2 Die 4 You

a paradise in hell

The next morning brought in the usual announcement of a new level being open to the survivors. Breakfast also attracted the usual crowd that came about the survivors. The only exception had been Aero- who X knew wouldn't be joining them that morning, and let the others know just in case.

And just as Aero had predicted, Axl wanted to check on her.

"Someone has to!" he reasoned. "After everything that happened with Marino- we need to be taking better care of each other!"

"And what if being alone is what Aero needs right now?" X challenged right back.

Axl shrunk for a moment. In the next, he stood even taller.

"No one grieves alone." he decided.

There was nothing X could do to argue with that, but it still brought a point home.

"Let's just give her some time." X offered. "Let's explore the new floor Lumine offered us."

You could see in Axl's soured face that it was the last thing he wanted to do. It took a moment for him to compromise with himself.

"Alright," the younger man sighed, "Let's go."

. . .

The fourth floor was far more than what they ever could have expected. Calling it a floor at all was a bit odd too, considering it was the rooftop.

"It's a whole jungle up here!" Axl exclaimed first. His whole face lit up as he went from tree to tree, even a flower or two, like a child in a toy store. It was enough to make X wonder if Axl had never seen natural vegetation before.

"Oh! Plums!" Axl happily exclaimed before running over to a plum tree.

The young man hummed as he looked over both ripe and blossoming plums. He let out a noise of joy when he found just the right one. Plucking it with expert ease, Axl tested its weight a bit by giving it small tosses in the air.

Then, without any other warning, he jammed his thumb into the fruit.

"What are you doing?" X wondered. He was seeing this right, wasn't he? Axl was absolutely trying to dig his thumb into the plum.

"Trying to pick the plum seed out with just my thumb," Axl claimed, as if it were a natural thing to do. "You know, like Jack Horner?"

It, understandably, took X awhile to understand what Axl was really trying to get at.

"Jack Horner had a Christmas pie, Axl. He found a plum with his thumb, not pulled its seed out."

Axl's face twisted into one of pure concentration now.

"I'm in too deep now. Come back in a few minutes."

X couldn't help but snort. Never did X had to doubt Axl's commitment to the bit.

With Axl doing his thing, X wandered around the area. Beside the trees were the fruits, then vegetables. They all looked so tempting that passing by the grapes made X's mouth water. Looking around, X ended up noticing a pair of gardening shears laying on the ground. He curiously picked them up and looked them over. They looked to be in pretty decent shape.

X then looked to his left. He could easily see basil and cloves growing. Behind them were other herbs. Getting an idea, X tried to remember what rooibos looked like in the book he and Iris had found the other day. His intuition was dead on- whoever had placed this garden here had thought of every plant that the test subjects would have needed.

Now if only X knew which part of the plant to cut...

"What are you doing?" Axl wondered as he came over. The younger fella put his hands on his hips as he looked X over. "I kinda figured you might be a plant guy, but you're treating those plants like your firstborn kid."