The sunflower had her eyes closed, trying to withstand the anguish she felt as she ran through the thick trees and shrubs. It was incredibly excruciating.
Not too long ago, she and her small team which consisted of a chomper, a corn, a cactus, and herself were ambushed by a ravenous squad of camo rangers. She and her team were too slow and too oblivious to notice the moving bushes near them, the sounds of grass rustling, or the sounds of a ZPG heading their way. She was both angry and scared. They were a part of LEAF, an organization made from elite plant soldiers that were born to defeat the zombie menace and fight anything that means a threat, and her team was easily ambushed, injured, and separated from the rest of her friends.
In a way she felt she had dishonored the meaning of being a LEAF agent.
The damage has been done anyway; she had bullet holes on her stem, which leaked out her chloroplast-filled blood. Worse, the bullets would contaminate her body if she were to survive bleeding anyway. Most zombie weapons nowadays were coated in a contaminant substance, which was the same substance that caused the zombie's side in the backyard to kill the primitive and non sentient plants like the tiny grasses and flowers, transforming the land into a lifeless environment filled with pollution and the stench of death.
It was a slow and terrible death at the hands of time.
She held her stem in pain as chlorophyll, water and nutrients slipped through her petaled fingers and dripped onto the grassy earth. She panted heavily, unsure of where to go from here. The base was not too far, and if she was safe she would have immediately headed there.
That is, if she wasn't being chased by a squad of the very same zombie camo soldiers.
She didn't know what happened to the plants that she was with. They got separated from the unexpected attack. Since then she had been fearing the worst. She could only hope that none of them had been vanquished at all and that they were still in one piece. If that was true then it would lift a massive boulder of fear off her shoulders, but…
Now she just needed to run for her life.
She heard the sounds of rustling leaves and grass as well as the tearing of branches right behind her. She knew they were there, going after her and wanting to tear her apart with their weapons.
Despite the feeling of dizziness and exhaustion slowy washing upon her body and mind, she still kept up her pace. Not once had she looked back to see where the zombies going after her were, but she knew they were there.
She heard their undead and hideous laughter that came from their stinky mouths. She didn't want to admit it even in her mind that she was afraid. LEAF agents are strong and confident. Letting her guard down back there was a big mistake.
She heard the sound of a gun being loaded, and she tried to run faster in her weakened roots. She swatted away branches and leaves in her way to see forward. Soon she heard gunfire behind her along with more laughter.
"What's wrong little plant? Stop running and face us like a LEAF agent!" a rough voice from a camo ranger jeered.
The plant didn't stop, even if her roots begged for rest.
Nevertheless, the zombies continued their chase, and they found it very entertaining. She coughed roughly, making her spit out saliva and blood, though she didn't stop to wipe her mouth off of the substance. She didn't have time at all. A bullet zoomed past her face, though it knocked off one of her petals from around her head. She made a terrified whine at the close call and continued her escape.
'Need to...h-hide...' she thought, straining to think in such a dire situation.
The sunflower soon heard a whooshing sound getting closer to her.
A ZPG.
She turned her head to look behind her; the mechanical weapon was racing directly towards her, fast. Each second it came much closer than it was a second ago. The sunflower, barely having any time to react, was able to jump out of the way of the flying missile under a fallen, hollowed tree near a cliff. The ZPG soon blew up on the spot she was in. Debris and sparks flew everywhere, and the explosion launched scraps to fly out and embed themselves on any surface, including the sunflower. She made a grunt of pain from the blast damage, which further increased her fatality rate.
The zombies arrived at the site, though they didn't find the sunflower. Some even thought she blew up into pieces from the ZPG. A few laughed victorious while the rest were yet to be satisfied with the evidence. They didn't see the plant become a part of the explosion, or dodge out of the way from all the trees and leaves around them. They wouldn't be satisfied until they had an answer.
The sunflower remained quiet and still, not wanting to gain the attention of the undead. The zombies shifted their eyes around, looking for any sign that the sunflower survived or died. Eventually they deemed she was vanquished feeling tired from the day and just wanting to rest in their homes, and began to make their return to the backyard battleground.
The sunflower made sure they were very far away before she crawled out of her hiding spot. She sighed in relief, thankful she was able to live for another day.
The sunflower weakly stood up on her roots. She groaned in pain, feeling the wounds claw at her health. She took out a heal flower seed from a secret pocket she had, something all sunflowers have, which was incredibly useful. She planted the seed in the soil in front of her since she had no pots with her. Almost immediately, a small heal flower popped out. It looked around confused, until it laid its eyes on its injured planter. The heal flower closed its eyes to focus, and produced healing suns for the sunflower, since they were engineered to be healers.
The sunflower sent grateful looks at the small healing plant as the suns were absorbed into her body. However, she could feel the uncomfortable sensations of the filthy contaminated bullets still lodged in her body. Heal flowers were capable of healing physical injuries like punches, kicks, and bites from zombies. Zomboss, with his almighty intelligence, created new methods to make it more painful for plants; severely contaminated bullets which are extremely difficult for flowers to heal. LEAF is still working on how to solve that
The heal flower stopped its sun production when it saw its planter was healed enough, while the bullets hole wounds remained open due to the infection. The small plant began to revert back into its seed form, a new useful trick to preserve heal flowers as well many potted plants in dire situations. The sunflower picked up the seed and stored it in her secret pouch.
The sunflower looked, feeling okay enough to notice her surroundings despite feeling dizzy, and it was getting worse. She closed her eyes and shook her head to hopefully rid the swirling sensations in her eyes and head; it didn't work. She sighed in frustration and took a gaze at her blurry surroundings. She waddled towards a tree and placed her hand on it, using it to direct herself forward. She hoped that she was going in the right direction towards the base, but with the symptoms she was going through, she believed it wasn't even close.
How right the sunflower was, when her root slipped and tumbled down a hill.
She cried out with every thud when her body impacted the rocks down her path. She received new bruises from each one, making her bleed. Her health became even worse.
She felt as if it would go one forever until she fell into a couple of bushes, which softened her fall. She whimpered from the new injuries she had now obtained. She wanted to reach her heal flower again but she was too beaten to do so.
Her arm fell next to her, too tired and bruised to do anything. She closed her eyes face against the grass and dirt to think on what to do... unknowingly among the presence of someone. The sunflower thought she felt something touch her head, but just groaned in response. Perhaps she was just feeling things…
Her sight was still blurry from before, and she felt the infection was worse than it was. She felt different however, as if her body was high over the ground, and moving. It took her an entire minute to see through her blurry vision to understand that she was indeed moving, yet it wasn't on her own accord. She was being carried away.
"Aaah! Ahhh!" She flailed her arms meekly in a fright. She felt the being stop moving, yet the injured flower didn't stop her frightful flailing. Soon one of her arms brushed against something cold that made a small clunk sound, and it also hurt. She brought her arms close to her instantly, hoping she didn't get a new bruise.
Then she was placed on the ground. The soft grass only brought her a small amount of comfort.
She whimpered, remembering she was being carried a second ago. The sunflower heard the rustling grass right by her side. She weakly turned her head and saw a figure. She couldn't properly see who it was due to her blurry vision and that it was dark, but she could tell it was a citron from its body shape. However, that fact that it was a plant at all has truly made her day, or her night. Finally, something good is happening in her life.
"T-thank you..." the sunflower slurred, and she swore she saw the citron flinch. She slowly and carefully stood up on her roots with the support of a tree stump, trembling. She then made a noise that sounded almost like a weep.
The infection was worsening. The sunflower's roots slipped and she fell forward, which made the citron step forward and catch the ill plant. The sunflower coughed, feeling the filthy substance destroying her body. She wondered why she hadn't died yet after all this time she spent with it in her systems.
"Please... t-take me... to the base... to heal..." the sunflower wheezed weakly at the unknown citron. She pointed towards the distance, hoping it was the right direction to the Backyard. With how horrible she was feeling, it probably wasn't. Almost immediately, she was picked up by something metallic, yet it was gentle.
She felt herself moving as the wind passed through her petals. She was indeed moving. She was being carried. To sunflower smiled, knowing she was safe, and when she got all better, she would properly thank her savior.
…
Tiny little feet were pattering against the grass as the same imp from before tried to walk back to follow the agents to whatever mission they had. Whatever it was, the imp felt it was big. If he figured out their plans and told Zomboss, he might get a pretty big raise of brains. That would very much make his day!
The imp continued to go after the agents...that is, if he knew where they went. He managed to return back to the spot where he last saw them, but they weren't there anymore. The imp investigated his surroundings to see if he could get a lead.. He found none, not even tracks on the ground. He was growing tired and impatient, he was also afraid of returning to base without any form of victory against the plants to report to Zomboss.
Nevertheless, the tiny undead person continued on to find those plants.
Until he heard a twig snap.
He froze instantly. He slowly turned his head towards where he heard it. Several yards away he saw some bushes wriggling around. From the way the bushes moved, something was getting closer. The imp took cover behind a boulder, expecting the one making the movement to be some kind of wild animal, or worse, a plant soldier. He peeked out from his pathetic piece of defense, and saw an unexpected sight.
A strangely armored clad citron in pink and black walked out of the bushes, with two metal arms which stuck out from its suit. On the said extra appendages, was a sunflower. The sunflower was still alive, but to the imp the plant looked dead. The imp narrowed his eyes. This wasn't like any citron he seen; it was far too different than the others the tiny zombie learned in his school for imps. The imp thought they might be an iron citron with a different kind of armor. Or worse, they could be a variant of an iron citron. A variant of a variant. If that was the case, then Zomboss would be pissed.
Whatever they were, one thing was certain. They were a plant, and that was all the imp needed as an excuse. The imp would try to vanquish this strange citron, or capture them alive and bring the weed to Zomboss for whatever painful experiments he may do to it.
The imp smiled and took out his small pistols and shot a bullet at the citron. The projectile bounced of the plant's armor and lodged onto a tree. The citron snapped their head... body? Towards where they felt the impact. The imp ran out laughing loudly towards them and shot a stream of bullets at them. The citron then quickly tossed the sunflower's body behind some bushes to avoid her from being hit with. The imp continued to shoot until they ran out and had to reload.
That was a big mistake.
The imp felt something hard smack into his body and sent him flying across the sky. One of the citron's mechanical appendages made contact with his body and sent him flying across the sky.
"Not agaaaaaaaaaaa..." his voice echoed out as he continued to fly out over the treetops, just like what happened with Kernel Corn. He was beaten so easily a second time, and thrown a second time across the sky. He probably should have thought this through first before engaging, his special phone to summon his mech was still on cooldown. Perhaps he should have waited…
While that happened, the citron, Pulse, went back to where the sunflower was tossed and picked them up again. It was bad to throw an injured person like that but the sunflower would have gotten in the line of fire and most likely die. She could only hope the solar flora was okay after that.
The extraterrestrial was about to turn away until a whistling sound approached her. Whatever it was, she knew it wasn't anything good. She sprang away into forest foliage, and a second later an explosion blasted away right on the spot that she was just standing on. Under her visor, a horrified, frozen look stood on her face. Pulse quickly hid herself behind trees and bushes since they were her only source of cover.
It was a good thing she did, because a squad of zombies arrived in the area. Pulse quickly brought the flowery plant closer to protect her. The zombie soldiers walked around the impact site, checking for clues to determine the strange armor citron's demise, if the citron was hit.
"You think we got it?" one of the soldiers asked another.
"Im not sure, did you see any metal fly anywhere?" a second soldier asked.
"No..."
"Probbaly still alive. Even if the body did get destroyed, parts of that citron's armor should lay around here. If they didn't then it must have escaped," a third zombie answered thoughtfully.
"That armored citron was strange, right? Why pink?" the first soldier asked with a snort.
"It doesn't matter what it looked like, all that matterz is vanquishing one more weed, meaning one less soldier for the plant army, that imp didn't think things through," the third zombie responded. Indeed, the group of zombies witnessed the imp engage the plant from a distance away. Why did the imp fight the armored citron without the mech? They might never know.
"That citron was carrying something, looked like a plant, but I couldn't zee what it was..." a fourth zombie muttered as he stared at the ground. From where he was when they first spotted the citron walking around, he noticed it was carrying something using metal tendrils from the angle when he first saw it, which was new news to him.
"Anyway, let's go search the area, it should still be around here," the second zombie whispered to the others. The rest of the zombies looked at each other and nodded.
"Impz really do have the highest pitched screams," the first zombie muttered as they all examined the area around them, trying to find their target.
…
While the zombies had their conversation, Pulse was quietly sneaking away from them. She took slow, wide steps to try and get as far away from them as possible. She didn't even encounter these beings anywhere and they already want to kill her. She guessed they were going in her book of hostiles.
She kept her sneaky pace, going towards the direction of the large building in the area she was in before to get the solar flora medical help.
So far, she was succeeding.
Until she stepped on a twig, making a large snap.
The zombies turned their heads towards her direction.
Hope you enjoyed this chapter!
Again, more thanks to Schmacklar for beta reading ^^
Stay tuned for the next chapter, and for the rest to come.