Defeating The Vines

Defeating The Vines

By Mordecai J Banda



Ahab Gloucester was aware of the disaster the Vines caused, but the crash put things into perspective.



“The foliage is thick, but the Vine population there is weak.” His fellow Order members had assured,



“They’ll be no problem from them, that’s for sure.”



“No problem my aching ass.” Ahab muttered. He crawled out from under the escape pod, which had violently crashed after a vine had smacked its stabilizer fins. He was alone in the thick of an ever-hostile forest, and he only wore his thin Order garments, naked of equipment and courage. When he finally recovered from the daze, he wished he had stayed that way. Now there was the clear, scary thought: if the Vines had managed to puncture a Sub-Diety Cruiser flying at 160 meters per second at an altitude of two thousand meters, then they would have no problem at all hitting a tall, lumbering forty-four year old male.



It was a pity radios didn’t work underneath the foliage.



The forest was a mess. Ahab could barely discern a single branch before it was lost by an overhanging root or leaf. The colors of the flowers and silence of forest life strongly implied the Vine population was strong where he had crashed. Not good.



Ahab had to walk only one minute before he was attacked. Red pencil thin tendrils burst across trees and the forest floor, impaling Ahab’s shoulder. He screamed and struggled as the Vines encircled him, and Ahab closed his eyes: the armored razor barbs were next. They didn’t come. There was a deep flash of blinding light, and Ahab was in a daze, but he had experienced the effects of the Vine Stunning light enough to know that he was saved. There were more flashes, and then a mask was put over Ahab’s face. He slipped into unconsciousness.



When Ahab woke up, he gasped at the sight of the fluorescent lighting shining down on him. Electricity was rare, even amongst the Main Community, where the Order and the majority of humans gathered. The accepted word was that there were no communities left, but the contradicting proof was in front of his eyes. Ahab’s vision returned quickly, and he looked around the square hut with increasing shock. It was full of books from the time before the Meteor crashed, and even had a working fridge.



“The Fifth member of the Order, Ahab Gloucester.” A bored voice said. A man was leaning against the entrance to the hut, dressed in casual, scuffed clothes. He had numerous scars on his arms and tears on his legs. They looked fresh, obviously from Vines.

The man grinned wryly, and brought a large gun to the floor of the hut, half resting on it as he spoke to Ahab,



“So what do we owe the pleasure of your company, Mr. Gloucester?”



“Please, I hate my surname. Call me… anything else.”



“Okay, self-righteous sadistic pig.”



Ahab winced. The man continued, “Why are you here?”



“I wasn’t intending to come ‘here’. Wherever this is. I was… On a classified mission. The Vines brought down my SDC.”



The man’s bored expression sharpened after that, “Why on Earth would you fly over the vines with a ship that has radioactive engines?”



Ahab raised his eyebrows, “What?”



The man looked at him like he was dumb, “The Vines… Radiation?”

Ahab looked lost. The man leaned over the gun more and stared at Ahab,



“The story is that we are dead meat and cut off from civilization, but you’re telling me your ‘settlement’ doesn’t know the Vines are attracted to radiation as well as blood?”



Ahab frowned, “Our scientists-”

“Won’t do anything for you, that’s for sure.” Another man came in. He nodded once at the one with the gun, “Hey, Bill, I told you not to grill him yet.”

Bill shrugged, “You were busy. I was interested.”



Ahab looked lost again. The newcomer offered his hand, “Charlie Stanford. I used to fly recon missions, when your Community tried looking for survivors, two months after the meteor.”



It wasn’t ‘A.D’ anymore. It was ‘A.R’ After the damn meteor, Raam, and its insane botanic deliveries.



“I thought all entire recon squadrons… died?”



Charlie smiled bitterly, “We were all brought down, and I was lucky to crash with Bill and a couple of other recon ships. We found this settlement. Here they keep the Vines out for sure. Much better than at home.”



Ahab sighed. Charlie was right. Despite all the commands The Order was giving, the people of The Community were drastically inefficient in their attempts to curb the growth of the Vines. All of them avoided the task. Even the threat that they would stop selling safe air to those who shunned work didn’t help matters. They only got bitter and shunned it all the more, allowing the damned vines more ground against the crumbling frontier.

Some frontier it was, Ahab thought. Charlie smiled, “Come with me. You need to see something.”

Ahab rose and followed Charlie outside. Bill tagged along.



Ahab was shocked to see a thriving community, much better than at base. There was metal, glass and stone. Hard things to come by. They had even managed to dig out some buildings buried under the thick foliage. The best thing was the air. It was sweet and fresh.



“… How?”



Charlie smiled, “The people here only had one thought- survival. Gradually they became a sort of family, despite differences.”

He finally stopped next to a small satellite dish.



Beside it, joined to the satellite by wires, was a laptop.

“Sir, I think you have a call to make. There’s a proper way to beat this disaster, and it isn’t selling air and forcing people.”

Ahab made the call.



WORD COUNT: 955