Author's Note (10/04/17): With all the problems in the world recently, I hope everyone reading this is doing okay. If you are one of those affected by recovery, know that there is a shadow flower cheering out there for your betterment.
On a story-related note, I'm trying to keep major events in sync with main game releases. I think it'll be an easier read that way.
Thank you kindly for listening and I hope you enjoy the chapter...
Not long ago, Saidy managed to survive a ZPG to her face. But according to the zombies around her, the ZPG launched was some kind of dance machine. Feeling apologetically indebted after destroying it, the shadow flower gave the DJ soldier zombie, D, a promise that she would buy a replacement Dance ZPG for him—even if it meant traveling to Zombopolis.
Shortly thereafter, the basketball game between Ed and Jay, the basketball All-Star in black and red, began while Saidy and Priscilla chatted. When Ed finally scored a shot through a slam-dunk, Saidy became ecstatic, mesmerized, and cheerful for her zombie friend.
Despite the flipped outcome of Ed losing, the shadow flower became friends with the group around her as they all talked for a while. She learned that there were four unique schools when it came to the zombies, learned that the mute chemist she had a silent friendship with was incredibly dangerous, and learned that the folks around her wanted the war with the plants to end as much as she did.
Now, returning to her promise earlier with D, Saidy was in the back seat of his black, four-door car on the way to Zombopolis. Even though she had D and Timothy Prix to watch over her, the blue sunflower was beyond worried about what could happen during the long trip and decided to try to sleep to do away with it.
Using her light blue purse as a pillow, the cheer flower snoozed with light breaths as a nightmare approached—both near and far…
"February 23, 2016—the day Dr. Zomboss declared war on the Plants…"
"After conquering key territory and losing my interest in fighting, I thought I could set this burdensome war aside. But now that you've taken something important from me—something important from all the zombies—I will not conceive! We will not stop at brainz; we will not stop until every one of you plants feel the same pain me and my army have felt! This is a declaration of war, you pathetic excuses of natural selection, for the zombies are coming to get their revenge!"
"Nobody was prepared for how horrifying it would be the very next day…"
"Ms. Miridine… Ms. Priscilla… Where are they? Why aren't they here?" a young shadow flower with a light blue face asked.
She looked at the clock on the wall and saw it was a quarter until eight in the morning—the time when school would start at the Super Sprouts plant daycare.
"They did say they'd play 'Roots and Vines' with me."
Sure enough, the board game was set up on the small, low, round table in front of her.
Disappointed, Saidy gave a sigh as she had her head rest on the table. She then grabbed the one dice (after a lot of fidgeting), shook it, and dropped it on the table.
She rolled a four. There was a root on that space so she moved her blue game piece and climbed to space number fourteen.
"Hm… Ms. Priscilla would've probably been mad and said, 'Don't even think about getting a six.'"
The young sunflower giggled at her thought. She then closed her eyes for a moment as she got up and gave a mouthful yawn.
"Poopie dookie. I woke up early to attend class on time for once and this is my reward? Ngh!"
Saidy stomped her front right root in annoyance as she looked back at the clock.
It was ten minutes until class started.
"Huh…?"
She looked around the daycare full of colorful drawings on the walls, colorful books on the big bookshelf, clay pots in rows and columns, and bags of Caroline brand fertilizer by the small kitchen—there was no one around but her.
"It's a school day today. Where is everybody?"
As if to answer her question, a loud alarm started going off outside. She hoped it wasn't what she thought it was.
With an annoying creak of the wooden white door, Saidy walked outside and gasped at what she saw. Since the daycare was on one of the highest hills in Suburbia, she had a clear view of what she thought was two or three thousand plants all prepped in a mile long stretch at the front of the neighborhood.
Peashooters were on the roofs and the streets with their gatling at the ready. Sunflowers were either rooted or tending to heal flowers they had nearby. Chompers were at the very front or hiding behind houses and fences. Cacti were in the back of them all—some of which had garlic drones deployed and floating in the sky.
Even though there were a lot of plants together, Saidy did not hear anything besides the alarm that continued going off for the next five minutes.
When the loud alarm did finish, the young blue sunflower swore she could feel an earthquake. A couple hundred feet away from the plant front line was the imposing zombie army—led by forty gargantuan-sized zombies holding wooden electric poles. If that wasn't scary enough, the two gargantuars leading the army had menacing red eyes.
"Rah! Rah! Rah! Rah!"
The dark healer could hear the chant of the thousand other zombies trailing behind the gargantuars despite not being able to see most of them.
"That's right, my minions!"
Saidy's attention shifted immediately to the towering mechanical monstrosity behind the army—the Zombot.
"The Z Army will conquer and destroy everything these brainless brussels sprouts hold dear!"
The shadow flower shivered at the sound of that declaration.
"Yah! Rah! Rah! Rah! Rah!"
The distance between the two armies was diminishing. Soon enough, an herbivore Saidy had only heard about through storybooks announced the final count.
"Ready!" an evolved cornstalk exclaimed through a megaphone.
Saidy saw a wave of tension as every plant looked at the approaching enemy.
"Aim!"
Every plant aimed at one of the gargantuars.
Then the moment came.
"Boogie!"
A disco zombie burst out from a sewer drain in the middle of the leafy formation on the main street and immediately started spinning around wildly with his disco ball.
Dozens of rooted peashooters were vanquished in seconds.
But it didn't stop there.
More disco zombies kept coming out from that manhole and others that made every plant that had already aimed at a gargantuar lose their concentration.
"Wahahahaha! Attack!" the one who ruled them all laughed in satisfaction.
The two red-eyed gargantuars shouted into the air before charging at the horticulture brigade. No plant had ever seen or even expected to see a gargantuar run. Before they knew it, those in the way of the giants were crushed beneath the two-ton weight as the duo rampaged towards the cacti.
Meanwhile, Saidy saw many fireworks launching into the sky—with each bursting at the very top and releasing silver-colored remnants onto the many plants on rooftops.
In actuality, the fireworks were soldier zombies who had used their rocket jump to gain height and launch ZPGs onto helpless, rooted plants huddled together.
Filled with disbelief, the blue sunflower cringed and closed her eyes at what she saw next.
The winner of the battle was decided in a mere ten seconds.
"Saidy…?"
"Uhh…" The shadow flower mumbled lightly when hearing her name. She opened her eyes ever so slowly and noticed that the small zombie in the leather jacket was sitting on the car floor right in front of her instead of the passenger seat next to D. She then saw that she was cradling his left arm with both of hers. "Tim…?"
"You okay?"
Saidy nodded her head in agreement as she let loose the two-arm hold on her friend's arm and sat up.
When the sunflower looked at the car stereo, she noticed that the time was 12:28 am. That meant that it was now Thursday, July 13th, 2017.
"How close are we?" Saidy asked as she lifted the imp up off the car floor and sat him next to her.
"Neh. Been an hour. Still have two more." The soldier informed the plant companion in the back. "Going to take first break soon. D's hands starting to get shaky."
"O-Okay."
"Heh-hah. Want to hear story, Saidy?" Timothy asked with a mischievous smile.
"Huh?" the shadow flower muttered abruptly and looked down at the imp next to her. "What kind of story…?"
"Good story. Happened two weeks ago with D and Ms. Pris."
D snickered and laughed.
"Want to hear, too. Taking break now."
Sure enough, the soldier made the car slow from its eighty mile per hour speed and parked it to the side of the road.
Saidy noticed that they were in the vast green plains with hills rolling for miles. The sight was breathtakingly peaceful with the moonlight.
"Wow…"
She then returned to the imp after the beautiful distraction.
"If you say it's good, then okay—please do tell."
"Hehehe-hahaha. Well, if you really want to know, Ms. Saidy…"
About two weeks ago, a certain red rose was hanging out with an imp and a soldier zombie in the garage of a small house. The garage was full of many technical gizmos letting loose a grand spectrum of colors in all sorts of patterns.
"Hah! Take that!" the rose scoffed at concluding a dance to a rap song the DJ challenged her in dancing to. For the visit, she sported a pair of blue ribbons tied into bows on the top sides of her head, and had a cape behind her that was decorated with purple and gold glitter in a checkerboard style.
"Brainz. You mean, Ms. Pris. You got moves and you like showing off. What kinda teacher are you?" D told the plant that Tim had brought along.
"Mmhmhmhmhmhm. An unlicensed one that likes to have fun with her students, of course." Priscilla replied with a big grin on her face. "Besides, wasn't it you that said I couldn't 'bust a move'?"
"Yeh. Never saw you dance so thought didn't know how."
In the meanwhile, Tim, the onlooker of the two, continued to drink his large brainz slushy.
"Ah-ha-ha-hm! That was your mistake! I can do anything a zombie can do!" the plant declared pompously as she closed her eyes and spun around her staff that was a black baton with plastic white endcaps.
This made the DJ upset, but he laughed evilly after some time.
"Hyeh-heh-heh-heh! Oh, yeh? Was told by Crypto's that almost no zombie can drive, but D can drive and fly jet. If you can drive D's car to the park and back with no prob, D will call you Ms. Pilot Pris."
"Hm… Driving a car…" the rose pondered for a moment. "I don't see why not. What do you want if I can't drive?"
It looked as if the soldier was surprised at the offer, but he appeared to give it some thought before answering her.
"You have to buy D a supersize brainz slushy like the one Tim has."
"A supersized one?" Priscilla turned to look at the imp so he waved at her. "Really, Timothy Prix? I thought they overcharged me!"
"Tim sorry. Always like getting big slushy and you were buying." The Z7 imp admitted with a shake of his head.
"Gh…" Ms. Priscilla sighed heavily before focusing on the DJ turning off the dance devices in the garage. "Yeah, I'll buy you a supersized slushy if I can't drive. But if I can, please don't call me 'Pilot Pris' because I have a few students that I know would make fun of me for it."
"Eh? Why? Being called pilot an honor."
"Yes, but when you have zombie students who can't talk as well as others, things are different. Ms. P is what they call me. Now, if you imagine…"
All of a sudden, the DJ zombie burst out laughing and slammed his left fist a few times on a table.
"Pff! Hahahaha! Might as well call you Ms. Piss if they call you that! Haha!"
The imp snorted like a pig and started coughing out his pink treat with insane laughter.
"Shut up!" the rose exclaimed at the interjection. "Ed made me so happy when he called me 'Pretty Priscilla' one time, but within two days, everybody at Undeadly Resurrection was laughing at me and making bathroom jokes all month long. Even Miridine and Dr. Zomboss burst out laughing when they heard about it. Ugh!"
"Hmhmhm-ha-ha-ha!" the shadow flower burst out laughing along with the two zombies around her.
"Hee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee-heh-heh-heh!" the imp giggled crazily as he collapsed onto the plant.
"Eh-heh-heh-heh! Hahahaha!" the soldier laughed as he took off his black shades and rubbed his eyes.
The three travelers all enjoyed the warm moment and let their worries slip away.
Stirring awake from another nap, Saidy gave a mouthful yawn and saw that Tim was lying asleep on her stem. Now instead of her, he was using her purse as a pillow.
"Are you still okay, D?" the shadow flower asked as she looked out the closed car window and noticed that they were driving through what appeared to be a decaying forest.
"Yeh. Driving through forest hard. Lots of turns, but also been hearing some bad news about this part."
"What kind of bad news?"
Just as she had asked, a red thread-like aura surrounded the car as the fast speed went down to a slow speed.
"Uh oh…"
"Eh…? Rose here…?" the DJ said aloud as he parked the car to the side. The aura of red lines disappeared as the DJ turned to look at the shadow flower who was looking at him. "D didn't want to fight, but fighting come to us."
Right after he announced that, a tick-tock knock came from the glass window by the driver's side. When both D and Saidy turned, they saw the smiling face of a light blue-colored rose.
The stranger waved with her empty rose hand.
Having no better option, the DJ waved back with a weak smile.
And then he rolled down the window…
"Hi. My apologies for the interruption, but do you have room in your vehicle for one more?"
A hitchhiking frost rose.
"Yeh, but teacher say to never pick up strangers—'specially with magic and in scary forest."
The frost rose with the silver tiara covered her mouth and laughed.
"I see," the icy plant said as she turned to look at the shadow flower. "Hm? Is something wrong with my face?"
"She's beautiful and she doesn't sound as conceited as Ms. Priscilla…" Saidy thought before answering her. "Ah. No. But what are you doing out here by yourself?"
"I was forsaken by a magical plant conclave. Having no place welcoming me anymore in the past, I traveled to the future to begin anew. I arrived nearby not more than an hour ago."
"Forsaken…? Abandoned by plants?!"
"If you have no problem hanging out with zombies, get in." D announced as he unlocked the passenger door and pushed it open.
"Ah!" the frost rose exclaimed excitedly as she floated to the other side of the car and entered through the open passenger door. Sitting down and using an icicle, she pulled the door to close it. "Thank you ever so much. My name is Beatrice, but feel free to call me what endears you the most."
Saidy saw that this rose had no thorns on her icy vines and sported a sapphire gem belt around her stem. She had white cuffs of fur immediately before her rose hands, a little before the end of her four vine legs, and around the collar of her majestic light blue cape. Linking her cape together was a large diamond-shaped sapphire stone and at the top of her tiara was another sapphire gem—beautifully crafted into a heart shape.
"Be-uh-trees?" D repeated and received an excited nod from the frost rose. "Good brainz. The name is D. Known as DJ soldier zombie."
The soldier motioned his right hand to the shadow flower in the back seat.
"That Saidy. She cheer flower friend."
Being introduced, the dark healer smiled and waved.
"Hi!"
"Hello!"
The DJ then pointed his right hand to the imp lying on the plant's stem.
"Zombie imp sleeping also friend. He Tim."
"Are you his caregiver, Saidy?" the frost rose asked at seeing the closeness of the two.
"Ah-ha… I guess we're like that to each other."
Meanwhile, D got the car back on the road and continued the drive.
"Where did Beatrice want to go? We're headed to Zombopolis—zombie capital—for quick visit."
"As I explained earlier, I do not have a home so I am searching for a new one. If you do not mind, can I travel along wherever you three may go until I find one?"
D shook his head left to right in denial.
"D can't. Go to parties and stuff. Some zombies all talk about vanquishing plants. Be bad if came. And Tim go to battle plants a lot so not sure if even has home, too. Always hangs out with someone else."
It was obvious to the shadow flower that the icy cold rose frowned when told this.
"I see. I am not the only one who lacks a home. That is most disappointing."
But then she smiled afterwards.
"Thank you very much for considering my safety, though. I do not regret my decision in going against the plant conclave anymore after hearing you, D."
"Eh-heh-heh. Sure." The DJ laughed in a goofy manner.
Saidy easily noticed the embarrassment and nervousness within his short laugh, but kept to herself.
"Why Beatrice go against plants?"
The dark healer had been wondering that as well.
"I saw a vision of the future. It was one that made me smile, but when I brought it to the attention of other magical plants, they told me that I was delusional and hallucinating." Beatrice explained as she gazed off to the window she was nearest to. "I attempted to make them consider the possibility of such a peaceful vision happening…"
There was a soft tap on the glass as Saidy guessed Beatrice's silver tiara must have touched the passenger window.
"But then they called me a traitor… All my devoted learning, studying, and mastering thrown away just because I saw a vision of everyone smiling…"
"Uh… That's what I'm scared of… If it happened to Beatrice, it could happen to me, too…"
"The council demanded I return to my studies and stated that I would be punished for attempting to spread blasphemous content…"
Beatrice must have dropped her icicle wand because the nocturnal sunflower heard a soft thud on the car floor in the front.
"It may sound treacherous for a plant to want everyone to be happy together in this world full of differences… But that is…"
Saidy saw the soldier reach out with his right arm to the frost rose and placed it around her collar.
"That is why I…"
Beatrice rested her head full of light blue petals on top of the storage space between the driver and passenger seat as she appeared to welcome the arm around her. She couldn't see her face, but Saidy thought the frost rose must have been crying with the sniffling jolts she could see and hear coming from her.
"You beautiful Beatrice, and you nice ice rose, too. There no prob if plants happy with zombies."
"Thank you, D."
And the two stayed together that way.
Saidy caught a glimpse of the DJ's left hand shaking on the steering wheel. With the other arm around the frost rose, she thought he must have been trying very hard to keep the car going where it needs to go.
"How many plants have joined the zombies?"
For a few minutes, Saidy gazed out the rear left window and saw rotten trees whooshing by.
"Brainz…?" the army-trained zombie muttered in confusion and made the shadow flower look forward through the front windshield.
There was a blue truck parked to the side of the road that had its lights continuously blinking.
"What is it, D?" Saidy asked with wonder as their car neared the parked one.
"Other zombies pro'lly. They have z-mergen-z lights on, though, so going to check it out."
Thus, the DJ pulled the car over to the side—directly behind the truck with blinking lights. When the car stopped, Beatrice lifted her head off the storage space and looked at the vehicle ahead of them. Saidy watched as everyone's front became colorized with red and yellow each time the rear lights of the truck blinked.
It was eerie to say the least.
"Mm'kay. D gonna check out what's up. Sorry if this take a little while, Saidy."
"No-no. You're fine. Just be careful, okay?" Saidy replied with a mix of joy and worry.
"Yeh," D agreed as he turned off the car.
"Would it be alright if I go with you?"
"Neh. Don't. Not all zombies feel same way 'bout plants. Stay here, Beatrice."
Saidy saw the frost rose lower her head, but nod.
"I understand. Do stay safe."
"Eh-heh-heh." The soldier nodded in agreement with a smile.
"He likes her. Hmhmhm."
After that, D exited the car and walked towards the driver's side of the parked blue truck. Saidy had her eyes on the soldier the whole time, but looked to the frost rose when she turned around to see her.
"Saidy?"
She easily noticed the watery tears below her eyes.
"Yes, Beatrice?"
The frost rose hesitated for some time as Saidy saw her bite her 'lip'.
"Is it strange for a plant to enjoy the company of a zombie?"
"And… she likes him."
"W-Well… Uh…"
She then remembered something Miridine had once told her when she was learning how to plant.
"Even an ugly tin can can keep a pretty flower alive."
Beatrice smiled beautifully at her response.
"Ahhh… Mmhmhm!" With a long exasperation and short giggling, the rose closed her eyes and swayed her head back and forth. "This lonely mistress of ice is in lovely paradise."
"That's right. She's looking for a home…"
"Hey, Beatrice," Saidy began as the frost rose in question opened her eyes and stopped her swaying. "Earlier you mentioned looking for a home. I have a bedroom I don't use so it wouldn't bother me at all if you want to share my home."
The icy cold perennial had her eyes wide with excitement.
"You really mean it, Saidy?!"
Smiling, the cheerleader shadow flower nodded.
"Ah! I hope we can be—!"
"Grah!"
Both girls turned to the front and saw the soldier zombie running away from two dark, leafy green plants with sharp teeth.
They were swamp chompers called chomp things and they were spraying out muck in their chase.
"What?!" the frost rose yelled. She nabbed her icicle wand off the floor, opened and exited the passenger door with it, and with a mean glare on her face, pointed it at the two fiends chasing the zombie. Saidy heard a crackling in the atmosphere as she watched a thick blue and white energy surround the wand in the rose's grasp.
That built-up energy was released along with a few smaller bursts of hard ice.
The chomp thing immediately behind D was frozen.
What Beatrice did next would make Saidy see her as an eternal ally of the zombies: The frost rose used her wand that had what looked like a mace made of ice and struck the large head of the swamp creature.
"Teh-hah!"
Unfrozen a moment later, the murky beast of a plant fell onto the dirt. It was immobilized, defeated, and vanquished all too fast.
The other chomp thing turned its attention away from the soldier zombie and spewed leafy refuse at the icy perennial close by.
"Feast on this!"
Beatrice then swung her wand with the mace at the chomper. To Saidy's astonishment, the mace end broke off and went right into the murky monster's mouth.
"Humph!" With a simple vocal command, the mace burst within the fiend's mouth and ended its plant life instantaneously.
D had been running away, but stopped and gazed at the frost rose after seeing her defeat the two plants that were hot on his trail.
"Thanks, B."
"You're welcome, D."
Seeing the warm smiling face on the rose after such quick and crude vanquishes made the shadow flower wonder how the daily lives of those constantly enwrapped in the war were.
The soldier opened the driver's door and opened the storage compartment between the two front seats. Upon closing it, Saidy saw that he had his trademarked Z1 assault blaster in his hand. Being given a closer look compared to the last time she saw it, she noticed that the ammo storage had thousands of tiny yellow rounds in contrast to the usual lot of a few dozen, large-sized rounds. She could only wonder what surprise would come out from his weapon.
"Stay here, Saidy. Zombie out there. Gonna try help him."
With that stated, the soldier exited the vehicle and closed the door. He then went behind the car and popped open the trunk. When he closed it, Saidy saw that he had his trusty ZPG equipped on his back. Fully equipped, the soldier went beside the frost rose waiting for him in front of the sedan and the two peered into the mossy woods of a swamp forest.
"Come back! We are over here!"
The shout from the icy perennial stirred the imp awake as he looked up at Saidy's face.
"Saidy? What's going on?" the imp asked as he got up, turned to the front of the car, and saw an equipped D standing next to a floating frost rose.
"We're in a forest full of rotten chompers and there's a zombie out there. D and Beatrice, the frost rose, are trying to help him."
"Heh. Then time for Tim to help, too."
The Z7 imp pulled open the rear right door and hopped out.
"Wait, Tim!" Saidy yelled as she unbuckled the purse around her stem and had it remain behind on the back seat in the car. She then hopped out root first onto the dirt ground of the putrid forest around her. "Capri has to see Tim… I can't let her down…"
"Brainz…? Okay then. We gonna help 'im out together then." D said aloud when seeing everyone in on the situation together. "Let's go, Team ZPG!"
"Team ZPG? Whatever…" the shadow flower thought as she turned to the imp and saw him smirking at her. She tried to cast her neon blue healing beams on the small zombie, but felt that she couldn't do so. "Ngh. If Tim or D get hurt, I won't be able to heal them…"
"Grooh! Brainz!"
After that yell from the unknown zombie, the group heard four chompers yelp one by one as they were vanquished by what sounded like a rapid-fire turret.
As they were making their way to the source of the noise, two chomp things came out from the left. Behind them was a group of six weeds that all looked as murky as the chompers.
"I'm on my friends' side..."
"Ee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee!"
In merely a second, one carnivorous plant had already fallen under the insane assault by the Z7 imp.
Saidy was stunned.
"Magnificent," Beatrice commented. And by the time she finished, the imp in the leather jacket had already reloaded his dual weapons. He then proceeded to shoot the other chomp thing.
Meanwhile, D pointed his Z1 assault blaster at the group of weeds and began firing. When Saidy watched, she saw that the bullets let out were normal sized instead of the tiny size she expected from the ammo clip. If that was the case, then he wouldn't need to reload for a very long while.
Three weeds were downed by the DJ's critical hits.
In that moment, Beatrice charged up blue and white energy within her icicle staff. With a sweeping motion, the frost rose then released the energy as jagged spikes of ice materialized in front of her and reached outwards to the three remaining weeds.
They were frozen, but fell immediately when the ice wore off.
A flawless victory from the zombie-plant group.
But Saidy was worried. She hoped it wouldn't happen, but Saidy imagined that the longer they stayed here, the bigger the waves of enemies would get.
In the clear, the foursome moved towards the sound of a turret continuously firing. They all saw the red sparks bursting from the contraption and saw what looked like an overweight zombie in a landscaper's outfit behind the turret's controls.
"An engineer…"
Before they could get closer, another round of swamp creatures showed up. This time there were three chomp things and nine weeds.
"Uh…"
"Give 'em a lift, Big T!" the soldier exclaimed as he pushed a button.
While D leaned forward and downwards, Tim had tossed an orange ball in the middle of the group of plants.
The orange ball was the imp's trademarked gravity grenade and it burst into a blue field that made all twelve of the swamp creatures be pulled into the center in a mash of green.
"Hehe. Boom!"
When Tim shouted, D had fired a ZPG onto the group.
Saidy gasped, turned away sharply, and closed her eyes. She knew what to expect.
There was a single powerful explosion. And then came the technical sound of something going away—which she thought might have been the gravity grenade. Following that was the sharp sound of leaves being trampled on by something heavy.
"Heh heh. Thanks, Big T. Almost beat my record."
"Hehe-haha. Yeah, just two more and would've."
Saidy reopened her eyes and looked around to see where the plants had been at. There, she saw a heaping mess of green plant parts littered with spiky white bits of teeth.
"Ehh-uuu…"
"Hm… I sense a familiar energy from these plants…"
The shadow flower turned to the frost rose and saw a worried expression on her face for once. And since Beatrice was worried, Saidy's own worry grew.
As a team, the four continued onward to the landscaper who was still on the turret. With the distance shortening and the chunky zombie pausing his rapid firing, the frost rose spoke.
"Excuse me, sire, but our traveling group is here to help you."
When she finished, the turret and the guy on top of it turned around as the device was pointed directly at the frost rose's face.
Beatrice gasped.
"Stavega!" D yelled as he jumped in front of the icy cold plant. The undead gardener turned to the DJ.
"What in brainz nation that?" the mustached stranger asked abruptly.
"Nothin'. But it got your attention to not vanquish friendly plant. Frost rose Beatrice on our side. Shadow Flow Saidy on our side, too. Just like Ms. Pris and Miridine."
"Eh. Good brainz," the engineer commented as he pushed a button on his control panel and made the turret compress into the palm of his hand.
Saidy was amazed at the technological marvel.
"Sorry. Swamp forest full of plant chompers and weeds. Name's Jim and here as Top Zombie to trim."
The two plants nodded at the introduction.
"Top Zombie? You? Hehe-haha. What really happen?" Tim questioned with disbelief and wonder.
"Daw… Nobody believe Jim, The Mean Trim…" the landscaper muttered in a disappointed voice.
The group looked sharply to the right as loud growl sounds and ecstatic cries resounded in the decaying forest.
"Jim thought only ten chompers in swamp. Vanquished maybe hundred already, brainz." He told the bunch before pointing at the green mess the four just went past.
When they looked, the green mess was dissolving into the forest dirt floor with a ghastly sound.
"She followed me…" Beatrice mumbled so lowly that the sunflower barely caught it.
Saidy turned to the frost rose and saw her appear even more worried.
"We need to go."
"What? Why, brainz? Why not help Jim trim the root of weird swamp plants?" the landscaper asked with an upset attitude.
Beatrice simply went on in her explanation.
"Those plants are reanimated husks of their former selves. While not as potent as the original, their power is in numbers…"
Piercing shrieks came out from what might have been hundreds of weeds along with the roaring malevolent laughter from dozens of chomp things.
A bitter chill went through Saidy's body. Everyone was in danger.
"Jim, that lot. We go now!" Tim yelled.
Except for the rose who levitated along, the group of five ran back towards the road.
The black sedan and blue truck were less than a minute away as nothing but a few rotten trees were in the way.
"Brainz! Everybody at Zombopolis gonna laugh at Jim for failing easy assignment!" the engineer in a gardener's outfit complained.
"Whoever sent you was greatly mistaken. The plant responsible—"
Saidy turned around when Beatrice stopped talking mid-sentence. She saw that the ice plant had fallen onto the forest floor full of shriveled leaves and lost her tiara with a heart-shaped sapphire gem as it landed at the sunflower's roots. Saidy quickly picked it up and approached the downed perennial who had the back of her icy cape smudged black.
"Where do you think you are going, Beatrice Auburn?" a shrill voice resounded in the sunflower's mind that paralyzed her with fear. "I believe you remember the consequence of betraying Mistress Virosa…"
The dark healer quickly noticed a large mound of dirt traveling directly towards the injured plant from behind.
Being familiar with Gator, the fire chomper from her gang, she knew what would happen if she didn't do something.
But just as she was about to move forward and kneel down to help, Beatrice threw her arm holding the icicle wand forward at her. The sunflower was pushed back by what felt like a super-powered fan.
As soon as her roots left the ground, Saidy saw the inevitable before her eyes as a swamp chomper burrowed out from the dirt with the frost rose in its mouth.
In mid-flight, Saidy saw another chomp thing burrow out of the spot where she had just been at.
With a rough landing to the back seat of D's car, she saw the first chomp thing close its mouth with Beatrice inside. Everything started to go black for her after a hard impact against the rear left door, but not before seeing the one arm of the frost rose sticking out flash and disappear in light blue sparkles.
"Nuuooaahh! B!"
Then everything became nothing.