Sundew

Chapter 11

"Actually, Gary, Yeah. I think there is something wrong."

"What's that?"

"How good is your eyesight, Gary? I don't know your age so I'm wondering if you'll be able to see what I'm seeing."

"Well, my eyesight is fine. Why do you ask?"

"There's this strange pattern ingrained into the glass display of the snack machine. Come look."

And don't touch it, Sunny thought but didn't say. Gary came up next to him, rosy complexion visible to Sunny even in the dimness.

"Well, Sunny, I think..." Gary started, then came closer to the snack machine to get a better look. Then it happened—the light bursting from the snack machine. Sunny was blinded as a glorious flash erupted from the machine that wasn't a machine, blinding him. He could feel a hand grabbing onto his arm.

"Don't let go of me!!" Cried Gary. "Mother of god!" It was over in an instant, but it seemed to last an eternity.

"Christ, Sunny, did you see that?"

No, Sunny wanted to say, in fact, I didn't see much of anything. Instead:

"What happened?" Sunny asked stupidly.

"Did you not see? That fucking thing nearly pulled me in, tried to snatch me and take me into that void! It nearly got me! Tried to entice us with the promise of more food—something on which we're already quite short, knowing I would take the bait!! Nearly sucked me in the way a bladderwort sucks in nematodes"

Sunny wasn't paying attention to Gary anymore. Instead, where there had once been a vending machine, there was now a chair—one whose leather had that familiar black streak pattern, one who looked oh so comfy and inviting. From the chair, muffled by the leather that wasn't leather, came a tearing noise—a wet, ripping, sucking noise like peeling plaster off of some ungodly slime. Out of the corner of his eye, Sunny could've sworn he saw some kind of wriggling motion, what appeared to a dozen earthworms covered in thousands of tiny hair/tentacle appendages. The sucking quieted. Gary coughed.

Sunny led Gary back to the front exit. The windows were being covered with an oversized CDC quarantine tent.

This is like that Spanish movie Dad showed me, Sunny reflected, I think it was called Rec, or something like that.

They no longer had any access to the outside world, even through communicating with the federal agents. Sunny felt his soul crush a little not having Agent Rowe to talk to would be beyond difficult to cope with. It was... Isolating. Never mind having Olivia, Gary, and the others to talk with. Agent Rowe was someone who was outside the situation, but now he wouldn't be there to tell Sunny it was gonna be alright.

Days and nights blended together. Why the hell weren't Olivia and the others back yet? Sunny was hungry, but nowhere near as hungry as Gary apparently was.

"Hey, Sunny," he started, "can I make a confession?"

"What's that, Gary?"

"I'm actually a father. I'm making this confession because, well... Our odds don't look too good, do they? Besides, I can feel them wriggling, telling me to 'Come home, Gary, come home.' If I'm gonna die, now's the time to get shit off my chest."

Sunny was about to open his mouth to interrupt—to question what he meant by "them," the wriggling Gary emntioned, and the unnerving deja vu Sunny had felt at that phrase, "come home"—before Gary went on.

"I'm a father. I slept around when I was in High School. Never graduated, that's why I became a truck driver. I didn't raise them little snots because, well... I was afraid of the responsibility. When you're a driver, though, you get to just go where the wind takes you, never having to worry about staying in one place for long. Now, though, if I was able to leave, healthy and responsible, I'm pretty sure I could go to the medical records of my home town's hospital and find a hit on at least thirty cases of children who've my blood in their veins." Gary was sitting up against the wall now, as if stabbed in the chest and trying not to move.

"Sunny, do me a favor. If you get out of here, go and make something of yourself. You've still got time."

"Gary, don't say those things." Sunny responded, sensing that Gary was hiding something. Gary has turnt gaunt in between the vending machine excursion and now. Where the fuck was Olivia? There was no way she was alive!

"I'm sorry, Sunny, but I'm almost sixty, and I've lived a long life—one where I've just allowed things to happen instead of taking action. You, however, still have time. Don't let die in v-... Aa.... AAAAAGGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!" Gary screamed painfully. Under the belly section of Gary's hospital gown,Sunny saw it. Motion.