The Green Thumb

READER DISCRETION IS ADVISED

Maturity: Parasites, symbiotes, romance, alcohol, science,apocalypse etc.
Fantasy: See above.
Summary: No spoilers...



Prologue:

Just another day in the life of a botanist. Amanda Robertson lurched through the famous Amazon forest, her hands to her ears in pain. Those stupid lumberjacks were cutting down every bloody tree in sight, and not leaving even one for her to study! To make matters worse, they weren't even being discreet about it. They were sending 100 lumberjacks per day, all equipped with chainsaws and one portable saw mill per 10 people. They were taking the lush forest that had given many natives a home, and destroying it entirely. And for what? For urban development, she was told. Urban Development! As though every city in America wasn't already big enough! Even still, she had a job to do...

Amanda Robertson was young to be sure. She was 25 years of age chronologically, however she was only 15 years of age mentally. A kid at heart, who wanted nothing more than to learn the inner workings of plants and animals. She had gotten this job when she was twenty three. She didn't have a degree, but she had her way of becoming a scientist that didn't involve college or university. He hair was long, not far from her hip level, and it was a shade of brown that was becoming entirely common in females. She didn't need glasses, though she said she did, and wasn't not athletic at all. When she was younger, if she ran for a mere ten seconds, she was soon winded. She was never wide, though, her excuse was always something like a damaged rib or an infected toenail. She had problems with her pelvis, and many doctors told her she could never have a child due to that problem, not that it mattered. All that mattered was her, and her fiancé waiting for her back at the research facility in Canada she worked at. The only other thing that mattered was that she looked better than her nemesis, Markus, in front of her boss. That was why she had taken this expedition.

She joined up with a group of American lumberjacks on break, many were drinking beer or other strange things. A few were shouting drunkenly, cheering those not on break to continue. One drunk threw his arm around Amanda's shoulder, muttering something you'd expect a drunk to say. She lightly shoved him off, and proceeded through. A few were posing for a picture near a fallen tree, doing all sorts of idiotic poses. She approached the cameraman and asked, "Hey, why are you all taking photos of this?"

The man replied, "Well, because this is a grape tree that looks like it's got a human face!"

"Why is that so important?" Amanda asked.

"Duh! Grapes really just grow in the wild during the fall. It's in the middle of spring right now!"

"Point taken, though the face thing sounds very strange..." Amanda muttered. She took two more steps and gasped as she saw that this entire area was full of unusual fruit trees with seemingly human faces. The trees had a large assortment of fruits, ranging from apples, to peaches, to mangos. The lumberjacks behind her were all touching the fallen tree everywhere to see if it was real, eating the fruit, and placing their hands within the tree's "mouth." Other lumberjacks were shaking their hands and partaking in the food, Idiots, Amanda thought. She clambered on top of one of the fallen trees and with her bare hands, grabbed a large sample of the fruit, and a few samples of the leaves, branches, and the odd tendril. She noted that the trees did indeed seem human, their faces twisted into destroyed faces or seeming to simply fall asleep... She finally took a few photos with her digital camera and made her way back to camp. Her plane back to Canada was waiting.

Little did she realize that those trees would change the course of humanity forever...

Chapter 1

The sound of plane engines could be heard from the other side of the small town. Amanda wondered why a city would even build an airport in such a place. Amanda had filled out all the requirements, from purchasing the ticket, to checking in her luggage. She was already in the plane moments after they allowed entry. Amanda caught herself eying the grape sample she had picked up earlier. She briefly considered consuming a few, and quickly gave into her wants. She took a few of the grapes, chewing them gingerly like eating fruit were the most delicate thing one had to do. She loved it, the flavor was spectacular, better than any other grape she had tried before. She put the rest of the grapes away, remembering what they were for. A minute before they took off, a man soon sat beside the botanist. He smelled of bad cologne, was wearing a cheap tuxedo, and was carrying roses in his carry-on, a few looked a little wilted. Amanda, trying to be courteous, held out her hand and said, “My name’s Amanda.”

“Well, hello there little lady. Roy Jenkins, pleasure to meet you,” the man replied in a thick Texan accent, shaking the hand of the botanist.

Amanda changed the subject, “So...flying to your date?”

“Wow. How’d ya know?”

“Lucky guess...” Amanda muttered. “So where did you meet this...woman?”

“Where else? Eharmony of course!”

Amanda put her palm to her forehead and sighed, “Figures,” she breathed.


* * *

The next little while passed in silence, until Roy spotted the grapes in Amanda’s open pack. “Those grapes yours?” he asked, not really thinking about the sentence until he said it.

“Of course!” Amanda laughed, pausing for a moment before continuing, “Why? You want some?” She held a fair amount of grapes near Roy.

“I sure would!” Roy replied, grabbing the grapes and stuffing several down his gullet. Anyone else would have thought he hadn’t eaten in two days. Roy looked up, with a mouthful of grapes and his lips formed into a figure of pleasure, “This are pretty good, what kind of grapes are these?”

“They’re wild grapes,” Amanda replied.

Roy’s smiling face turned into one of shock all of a sudden, “Wait...if these are wild grapes, why don’t they have any seeds?”

Amanda gaped, “Too true, I really have no idea though.”

Roy shrugged, “Whatever, I’m sure that there’d be one or two grapes out there that don’t have seeds...” He put the leftover grapes in his own carry-on, and changed the subject, “So, where you from, little lady?”

“I was born in Toronto, but most of my life I’ve lived in Alberta,” Amanda replied.

“Ah. You’re a Canadian? I thought all Canadians said ‘eh?’ all the time.”

“And I thought all Americans were blimps.”

“Touché.”

Soon, a beep was heard through the plane, the voice of the pilot stated, “Alright, passengers. We’ll be landing in John F. Kennedy airport in about five minutes, we’re beginning our descent now.” The rest of the flight passed in silence.

At the airport, Amanda and Roy both waited patiently for their luggage. Once they both found theirs, they turned to each other and shook each other’s hands. Amanda was the first to speak, “I’ll see you around Roy, good luck with your date.”

“Thank you, Amanda, good luck with whatever you’re doing. By the way, I intend to give these delicious grapes to my girlfriend, I’m sure she’ll love them.” Roy replied. Within five minutes from that moment, Amanda was already in her next plane. Looking around she noted that several other scientist were carrying fruit samples as well, a few were eating their samples like Amanda had done earlier. The botanist sighed, it seemed her discovery wasn’t going to be as unique as she thought.

Suddenly, she felt a strange sensation pass through her. She couldn’t quite describe what it was, but regardless she took out her notepad and wrote down what she was feeling. She wrote:

-Unusual feeling in torso, possibly located at liver.
-Tingling feeling in arms and fingertips, most concentrated in shoulder.
-Numbing sensation in legs and spine.

With her sensation written down, she soon fell into a deep sleep.

What a day

Chapter 2

Markus Zimermann moved through the little cafeteria, with nothing more than a salmon wrap and a Cola. Markus wasn't a tall person, but he wasn't short either. He was approximately five foot. ten inches tall, at least that was his last check. His hair was fairly short, his bangs loose and above his eyebrows. His eyes were mostly green, however it had a maroon ring within the iris, one might think you could get lost within them. He had a decent build, considering he was a microbiologist.

He sat down at a table nearby. He sighed, the facility's logo was on absolutely everything, including his tray. The VaDMER logo, which was an image of a virus with an angry face, stood for Virus and Dangerous Microscopic Entity Research facility. The facility housed many scientists and researchers, but many were away on duty or on break, napping in the 'barracks' like bedroom. Markus looked up in time to find his friend and colleague, Matthew McRae, approaching with a juicy steak and Ginger Ale. Matthew wasn't much different from Markus, in fact a joke was going about to how similar they are, one would think they were twins. The main differences were that Matthew had light blue eyes and a different style of hair. Matthew spoke before sitting across from Markus, "Hey man. What's up?"

"Not much, you?" Markus replied, reviewing notes on the standard influenza virus on his standard issue laptop.

"Ah, really nothing. I must say the VaDMER facility has really become quiet since everyone took that expedition."

"Too true. I bet that goes double for you, seeing how your fiancé took the trip as well."

"Point taken. I can't wait until the two of us are married. I..." Matthew's sentence was cut short.

"Hey guys!" another scientist butted in.

Markus and Matthew both shouted in unison, as though they had rehearsed it, "Not now, Sean!"

"Ok then," Sean replied before taking off.

Both scientists returned to eating. While Markus was reviewing notes, the table began to violently shake. Markus looked up, noting that Matthew was slamming the bottom of his Ginger Ale bottle into the table, pausing to let the carbonation settle, then slamming it again. "The HEAVEN! are you doing?" Markus asked with an eyebrow raised.

"I prefer flat Ginger Ale, so I"m making it flat," Matthew replied. Finally, Matthew carefully and slowly opened the cap, pausing whenever the fizz rose. When it was as flat as he could get it, Matthew chugged half the contents of the bottle. Markus put his palm to his head and sighed. Now finished his meal he grabbed his laptop and took of for his workstation, leaving Matthew to his meal.

* * *

After an elevator trip, and a five minute hallway walk, Markus finally found his workstation. The door held a sign, which appeared as a box, with this engraved on it:

M. Zimmermann
G. Hope
Virus and Parasite Research.

Markus sat down at his table and looked over at his co-worker. Markus spoke up, “You can take your break now, Gordon.”

Gordon took his eye from the microscope, “About Time!” he replied. Gordon utilized his great arms to lift himself from his elevated position and and onto his wheel chair. He strapped himself in within moments, and wheeled out of the room. Gordon was caught in a car crash when he was twenty years of age. The crash injured his spine and rendered him a paraplegic. He'd never walk again, according to the doctor. Gordon didn't seem to mind though, he was too prideful to be miffed by this.

Regardless, Markus had work to do. He sat in the lab chair, feeling no comfort in it at all. He took the Petri dish, filled with a water-like liquid, and placed it beneath the microscope. Within the dish, was a single common cold virus entity. He followed standard procedure, creating a report on his laptop, titling it “Cold Virus Notes” and returned to his work. He took a small blood sample hypo, it had been extracted before he started making the report. Markus slowly began to inject a small amount of the blood into the dish. Suddenly a voice next to him spoke, “So what'cha working on?” Markus was so startled by the sudden voice nearby, that he injected the entire hypo into the dish. Markus frantically watched through the microscope, watching as as the only virus cell was absorbed by a white blood cell. Markus bashed his head fairly softly into the table, that was going to ruin his whole day. He looked to the newcomer, and it didn't even take a moment for Markus to recognize Melanie Ross: the owner of the facility. She was just as tall as Markus, if not taller. She had short black hair with red highlights, and had brown eyes. From first glance, she seemed the least professional of everyone in the facility, judging by her extremely casual wear, and she was chewing gum to boot.

“Nothing anymore, Mel,” Markus replied at last, referring to her nickname.

“Wonderful, Mark. Now, you done that 'Flu' report yet?” she spoke, not a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

Markus walked over to his laptop, and pulled out a 2GB USB stick from the computer. He handed it over to Melanie. “There.”

Melanie took the device with a questioning look. “This all? Wow, you're getting less thorough everyday,” she broke a smile, a very creepy one at that. She put the stick in her pocket, speaking up again, “Well, whatever. Grab your stuff, and let's go. The others will be back soon, and we're the welcome wagon.” With that, Melanie had taken off. Matthew sighed, the facility was about to get noisy again. He grabbed his laptop, put it in his pack, and ran towards the lobby.

Chapter 3

Markus arrived at the lobby, and the place was packed to say the least. Many were applauding the returning scientists, except for himself and the music addict next to him. This addict had an ipod classic in his hand, with a pair of black ‘Ear Bud’ earphones. Markus could hear Rammstein songs clearly coming from the earphones, and the man was mouthing the lyrics and softly head-banging. Markus checked the name tag on the man’s uniform, “J. Crooks, Parasite research.” That was all Markus needed to know. Soon, Markus was joined by Matthew within the crowd. The exchanged brief, acknowledging nods, then watched as the returning scientist walked within the facility. Markus envisioned the event like celebrities being met by paparazzi in the streets, they were creepily similar. Soon enough, the two scientists found an all-too-familiar figure making it’s way towards them. Matthew ran at the figure, arms wide open. “Amanda!” he called out, hugging the brunette, “Oh, how I’ve missed you!”

“Same to you, Daddy,” Amanda replied, using a strange nickname for her fiancé.

Markus remained where he was, he was not in the mood to communicate with Amanda. However, he was curious about the grapes in the sample bag Amanda was carrying. Amanda noticed Markus eying the bag and asked, “Do you want a grape?”

"No thanks," he replied, "I already ate."

Joseph Fisher, an underling of Markus, took the offer. "I'll have two," he spoke, "One to eat, the other to study." How odd of Joseph to study a grape. Perhaps he just wanted an excuse to have two grapes.

"I expect a report on that grape before the day ends, Fisher," Markus commented.

"Con do, sir," Joseph saluted casually. And with that, he was off. Markus took off, back to his workstation.

* * *

Three hours passed, and Markus was still up to his monotonous work. He closed his laptop, and went out on break. He headed towards the cafeteria.

One could only gape at a sight like this. The cafeteria was filled with the fruit the scientists had brought back, and it had become a banquet. Interestingly, Markus noticed Gordon, Melanie and Amanda in the crowd, but neither Joseph or Matthew were taking part. While Markus watched, he noticed Amanda was constantly scratching her shoulders. Just as Markus started to walk towards her, she clutched he stomach suddenly, and puked. Markus laughed silently, she must've consumed too much natural sugars. Markus was about to fetch a doctor from the infirmary, when he noticed Joseph running towards him from his workstation, carrying a large amount of paper. "Markus!" he called out, gasping for air as he stopped in front of his superior. "Sir," he finally caught his breath, "It's about the fruit. You have to see this! It's an emergency!" Without another word the two ran towards Joseph's 'Tech room' lab. What could possibly be an emergency with fruit? Markus thought to himself, It doesn't make sense...

Markus sat down in a nearby office chair, it wasn't comfortable to say the least. Although, he couldn't tell which was more uncomfortable: the chair, or the fearful face on Joseph's face. Finally, Joseph turned towards Markus. "Alright, here goes," he started, "TO begin with, I found that grape 100% appealing to my taste buds, so I started examining the other. Seemed normal at first, then I noticed something odd about it: There were a few, lone plant cells in the flesh of the grape. To make things stranger: They were moving." Markus was shocked. First off: cells stuck together. Second: Cells don't individually move! Joseph leaned forward a bit, "Afterwords, I examined the flesh of the other fruits, and I found the same thing, except they weren't moving too much."

Markus raised an eyebrow, "Do you still have that grape sample?" he asked.

"Will, sure. Why?"

"I'm gonna run some tests with it. By the way, have you felt at all unusual since you ate that grape?"

"Afraid so, and I fear the worst. Let's see: Numbing in my spine and legs, odd sensation in my liver, and now my calves itch. Thought it was just a flu, until the leg itch."

"That's unusual...Well, sit tight, I'll tell you the results when I find them." Markus took the grape and made his way to his workstation. Before he got there, two men carrying Amanda ran past him, towards the infirmary. To make things worse, she was screaming in pain. Markus rushed towards the infirmary with the group.

Within the infirmary, Markus watched through the two-way mirror as doctors tended to Amanda. She was screaming as though she were giving birth. Throughout all this, she was scratching at her shoulder. Markus stood near a camera operator, watching the screen to find out what's going on. Amanda's screams were louder now than before. Markus squinted his eyes, spotting a mark on her shoulder. He pointed to her shoulder on the camera, and spoke to the camera worker. "Zoom in here" he asked. The operator nodded, and Markus saw the mark in full: it appeared to be a red, oval rash with some "bumps" in the marking. Markus raised an eyebrow, but kept his eye on the rash as Amanda's voice became an ear splitting screech. Suddenly, Amanda passed out, her shoulder moving out of the frame. "Put it back on her shoulder!" Markus ordered determinedly. Inside the ER, the professionals, who had seen terrible things before, were scrambling for the exit, calling out like children. Soon the camera was aimed at Amanda's shoulder once more, and Markus froze with shock. The camera operator fainted, falling out of his seat. On Amanda's shoulder...replacing the rash...

Was a flower...

Chapter 4

Markus closed his gaping maw, still unable to stop staring at the flower on his colleague's shoulder. Thoughts and calculations coursed through his mind, none of them seemed to make any sense. Making a decision, the microbiologist grabbed rubber gloves and made his way into the room. Markus had minimal knowledge of human anatomy aside from the basics, but he was the only one who was at all qualified for this. In the room, he tested to see if Amanda was alive. After some pulse and breath checks, Markus was 100% sure she was still alive, merely unconcious. Markus tightened his gloves, he was going to examine the flower. For added measure he strapped on a surgical mask. He gingerly touched the flower with a gloved hand, it felt very much like real plant material. What plant it was, he couldn't tell. Markus tried pulling it out, problem was it was connected to Amanda's body. As he pulled, he could see Amanda's body life with it. As he looked at what points moved when he pulled, he noticed that her arm on the same side moved as well as the side of her torso. Also, when he pulled the flower he noticed a bulge run along her arm, almost like an artery was expanding or circulation was cut off. He followed the bulge along her arm, gasping when he noticed the bulge ending at another marking akin to the one that became the flower on Amanda's shoulder. To make things worse, the bulge spread to other areas of her arm slowly, thankfully not leading to any other markings. Markus removed Amanda's lab coat, and stumbled back into a table as he spotted several more markings on her upper torso, including parts of her neck, leading over to her other arm and another bulge was leading towards her leg, stopping at her hip. He thought briefly, before grabbing a UV light for an experiment. Markus turned the lamp on and aimed the light at the flower. Aiming the camera himself, he recorded as the flower bloomed, and Amanda's body seemed to react. It seemed some of the bulges had moved further when he shined the light on the flower. This was a curious phenomenon to say the least. Normal flowers gew in about a month, sometimes more. This one had fully matured in 24 hours, perhaps even less.

Markus removed the mask from his face, he had done all he could. He left the ER slowly, ideas and thoughts pulsing through his mind. As he left, he notived several of his colleagues watching the camera monitor on the side of the two-way mirror opposite of the emergency room. They seemed as shocked as he was. The camera operator still hadn't regained consciousness. Matthew was a member of the crowd, and he stepped out to speak with Markus. "So what did you find out?" he asked.

"Not much. The flower is connected to her body; there are other markings all over her body; the flower bloomed and Amanda's body reacted under UV light; and I guess the plant material came from her. In short: she's got a *beep*ing flower in her shoulder, and she's about to get plenty more," Markus replied.

"Oh God...any ideas what might've started it?"

"Several, none of them make sense. One is a theory of those mysterious fruits, but that's doubtful. Regardless, I'm going to study one anyway just to be sure, so don't freak out."

"So you're saying we're all going to turn into plants?" a voice called from the crowd.

"I'm not sure, but I can't figure what else will happen, nor what else may have caused it," Markus answered.

"Oh no...Markus?" Matthew spoke again.

"Yeah?"

"You do know we sold those fruits to every province, right?"

Markus rubbed his head, "Knowing the demand for fresh fruits today, half of them are likely gone by now. It's too late to recall them. Besides, we don't even know if they truly are the cause," Matthew nodded in response. "Alright," Markus continued, "Everything I found was recorded, you can see for yourself if necessary. I'm headed back. Gordon," he spotted his colleague in the crowd. "I'm going to need your help." Gordon followed without a word.

* * *

A few hours had passed since the two left the Er. Markus and Gordon had been studying the fruit for some time. Al they had were some useless notes that no common person would understand. One interesting note however, was that the plant cell and fruit had absolutely no effect on animals; they only seemed happy to have a sweet treat compared to their usual food. Markus sported an eye-mounted microscope, and Gordon wore glvoes and a mask. Through conversation, Markus found that Gordon had not consumed a fruit, but he had picked up an apple before putting it back. After a long period of fruitless study (pardon the pun), Gordon seemed to be reacting to something. "OH MY SWEET GENTLE JESUS!" he shouted.

Markus immediately turned, "What's wrong?"

Gordon spun around to Markus, "Two things, one: I've got the marking on my palm. Two:..." he appeared to be making an effort to do something, but Markus couldn't see it at first. But then there it was, Gordon who had been crippled for at least two years, had just made his foot move.

Before Markus could say anything, the intercom blared with the familiar tone of Joseph's voice, "Markus Zimmermann to the Tech room. Markus, please report to the tech room." Markus didn't stop to get his things, and he immediately headed out the door towards Joseph's room.

When he arrived, he noticed Joseph at a different computer, all but his head concealed by equipment. Joseph spoke, "You know, when people swore I'd grow roots from the amount of time I spent here, I didn't think they were serious."

"Well, what happened then?" Markus asked.

"See for yourself..." Joseph replied. Markus moved so he could see all of Joseph and sure enough, two tree-like roots had appeared from each of his lower legs and had pierced the floor, rooting Joseph in place...

Oooh, Seraph, you must keep writing. :3

I'll post chapter 1 tomorrow when I get the chance, today I'm still working on the rough draft. Prologue didn't turn out like I wanted it, since it was from scratch. So now, I'm making drafts of every chapter when I get the chance. Just wish I could be on more.

Oh cool! :3 I can't wait.

Alright, went through some technical difficulties, but I've finally got Chapter 1 posted. I'm working on rough drafts for chapter two as I type

Also editing the earlier posts whenever I get the chance

Alright, chapter 2 has been posted.

Great job! :O I want to find out what's going on . . .

You'll find out in the next chapter, Shadowsown, I'm making up the draft right now.

Can't wait to see it! (And you can call me Shadow if you'd prefer. ^^)

Ah, it's alright. It doesn't matter much.

Anyhow, chapter 3 is posted.

Eeep! :3 So creepy! I must read more sooooon.

Wow, it's been a while since I posted on this thing...

Ah, I'll try to post the next chapter when possible.

Alright, chapter 4 is up.

I love this story! It's so well written . . . and different from other books I've read . . . I can't wait to read the next chapter!!!

I'll see if I can get my mind rolling to get it posted tomorrow. This one got up quickly today because I got it off my rough draft from a month ago.

Comments and suggestions are welcome.