CHAPTER 69: The War's Only Just Begun
We had miraculously survived the dangers of Regent Park, but we had to tackle the sewage plant at Lakeshore. But from here to our destination was what everyone called "No Man's Land." It is called that for various reasons. One, zombies go marching there every hour, so it is very easy to get killed there. Two, the corpses of dead plants litter the area, giving it a foul stench. Three, plants who have gone trooping there don't return 85% of the time. So as we take a fire escape down to the ground, there is a growing feeling of dread crawling around our heads as we look onto the wasteland that we needed to muddle our way through in order to get to the sewage plant, which was apparently Zomboss' new base, complete with hovercrafts and all the 24/7 safety measures that a power-mad freak could ask for. As I stepped onto the sidewalk, my roots buckled and I collapsed onto the side of the road, dizzy and weak.
"Elyssia, grab on. We'll help you walk." Elias whispered.
I smiled, and grabbed onto Elias' arm.
"Don't say that I have to carry her!" Peater groaned.
"Come on, you lout! It's literally going to be 5 hours of your life! Now let her hold on to you! Now!" Elias commanded.
"Oh, my gosh!" Peater muttered under his breath as he swept me up, fireman style, and held me the same way he would hold a newborn sprout.
"Thanks!" I said sweetly.
"Don't even mention it . . ." Peater grumbled, before we set off.
The zombies attacked every half hour, and when they did, we shot our peas, and I used my magic, which pretty much . . . mowed them down. But, somewhere around seven o'clock in the evening, we heard someone yell.
"Surrender, and join us, you traitors!"
We turned around, and saw a small army of plants holding guns at the ready, so that they could kill us.
"Let me speak!" I hissed.
"No, Elyssia! You'll get yourself killed!" Peater replied sharply, tightening his grip on me.
I was quite shocked and very gladdened by his act of protection, but slightly irritated at the same time. I wriggled out of his arms and hit the ground with a thud, hoping that I could keep my balance.
"Listen, all of you! You might be benefitting from Zomboss and his deal with you . . . but it won't last for much longer! Zomboss has made promises, and seen to it that they were broken, because he cares for nobody but himself! Don't fall for his tricks! We may be creatures of self destruction, like our friends the humans. But still . . . even if we hate ourselves into extinction, that doesn't mean that we should speed up the process! Change, or suffer the consequences!" I yelled.
The Chomper leading the group knelt down and pointed his gun at me.
"Don't touch a crystal on her, or else this'll be war!" Peater warned.
I bit my lip and worried for a split second that he was going too far. So I decided to intervene.
"Don't ―"
Before I could say anything, I was shot through the chest, and then I was shot again through my head.
I awoke on some kind of cobblestone, with two blurry beings leaning over me.
"What just happened?" I asked, as I felt a cloth of some kind on the right side of my chest.
"You were shot by two of the plants in that crowd. It wasn't the Chomper at the front . . . it was a couple of plants further back." one of the blurry figures answered.
"Missed your heart by a mere ten centimetres. Think twice and listen next time." the other one added, in a voice as blunt as the surface of a hardwood table.
I rubbed my eyes, and what I was seeing sharpened . . . and there I saw my compatriots, staring at me.
"Well, what are we waiting for, the cows to come home? Sheesh, we've got Zomboss to wrangle with!" I exclaimed, jumping off the bench and walking ― or rather, limping confidently in the direction of the sewage plant, was much closer than it was when we first looked.
Suddenly, we saw a zombie shuffling towards us with something in his hand, but we couldn't make it out. Finally, when he got close enough to us, he tossed whatever was in his hand in our direction. That object proved itself to be a blood red canister, which blew up in huge, ballooning, billowing clouds of red gas.
"Hasta la vista, you little shrimps! Have fun in the afterlife!" the zombie cackled, before turning on his heel and running north.
My eyes began to sting like crazy, but Peater and Elias were not affected. My skin began to feel like it was being bitten by prickly mosquitoes, which made it hurt and itch. A lot. Red boils began to appear on my leaves and arms, and they added more excruciating pain and itchiness to my pile of aching. I then began coughing up blood and some yellowish liquid that I assumed was poison, before I began to choke. Elias and Peater looked scared as they witnessed my reaction to a gas that was potentially lethal to frozen plants like me.
"Big, deep breaths, Elyssia!" Elias instructed.
"Breathe! Come on, you can breathe, can't you?"
I shook my head and tried to speak, but I just ended up spluttering up a lot more blood. I then put my leaves around my neck to indicate that I was choking, and then I waved them around to indicate that the gas caused this. I let out a few strangled shrieks as they pain drove me half insane.
"Elyssia . . . the whole country of Canada needs you, and they need you badly! Live! Don't die!" Peater yelled.
"Just live . . . for my sake . . ."
I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to ease the dizziness that was making the pain a lot worse than it already was. But even with all of the throbbing pain and agony, I absolutely, positively did not even imagine that giving up the ghost was an option for me.
Because the battle's only truly just begun.