. "Some of them had no dead adults in them but a lot of them did."

Goro gazed at Ichigo with a sympathetic look in his eyes. He touched her shoulder gently with one of his hands. "I knew this would probably happen. They're long dead, though. I'm sure a lot of them didn't suffer too much. Many of them were obviously asleep and attached to those weird machines when they died."

"Weird machines?" Miku echoed, tipping her head up to look curiously at her friends.

Goro nodded. "They were lying in a bed with weird machines on their heads. Zorome says that he remembers seeing an adult wear one when he wandered off that one time. Apparently, it gives them happiness or something."

Zorome looked particularly distraught by what he had witnessed and he simply nodded to what his friend was saying. He had a look of distant horror in his violet eyes.

"What we saw was awful but we still have to focus on our mission," Ichigo said sharply. "Zero Two and I think that we might be able to make plants survive in this building after all."