13, BY E.F. JACE.

I can’t think of a word to describe what’s happening before me. Carnage, mayhem, bedlam – they all came close but missed something. There’s a certain level of…beauty to it. I chuckle at the thought and then wince at the pain it sends through my side.
I mean, think about it, we’re fighting plants. Golden, camouflaging plant monsters that my job-turned-boyfriend created. Not to mention the plant monsters that were once people.
That thought sobers me.
I shift in my seat and my bloody shirt remains plastered to the cuts around my waist and stomach. Is the infection seeping through my bloodstream? Or did my clothing act as a filter? So far from a lab, there’s no way to test.
I clench my teeth. I knew the risks, I read the fine print. Of course, at the time, I didn’t really think it was possible. And there was that sky-high salary to consider…
The closed windows of the car dampen the sounds of screaming, metal clinking, and that god-awful squelch they make as they feed.
“Wanda?”
The sound of my name jerks my gaze from the scene ahead to the person at my left. Jessica is sitting with her shoulders hunched and her grip tight on the steering wheel. She looks exhausted. The rush of spraying weedkiller and taking down monsters like the heroine of some late-night sci-fi movie was undoubtedly wearing off.
“What are we going to do?”
The thought crosses my mind that I could toss the teen and keep it moving. Jamie wouldn’t appreciate it too much but, hell, he’s not going to like me by the end of this either way. That fine print was very specific in what could happen if I don’t do what is expected of me. A shame, as I really like him. I push away the thought of sacrificing Jessica for now; I need someone to drive the damn car.
“Well we can’t do much by gawking from here. Try to pull in as close as you canslowly. I don’t want to get their attention.”
She nods and gets the car moving with shaky fingers.
Where are Jamie and Jane? Somehow, in the chaos, we got separated. Is he still with his mother or did he go off to find his father? Why the hell did the Henley parents have to show up? One Henley love-interest and one Henley ex-plant is enough for me, thank you.
It’s not long before the build-up of cars, body-parts, and plant sludge in some sickening mix prevents us from going any further.
“I think we’re going to have to get out,” Jessica says in a quiet voice.
No shit, Sherlock. I undo my seatbelt and open the door. I let the pain overcome my want to slap the teen. I need to find Jamie and then I need to get the hell out of here. All those zeros tacked to my pay mean squat if I don’t live to spend them.
“Check our supplies,” I tell Jessica. A good thing too, for as soon as the words leave my mouth I feel a dull tingle on my hip. At first I think my leg’s gone numb and my mind spirals in a panic toward thoughts of infection.
Then I realise it’s my phone vibrating. I swallow my moment of fear with a bit of relief and retrieve it. But the moment I see the number on the screen, that relief quickly turns to solid dread and drops to my heels.
My employer.
I steal a quick glance at Jessica. She’s still fumbling with the canisters, testing their weight. I duck down below the windows and answer the call. “Yes, sir?”
“You want to explain what the hell is going on there?”
“Uh…”
“Don’t. Just don’t. We’ve got enough of a headache trying to spin this into some movie animatronics gone wrong on one end, while subduing any footage that leaks out on the other. We want you out of there.”
No problem with that. “What about the town?”
“That’s not your concern. You’re a scientist, Miss Thompson. Secure the data and get out of there.”
My brow twists. “The data, sir?”
“James Henley. We want him brought back.”
Shit. With all the information Jane probably blabbed, there is no way Jamie would go back to work on this. Not for TS Labs, at least. Genius yes, but the man was sadly lacking in the Evil. To be honest, a part of me doesn’t want to drag him back into it either.
He almost lost his sister, possibly his Grandmother; who knows where his father is? And, well…he wasn’t too bad on the eyes, either.
“There isn’t a problem, is there, Miss Thompson?”
“It’s just…in all this chaos, it’s a little hard to find Jamie. We have all of his notes, couldn’t we adjust another-”
“No. The adjustment created the interest, but it was his mind that created the formula which made all this possible. We need him. Are you going to deliver?”
I squeeze the phone in my hand, hoping to crush it and end this conversation. Unfortunately, no HULK SMASH! for me. Not even a merciful signal interruption.
“Wanda!” Jessica’s panicked voice rings out as she realises I’m gone.
“Miss Thompson?”
“Wanda, where are you?”
“Is this going to be a problem?”
I shut my eyes. I knew the job, I knew the risks. I was supposed to watch Jamie, keep him on task, push him in certain directions. But he managed to keep his unauthorised experiments away from me, and there was no way the director would overlook that fact.
It’s bad enough his parents are AWOL. The parameters of my job are very clear. Everything else has been a bonus. I open my eyes with a deep breath. “No, sir. There’s no problem. I’ll bring him in.”
“Wise choice, Miss Thompson.”
A thought. I’m going to lose Jamie no matter what I do; even if he does live through this, he’ll never forgive me. There is, however, a chance for me to remain in the good graces of TS Labs.
“Sir? There’s been an unexpected development.”
“You mean besides the evil plants devouring an entire town?”
I roll my eyes and manage to contain the sigh that builds up; I had that one coming. “It’s the Henley daughter, Jessica.”
“What of her?”
“She was infected and Jamie bled the taint out, but there’s been some residual effect. She can actually hear what the things are thinking.”
There’s a pause on the other end as he takes in the information. “Some sort of latent link between her and the things?”
“Possibly, I haven’t had the time or opportunity to fully test it.”
Jessica apparently remembers the car has another side and dashes around the hood. She sees me crouching down, and I can tell by the look on her face her first thought is that I’m more hurt than she realised. Then she sees the phone in my hand and all concern for my well-being evaporates.
Not that I can blame her.
“Bring her in,” the director orders before hanging up.
Jessica drops to her knees beside me. “Is it Jamie? Or mom? Are they all right? Where are they? Have they found dad or Gran?”
I put up my hand and squint as though I’m trying hard to hear someone on the other line. “What? No, I’m losing you, I can’tJamie? Jamie!” I call his name a few more times while my thumb slides over the power button and holds it.
From the corner of my eye I see the screen light up as it powers down and I move the phone from my ear with a dejected sigh, holding it up for Jessica to see.
She buys it and her shoulders slump. “Did you get any idea where they are?”
“No,” I say as I push to my feet, “I only just picked up the call, it kept going in and out. Say, can you still hear the things?”
She stands and shifts her weight, like she doesn’t want to re-admit the insane.
“Come on, kid, we haven’t got time for this! If you can hear them, then we can avoid them while looking for Jamie!”
“It’s all so muddled and crazy. I can’t make sense of it. They just want to eat and keep eating and reproduce. I don’t think they have any real plans beyond that.”
“Okay, so basic levels of cognitive thought that don’t extend past self-preservation, that’s good.”
“It is?”
“That means we don’t have giant people-eating plants that are also bent on world domination. That’s good in my book.”
I look around her. The creatures are following the road, veering off only long enough to chase down any stragglers. They don’t seem to be in any rush. The main street of the town isn’t too far off. We might be able to-
“Wanda, look out!”
I turn in time to see a lash of vines and leaves whip at my head, but not in time to dodge them. Dozens and dozens of tiny cuts split open across my face. I recoil toward the car, dropping my phone and putting my hand to my eyes. As I wipe them frantically in an attempt to keep the blood out, I stumble in Jessica’s direction. I can hear the desperate pumping and spraying of the weedkiller. My vision clear, I stand behind Jessica and look toward my attacker.
Violet.
I’d wondered where she disappeared to. Well, not really, but maybe I should have. Where there was Violet, there was also…
“Tank!”
I grab Jessica by her shoulders and pull her back just as the massive tree comes bounding off the side of the road and toward us. It crashes into the debris of cars that litter the path but they do little to stop him. He turns toward Violet, maybe to check on her?
Don’t know, don’t care.
“We can’t stand here and spray this crap at them all night!” I snatch the canister from Jessica and undo its nozzle. While Tank is tending to Violet, I empty the contents onto the ground in front of us.
Jessica stares wide-eyed, “What are you doing!”
“This is low-grade stuff, they’ll adapt to it quickly and then what? We can’t kill them but we can slow them down while we,” I toss the empty canister to the ground, the edges of the liquid have reached Tank’s feet/roots, and grab Jessica’s wrist, “run!”
I lead her through and around the vehicles, trying hard to ignore the pain. We jump over bodies, whole and in parts, duck under lashing vines and hurled home-made Molotovs, all the while keeping an eye out for Jamie or Jane.
How the hell did they get so far so fast? I steal a glance behind me to see Tank is still determined to make a meal out of us, or maybe just drag me back to Violet – she seemed to have a thing for Jamie, after all. But the mess and mayhem is slowing him down. Good.
I look forward again, still searching for Jamie, when Jessica stops short, damn-near popping my arm right out of its socket. I round on her to ask, or really snarl, just what her problem is – but her focus isn’t on me. Instead, she’s staring slack-jawed at a group of plant monsters that are pounding against an RV.
I lean close so that I can whisper, “What is wrong with you? We need to keep going!”
She just keeps staring at the creatures. At one in particular. Is she listening to it? It doesn’t seem to be attacking, but more…supervising. Can she hear what its orders are? I open my mouth to ask her but she wriggles her wrist from my grasp and takes a step forward. In a tiny voice, almost unheard over the destruction around us, she calls out to it.
“Gran?”