Then the moment vanished.
Gran was a monster now, and Jessica wanted to scream. She jerked her arm out of
Wanda’s grip and turned on her. “Tell me it can be reversed. Tell me we can
save her.”
Wanda blinked, glanced
after the retreating plants, and sighed. “I’m sorry. She’s gone, and we need to
find Jamie and your parents.”
A weight settled on
Jessica’s shoulders. Wanda was right. She had grown a lot in the last few
hours. Too much. She pushed thoughts of Gran from her mind and allowed Wanda to
lean on her again.
“Let’s go.” But Jessica
allowed the tiniest ember of hope to remain buried under common sense and
urgency. Gran had responded for that small second. She was still in there, and
Jessica would not just give up on her.
They pushed on through
the ravaged downtown area. Jessica studiously avoided looking at the
dismembered bodies and gore. It was harder to ignore the squelching under her
feet. If she survived this, she intended to burn her shoes and every stitch of
clothing she wore.
“Stop,” Wanda gasped,
clutching her side. She pitched forward, knees buckling, and Jessica didn’t
have the strength to hold her up. They tumbled to the ground, and Wanda cried
out in pain. Her eyes rolled back, and she mumbled something Jessica didn’t
understand. Then she was out.
Jessica swallowed. She
was alone, with killer plants closing in on all sides. “Please, Wanda, wake up.”
Wanda didn’t stir.
Jessica sat back on her heels and drew in a deep breath. She needed to calm
down and think. She had to consider her assets. What were her assets?
A phone. Jessica drew in
a sharp breath. Wanda had a phone. Jamie had called her. Maybe Jessica could
get in touch with him. Jessica fished in Wanda’s pockets and drew out a thin,
expensive-looking phone. She scrolled quickly through the menus, and found the
call log.
The first entry in
received calls burned into her eyes. Not Jamie’s number. Not even some random
number that might have been a number Jamie was calling from. Instead, she saw
the words, Private Number. Who would
be calling Wanda from a private number?
Top Secret Labs.
Rage boiled through
Jessica’s blood. How dare she? She’d lied right to Jessica’s face.
Jessica stood, still
holding the phone in her hand. She longed to fling it away, but it was her only
link to Jamie. Her only link to anything at the moment. Emotion was not a
reason to discard a weapon.
Listen to you. All grown up. Maybe you’re the real Evil
Genius of the family. Jessica brushed aside her sarcastic inner voice and gazed at
the unconscious woman at her feet. The smart thing would be to leave her behind
to fend for herself.
Her loyalty was a
dangerous unknown. Jessica took a step to the side, with every intention of
walking around Wanda’s body and continuing the search for her family.
But something stopped
her. She couldn’t do it. Though a part of her knew Wanda would do it in a
heartbeat to save her own life, Jessica couldn’t bring herself to be
responsible for another human being’s death.
So, what could she do?
She couldn’t carry Wanda’s body, and she wasn’t about to try waking her up.
From the silence in her
mind, she guessed there were no killer-plants nearby. That gave her a bit of
leeway in searching for a solution.
“I’ll be back for you,”
she whispered.
A ways up the road, she
hit paydirt. An abandoned car sat in the middle of the road, the driver door
hanging open and the engine still humming. Jessica slid into the driver’s seat,
ignoring the bloodstains. She threw the car into drive, and made a sharp U-turn.
Wanda still lay in the
middle of the street where Jessica had left her. It took a good deal of effort
to heft her dead weight into the back seat of the car. Once that was done,
Jessica still had a problem.
Wanda was the enemy.
Jessica wouldn’t kill or abandon her, but she couldn’t allow her to go free.
She found a bundle of
stray vines and used them to tie Wanda’s legs together and her arms behind her
back. The knots probably sucked, but she tried to make up for it by tightening
them to the point of pain.
A faint buzzing tickled
the back of her mind. The static rustling voices of the plants. They grew
stronger as she secured the last vine around Wanda’s ankles. She climbed into
the car and took off down the road.
The voices ebbed in her
mind, rising and fading as she drove. Her eyes scanned the road, desperate for
any sign of Jamie or her mom. Or dad.
Her heart jumped slightly
at the memory of seeing her mother again after so long. She hadn’t gotten a
chance to talk to her. Or hug her. Now there was a chance she might even see
her dad again.
A lump clogged her
throat. She steered the car around a three-car pile-up. The plant voices rose
in volume and she could see several of them attacking one of the cars. The
people inside flailed and screamed for help.
Jessica flinched. She had
no more plant killer. She couldn’t do anything for those people, but something
forced her to hit the brake. She had to help somehow.
As if summoned by
Jessica’s desperation and terror, a black Hummer came tearing up the road.
Jamie hung out the side
window, a spray gun clutched in his hand. As the Hummer lurched to a stop, he
jumped out and ran toward the cars.
Jessica’s heart swelled.
She climbed out of the car, and ran toward him.
He waved her off, his
eyes never straying from the plants he sprayed. “Go, get more plant killer.”
She veered toward the
Hummer, and her heart leapt in her chest.
Mom stood by the driver’s
side door, strapping a canister to her back. She greeted Jessica with a
brilliant smile. “Hey Sweetie. You’re dad’s on his way with a few of our
friends. We’ve almost got them all.”
Almost got them all.
Jessica’s moment of
euphoria at the thought of seeing her dad again evaporated. She turned back to
the plants that Jamie was spraying. Gran.
Plant-Gran stood back
from the carnage, like a general supervising soldiers. Jessica had a strong
feeling Wanda’s assessment of the plants’ intelligence was underestimated. She
turned to her mom. “It’s Gran. We have to try to save her.”
Her mother froze, eyes
going to the half dozen or so plants advancing on Jamie. “Mom?”
A scream of outrage from
Jessica’s procured car made Jessica flinch. She’d almost forgotten about Wanda.
