(MSFE)Blood Rose

Blood Rose
By Voidmaster

Tim stood alone in an alien building. He was probably the only person for 300 kilometers in all directions. A choking vine climbed over the walls, the floors, the escalators, over elevator doors, and even through windows. It looked as if this place had been abandoned for years. It had only been 2 weeks.

2 weeks ago the human race made first contact with intelligent life. They were supposed to be 7 feet tall, slender limbed, and gray in color. Tim had never seen them, and he never wanted to. We had welcomed them; we had given them a place to live, food to eat, and water to drink. They slept, they ate, and they drank. Then they planted a flower. Just one medium sized flower, with a bright green center, surrounded by a beautiful silver coloring. Crowd’s marveled at the flower’s alien beauty. Three days after the flower was planted, it rained. The rain scared the aliens, and as soon as it ended, they jumped into their ship and took off. After 3 days it was clear why.

The flower had grown; its vines were popping up entire countries away. Its vines choked, and crushed buildings. Flowers popped up all over the walls, numbering in the thousands. The flowers gave off spores that were highly corrosive. The spores would use their corrosive properties to burrow into the skin of creatures, reach the heart, and incubate. The creature that was burrowed into wouldn’t die, but it would be in extreme pain for the duration of the incubation, which was 3 days. People who were infected, would kill themselves, attempt to rip their heart out, torture themselves just to make the pain in their chest seem less. This plague stretched across the world, throttling nation after nation in its cold, bloody grasp. People tried to run from it but the flower would spread as if it were a general conquering the world. People would run to a country, only to have that country fall to a flowery death 2 days afterward. Animals weren’t the only ones effected either.

The planet died, slowly. Every plant and crop, aside from the Flower, were choked to death. Trees, corn, even seaweed choked to death, strangled by this monster of a plant. Death was obviously inevitable at this point. Government officials abandoned their countries; people looted whatever they could get their hands on. No one was safe. Death came quickly when unwanted and life lingered when death was wished. Whoever didn’t die from the flower’s spores, either died of starvation or were shot without provocation.

“I am the last effort to save the human race.” Tim spoke aloud to himself. Tim slipped a worn vial from his ragged pocket. He started to jog at first but by the time he reached the escalators he had broken into a run. There, in the middle of a field of flowers, stood a massive flower. The massive flower shone beautifully in the sunlight, it was obviously the first one. Tim, determined, charged through the field. With each burning touch of a flower, Tim’s skin steamed and dissolved away. Tim screamed in torturous pain as he reached the flower. Tim fell to the ground, face deep in flowers. Tim held out the vial, popped out the stopper and emptied the content on the big flower. Tim’s face fell away before the vial was empty. What was left of Tim’s carcass fell to the floor steaming.
At first nothing happened. Then the giant flower gave a sickly shudder. The vines, all over the world, inflated. The giant flower shuddered again, and exploded, blood flying everywhere. Blood from every victim, every person, flowed through the building. The windows and the doors burst open as blood covered the land like a flash flood. The entire Earth shuddered as a framework that had filled it out collapsed. The Earth shook, chasms opened, canyons closed. Mountains fell down, while more mountains rose up. Oceans fell away from the shoreline, just as waves flowed over cities. Volcanoes exploded with such force, the ground for 3 miles around burst upward and fell back. Then, as soon as it had started, the Earth was quiet.

35 million years later, a flower bloomed…



Moral: All flowers have their thorns.



So, what did you think?

Wow, nice story Void. For some reason, the thought of plants taking over the world and growing unchecked has always filled me with a mild sense of revulsion. Books such as The War of the Worlds and The Day of the Triffids just terrified me with their deadly alien plants and your story chilled me.

This story was very good and took a quite unique approach to the concept of Earth change and our fragile environment. I am sure you will do well in the contest, Void. Keep up the good work.

[edit on 23/9/05 by Jeremiah25]

I did enjoy this story Void, partly because it speaks of a serious truth that happens all the time on this planet.

Some idiot brings a plant called kudzu from a far land and plants it here. There is nothing in the wild that will eat it so it grows and grows unchecked until it kills off the native plants. Thats happening all across the south right now.

Or the Zebra mussel thats choking the very life out of the great lakes.

This story is very relevent to the times we live in. The world is not just growing smaller for the humans that live in it, its also growing smaller for the plants and animals that are being sent to places where they can take over.

Good story with a very important message.

Love and light,

Wupy

Thanks guys, I'm glad you peoples liked it. Again, thanks a million!

Hi Voidmaster,

That was an increadible story! LOL, I was just thinking, I would have hi-tailed it with the aliens! I also liked how the story ends with the birth of another flower.(Although I havent figured out how I feel about the flower yet. ) The irony of Tim's valiat efforts to save the human race was probably my favorite part of your story. In some way, I actually think he saved the flower, if that makes sense. Once again great story Voidmaster! Good luck to you!