Lost

Jerry Richton, a twelve year old boy, sat in the back passenger seat of his parents' new, pre-owned mini van. It was a bright, somewhat hot Saturday afternoon, but Jerry wasn't going to be leaving the car anyway.

“I love the color of that house.” Jerry's mother, Charlotte, said excitedly as she pointed at one of the many houses in the neighborhood. Jerry's mother loved to go house looking every once in a while just to see how the other half lived.

“I like that red one.” Jerry's father, Randy, stated in an unemotional and bored tone. Randy always attempted to act like he hated doing these types of things, but he secretly loved doing these sorts of activities just to get out of the house and spend time with his family. Jerry looked out the window and watched as the houses slowly passed by.

“Oh, look at that one Jare bear.” Charlotte exclaimed loudly as she pointed wildly at the massive house that looked like it belonged in a movie starring Vincent Price.

“That's sick!” Jerry yelled, suddenly sitting up straight and looking at the house that he could only describe as being a haunted mansion.

“I think that's the biggest house we've seen all day.” Randy said, impressed by the size of the home.

“Okay, looks like we've got a dead end coming up.” Charlotte said as she pointed sadly at the yellow sign to the right of the road. Charlotte let off of the gas for a moment and looked towards her husband to see if he'd rather her turn around using one of the driveways or simply continue down the road.

“We can just drive down the road and turn back this way when we find a turn-off point.” Randy stated happily. Charlotte pressed lightly on the gas pedal and started down the road. The road looked to be only about three hundred and thirty yards in length. All three of the passengers within the car could see the end of the street clearly, but as they continued driving, nothing happened. The end of the street didn't seem to move at all as they continued on.

“This is weird, right?” Jerry asked curiously as he peeked his head into the front of the car.

“Yeah.” Charlotte whispered as she glared at the road.

“Sit back, Jerry.” Randy demanded as he looked at the road, obviously confused by the fact that they hadn't gotten to the end of the road yet. Jerry sat back in his seat and looked out the window intently.

“Randy…” Charlotte whispered, sounding as if she was in a trance-like state. Before she could continue, Randy had already noticed the same thing that she was going to mention.

“I thought this was a dead end?” He asked confusedly as he looked at the massive sign in front of the street to the left of them.

“I don't like this.” Charlotte muttered under her breath.

“Yeah, this is really weird.” Jerry said as he looked up at the massive sign in front of the street. The sign had a painting of a beautiful housing district on it with the phrase, “The last place you'll ever live” plastered onto it. Jerry assumed that the phrase meant you would never want to leave but couldn't help but think that someone had greatly underestimated how threatening the phrase sounded. Below the sign and at the edge of the street was a large metal gate with a massive wall on each side of it. The wall was made of marble and had small cracks all over it, and out of the cracks, there was moss growing, making it look ancient.

“We should just back out of here and use one of the houses to turn out of here.” Randy said as he turned around to look out the back windshield.

“Well then.” He whispered as he looked back at Charlotte.

“What is it?” She asked as she looked. Charlotte gasped loudly as she saw what used to be the exit was now blocked by a wall of massive intertwining vines that had beautiful roses growing from them. The vines were as thick as trees and had thorns as large as a grown man protruding from them. Once Charlotte turned back towards the front, she saw that the road had somehow gone missing, replaced by yet another wall of vines.

“What do we do?” Randy asked Charlotte as he let out a deep, shaky breath. Right as he asked the question, the metal gate began to creak and rattle like someone or something was viciously shaking it. Before any of them could question the sudden movement, it ended, and then, without any further outbursts of movement, the gate opened. The gate made no sound as it opened. It seemed to open as fluidly as water.

“Should we…” Jerry began to ask confusedly.

“I think we have to.” Charlotte stated, obviously hoping one of them would think of another option.

“I think that's all we can do.” Randy said bluntly. Charlotte pressed lightly on the gas and turned passing through the gate and into what looked to be a completely different world. It was the same housing complex as the one shown on the sign that they had all seen. The houses were old, broken down, and had massive vines growing from them. Some of the houses looked as if they had been burned down. The only life surrounding the burned down buildings were massive plants that, unlike the vines, were bright red and had large, seemingly bloated seed pods growing all over it.

“Whoa.” Jerry gasped, completely in awe of what he was looking at.

“What happened here?” Charlotte asked quietly as she grabbed Randy's hand and held it tightly.

“It's okay, Charlotte.” Randy whispered soothingly.

“Hey, what's that?” Jerry asked as he . It forward and pointed at something in the distance. The object that Jerry pointed at was a massive building that looked similar to a greenhouse but was seemingly armored. The greenhouse was made of thick metal instead of the normal clear glass that would normally cover a greenhouse. On the side of the building facing towards the car that they all sat in was a massive hole that looked like it had been made by explosives. As they were all staring at the large metal greenhouse, the car suddenly lurched forward, then backward before stopping at a slanted position with the front of the car sticking in the air.

“Get out of the car!” Randy yelled, obviously panicking as he fiddled with his seat belt. Once he was able to remove the seat belt, he jumped out of the car and ripped open the back door.

“Come on, Jerry.” Randy said as he helped him out of the car. Charlotte ran to the other side of the car to rejoin Randy and Jerry.

“This isn't good.” Charlotte said completely at a loss of words beyond that. They all stared at the car in disbelief as massive vines that had somehow wrapped around the right back wheel and was now attempting to drag the car beneath the ground.

“Wait a minute.” Randy said as he looked towards the houses that weren't completely destroyed.

“What, dad?” Jerry asked, stepping away from the car. Randy looked at the houses and could now see something that he hadn't been able to from within the car. On each of the houses , which were not completely decimated, was a camera, some of which were still seemingly operational.

“Nothing. Just thought I heard something.” Randy whispered suspiciously lying to protect them from the weariness and fear that he now felt. Someone was watching them, but he had no idea who or why.

“We need to find a way out of here.” Charlotte said timidly as she looked at Randy, obviously already understanding what he had attempted to hide from them. Luckily, Jerry had no clue about what they had already noticed.

“Maybe we should look at the big building.” Jerry said almost immediately. Randy and Charlotte looked around the area and saw that the same massive marble wall that had been around the gate spanned across the entirety of the area, blocking any foreseeable exits.

“We can't leave through the gate with those vines blocking the way.” Charlotte said as she thought about what they needed to do to escape their current predicament.

“Then maybe we should check the greenhouse.” Randy stated as he watched the vine continue to struggle to drag the car below the street. Charlotte nodded slowly in agreement while also attempting to come up with a plan that would keep them away from the massive metal building. Charlotte had no ideas to speak of, so she continued forward, following directly behind Randy as Jerry walked beside her, making sure to stay as close as possible to them both. It took them five minutes to arrive at the metal greenhouse building. During that time, they had all been feeling eyes on them. None of them said a word until Jerry spoke up.

“Why would a neighborhood like this need so many cameras?” He asked suspiciously. They all had their thoughts on the matter but were quickly hushed by the sight of the greenhouse. From afar, it had seemed large, but up close, it was of comical stature being well above three hundred feet tall and eight hundred feet long. It was made of dark black shiny metal and had no windows that could be seen. The walls, judging from the massive hole that stood before them, seemed to be around ten and twenty feet thick. The hole seemed to have a few portions that were melted rather than simply ripped through, meaning the wall may have been thicker at one point.

“How did we not see this when we turned onto the dead end?” Charlotte asked, bewildered by the sheer size of the building that was seemingly made for nothing more than gardening.

“Whoever made it must not have wanted it found.” Randy whispered solemnly.

“Mom.” Jerry said as he stepped closer to her.

“Yeah, jare bear?” she asked as she turned towards him.

“What if they wanted us here. They let us in and trapped us here.” Jerry said silently as he shook violently, obviously horrified.

“It's okay, honey. Everything is going to be fine. We just have to find a way out of here.” She reassured him as she hugged him tightly.

“Yeah all we have to do is find a way out, and I think this is the place to find answers.” Randy said gladly as he pointed inside of the greenhouse.

“Okay, then we need to get in there.” Jerry said, attempting to act like he was ready to face anything.

“Okay, then let's go and find a way out of this.” Randy said as he entered the greenhouse through the massive hole. They all entered the building and were immediately shocked by what they saw. The inside of the building was infested by beautiful flowers that grew everywhere, seemingly breaking their way through the metal just to peak out. Charlotte automatically covered Jerry's eyes once she saw the body hanging from the ceiling impaled by a massive vine that seemed to be moving almost as if we were alive.

“why're you covering my eyes?” Jerry demanded, confused by the situation. The vine was stabbed directly into the body's torso, the blood was fresh, and the body seemed to twitch like it was attempting to hold on to whatever life was left. Each drop of blood that fell from the body forced a new bright yellow flower to sprout even if the flower had to burst through the metal floors.

“Randy.” Charlotte whispered as she looked up at the body and the vine, which was now obviously moving and then back at Randy.

“Come on, let's go.” Randy stated, obviously worried about the vine and the fact that it was apparently murderous.

“what was even in there?” Jerry asked, attempting to look back inside of the room as they left.

“Nothing Jare bear.” Charlotte said as they continued forward. As they left the room, the vine slowly pulled back into the metal, escaping the view of onlookers. As the vine entered the inner walls of the building, the body ,  neither Charlotte nor Randy had noticed was wearing a bloody and ripped hazmat suit fell to the floor below. As soon as the body hit the floor, flowers began to sprout all over it, seemingly fighting over its nutrients.

“What was that?” Jerry asked as he jumped violently at the sound of something heavy hitting the floor.

“Just debris from the massive hole falling.” Randy said calmly, not wanting to panic Jerry more than he already was. Charlotte knew exactly what he was doing and agreed with it completely. Jerry, being even more panicked than he already was, would help no one. They continued walking for what felt like ages, finding new paths and areas but consistently attempting to go towards what they assumed was the right way. The only thing they had to assist them in locating the room that they were seeking was an occasional sign that showed where they were in the building and where the other rooms were located. The rooms were labeled Research Areas, Decontamination Rooms, Seedling Reproduction Base, Containment Areas, Researchers Quarters, and Communications Hub. There were other areas listed on the maps but they were either extremely unimportant to their current predicament or entirely unreadable due to the fact that the vines and other forms of plant life had completely taken over the building destroying much of it in the process.

“I think this is it!” Charlotte yelled as she pointed at a metal door held open by something that was jammed into it. They all began running to the door, unable to contain their excitement. Suddenly, as they ran towards the door, the floor began to shake violently.

“What is that?” Jerry screamed as he stopped dead in his tracks.

“Don't stop moving, Jerry!” Randy screamed as he grabbed him by the arm. As Randy grabbed his arm, Jerry felt a sharp pain in his chest. Suddenly, the vine that he had seen attempting to drag their car below was in front of his face and drenched in a bright red liquid.

“What just… mom? Dad?” Jerry whispered as he attempted to comprehend what had just occurred. He knew that he was higher in the air than he was before, but he couldn't comprehend why. All he could hear was a drum in his ears and the faint cries and screams of his mother and father.

“No, Jerry, no!” Charlotte screamed as she tried to run to his side. Randy said nothing as he grabbed her tightly and pulled her to the metal door, pushed her in, stepped inside, and removed what had been holding the door ajar. The door slammed shut as the object was removed from its place.

“He's okay… I could have saved him. He- he's okay.” Charlotte said through the tears.

“Our son! Oh god, Jerry, I'm so sorry! Please, god, no! no, why!” Randy screamed as his tears flowed down his face. Snot and tears flew through the air as Randy screamed and hit the door in front of him.

“He's okay Randy, he has to be.” Charlotte whispered almost as if it were a statement for herself rather than for him.

“Charlotte he's…” Randy began to say through the uncontrollable tears before he stopped and listened closely to his surroundings. There was a small hum coming from the only desk within the room. Now that Randy looked around the room, he could tell that it was simply an office of some kind with only one large desk that was now flipped on its side. Randy walked towards the desk and suddenly became aware of the fact that there were papers and other office supplies strewn about the room and piled near the desk.

“Wait… what is…” Randy said, wiping the tears away from his eyes and reaching for the object which the sound resonated from. He lifted the laptop off of the floor and clicked a random button. Suddenly, a video message began to play on the laptop.

“If you are hearing this, I suppose I owe you an apology. Our research over the devil's bloom has become far too dangerous. The CEO has directed us all to transport our facility to a less important island, and that is, I'm sad to report, your island.” The voice on the laptop spoke matter of factly, but it also had a hint of sadness. Charlotte sat in the same position she had been in since they had entered the room her tears had dried, but her sadness felt as if it would never subside. She suddenly felt her heart leap into her chest as she heard the voice. Randy barely noticed as Charlotte stood and walked to the large door they had entered through.

“Styrka Tech extends its deepest sympathies for forcing this extreme danger upon your island. Luckily your island shouldn't last too long considering the fast acting evolutionary cycle of the devil's bloom nothing can be done to end its spread its simpler to simply…” The laptop's voice continued seemingly less saddened and now completely unaffected by the words.

“Charlotte, honey, what are you doing?” Randy asked as he saw Charlotte prying at the door. Randy sat the laptop back onto the floor and walked towards Charlotte.

“He's out there… Can't you hear him?” She muttered as she attempted to pry the door open.

“Charlotte. He's gone. There's nothing we can do.” Randy said sadly as he reached his hand towards her shoulder. Suddenly, he heard what she had been hearing.

“Mom… dad… are you… there?” the voice asked sadly. The voice came from the other side of the door. It was quite barely a whisper, and it had a low and raspy quality to it, but it was undeniably their son.

“Jerry?” Randy asked, his hands shaking because of a mix of joy and shock. He quickly jumped on the door to assist Charlotte in opening it. Randy pulled at the door for less than a minute before he noticed a strange sound. He heard the rustling of dead leaves. Suddenly and without warning, a hand was shoved through the crack in between the doors. The flesh on the hand was ripped away completely revealing muscle and sinew that spurted a jet of blood before small light blue flowers began to worm their way out of the muscle it grew in the arm just as easily as it would in soil. Before too long, the entire arm was covered in the tiny blue flowers. It looked like a beautiful field of flowers had been grafted onto the grotesquely injured arm.

“Mom…” the creature spoke as if it had found something precious that had been lost for an eternity. The arm was slowly removed from the hole that it had created as the arm moved back, and out of the hole, the flowers that had just grown onto it were scraped off and fell to the floor. The creature hissed as if the flowers being damaged caused it more pain than the flesh that had just been sheared from its arm. Randy and Charlotte stood there watching and listening intently, knowing that was all they could do. The creature slowly grabbed one half of the newly made hole in the door with its ripped hand. The flowers had already begun to regrow on its hand, slowly making their way down its arm. The other hand slowly crept into the other side of the hole and began gripping it so tightly that the metal was crushed in its grasp.

“Charlotte… run!” Randy screamed wildly as he turned to sprint away from the door. He was only able to take one step before the door was ripped from the wall by the creature that sounded so similar to his son. The door was pulled from the wall so quickly and effortlessly that it seemed to fly away. It flew directly behind the creature and slammed into the wall so hard that it was embedded into it, seemingly being more sturdily placed than where it had originally been. Randy and Charlotte were both knocked to the ground during the explosion like destruction. Now that the creature could be clearly seen, they both saw that it was their son or a twisted puppet made from their son's flesh. It was their son but the hole in his stomach that had been made by the massive vine not too long ago was completely healed but the skin that had once been there was replaced with a rough bark-like substance. The arm, which had its skin removed, was now unrecognizable, being seemingly completely made of the tiny light blue flowers that had taken it over.

“Mom…” the plant creature whispered as it watched Charlotte crawl away from it. It lurched forward so quickly that its movement was seemingly invisible to Randy and Charlotte's eyes. Within less than one hundredth of a second, the floral creature had grabbed Charlotte and lifted her into the air with one arm. Charlotte struggled to regain her footing but quickly realized that the monster before her was much more powerful than her son had been and was even stronger than any mere man. Charlotte felt the small flowers that now made up its entire arm bushing against her throat and wondered if her son was in the beast at all now buried somewhere deep within its consciousness or if he was lost along with his final breath.

“Jare bear… are you… there… anywhere?” Charlotte begged, squeezing the words out through her quickly closing throat. It suddenly stopped tightening its grip and opened its mouth. Its cheeks ripped smoothly like a creased piece of paper as it opened wider and wider until its face resembled a humanized venus fly trap. The flaps of skin that were created during the tearing of flesh slowly began to straighten and tighten as if it were being pulled back until it was perfectly situated to resemble an open mouth. The lips were unable to cover the entirety of the new mouth and the jaw and the teeth located within the jaw remained where it had been before the flesh was so horribly ripped making the creature look more monstrous than ever.

“Please, Jare bear…” Charlotte begged, thinking that her son could still be reached. But it was too late. The creature felt nothing as it reared its head back and opened its new freakishly large mouth as wide as it possibly could. As it opened its mouth, the skin that had been ripped began to stiffen and sharpen, becoming a tiny bear trap. Charlotte attempted to scream as the beast slammed its fangs into her throat, sinking its teeth into her quickly and with the aggression of a starving rabid hound but nothing left her mouth except a geyser of blood that shot from her mouth and onto the side of the creature's face. As soon as the blood splattered onto the creature's face, small roses burst from its skin. The roses covered the entirety of the left side of its face. Its left eye, which had not been spared from the splash of blood, slowly unraveled into itself and sprawled out revealing its new form to be a beautiful large poinsettia with a color that was indistinguishable from the blood that had brought about its creation. Charlotte struggled for a moment, but she knew that there was nothing she could do, and within mere minutes, she took her last breath. As soon as she stopped struggling, the floral beast released the grip it had on her throat, dropping her to the floor. It knelt down over her body and began coughing wildly directly over the wound on her neck. The coughing quickly turned into a deep harsh hacking, and after a moment, a small cloud of shimmering light green dust was ejected from its mouth. The dust quickly flew into the massive wound on Charlotte's throat, and it was absorbed as if it were being sucked into a vacuum. The creature froze completely, unmoving except for its right eye, which slowly turned to stare at the exact position Randy found himself in at the moment. Randy had run behind the flipped desk as soon as the floral monstrosity that was once his son had entered the room, and he was now huddled against the desk, attempting to stay hidden. The creature stared at the desk until a strange scraping sound began to resonate from the massive gash on Charlotte's neck. The wound was sealed by the same bark-like substance that replaced the skin of Jerry's stomach. The process was slow, taking three minutes to completely replace the skin that had been lost. Charlotte's eyes opened quickly, and it was obvious that they were no longer truly Charlotte's eyes. As soon as Charlotte opened its eyes, the creature hunched over her newly transitioned body, stood and turned towards the desk that Randy was hidden behind. Randy was sweating profusely, and his heart was beating so quickly that he couldn't hear the ground beneath him rumbling, but he felt the massive quakes in the earth. Randy attempted to crawl away from the entire situation by getting to the door but before he could crawl more than a foot away from his original position a thin sharp vine jetted out of the ground and pierced his left calf. The vine stabbed into him so quickly and easily that Randy only felt the pain for a moment before it simply became numb. Randy screamed out in pain before slamming his hand over his mouth because he was afraid that the creature would hear him. He looked around to see if he had been noticed by the creature or anything else that may have been near and was startled to see the creature's foot directly in front of his face. Randy instantly let out a panicked scream. The yell was so loud it echoed outside of the building, not that it mattered to him now that he knew the creature already knew exactly where he was. The creature took a step back as it heard the screams seemingly shocked by the volume of the roars. The beast was only stunned by the scream momentarily, and upon regaining its composure, it lifted its foot directly above Randy's head. Randy attempted to move, but the vine, which had pierced his calf, held on to him tightly, seemingly refusing to release him.

“Wait… Jerry… It's me! It's your- your dad!” Randy stammered, hoping that he could reach a piece of his son that was left within the creature before him even though he already knew that it was far too late. As the creature began to bring its foot down onto Randy's skull, the flesh from its knee down to its foot exploded outward, revealing a dangerously sharp wooden branch within. The flesh, which had been shed to reveal the newly formed branch like leg, did not bleed but rather withered away as if it had been burned to ash. The sharpened leg easily pierced into Randy's temple and then directly into the floor beneath. Randy's movements instantaneously ended as he gasped loudly and then slumped to the floor. The creature kicked its foot forward, quickly forcing it past Randy's skull, causing it to be sliced perfectly through. The slice was so perfectly clean that his eye, which was cut directly in half, continued to sit within its socket. The floral abomination began to walk away from the horrible scene. The creature, which was once Charlotte, followed closely behind. The two creatures seemed to share a mental connection, giving themselves some form of a hive mind, which allowed them to understand one another without the need of words. As the two approached the gates, they opened as if on command, and the vines that had blocked the roads before began to recede revealing the many houses to the creatures. The two floral monstrosities began walking forward, ready to not only survive in their new terrain but conquer it as well.