Chimerical Realities 🇬🇧

The Flower of Chaos

Prompt-based story for The Multigenre Mashup Smackdown Contest 

Round 1, Part 1: Military Fiction

Wattpad word count: 1420

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It has been twenty-nine years since all the plants and trees in the world began to wither suddenly. Without understanding why and unable to reverse the situation, the world plunged into chaos.

Everyone thought it would be the end of humanity. When scientists realized that red lilies were the only plant unaffected by this strange phenomenon, everyone believed there was a last hope to save our civilization. However, this fact only made things worse. Nations, and subsequently what was left of them, started a war for control of the remaining red lily reserves to secure a supply of oxygen. After several years, the remaining oxygen in the atmosphere was depleted, and the air became unbreathable. Without the necessary nutrients for the soil, planet Earth gradually turned into a vast desert.

The surviving humans settled around the few oases of fertile land with remaining fields of red lilies. If anyone wanted to venture outside, they were condemned to carry an oxygen tank on their backs.

"We're ready" Clover clarified.

"Alright, we won't have much time to gather the flowers, so focus on covering us. Hana, Daisy, Rose. I'm counting on you." I looked at my team.

They all nodded. Their nervousness was evident, but so was their determination. This would probably be our last chance to save our people.

A month ago, foreign soldiers assaulted our home, Fort Blossom. It was a small non-governmental oasis where people could live their lives peacefully, relying on the oxygen we collected from our own field of red lilies. They took as many red lilies as they could. The rest of the crops were completely destroyed. Without red lilies producing more oxygen, our reserves were dwindling slowly, and if we didn't do something soon, we would all suffocate eventually.

Ivy proceeded to detonate the bomb, and the thick glass layer covering that beautiful field of red lilies shattered. As expected, a deafening alarm immediately began to sound. Clover and I approached the lilies and took several plants. Ivy and my wife, Violet, did the same in another area of the garden. We were four groups of gatherers in total. With several boxes filled with flowers, we were ready to leave. That's when the gunfire started.

The soldiers from Bloom Corporation had arrived and were engaging in a battle with our women. Hana signaled us to crouch down and proceeded to throw several smoke bombs so that we could escape safely. The shots didn't stop, but they were clearly disoriented. Clover and I crawled through the garden towards the vehicle we would use to flee the place. While on the ground, I caught sight of an object falling near us. My instinct prompted me to move. I rolled as fast as I could on the ground when I heard the explosion. I tried to locate Clover, but amidst the smoke, I couldn't see anything. Being close to where the others were and in the midst of chaos, I focused on reaching the vehicle and handed my box to Hana and Rose. Then I realized we only had two boxes.

"Where is Violet and the rest?" I asked desperately.

"They haven't come back yet, but there's no time, Aster. We have the flowers. We need to go. I'm so sorry about your wife," Rose said, trying to reason with me.

"Go, I'll go for Violet," I grimaced in anguish and moved away from them towards the garden. I knew I was acting irrationally, but in that moment, I couldn't do anything else but think about her, holding onto the possibility that she might still be alive. It didn't take long before I heard another explosion. A horrible chill ran down my spine to the back of my neck. I turned around to check, and my worst fear came true. The car was in pieces. Frustration overwhelmed me; I didn't even have time to mourn my companions. I needed to find Violet, but perhaps all the hope of bringing a couple of red lilies home rested on me. God, why do we have to go through this? If only human beings weren't so selfish. Bloom Corporation could give us a few flowers. But of course, their irrational fear of losing the oxygen monopoly blinds their minds. We are just a group of people struggling to survive just like everyone else. The gunfire resumed, and I had to hide quickly. I looked around, trying to locate Violet, but it was impossible. Instead, I saw Ivy crawling on the ground, apparently injured. She saw me, and I signaled that I would cover her. I exchanged several bursts of gunfire with the soldiers. I tried to focus as much as possible to protect Ivy, but soon I witnessed a bullet hitting her head, killing her instantly.

It was impossible; I couldn't get close to the plants anymore. There were too many soldiers. My hopes of finding Violet or any of my companions alive faded, and I had to make the decision to escape. I was aware that I was likely the only survivor.

We were a failure. On numerous occasions many of our people tried to raid neighboring population clusters to obtain some red lilies. They all failed. Most of our men died, leaving only the women and children, who waited for our return. Walking through the deserted land in the middle of the night, I cursed the situation. We had been completely defeated. I fell to my knees and began to silently sob.

I thought it was all over, but my eyes brightened again when I saw someone approaching in my direction.

It was Violet.

She ran towards me and proceeded to embrace me as tightly as possible. I couldn't help but shed tears, knowing she was still alive and right in front of me.

"You've brought some color back into my life once again, darling," I said to her sweetly.

She caressed my cheek and smiled. Then she showed me her box full of red lilies.

"We did it, Aster."

I longed to kiss her, but our masks prevented us from doing so. Instead, we pressed our heads together and stayed that way for a while as a display of affection.

We continued walking together through the desert. As we moved farther away, I began to notice Violet growing increasingly tired. At first, I thought she was simply exhausted from the battle. But then her steps became slower and clumsier until she collapsed.

"Love, what's happening?!" I held her in my arms.

"Aster, I... I can't breathe..." she gasped.

I looked at her, confused. Soon after, I understood what was happening. I checked her tank and realized there was a crack. She was running out of oxygen. This couldn't be happening, I thought.

"Take my tank, you don't have to die here." I said, holding her face and crying inconsolably.

"It's too late..." Violet murmured with difficulty. "I... I'm glad to die in your arms..." were her last words before slipping into eternal sleep.

I couldn't bear it. I wanted to scream as loud as possible, but if I did, the enemy would discover we're still close and follow us. But what does it matter, after all? Everyone was dead, and I was the only wretched one still breathing. I knew I had to bring the flower to the base, but the pain tore me apart in that moment, and I could only think that there was no reason left to keep living. I entered a kind of trance and closely observed my weapon, fantasizing about the idea of ending my own life.

After several minutes of lying in the sand, I saw a silhouette approaching me. It was Clover. She was still alive.

As she reached me, she looked at me in horror upon realizing that Violet lay motionless on the ground. She tried to come closer to give me a comforting hug, but I abruptly pushed her arms away before she could do so. "Take this" I said as I handed her the box with the red lilies we were able to gather. "Take it to the base, after all, only a couple of them are necessary to keep them alive" I uttered. But what kept me alive all this time wasn't the oxygen generated by the red lilies, it was her. She was my flower. My red, actually Violet lily. And without her, I have no more reasons to continue living in this wretched world.

"I'm sorry, Clover."

She watches and lunges towards me as I raise my gun to my head. Before she can do anything to stop me, I tightly close my eyes, release one final tear, and pull the trigger.

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