“Time for you to swing, daddy-o,” she said. “Let’s see you walk.” She gestured with the gun for me to get out.
I did, and got a good look around. We were in a meadow.
“These flowers… all people Hector has sprouted!?” I exclaimed. I don’t know any words for how I was feeling, but it was like a mix of seasickness, vertigo, and something in the ‘have-you-seen-my-mommy’ category.
“Hey,” Olivia rejoined sharply, “when you’re on top like my boyfriend Hector is, you make a lot of enemies.” She sounded totally unconcerned.
“You know,” I growled, “you really have bad taste in men.”
“No,” she contradicted, “I have a taste for really bad men. There’s a difference.”
“Yeah, I guess there is. Can you honestly say that you’re OK with all this,” I gestured at the meadow, “with what you’ve done to Salvador?”
“Hey, cube, if you want to blame someone for Sal, try yourself. If you hadn’t blabbed about him in my club…” Olivia shrugged. She raised her gun a little higher. “So scat, man. Time to face the music.” She jerked her free thumb over her shoulder toward the greenhouse at the top of a hill.
I guessed it was a choice of being sprouted by Olivia or by Hector. Well, why not? Lola, my crew, Alexi, Salvador… might as well add my name to the ever-growing list now that Hector had the tickets back. Four years of fighting a corrupt system, and it all comes to this. Time to put an end to my sorry existence, then, if sprouting was an end. I trudged up the hill to the greenhouse, intending to find that out. Coming to the end of the line, I opened the greenhouse doors and went in. Tables full of lush, sprouted souls were everywhere. A sprinkler system suspended over the tables misted the plants, keeping them alive. Were they memorials, or trophies?
Hector stood with his back to me. He held a flower, pulling its petals off one at a time.
“She loves me,” he said, “she loves me not…”
“Well,” I interrupted harshly, “you’re half right.”
Hector turned toward me, chuckling. “Oh, Manny! So cynical. What happened to you, Manny, that caused you to lose your sense of hope? Your love of life?”
“I died.”
Hector waited a moment before responding. “I see.” He shrugged. “I guess Domino was right. You don’t have a shred of optimism.”
“Well, when it come to shreds,” I needled, “Dom is the expert.”
“And by that same logic, Manny,” Hector said affably, “you’re about to become an expert in botany.” He turned away and began to fiddle with something on the table in front of him.
“Is this where you tell me all about your secret plan, Hector?” I asked, more to provoke him than to get answers. I knew them all already. “How you stole Double-N tickets from innocent souls, pretended to sell them, but really hoarded them all for yourself in a desperate attempt to get out of the Land of the Dead?”
“No,” he said, turning back to face me. Light glinted off the muzzle of the gun the instant before there was a flash and a crack like thunder. A hard kick knocked me back a step, pain rocketing through my chest. “This is where you writhe around in excruciating pain for about an hour because that idiot Bowlsley ran off with all the fast-acting sproutella.” I pulled the dart from the rib it had struck and fell to my knees, suddenly feeling very weak and light-headed. “This slow stuff will sprout you, but it’s going to take a long time, I’m sorry to say.”
‘Sure, you’re sorry, Hector,’ I thought, but couldn’t get the words out. I struggled back to my feet and stumbled out of the greenhouse, breaking a few panes of glass in the doors on my way through. As I staggered down the hill, I heard Hector call out, “Manny? Where are you going? You’ve got some time, you know, before you have to leaf. Get it? Leaf?” He giggled and snorted at his lame-ass pun.
I lost my balance, rolling down the hill a few feet before coming to a stop. At this point the pain began, and it was… amazing. Even the heart attack hadn’t been anything like this. I could see leaves and stems with little swelling buds pushing through the fabric of my new suit coat. Hector was right. This stuff was slow. And I felt another pain, in my side, separate from the sprouting. I was sort of lying on my left, and in the left coat pocket was Toto’s canister of liquid nitrogen. I flopped over on my back and got the canister out. I tugged open my coat, tearing vegetation in the process. That hurt even worse than just merely sprouting. I could actually feel the damage I was doing to the plants. I braced myself for even more pain and got my shirt open. I nearly passed out. Half blind from agony, I unscrewed the lid and emptied the canister over my chest.
At this point I did the smart thing and blacked out.
Blue Hector
When I came to, my chest was numb. The vegetation in my chest was still limed with frost, so I must’ve been out for only a few seconds. I tore out the brittle plants, feeling nothing. I got out my pocket knife and started whittling on the rib the dart had hit. I kept digging and scraping until all the green-tinged bone and marrow was gone.
That done, I fell back in the flowers and grass of all the sprouted souls under me and breathed, “Gracias, Toto Santos.” After lying there another couple of minutes, I got unsteadily to my feet. I felt a little weak, but I was OK. I wasn’t sure yet if that was a good thing. I went the rest of the way down the hill toward the car. Maybe I could jump Olivia. Or maybe I’d just get sprouted again.
When I got to the car, I saw Olivia kneeling behind it, digging through the case of Double-N tickets. “Come on, shake it for me, baby,” I heard her say. “One of you must be mine…”
I shook my head sadly.
Since Olivia was distracted, I got into the car to look for my gun. Or any gun.
“Manuel,” Salvador said.
“Sal?” I asked quietly.
“Olivia has your gun. There is ammo in the trunk of this car, but she has the key to that as well.”
“Right,” I said. Maybe I would have to jump her, after all. Not a happy thought. She was small, but built like a steel spring, and I was weak as a newborn.
“And, Manuel, tell Eva that I know she will guide the Alliance wisely when I am gone. For when I bite this explosive tooth, the deadly cloud will sprout not just my target, but me as well.”
“Your… target?” I asked.
“Hey!” Olivia snapped, now standing behind me. “Get out of there!” She nudged me in the back with what I assumed was her gun.
“Farewell, my friend!” Salvador said as I backed out of the car.
When I was all the way out, Olivia went in, keeping her gun trained on me. “What were you talking about with the ‘head’ of the LSA in there?” She picked up Salvador’s skull with her free hand and scooted back out of the car herself. “Huh, Sal?” she mocked, giving him a shake. “Got something you want to share with the class?”
“Only this,” Salvador said. “¡Viva la Revolución!” He bit down hard on nothing but his own teeth. There was a pop, and a green mist erupted from his jaws.