CHAPTER 17: A Visitor

I woke up, only to find Peater sleeping soundly in his chair, his head next to mine. As I rubbed my eyes, I checked the time. It was six in the evening.

"Peater, wake up! It's dinnertime!" I exclaimed, giving him a tiny nudge.

Peater groaned as he woke up.

"Can't believe I fell asleep . . ." he muttered.

"Come on! We're gonna have nothing to eat, and we're gonna die of hunger!" I shouted.

"Fine! Fine! I'm getting up . . ." Peater mumbled as he rubbed his eyes.

Not wanting to waste any more time, I ran out of the infirmary and I went into the canteen.

"Elyssia, are you fine?" Ash asked as soon as he had seen me exit the infirmary for lunch.

"Yeah, I'm fine, and I'd feel even better if you didn't insist on bothering me!" I muttered as I grabbed a bowl of soup and sat down at the huge table that consisted of several smaller ones.

"How is asking if you're fine bothering you?" Ash asked.

"You're always asking me if I'm fine at least four times a day, you're always trying to hang around me . . . have you got something to say on that?" I quipped.

Ash growled. "Hey! You don't have to be so damn rude!"

I calmly ate a spoonful of my soup.

"Oh! Says the peashooter who's getting on my nerves!"

Ash rolled his eyes.
"Why are you acting so cagey around me?" he asked. "I thought we had made up! Don't tell me that you're suspicious of me again!"

I could only sigh.

"Well, I have good reason to be suspicious! You laughed when I was dying from inhaling a noxious gas in my dream!" I exclaimed.

"A silly, unimportant dream!" Ash scoffed.

"Oh, hell yeah! A silly unimportant dream that could become reality!" I retorted.

"And since when did dreams start spilling out into the real world?" Ash asked, while breathing his hot breath onto the top of my stem.

"It's happened once! I dreamed that I'd lose my siblings, and it came true a week later!" I answered.

"And could you not breathe on me? It's rude and annoying!"

"Is everything all right over here?" Annika asked as she came over to Ash and I.

"Annika, do me a huge favour and get this blabbing idiot away from me." I hissed.

"Ash, why don't you . . . you know . . . take a breather, and give Elsi a break?" Annika suggested.

Ash shot me a look full of scorn and hurt as he walked away to talk to a Chomper.

"What a way to spend dinner . . ." I muttered.

"Elyssia, what happened?" Peater asked as he came over to me, a bowl of soup in one leaf.

"Oh . . . just a little disagreement . . . nothing big . . . nothing of importance . . ." I mumbled.

Just then, I could hear a mechanical whirring coming from above the roof.

"What on earth could that be?" I asked through a mouthful of food.

"It just might be zombies . . ." Peater replied as he ran out of the canteen.

"Come on, Annika. We need you to heal us in case we get hurt." I whispered.

"B-but what if I die?" Annika asked. I could only sigh.

"Get out there, Annika. You can do this."

And with that, we were out the doors of the canteen, and out the doors of the base altogether.

"I see a flying van . . ." Peater mumbled.

"Must be your . . ." I trailed off as soon as Peater pointed out a van, up in the sky, that was indeed flying.

"Ummm, Peater? That van isn't actually flying . . . in my eyes, it's falling!" I gasped.

And surely enough, it was falling down. It just kept on falling . . .

And falling . . .

And falling . . .

. . . Until the driver had apparently managed to get it into the right position to land safely.

"Oh, thank God! If we had to deal with a dead person . . ."

Annika trailed off and shuddered.

"I don't think that's a zombie. Zombies tend to drive around in blimps!" I said.

And surely, I heard a human voice groan from inside the vehicle.

"Where am I?"

We ran over to the vehicle, and we saw a human. He had a saucepan on his head, because that was apparently his idea of a hat. The guy saw us plants, and flung open the door of the van.

"You guys in the resistance?" he asked.

"Uhh . . . yeah . . ." I answered shyly.

"The name's Crazy Dave, but you can just call me Dave. Please." the guy greeted us, shaking each of our leaves.

"So . . . who are you?" Peater asked.

"In Barrie, I coordinated the resistance. Damn, I was such an amazing leader..." Dave answered.

"So . . . why did you move to Toronto?" I inquired.

"I was on my way to Stratford because even with my killer leadership, things in the Barrie have . . . have . . ."

Crazy Dave's voice trailed off as his eyes clouded over.

"What happened in Barrie? Something bad?" Annika asked.

"I hate to say it, but . . ."

Crazy Dave's voice trailed off yet again, as if he'd rather not voice his thoughts aloud.

"Oh, for the love of God! Don't beat about the bush! Don't shilly-shally! Tell us the truth! We don't have any family in Barrie, so we won't be devastated!" Peater exclaimed, glancing at Annika and I to make sure that he was telling the truth. Crazy Dave, apparently heartened by those words just uttered by the boy-plant, just heaved a sigh and wiped sweat from his brow.

"Things have fallen over there. My homestead's probably in ruins, and all I could salvage were a few odds and ends." he whispered.

"Where did you say I was again?"

"Umm . . . Toronto, Ontario!" Annika answered.

"OH JESUS! I'M LOST! I'M . . . I'M . . ." Crazy Dave was at a loss for words.

"You're not lost! You're this famous Crazy Dave that we've been hearing about, and we'd be happy to have you stay in our base!" I reassured him.

The man looked relieved, although his eyes looked as if they could see the horrid things happening in Barrie.

"Dave, tell me. Just what happened in Barrie? Like, how did everything . . . fall down?" I asked.

"God knows. There was a huge flash, and next thing I knew, the whole city looked like a rerun of the War of 1812. I knew it was zombies, and I told my plants to escape on the nearest ship to Pier 21 to come here. To Canada. Everything was a mess, and . . . it was terrible." Dave answered.

"I'm sorry to hear that. Say, why don't you talk to Ash? Let's see what he has to say about you staying here." I suggested.

"Oh, and how rude of me! What are your names?" Crazy Dave asked.

"I'm Elyssia, the Sunflower is Annika, and the guy to my left is Peater." I answered.

"Well, I should just let you spend your free time and stuff like that. So, just run along, m'dears." Dave mumbled.

We were amazed at what Dave had brought to the base. The unused greenhouse was turned into a recreational area, thanks to Crazy Dave's little knickknacks of home. The greenhouse had the sprout for a Tree of Wisdom growing.

"Now . . . who would like to do the christening?" Crazy Dave asked as Annika and I explored the new garden.

"Christening of what?" Annika asked through a mouthful of berries.

"I can see that you have a pallet for berries!" I giggled.

"Annika, you must realize that having too many of those berries is bad for you. So I recommend that you stop, or else you'll feel sick!" Dave warned.

"All right. About the christening. We'll christen our little Tree of Wisdom. Now, you're probably thinking, "what the hell is he talking about?" Well, according to one of Gramps' old stories, when you christen it, you make it grow right into the big wise beauty that it's supposed to be. And I've seen it happen with these two suckers." Crazy Dave explained, pointing to his eyes.

"And then the process of christening. You need at least three people or plants gathered around the sprout. They need to be friends, or at least get along well with one another. We basically have t think about three good wishes that you want for the tree, and it will grow, just like that."

"But h-how . . . ACHOO!"

Before I could finish asking my question, I had sneezed. Hard. And with that sneeze, I had conjured a jet of ice. Only this jet wasn't just pure blue ― it had green and yellow interspersed in it. The jet had hit the sprout, and it grew instantly into a huge tree. I gasped, and looked down at my leaves in wonder.

"Elyssia, did you just do that?" Dave asked. I nodded, still somewhat locked in the trance of awe.

"Elyssia! You're . . . you're a miracle worker! I swear, you're a miracle worker!" Annika exclaimed, dancing around me.

"St. Elyssia! St. Elyssia!" she cried.

"Hold on! What does this have to do with canonization?" I asked.

"What did I miss? Last I heard, Elyssia was some kind of miracle worker. . ." Peater mumbled as he stumbled right into the greenhouse.

"Wait a minute! Why do you look as if you had taken on a beating from a football zombie?" I asked, my voice full of concern.

"Something I ate . . ." Peater answered as he stifled a yawn.

"In any case, I heard that you were a miracle worker, Elyssia. So . . . what's the deal with that?" he asked.

"She grew that tree just by sending a jet of ice at the sprout!" Annika answered.

At those words, Peater snapped out of his trance of laziness.

"Well, well, well. Guess we should start calling you Miracle Girl!" he teased.

At those words, Crazy Dave started laughing. Then Peater and Annika joined in the laughter. Finally, the laughter had come surging through me, and I couldn't help but start giggling along with the others.

"Wanna see something special?" Ash asked me as I roamed around the barren Yonge Street.

"What is it?" I asked. Instead of an answer, Ash kicked aside a garbage bin and revealed a tunnel.

"Follow me." he said, and we had crawled in.

A million decades later, we had arrived at what looked like the ACC, only it was filled with mechanical stuff and lab tables with bubbling chemicals in beakers.

"Welcome to the heart of our base, Elyssia. This is where we keep the drugs for experiments, the electricity generators . . ."

Ash trailed off as he looked around.

"I feel . . . honoured. I mean, I'm just a stranger, and you're showing me this?" I whispered.

"You're not a stranger, Elyssia. You're . . . something special." Ash replied.

At that moment, he and I leaned in and kissed. I pulled him even closer and there we stayed. Finally, we broke away,

"Now that kiss was something special!" I giggled as we headed back to the base, leaf in leaf.