The Halloweed
by SilverTurtle
*****'*****
Three weeks before Halloween and the students aboard the S.S. Tipton were in a special class with a guest lecturer, the renowned scientist Dr. Drew Lipsky. Dr. Lipsky was teaching a unit on botany for the class while he traveled to various locations to lecture in a series of scientific conferences. Today he had announced the beginning of a special project.
"All right class, now that we all know the basics we can start having some fun," he paused walking around the room to chuckle to himself with his fingers steepled before him, "You're going to be split into pairs and given a variety of plant genetic samples. With these samples I want your teams to breed new plants-"
"Dr. Lipsky," Cody Martin interrupted, "While I would not have a problem creating a plant from these samples don't you think those methods are a little advanced for most of the class?"
Dr. Lipsky turned cold eyes on the young man and made a distasteful noise in the back of his throat. "Normally, you'd be right Mr. Martin," he replied in his nasally voice while running a gloved hand over his long ponytailed black hair. He turned his eyes away and addressed the rest of the class, "However, in the samples box I'll be handing out after I've assigned your partners you will find a special maturation chamber, of my own design, and additional instructions for the breeding process which should enable even the most inept of you," he gave Woody and Zack long considering looks at those words and continued, "to complete the project successfully within the next three weeks."
He returned to the front of the class and lifted a clipboard from the desk, "As to your partners…" he trailed off as he mused and cast his eyes over the class. Obviously coming to some decision he began listing his choices: London and Maya, Cody and Addison, Zack and Bailey, Becky and Woody.
After making some marks on his clipboard Dr. Lipsky instructed them all to move their desks so they sat with their project partners. When that was done he lifted a box from its place among many beside the wall and placed it on Cody's desk. He repeated this until each team had a box between them and there were no more remaining against the wall. "Once you and your partner decide which plants to cross and begin the maturation process I want you to keep detailed logs of the progress of your plants. This is as much a practical test of what you've learned from me as it is a beta test for my maturation chambers so be very careful about your documentation. You may spend the rest of the period discussing the project with your partner. These will be kept in the classroom to prevent any unsportsmanlike project tampering," he gave Zack another look and sat behind his desk. "Oh, and before I forget, this is a competition. Whoever makes the most viable and hardy plant will win a free dinner on me at the best restaurant on this ship, present their creation to the world's top scientists at this year's Innovative Scientific Creation and Adaptation Conference in Italy, and receive international publication in TIME magazine." He knew most of the furor caused by that statement was over the meal, but he also knew that whoever won would give his maturation chamber project an excellent boost in the eyes of the scientific community so he would forgive them their excitement over good breadsticks.
***'***
Cody eagerly opened the box to get his first look at the maturation chamber which would allow mere teenagers to breed plants from genetic samples into full growth in two weeks. "Oh my," he said excitedly as he lifted a large cylinder, two feet tall and one foot wide, from the box. The tube was clear, obviously to show what grew within, but the base and lid were rife with tubes, wires, and glowing lights all smoothed into a sleek pattern. There was a packet inside, a mixture to create the gel in which the plant samples would be combined and allow the plant to form without soil or seed. It was a work of beauty. A scientific triumph if it actually worked; Cody had his doubts about Dr. Lipsky's talents, but he was eager to try this out. And it was an excellent opportunity to show Bailey what she was missing and best Zack at the same time, win-win for Cody.
Addison, meanwhile, had started leafing through the trays of genetic samples to see what was available. Her mind was on her sometime boyfriend Woody working with his ex-girlfriend Becky, she couldn't let them win or Woody's affections may stray back to his ex and that was something Addison could not allow to happen. "We've got to win this thing," Addison declared catching Cody's eye.
He held her gaze steadily, then grinned, "Don't worry. We will." He too began sorting through the samples and they began an earnest discussion about the type of plant they would create.
***'***
While Cody was busy admiring the maturation chamber Zack was busy being smug about having the farm girl as his partner. Bailey had proven with a previous project that she had quite the green thumb having created a fertilizer that allowed her to grow mature stalks of corn in her room, which meant Zack would coast through this assignment. He crossed his arms behind his head and leaned back on two legs of his chair grinning. Bailey, after examining the contents of the box, looked at Zack and rolled her eyes. "I'm not going to let you foist all the work on me, you know," she said.
Zack looked up at her still grinning, "And I'm not going to touch any of that sciencey stuff. It might give me nerd germs."
Bailey crossed her arms over her chest and glared at Zack, "If you don't do anything for this project then I won't either."
Zack furrowed his brow and frowned, "But if you don't we'll fail," he grinned again thinking he'd found the ticket to a free ride, "You'll get an 'F' and ruin your GPA."
Bailey smirked at him and leaned back in her own chair, "Failing one project will only drop my GPA a fraction, not enough to really matter with all the extra credit I've done. Whereas acing this project would raise your grade an entire letter, giving you a passing grade in the class and put you that much closer to never having to take another class again."
Zack thought about this. Passing this class would mean he could graduate and never go near a schoolbook again. "All I would have to do is my fair share, right?"
"Half the project," Bailey returned, "Even distribution of work."
He sucked his teeth and clucked his tongue, "Alright. I'll do it. Let's make a plant."
***'***
Maya sorted through the content of her and London's box pulling out the trays of samples and glancing them over. "So, what kind of plant do you want to make, London?" She asked while pulling out the last few trays.
London, who was filing her nails, set her emery board aside and propped her head on fisted hands. She shrugged, "Something pretty. With big colorful flowers. I like flowers."
Maya smiled, "I do, too. I think we can put something together with what we've got here. You like roses, right?"
London nodded and suddenly seemed a lot more interested in the project, "Hey, what are those flowers that grow a lot on one stem, like a whole ball of flowers?"
Maya tilted her head and thought a moment, she didn't know a whole lot about flowers but she stopped by florists sometimes and looked around, "Hydrangeas?"
The heiress shook her head, "No. Smaller. Spikier. Tiny little flowers in a ball. I want to see if we can make a ball of tiny little roses like that."
"I have no idea what kind of flower you're talking about, London," Maya shifted and handed London a tray of samples, "But we can look through these and see if it's here. There are little pictures with each sample, maybe we'll find yours."
"I hope so," London enthused, "I want to make a whole bouquet of roses on one stem!"
***'***
Woody looked despondently at his glaring project partner and the untouched box between them.
"So," he began awkwardly, "We're project partners. That's fun, don't you think?"
Becky continued to glare, "Not really."
"Hurtful," Woody murmured but set his shoulders straight and prepared to be the bigger person, "Look, I know we didn't end on the best terms but can't we still be friends? Or at least on speaking terms so we can get through this assignment?"
Becky still glared, but the mulish set of her jaw softened, "Fine. But only because I don't want to fail."
Woody sighed, nodded, and opened the box, "Good enough."
***'***
Each pair decided that day what plants to mix and match to create their hardy hybrids, but each kept that knowledge from the other teams.
At first the plants started as benign, harmless things.
London and Maya mixed together roses and globe thistles in the hopes of creating globe roses so London could have an entire bouquet from one stem; not a revolutionary idea, but cute and romantic. They weren't in it to win, they were just having fun. One week in it was clear their creation, a slowly flowering stem suspended in clear gel was at least viable as a plant, though they weren't certain it would flower as they hoped it would.
Woody and Becky mixed a creeping vine with daisies, Becky's favorite flower. The idea was that they would have a rope of daisies which would be much easier to use as a crown than making a daisy chain. In their gel a vine coiled with buds all over it. They wouldn't know until the buds opened whether it would be daisies or just the small flowers the vine generally sprouted on its own.
Bailey had wanted to do something a little more humanitarian for her project and decided she and Zack should make a hardy grain plant with prolific growth rates to help ease world hunger. Zack just wanted to ace the project so he let Bailey take the lead in choosing what would be combined and decided he'd just help with the documentation. Bailey chose to use wheat, a grain grass able to grow worldwide, and mixed it with bamboo, another grass with an incredible growth rate. The hope was to breed a plant which could be grown anywhere and at such a rate that it could constantly be harvested. At a week their stem of grass looked like fuzzy bamboo with tiny wisps of hulls (where the grain was enclosed) dangled from each join in the plant.
Cody and Addison wanted to make an aquatic plant that would feed off algae which could be used in ponds, pools, lakes, and fish farms to keep the water clean and devour nuisance bugs such a mosquitoes and horseflies. Cody had outlined a plan which would combine the waterwheel plant, the Venus flytrap, and the water lily. As they'd been adding the gene samples to the maturation chamber Addison, who was drinking one of London's energy drink concoctions and handling a blackberry vine sample, looked over to see Woody and Becky laughing and had reflexively closed her fist making some of her drink splash into the gel and cracking the sample sending it drifting into the chamber without either Addison or Cody noticing. As a result, at one week old, their plant was much larger and fiercer looking than they'd anticipated. It had already formed mature flytrap leaves and had sprouted flowers at the top and neither of them was certain where the thorns had come from.
***'***
Their plants continued to grow at astonishing rates for the week they remained in the maturation chamber. At the end of the second week, to test the viability of the plants, they were removed from the chamber and potted.
London and Maya's globe roses grew exactly as planned. Tiny roses formed a perfect sphere at the end of each long stem, and there were a great deal of stems splitting from the original body of the plant. The girls were thrilled with their success and hoped that their plant would survive the transplant process and thrive in a real pot of soil.
Woody and Becky's vine had bloomed and showed off its open daisies for three days before the flowers dropped away and new vines grew from the places the flowers had been and began budding themselves. Excited at their success and eager to see if their vine would do well in real dirt they transplanted it into a pot with a trellis curling the vines around the sturdy sticks and hoping the plant continued to grow.
Bailey and Zack, because of the extremely fast growth of their bamboo-wheat hybrid, had removed their plant from the maturation chamber several days previous when it had grown too tall to fit. It grew even better in real soil than it had in the chamber and the two of them spent quite a lot of time trimming it back and harvesting the hulls of wheat. They had so many hulls that Bailey had made Zack grind the grain so she could use it to bake a loaf of bread to test if the wheat was as flavorful as non-hybrid breeds, which had turned out to be a successful experiment.
Cody and Addison, when the time came to transplant, were afraid to touch their creation. It had teeth and thorns everywhere and seemed to follow any movement of their hands with one of its flytrap mouths. But, wearing gloves and goggles, they moved their plant from the maturation chamber into a tank half-full of water with soil and rocks coating several inches of the bottom for the plant to root in. Its thorny vies curled over the edges of the tank as it rested, almost sleepily, in the water. They watched wide-eyed as the trap closed swiftly on a curious fly and twitched its vines with a satisfied rustle.
"Dude," Zack exclaimed looking over his brother's shoulder, "You've created a monster!"
Cody gulped nervously, knowing his brother was right but unwilling to admit any failing he replied, "Don't be foolish Zack. This plant is a triumph of botany and will be of immeasurable benefit to-"
"Stuff it, Codes," Zack stopped his discomfited brother, "That thing is a monster. It looks like something out of my Captain Jim-bob Sherwood comics. An alien plant. A carnivorous alien plant!" Suddenly Zack laughed, "Just like on planet 97833-R in issue number 159 'The Green Thumb' where Jim-Bob, even though it's against his personal policy, had to create an herbicide to kill the plant or lose his girlfriend to its people eating clutches."
There was a long pause as the whole class stared at Zack.
"What?" he said looking around, "It's a comic! He has lasers!" In an aside to Woody he whispered, "And the chick is HOT!"
"I didn't know you knew what an herbicide was," Maya said looking a little charmed.
Zack puffed out his chest and grinned, "I am a man of many skills."
Before anyone could be too impressed Cody broke in, "He didn't know until he read that comic and asked me what it was."
The class laughed lightly while Zack deflated and shook his head, "Dude, not cool."
"Seriously though guys," Bailey said, "That plant is the scariest thing I've ever seen, and I've seen my Uncle Abner after some moonshine and a dip in the chum bucket streaking through Cousin Clem's alligator farm. Even the gators wouldn't take a snap at him."
There was another round of staring, this time with Bailey at its center.
"What?" Bailey put a hand on her hip and pointed at her classmates with the other, "Like none of you have embarrassing relatives."
"I must admit," Dr. Lipsky stated looking over each project, "The maturation chambers did even better than I had anticipated. And your creativity in combining plants has been inspiring, class. Though I'm at a loss as to what benefit a daisy vine and the carnivorous plant might be. One last week to see if the plants are viable in real soil, and then we'll see who made the best plant."
***'***
Over the third week each plant grew like weeds. Not surprising since each had a bit of weed in it.
London and Maya carefully tended their globe roses, watching with joy and excitement as new buds appeared and bloomed. They'd each cut a globe from the main stalk and carried it around the ship getting a lot of attention from passengers. Maya had dried her globe and pressed London's for her as a keepsake.
Woody and Becky's vines had multiplied and overgrown their trellis pot within two days. They were unsure of how to tame it so Becky just started braiding the vines together. Eventually she had them braided so thoroughly that they started to grow out in the braids, twining themselves together without her guiding hand.
Bailey and Zack's grew the fastest, but they kept it trimmed to a reasonable size and harvested the hulls each time they cut it back. The chefs on the ship had begun to use what Bailey and Zack harvested from the plant to make the ship's dinner rolls, they had never received so many compliments on their meals.
While Bailey and Zack's grew the fastest, Cody and Addison's grew the largest. By the time the last week was out their flytrap was easily twice the size of a grown man with thorny vines stretching out. It was so large they'd had to move it out of the classroom and onto the sky deck where it became a curiosity and a draw for tourists. They'd begun feeding it raw steaks just to make sure the traps stayed closed. They'd already lost Bucky the rat to its gaping maw and were unwilling to take the chance on letting it get a hold of anything else. They'd tried, once, to cut it down to a more manageable size, but its vines resisted the cut and had seized the hedge clippers and gouged deep scratches into their arms. After that they felt it was best to leave it be. At least out on the sky deck they might have a chance to dump it into the salt water if it got to be too much of a problem, hopefully the water would kill it as it was bred to be a fresh water plant.
Dr. Lipsky went over the team reports on their plants. Each team had passed the assignment as they'd all successfully grown a hybrid plant, but he still had to decide who had created the best plant and would win the dinner.
"As you all know, everyone receives a passing grade for this project. But only one team will receive the prize of a gourmet dinner and international acclaim." He turned a winning smile on his eager students, "Each team created a very unique plant. London and Maya grew a full bouquet a stem. Woody and Becky created a daisy vine. Bailey and Zack may have just found the solution to world hunger with their bamboo-wheat. And Cody and Addison made…well, they have certainly provided fodder for science fiction novels." He paused while the class chuckled and ribbed Cody and Addison a little. "You each successfully created a brand new plant, and for that you are to be congratulated. But only two of those plants may have an impact on the world at large. The globe roses have the potential to revolutionize romantic celebrations the world over, while the bamboo-wheat could end world hunger. As a scientist I must fall on the side of the plant which represents the greatest contribution to the scientific community, which means that the team of Bailey and Zack and their bamboo-wheat are the winners of this competition. Congratulations."
The class clapped politely while Zack hooted and danced around the room and Bailey patted their plant fondly. The rest were disappointed, but satisfied with the plants they'd created.
All except Cody and Addison.
"We did create a monster, didn't we?" Addison asked Cody.
"Yeah," Cody said softly, "And we should probably get rid of it before it becomes a nuisance."
Addison nodded her head in agreement.
Neither of them saw the thorny tendril hanging in the corner of the classroom retreat through a crack in the wall.
***'***
Two days later, Halloween Sunday, Bailey and Zack stood in front of the doors of the best restaurant on the S.S. Tipton in the late evening waiting for Dr. Lipsky to show up. They made small talk and actually got pretty involved in a conversation about wilderness survival, so involved that when next they looked at a clock an hour had passed and their teacher was a no-show.
"That's odd," Bailey said, "He's usually very punctual."
"Should we go see what's holding him up?" Zack offered.
"I think so," Bailey agreed.
The two headed towards the guest quarters where Dr. Lipsky had a suite. They turned to go down the hall his room was in and were brought up short by a thick wall of thorny vines.
"What the heck?" Zack poked at the vines but hastily retreated when the one he'd poked swiped back at him.
Bailey watched this with a surprised "Horsefeathers!" dropping from her lips. "What is going on here?"
Zack grabbed Bailey by the wrist and dragged her back down the hall they'd come. "I've seen this before. Remember when London, Woody, and I had to do that science project growing vines?"
Bailey nodded, "When Cody and I were looking for that sea monster, yes."
"Well," Zack continued, "That vine is behaving like the vines we grew after London's energy drink got into it. You remember us telling you guys it was like the thing had a mind of its own?" He waited for Bailey's nod before continuing, "And that looked like part of Cody and Addison's monster plant."
Bailey's eyes went wide, "Oh my goodness. Carnivorous sentient plant. Not good. We've got to stop it!"
Zack nodded grimly, "Before it hurts anyone else. If it's thinking like I think it's thinking then Dr. Lipsky was its most recent meal."
Bailey went a particularly ill shade of green and closed her eyes even as Zack kept propelling them both forward. Then she said, "We need to ask Cody and Addison what all they put into that thing."
"Right," Zack agreed and the two went dashing off to the student rooms.
***'***
Addison had just returned to the room she shared with Becky after discussing with Cody the plan to destroy their plant. She wasn't paying too much attention to her surroundings and only turned on the lights after she'd closed the door when she heard the lock turn without her having turned it.
When the bright lights came on she stared startled at the vine creeping over the door knob. "Oh no," she intoned. She slowly turned around and let out a scream of pure terror at what she saw.
The room was completely overgrown with thorny vines. One flytrap mouth pushed its way out of the bathroom door. It was closed, but a hand protruded from between its closed teeth…a hand dripping blood…a hand she recognized as Becky's by the daisy vine bracelet wrapped around the wrist.
She screamed again and turned to try and pry the door open. She ripped the vine from the knob, slicing her palm open on its thorns as she did so. She rushed to turn the lock but it was too late. The precious seconds she'd used to stare horrified at the scene of Becky's demise had given the vines a chance to reach her legs. They crawled up, piercing skin, and yanked her backwards.
She tripped face first onto the floor, breaking her nose and splitting her lip. With blood dripping from her face the plant went into a frenzy, as if it could sense it, and dragged her more quickly towards a second trap. She screamed and tried to scramble away, but the vines clung ever tighter and dug their needles more deeply into her flesh immobilizing her.
She was lifted from the floor; clear gouges in the wood paneling were the marks her nails left as she tried to struggle her way out of the murderous plant's grip. The vines lifted her higher, she dangled screaming and crying as she was pulled closer to the plant's mouth. She thrashed in mid-air, hoping to gain even a moment more of freedom, but the plant's hold on her was firm and it effortlessly lay her in the trap that was to be her tomb.
She screamed watching the light around her disappear as the teeth closed in until she was in darkness.
She screamed feeling the sides of the plant squeeze her even more tightly.
She screamed until she choked when the plant had compressed her too much to breathe.
When her door burst open and Zack and Bailey stood on the threshold they were just in time to hear the sickening squish as Addison's body was crushed within the plant's jaws. They wasted no time in hurriedly closing the door and rushing to Cody and Woody's room.
***'***
As they ran they heard people screaming and other frantic footfalls. The plant was attacking the whole ship, killing people to feed its insatiable hunger.
They burst into Cody and Woody's room and found more horror. The acrid taste of blood hung in the air.
So, too, did Woody hang.
Woody was strung up among the vines, hanging limply by the neck and obviously dead. The vines had slithered around him, their inches long thorns puncturing him all over and spilling his blood in dark pools on the floor. The fatal thorn had torn into his neck, arterial spray coated the wall and dribbled down the length of the vine.
They didn't wait to watch another trap mouth unfurl to devour its prey.
***'***
They ran out to the sky deck, the source of all this horror sat quivering in its tank. It had grown larger even in the last few hours since they'd seen it. Its original trap mouth stood grinning at them, filled with a lump they could only identify as Mr. Moseby by the monogrammed handkerchief impaled on one of its long teeth. Behind that original head was a riot of blooming flowers, the petals dropping away to reveal seed pods.
Cody stood in front of his creation, "You have to stop this!" he shouted at his plant. "It isn't right, you killing all these people!"
He paused as if listening then shouted desperately at the plant, "No! No! I didn't want that! Yes, I wanted the recognition and yes, I wanted to win, and yes, I want her back but not at this cost! Nothing is worth this many lives!"
He paused again, "What? She's-" He turned around and instantly locked eyes with Bailey. She took in the tears streaming down his face, the misery etched in every line. "Bailey," he breathed, and when he spoke again his voice took on a panicked tone, "Bailey! You have to believe I never wanted any of this to happen! I didn't! I had no idea things would get so out of control!"
"Cody?" Zack said, "What are you doing? Get away from that thing!" Zack dashed forward intent on pulling his brother to relative safety. Bailey caught the collar of his jacket just in time as a series of spear like vines shot between him and his twin.
"No!" Cody said, "He's no threat to you! Leave him alone! Leave them both alone! You want someone take me! I'm the one who created you. I'm the one who you should hate most. Take me!"
The vines quivered, their rustling covering the sound of Maya and London screeching onto the sky deck, panic clear on their faces. Maya barreled right into Zack, nearly topping them both into the solid wall of thorny vines.
"What the heck is going on?" London questioned fearfully. She clutched the plant she and Maya had created close to her chest; her knuckles were white with the effort of keeping hold of it.
Bailey answered, "Cody's talking to his plant. It's apparently sentient and intent on killing everyone on the ship. Cody is trying to convince it that he's the one it should kill since he's the one responsible for creating it. But I don't think it wants to kill Cody."
"What's that sound?" Maya asked.
Now that they were listening they could clearly hear a not quite rhythmic tapping coming from where Cody stood still trying to reason with his plant.
"It's Morse code!" Bailey and Zack shouted at the same time.
"Oh my goodness, he really is talking to a plant. His plant really is sentient. Oh my goodness." Bailey sat down hard on the deck and put a hand to her head. She was so busy with her thoughts that she didn't feel the vines curling around her waist until it was too late. They lifted her into the air before she could scream or any of her friends could help her. But the plant wasn't savaging her, it was cradling her gently and carrying her straight to the heart of the plant…to Cody.
"Bailey!" Zack, London, Maya and Cody called at the same time. Cody with relief, the others with fear.
"I'm okay!" she called out, then softer just for Cody, "I'm okay."
"Bailey," Cody sobbed, "I'm so sorry. I never meant for this to happen. I thought if I won the contest I'd get your attention again and I could win you back. It was never supposed to go like this." He moaned piteously and fell to his knees with his head in his hands.
"Cody," she shook her head. "You certainly have my attention," she said wryly as the plant deposited her next to her ex-boyfriend. She sank slowly to her knees beside him and tentatively touched his shoulder, "I know you didn't mean for this to happen. Of course you didn't. But Cody, you were never going to win me back."
He looked up at her and she read in his face all the sorrow he'd been living with, that he'd let fester and grow until creating a plant like this had seemed like a good idea, and she lost her breath for a moment to see what she'd reduced him to.
A moment that was just long enough for the plant to seize her again and rip her away from Cody. He tried to grab her, to help her, but he was too late.
She was cocooned in vines and impaled. She felt it as each and every thorn slid into her flesh, certain the plant intended her to feel it all, piercing and tearing as they wriggled along her body. She felt the heat of her blood seep down her skin in rivers, the tangy scent of it filled her nostrils as she drew breath to scream her agony. Agony that was as much physical as mental, for she knew she would never get the chance to make amends with Cody, never get to explain to him why they couldn't have been together again, and never get the chance to see either of them find the right one for them. Her screams lasted loud and long, piercing the dark night and reverberating in the bones of her friends, they only ended when a vine slithered around her neck and tore out her throat…then she was forced to suffer in silence, her lungs filling with blood and gurgling up and down her torn windpipe, slowly losing herself and feeling her world go dark around her, until she bled out and knew no more.
"No!" Cody cried, "NO! Why did you do that? We were talking! She was finally talking to me!" He listened to the frantic tapping of the plant, "What? I knew she wasn't going to take me back! I knew that! And I couldn't blame her for it! Who would want to be with a man that could create such a horrible monster?"
He collapsed into sobs and the plant curled a loving vine around his shoulders.
***'***
As Cody argued with his creation Zack, Maya and London retreated behind the drinks bar for cover.
"What are we going to do?" London moaned with tears streaming down her cheeks, "That thing killed Bailey!"
Zack fought to master his own emotions as he replied, "I don't know London. I don't know how to stop it. You saw how it reacted to being cut; I don't know how to kill it."
Maya rubbed hard at her eyes for and looked at Zack for a long moment. Suddenly her jaw dropped and an incredulous smile lit her face, "Yes, you do."
"What?" Both Zack and London asked.
"You know how to kill it Zack," Maya said, gaining steam and hope as she spoke, she grabbed his arm and shook it, "You told us how with your Captain Jim-Bob Sherwood story!"
The proverbial light bulb lit above Zack's head, "Herbicide! We have to make an herbicide!"
He looked around them at the supplies they had. All the makings of a great banan-o-rama smoothie and the supplies he used to clean up the bar. Hopefully he'd be able to make something toxic enough to kill that thing.
"Okay," he said, "I'm going to need both of you to help me. Get everything around here we could throw into a blender. We're gonna take this weed down!"
***'***
Insistent tapping intruded on Cody's grief. His plant, his child, was trying to speak with him.
"No," Cody whispered harshly, his voice rough from crying, "No. I won't listen to you anymore! I'm done! You're wrong! Bailey wasn't what you thought she was! She was sweet, and kind, and smart, and everything I could have asked for and I took her for granted! It's my fault we split up, okay? Mine. Not hers! You don't know anything about it! I broke up with her! And you killed her!"
The plant tapped the ground louder and faster.
"No! That's not what I wanted! I know what I said, but I didn't know you were listening! I didn't know you could be listening! You're a plant! I never wanted her dead! I knew we wouldn't get back together, I knew it! I just wanted another chance. It was okay that she said no! You shouldn't have killed her. You shouldn't have." He trailed off into soft sobs as he curled into the deck pressing his forehead down, his fists pounding the smooth wood with each quiet cry.
He went quiet for a time and so did the plant with its one vine still resting gently across Cody's shoulders. Cody breathed deeply, gathering his strength, his mind, and letting his emotions wash over him. He breathed as his head filled with the dual fires of rage and grief. He let out a primal scream and charged his creation with a pocketknife as his only weapon.
The plant raged back, stung by the betrayal of its creator…its father. It rattled its branches, its version of a yell, and its shook its vines making its quivering leaves sound out as a sinister hiss.
Before Cody ever reached the main body of the plant he was captured by all four limbs. The knife was twisted out of his grip, thorns digging into the back of his hand and making him cry out in pain and shock. The vines gripped him tightly, thorns grabbing at his clothes and skin with equally rough grasps, and he was pulled from the floor. The thorns bit him deeply and dug in further as he writhed in their grasp completely helpless. He hissed a vicious line of curses at the plant ignoring its Morse pleas for understanding as he struggled to free himself until he'd enraged it so much that it simply pulled him apart, tearing him in half in an instant and spilling his innards on the deck.
He didn't even have enough time to feel the pain.
***'***
The plant dropped the two halves of its creator onto the deck of the ship. Its leaves quivered, whether in rage or grief or both it was impossible to tell.
It opened its massive mouth. The hanky was still dangling from one tooth but the body of the irritating little man was gone, devoured. Now it would need a fresh meal. The plant briefly considered the halves of its creator, but discarded that idea as too disrespectful. Its creator-father might not have loved it, but it loved him even though he'd made it angry and would not do worse than it had already done to its life-giver. The corpse of its creator's former mate was also considered, but she was already drained of the blood that made humans so delicious and it wanted no part of that female inside it, tainting it as she had its creator-father. No, it would simply have to capture a fresh victim, there were plenty still aboard the ship.
The plant felt each of its smaller maws feasting on the ship's passengers, felt its long vines ripping into human flesh, and quivered with the knowledge that it had so easily taken this ship. If it reached land it could just as easily take over there, easier because it could spread into the earth and multiply faster than the humans could stop it. Thinking of the seed pods waiting at its back the plant drew them carefully down into the protection of its vines; it would save those for when the ship eventually crashed into land…nothing would stop it now. It had lost the love of its creator, if it had ever had it, and there was nothing holding it back from crushing weak humanity between its bloodthirsty jaws.
***'***
Zack was mixing his toxic concoction as quickly as he could, but it didn't feel quite deadly enough yet.
They'd dumped every cleaner they could get their hands on into this thing, and several unidentifiable things from the trash, and even what little fruit remained in storage. But it just wasn't enough. Something was missing.
"What else have we got, girls? Anything?"
Maya shook her head, "Nothing over here. You've already got all the bleach and Clorox I could find."
Zack nodded, "I've got nothing left in my section, either. London?"
London, who'd had her back to her friends, turned around with one arm dangling a filthy sock in front of her while the other plugged her nose, "Nust thz."
"Whoa," Zack flapped a hand in front of his face, "That's one of Woody's gym socks! Perfect! Drop it in!"
"Really?" Maya asked, "A sock?"
"I can't think of anything more toxic than the stench of Woody's feet, can you?"
Neither of the girls could think of anything unhealthier than Woody's filthy socks, and so London dropped the sock into the already toxic mixture. As soon as the soiled cotton made contact with the liquid the whole thing frothed. It bubbled nearly out of the bucket they'd made it in, but when it settled down they saw the mixture had turned color from the original murky brown it had become a blazing neon green…a conversion that should have been impossible to achieve.
"Alright, ladies, I think this is it."
"How are we going to get this into its mouth?" London asked.
Zack grinned, "The same way I always deliver wet surprises to unsuspecting prank victims." He pulled out an opened bag of unused water balloons and one large water gun. "Let's get filling."
They rushed to fill as many water balloons as they could make before the plant remembered they were there, stashing completed ones in easy reach on their persons. Zack filled up his water gun and hefted it in his hands. The toxic fumes of the herbicide were making his head spin, but he kept firm hold of their only hope against this deadly plant.
***'***
Just as they emptied their bucket to fill the last balloon the wall of vines parted and spread out seeking fresh prey.
Their movement revealed the horror behind it, Cody's split corpse cooling on the deck and Bailey's macabre cocoon still dripping blood. The open trap of the main plant drew all their attention and they rushed carefully forward, avoiding the swipes of searching vines.
London was the first to hurl one of their toxic water balloons into the wide open jaws of their leafy enemy. A direct hit the rubber burst with a splash upon one of the inner needles and the liquid trickled deeper into the plant. The plant shivered, its vines clacking together and making a racket. One vine reached up and scraped across the inside of the trap, obviously attempting to remove the foul liquid.
The three teens watched as the vine that made contact with the liquid withered and broke off, as did the needle which pierced the balloon and parts of the trap leaf that the liquid had spilled down.
"We don't even have to feed this stuff to it to kill it!" Zack realized, "Hurry, find its roots. If we can get this stuff into the roots the whole thing'll die!"
The three rushed the plant, tossing balloons into thick clumps of vines and destroying the plant.
Furious and panicked the plant lashed out. Its swiping vines caught London and sent her flying. She crashed into another wall of vines, but these were dead already struck by a balloon. She clawed out of the brittle branches and returned to her friends' sides, a limp the only sign of her ordeal.
They continued dodging and damaging lashing vines until they were right up against the main stalk of the plant. They tore at its base, ripping out leaves and vines and acquiring a huge collection of cuts from vicious thorns, hoping to expose the tank which held the roots.
After much cursing and pain they finally exposed one corner of the tank.
It was enough.
Zack shoved the nozzle of his water gun into the exposed corner and shot every last drop of their makeshift herbicide into that tank.
The plant froze, feeling something alien attack its roots. Then it started to shake. Then it seized violently sweeping the entire deck breaking furniture and scoring the paneling. It flailed and thrashed.
Its death throes shook everything around the teens.
Zack threw an arm over each girl and pulled them down with him, making them as small a target as possible. He kept his eyes on the whipping plant, watching as it began to wither.
The base turned an ugly brown. That brown quickly grew as the poison in the roots spread throughout the entire plant. Leaves shriveled and curled up, dropping to the deck only to be swept into the wind. Vines dried-up and became brittle, cracking off in droves and crashing to the deck. The traps he could see opened and closed in a pantomime of death cries before turning black and dropping off.
The great maw of the main stalk made an almighty boom as it sheared from the stalk and fell to the deck, denting the planks and shaking the teens right beside it.
When the rustles and scratches stopped Zack stood and helped his friends to their feet.
"We did it," Maya said, "We killed it."
"Yeah," Zack whispered, turning sad eyes to the desecrated remains of his younger brother. "Too bad it took so long."
"Zack…" Maya whispered. Her breath caught in her throat when he turned tear filled eyes on her. She felt her own eyes fill in response, "Oh Zack," she reached out and pulled him to her. They clung together as they wept.
London limped away from them and sank onto a clear patch of flooring. She pulled out her cell phone and hit number two on her speed dial, "Daddy," her subdued voice immediately had his full attention, "Daddy, I need you. There's-" her eyes filled with tears and her voice grew thick in her throat, "oh, god-the ship. Daddy, we need help. There's-There's so much blood, Daddy. And so many dead. Please, we need, we need help." Her cell phone slid out of her grasp and clattered to the deck as she brought her knees up to her chest and buried her face against them. Sobs wracked her slender frame and she wrapped her arms tight around her waist.
***'***
It was a testament to Tipton power and influence that before any of them had finished with their initial bouts of grief and shock the sounds of whirling helicopter blades reached their ears.
Three helicopters landed amongst the desiccated remains of the giant plant blowing the husks into the ocean. Three teams of Mr. Tipton's Special Forces disembarked from the helicopters and searched the ship for survivors, bringing the very few who had lived to the sky deck where a medic was wrapping London's ankle and treating her mangled hands.
Miraculously Miss Tutweiller had escaped the whole ordeal unscathed. The plant hadn't penetrated the ship deeply enough to reach her rooms in the bowels of the ship. She had only discovered the existence of the plant when Mr. Whiskers had escaped her room after finally having learned to turn a door knob and she had gone chasing after him and run directly into an already withered vine three levels above. She crawled and tore her way through the vines making her way above decks and had run into one of the Special Forces men, who had caught Mr. Whiskers. He had handed over her cat and escorted her to the sky deck.
When she saw the state of her remaining students and heard the fates of the others she steeled herself to be strong for them. Zack and Maya had each other, she could see their hands clutched tightly together as they stared out over the ocean instead of at the mess aboard the ship…she couldn't blame them for looking away. London, though, was a different matter. She was all alone now that the medic had treated her wounds and Miss Tutweiller carefully sat herself next to her shell-shocked student. She released her hold on her cat to wrap an arm around her student hoping to comfort her even a little.
London, feeling Miss Tutweiller's arm come around her, leaned heavily into her teacher and tried to fight back the tears threatening to fall. A futile battle, she realized, as the hot tears seared paths through the grime on her face to spill onto her bandaged hands. She heard Miss Tutweiller murmur "oh, sweetie," softly and felt her teacher's grip around her shoulders tighten. She let herself go and turned fully into her teacher and was immediately wrapped in a comforting and solid embrace, one she imagined a mother might give, and gave herself over to her tears.
***'***
The remains of the plant were immediately burned, every piece of it they recovered. Special firey attention was paid to the seed pods, just to ensure this monstrosity would never ever grow again.
Schematics for Dr. Lipsky's maturation chamber were found in his cabin and logged into Tipton archives. Functioning models were produced and used to aid in the growth of sensitive plants, rare medicinal plants, and useful hybrid plants worldwide. Dr. Lipsky was awarded the Scientist of the Year medal posthumously by the Innovative Scientific Creation and Adaptation Convention Committee. He was also awarded the Nobel Peace Prize posthumously for the incredible impact his maturation chamber had on the world at large.
Zack made sure the bamboo-wheat he and Bailey had bred made it out and was used to help people. Mr. Tipton was proud to fund such a humanitarian project. A cut of the profits Mr. Tipton made from raising the new wheat was sent to Bailey's family, poor consolation for the loss of their daughter but helpful nonetheless. A portion was also given over to Zack himself to use as he saw fit. He founded The Cody Martin Youth Center of the Arts and Sciences, an institution dedicated to fostering a love of both in youths.
The globe roses that Maya and London had created were also carefully bred and cultivated. They became the most popular flower for Valentine's Day and anniversaries…they were also featured in many weddings, including the wedding of Zack and Maya nearly a decade later.
Mr. Tipton, as a special favor to his devastated daughter, created a park in the heart of Boston and grew Woody and Becky's braided daisy vines and the rose globes in a special meadow at the center of the park. The park became a monument to those who lost their lives aboard the S.S. Tipton on Halloween night 2010.
Stories about that night became almost as popular as stories about the Titanic. The magnitude of the tragedy was even greater for the S.S. Tipton, but the cause was infinitely more foolish. Movies were made. Books were published. Sensational headlines appeared in newspapers and magazines every few years.
But from those who were in the heart of it, nothing was ever heard. They kept their confidences and only spoke of the incident with one another. The whole world knew it was Zack, Maya, and London who had killed that plant and prevented it from taking root anywhere, in fact they became celebrities of a sort, but the public was never told the story directly from any of the sources.
It wasn't until London Tipton was on her deathbed, nearly ninety years later, that the full story came out. She was the last survivor still alive and she felt it was time for the truth to be told.
She gathered her children, grand-children, and great-grandchildren to her side and related the whole tale beginning with two rowdy ten year old twins in the Boston Tipton Hotel and ending with her sobbing in the arms of the teacher who would become her best friend and confidant on the deck of the S.S. Tipton. When she finished she smiled the most peaceful and beautiful smile her family had ever seen and breathed her last, her spirit rising up to join those of her friends separated from her so long ago.
THE END
*****'*****
A/N: Huh. Was that what you expected from a mutant plant story? I'm a little surprised at myself. What say you, gentle readers?
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