The Apocalypse of Plants

Preston

"Do you think they'll be back soon?" I ask anxiously. Kenzie looks up at the darkening sky and shrugs.

"Who knows?" she says nonchalantly. I raise an eyebrow at her, prompting her to elaborate. She sighs. "What I mean is, it's a maze. It's going to take them a while to get out. Maybe they'll be out tonight. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe in a week."

"They won't survive for a week without food or water," I say nervously. What will happen if all of them just never come out? I try to imagine a world without Laina and Tally and Morgan and I can't. Well, a world without Morgan isn't so hard to think about.

"I'm a little tired, how about you?" Kenzie asks, getting up from her spot on the ground and stretching.

"Do you want to eat something?"

"Yeah, okay. Can you hunt?" I shake my head. I know how to clean dead animals until they're good enough to eat, but Johanna did most of the hunting.

Johanna.

I haven't thought about her in a few days. That probably makes me a bad person but moving on is the only thing I can do. Grieving and spending every moment thinking about her isn't going to bring her back.

"Okay, well it can't be that hard, can it? I'll try to kill an animal, and you look for some fruit or berries or something, kay?" Kenzie says. I nod in agreement and we go separate paths into the woods, which is a really bad idea considering how dark it's getting. Oh well.

I find a piece of bark and a stick on the ground. I've seen people make a fire before in movies, but I'm not sure if it'll actually work.

It's worth a try, though.

I take out a little knife I've been keeping in my pocket and drill a little hole through the bark. I put the stick into the hole and quickly roll the stick between my hands.

A spark appears and I frantically grab a bigger stick and start blowing on the spark to make the flame grow bigger.

Once fire arrives, I hold the bigger stick to the stick with the fire so the flames will transfer. It works, and I have a torch.

I start walking again, the torch not doing that much against the dark sky. I squint and try to find stuff that looks edible. I can't find anything.

Suddenly, the ground a few yards away from me blows up in a brilliant burst of fire. I'm thrown backwards and slammed into the ground, the wind knocked out of me.

I drag myself to my feet and look around. The fire from the explosion has flickered down to only a few little flames and I can hardly see.

Another explosion brings me to my knees and this time, the fire grows and crawls up a tree. I try not to breathe as smoke fills the air and stings my eyes.

Where are these explosions coming from?

There's another one, and another, and soon enough, I can see perfectly with all the trees on fire.

I'm coughing up a lung as I stagger behind a bush and look for the source of the....bombs? Is that what you'd call them?

And then I see it.

It's a large tree, maybe twenty or thirty yards away from me, that's completely covered in spikes and its branches are launching what looks like fruit. Only the fruit blows up whenever it hits the ground. Awesome.

The smoke grows thicker and I can hardly see, let alone breathe. My head feels heavy and darkness starts to curl around my circle of vision. The world starts spinning and the last thing I hear before I pass out is my name being screamed.

~~~

I jerk awake and gasp for air. The air is clean, not full of smoke. I push myself up on my elbows and find Kenzie leaning against a tree next to me, asleep.

A sharp, shooting pain runs through my head and I clap a hand over my forehead. I hiss in pain.

"What happened?" I mutter and look around. I stand up and start walking, only to kick something. I look down to see a water bottle and almost faint.

Part of the pant-leg on my right leg is torn off and the skin just above my ankle is bright red with blisters. It's horrific. Did I get burned? I don't remember getting burned.

"Preston?" I hear. I turn around and see Kenzie watching me. "Everything okay?"

I point at my leg. "What happened?" I ask, trying to keep my voice steady. I'm freaking out because I don't remember what happened except passing out from the smoke and the exploding-fruit tree. I shudder. The exploding-fruit tree.

"I found you passed out surrounded by trees on fire. By the time I got to you, the fire had spread and had burned your leg, but not too bad. I dragged you away as fast as I could and over here, where I cleaned the wound. You'll be okay, you might just be in a lot of pain for the next few days," she says.

"What about my head?" I ask.

"What do you mean?" she says with a frown. "Nothing's wrong with your head." I grit my teeth and try to block out the throbbing pain that's filled my brain.

"Nothing. I'm fine." Kenzie raises her eyebrow but doesn't question me. "Do you know anything about Laina, Morgan, and Tally?"

She shakes her head. "No. Sorry. I'm sure they'll be out soon, though." And then I realize that the opening to the maze isn't anywhere in sight.

"Where's the maze?" I choke out. I can't believe Kenzie dragged me away from the opening. We need to make sure the other three get out.

She shrugs, but panic is written all over her face. "Somewhere over there," she answers, pointing to the left. "But you need to rest. You're in no condition to go walking around on your leg. Plus if your head hurts, you don't need to injure yourself anymore." I feel like a child getting scolded by my mother. She's acting like it's my fault that I got hurt.

"You said that I'd be okay in a couple days. I'm okay," I protest. "Let's go." Kenzie rolls her eyes. "If you aren't coming, then fine. I'll go by myself."

"Preston, seriously?" she asks. "Why do you have to be so stubborn? They're going to be fine!"

I ignore her as I walk away, but I'm secretly glad when she sighs heavily and jogs to catch up with me.

It's pretty easy to find the maze as all we had to do was look for a giant wall of thorns. When we get there, my heart skips a beat.

"I told you," Kenzie says in a sing-song voice. Laina, Tally, Morgan, and Scout are lying on the ground.

I run over to Laina and check her pulse to make sure she's alive. Her steady heartbeat tells me that she's only asleep.

She stirs and her eyes flutter open and she meets my gaze and smiles.