Runaway Experiment: Part 8 - Destruction
"Rise and shine, Collin! Wake up!"
The booming voice of General Oscar easily broke through Collin's dream and the male collie woke up. He rubbed his eyes and then tried to focus them on the general, who was seated opposite him in the helicopter. The constant thup-thup-thup of the chopper blades had lulled Collin into taking a nap.
"Sorry, General. Are we almost there yet?" Collin asked the huge rhino, wondering how long he had been sleeping.
"Take a look for yourself." General Oscar replied, inclining his head to the windows on Collin's right.
Collin did just that and turned to look outside. It was night, with only a faint orange glow on the horizon showing that the sun had set. But down below Collin could clearly see the city of Furtropolis and its numerous street, building and vehicle lights. And what he saw he didn't like. The main roads and highways were jammed with cars as the residents fled the city. Here and there searchlights scanned the night sky, and Collin saw several military attack choppers and news helicopters as well.
He shook his head. The news that a super plant which swallowed females and males and then yiffed them to feed off their orgasms had created an unheard-of media frenzy, not to mention sparking a massive panic. Even as residents left the city in droves, General Oscar had sent in the military to set up a major quarantine ring all around the city. The media also streamed into the city for the biggest story in decades. Fortunately, the general had intervened in time to withhold the news that the plant was in fact a result of their own staff's mistakes. Oscar had been on the phone with Camry, who was among five females rescued from a mine where the plant had left its seed, and the city's mayor, who was in an uproar over the situation, especially since it was close to election month.
Collin looked back at the general, who was going over some papers with another military officer seated next to him. "Where is Camry now, sir?" He asked.
"Right now she and the four other victims are in quarantine at the base camp we set up at the mine. We're on our way there, so you can talk with her about this new super plant." Oscar replied without looking from the papers for a moment.
Collin nodded and leaned back in his seat. He was looking forward to meeting with Camry again despite what had been going on. Ever since the whole incident started it had been pretty quiet in the laboratories and he wouldn't mind hearing her voice again. The collie didn't have many friends in the labs, and Camry, Andrea and Tanzi were among those he enjoyed seeing.
The collie looked back out the window, watching the city pass under the helicopter as they headed for the mines.
The previously abandoned mines were now a hive of activity. Huge white and camouflage tents have sprung up amongst the ruined mining buildings. The white tents were interconnected with one another by large plastic tunnels, including a huge one that went directly into the mine's entrance. Everywhere were soldiers in full combat kit, along with the occasional yellow hazmat suit and white laboratory coat. A large chain-link fence had been erected to block off the only way to the site, with a single guard post on the road. Large crowds of people were gathered by the fence, along with journalists and camera crews hoping to get a story. The soldiers were keeping the crowds back, letting only military personnel and a few authorized visitors to the site.
The helicopter that carried Collin and General Oscar landed on an empty patch of ground that served as a helipad. The wheels had barely touched the ground when Oscar opened the door and climbed out. He was immediately greeted with salutes from the wolf captain in charge of the site. Collin took his laboratory suitcase and climbed out, holding on to his lab coat as the winds of the helicopter blades tugged at it. Collin joined the Oscar as he and the captain exchanged words.
"Everything secure here, captain?" Oscar asked.
"Yes, general!" The wolf replied. "We are keeping the crowds and media out. The only civvies we allow are those we can positively identify as relatives of the victims. And we've double-checked the mines for any more signs of the plant, plus we have seismic monitors keeping a watch for the target."
"Good. Where are the victims right now?"
"We have them in quarantine in that tent, sir." The wolf pointed to the biggest white tent. "We're keeping them isolated, but we do let the relatives meet them."
"Good. Has the mayor arrived yet?"
"His motorcade should arrive in a few minutes, sir,"
"Right. Once he gets here, tell him to meet me in the big tent. I'll go check on the victims."
The wolf saluted. "Yes, sir!" He then headed towards a military tent that was erected alongside a radar van.
General Oscar looked at Collin. "Come on, Collin. Let's go see them." He said, referring to the victims.
"Yes, general." The collie replied as the general strode towards the tent. Collin had to run a little to keep up with the rhino. As they went along, soldiers and scientists saluted General Oscar, who returned the gesture. At the tent entrance they showed their identity cards to the guards before being allowed in. Inside the tent, Collin could see that the giant tent had been divided into dozens of smaller "rooms" by thick plastic sheets. Each room was given over to a specific scientific team. All kinds of equipment and supplies were placed around the tent.
Collin remained behind Oscar until they came to a large truck trailer parked inside the tent. Several tents were placed against it and an isolation tunnel ran from the trailer to where the collie assumed was the mine entrance. He could see Hazmat scientists walking in that tunnel. The two of them climbed up the steps to the trailer's back, showing their identity guards to the guards again. The heavy trailer doors were then opened and General Oscar and Collin went inside.
The trailer looked much bigger on the inside than on the outside. It was divided into two halves. The first half by the trailer door had large computers on the one side and laboratory tables on the other side. The second half was again divided into two equal-sized sections. The one section contained more laboratory tables and computers, while the second section was an isolation chamber. An airlock separated those two parts. Scientists in lab coats and hazmat suits walked around doing their work.
The scientists in the first half stood up and saluted when they saw General Oscar. The rhino returned the salutes. "At ease." he said. The scientists all turned back to their save for one: a male Kodiak bear. Collin recognized him immediately as Mazlow, a military scientist whom the collie sometimes saw visiting General Oscar on occasion. Mazlow and Oscar saluted, then shook each other's paws.
"Welcome, General. I trust your flight was pleasant?" Mazlow asked, speaking with a slight Russian accent.
"It could have been, had we not have this crisis on our paws." Oscar replied. "How are operations running here?"
"We have just finished checking the mines over for more of the plant's seeds, but other than the one chamber there were no more seeds or trace of the plant. As for the females, they're recovering well. They were exhausted, but some energy drinks got them up and running again. We let their relatives come in to see them."
Collin glanced past Mazlow to the isolation chamber. Camry was inside, wearing only a hospital frock. With her was a coyote, a deer, a skunk and a rabbit, also wearing the same pale-green frocks. While some scientists in hazmat suits checked them over, the collie saw a group of civilians standing outside the isolation chamber talking to the victims. He assumed that they were the relatives. When Camry looked into his direction, Collin smiled and waved at the elven girl. She looked overjoyed when she saw him and waved back at him, gesturing for him to come to the chamber. The collie gestured back that he would be there in a few minutes.
"Well, I've brought one of my scientists who will assume command of this operation." Oscar told Mazlow. The general tapped Collin's shoulder to get his attention, then made the introductions. "This is Doctor Collin. He was an associate with some of the scientists who made the plant and has been working on the project to find a way to stop it. I'm sure you two will get along well."
Collin and Mazlow took each other's paws and shook. Collin noted that Mazlow's grip was a little too powerful, causing a bit of pain in the collie's paw. "A pleasure to meet you, comrade. Like the General said, we will get along just fine." The bear said with a smile.
"I certainly hope so, Doctor." Collin replied, also smiling. "Ummm... may I see the victims now?"
"Certainly, Collin. And please call me Mazlow." The Kodiak said, nodding his head.
"I'll leave you two to your devices here." General Oscar cut in. "Meanwhile, I'll go and meet the mayor." And with that the big rhino turned around and marched out the back of the trailer.
Mazlow took Collin up to the isolation chamber. Except for Camry, the other females were by the wall that separated them from their loved ones. The female coyote, who was closest to where Camry was standing, was talking to another male coyote and a cocker spaniel with orange and white fur. The collie could hear them clearly as he came to the airlock door. He listened to them while waiting for the door to open.
A loud hiss got Collin's attention. He turned and saw the airlock door was now unlocked. The collie opened the door and stepped into the airlock, the door closing behind him with a solid click. The next moment jets of sanitizing air were blasted at Collin, but he was used to the procedure and kept his eyes on the lights above the second door. The jets of air stopped after a few minutes, and the lights went from red to green with a beep. Collin pushed the second door open and stepped into the isolation chamber.
Camry smiled and stood up as Collin approached her. The two of them embraced for a few moments.
"Hello, Collin. I'm glad to see you." Camry said.
"Same here, Camry. It's good to see that you are none the worse for wear." Replied Collin.
The two of them let go of each other, then sat down on the chairs facing one another.
"That's the fortunate part. When the plant first swallowed me I thought that I was going to be digested. I was relieved when I found out otherwise." Camry said.
"Pleasantly, I take?" Collin asked with a smirk.
Camry stifled a giggle. "Guilty as charged." The elf became serious. "Though I'd rather not go through that again too quickly. I do like some sexual fun, but this was just plain overkill. I feel like I've been yiffed by a train. I'm glad that I and my fellow females here were freed before the plant's young got to us first."
"How are they doing? They look fine to me."
"And they are. Apart from being exhausted, all of us got out without injuries or unpleasant memories of our time in the plant. But we're all concerned about the others that the plant still has inside its body."
"Since we are on the topic, could you tell me what the plant looked like inside? I've been working on something that be able to kill it without harming the prisoners it has, but I need some more information."
Camry nodded her head. "Sure will. One thing, though."
"Yes?"
"Can I work with you on what you are developing? I feel kind of responsible for helping create this plant and getting all those folks swallowed and yiffed."
Collin smiled and nodded his head. "Sure. I think you might need to spend some time inside the chamber, but I'll come in here so that we can work together. I'll also try and have the general release you as quickly as possible. We are going to work fast. This plant's rate of evolution is simply crazy and who knows what it will do next, or who will be its next victims."
Camry nodded her head in agreement. Both the elf and the collie knew that the stakes were high and they had better do something to stop the super plant. At that point there was a tap on the chamber glass that got their attention. General Oscar was standing there, along a short, barrel-shaped pig dressed in an expensive suit. Collin assumed that it was the mayor of the city, and he didn't look the least bit happy.
"Everything okay in there, Collin?" General Oscar asked through the glass.
Collin gave the thumbs up signal to the general, who then looked at Camry.
"And how about you, Camry? Doing okay?" He asked the elf.
"Fine as can be, General." Camry replied.
"Good. I want you to work with Collin on this job. I've given you full clearance and have ordered your release from isolation." The rhino looked at Collin again. "Collin, this is Mayor Squealer." The general indicated to the pig. "He want to know that you can take down this plant."
Before Collin could open his mouth to answer, Mayor Squealer spoke out in a high-pitched voice. "I want this plant out of my city. It's almost election week and my office is being flooded with calls over this thing. Now tell me, can you kill this thing?"
"I will have to do more studying, but I think I have a way to neutralize it." Collin said.
"No, I want it dead! Not neutered or neural or whatever!" Squealer replied, looking more agitated. General Oscar stepped in at that point. "When Collin says neutralize, mayor, he means that is will be dead. I can assure you of that."
Mayor Squealer quickly turned to General Oscar. "You'd better! Do you know what the headlines are reading? Super sex plant running wild in Furtropolis! The residents are choking every road out of town and investors are also migrating south! I had calls from relatives, scared residents, even more scared investors and even from the president's staff! Hell, I've had to field calls from porn studios asking if they could have the plant!" The pig's voice rose several octaves the more he spoke and his gestures became more wild. Collin and Camry struggled to hold back their laughter as they watched the mayor.
"Calm down, mayor." General Oscar finally said when Squealer stopped to catch his breath. "We have all our military and scientific resources out here to get this plant. I assure you that the thing will be out of your city before the end of the week. All I need from you is that I be allowed to call upon your police, fire and emergency service departments if I require their assistance."
"Fine. Just get rid of this thing." Squealer agreed with a dismissive wave of his hand. He then started to head for the exit. General Oscar turned his attention back to Collin and Camry.
"You two have one week to figure out how we can stop this thing. Got it?"
"Yes, General!" Collin and Camry replied in unison.
Satisfied, General Oscar headed towards the exit as well. Collin and Camry stood up.
"I think we should get you some proper clothing and a lab coat. I need your help on getting a formula ready that I've been working on for the plant." Collin said.
"You got it, Collin." Camry replied. The two of them then walked to the door and went into the airlock.
Under the streets of Furtropolis, below the sewer pipes and subway tunnels, the plant burrowed its way through the earth. It could sense the numerous vibrations from the surface and in the tunnels. When it came to a maintenance tunnel that ran a little deeper than the others, it dug its way under it rather than go right through it. The plant did not want to give away its presence.
And right now it had reason not to be detected. After having left its seed in the mines the plant had gone back into the city to capture a few more prey to replenish its food stocks before it would go into its six month hibernation. But it found the task nearly impossible. The creatures above were all either clustered together in large groups or were hiding inside barricaded buildings. And they were all alert. Too alert. The plant could not risk bringing up its flowers to entice potential prey closer. It could barely send out its mind spiders to scout, never mind hunting, for fear of being detected. Thus it had not caught one single creature since leaving its seed.
Something had startled the creatures on the surface. Whether they knew about the plant, it could not determine. What was clear, though, is that its hunting grounds had become far too dangerous for it to continue hunting. It would have to migrate somewhere else for food. Fortunately, the plant had recently discovered a nub at one of the holes of the females that allowed it to feed off additional energies from them. But that would not last long enough unless the plant found more food or went into hibernation. Since both options were out of question here, the plant would go somewhere else, well away from its current grounds.
The plant changed direction, heading into a direction out of the city to new hunting grounds. But first it wanted to check up on its seedlings.
Collin and Camry, with the aid of Mazlow and the other scientists, immediately began their work on the formula that the collie had developed. At first they examined the remains of the beetle-like creatures that were in the labs and the silk they spun. Then they went and interviewed the four victims as well as the police officers and news crew who made the discovery of the plant. One of the officers, a female border collie named Andronia, gave the best information on what she had seen. The two news crewmembers, Wilfred and Pollux, were more interested in telling their stories of the encounter with the plant. Their stories were noted, but it was not as important as the testimony of Andronia.
Finally, after all the interviews were done and the reports were read, it was time to head into the mines. Collin, Camry and Mazlow put on their hazmat suits while the other scientists were given the task of gathering liquid samples from the beetle corpses and adding that to the formula. After going through decontamination, the trio was following the wires and pipes that snaked into the mines to the chamber where the plant was. When they got there, they found the place lit by bright flood lamps. Scientists in hazmat suits were working here, some of them around the plant, some at tables where the seeds were kept in beakers.
Collin listened to Camry as she told how she and the others were being used by the plant while he studied it up close. It had withered and died, very likely from the lack of nourishment. The green color had turned an ugly brown/black hue and its tendrils lay about across the ground. Some of those tendrils had been cut for samples. They then went to the tables to check the seeds. Mazlow told the collie about the findings they had made. He nodded his head as he listened. Much of what Mazlow had learned here confirmed his own discoveries back at the underground labs.
But even as the scientists did their work in the chamber, deep below the ground the super plant had reached the general area of the mines. The activities that were going on above ground at the entrance of the mine had not gone unnoticed to the plant. Indeed, the plant was alarmed at the number of creatures that were gathered up there. They posed a major danger to its seeds should they discover the nest. Even the mind spiders it left there would not be able to hold back the swarm on the surface. The plant quickly sent out its tendrils to the nest to check on the seeds. The stems wormed their way through the tunnel they had made previously, going past the rock and iron ore deposits.
Back in the cavern Collin was looking at a sample from one of the seeds through a microscope. As he watched, he suddenly felt a vibration in the ground beneath him. Next the rumbling noise came to his ears. He quickly looked up. Everyone else was looking about at the ground, also feeling and hearing the rumbling.
"What the hell is that? An earthquake?" One of the hazmat scientists asked. But Collin had a sinking feeling that he knew what was causing it. And "it" was probably not going to be very happy at their presence here.
Two scientists shouted out, startled, as a mound former at their feet. They quickly stepped, while everyone else watched the mound grow bigger rapidly. Seconds later, it burst open and out came a long length with a bud on the tip. Collin held his breath as the bud opened, revealing the giant purple petals of the flower and the closed sphincter in the centre.
Collin felt Camry grip his arm and point at the flower. "Collin! It's the plant!" The elf shouted. The collie let his breath out explosively.
"Quick! Get security, Mac!" Mazlow shouted as the kodiak bear grabbed a shovel. The scientist called Mac immediately ran out of the cave to call for help. Mazlow stepped right up to the flower, which promptly turned towards the bear. "Be ready to grab this one!" Mazlow shouted to the others. Most of the scientists were reluctant to help, but two more enthusiastic assistants ran up to surround the flower.
"Hold the plant there, Mazlow! I need a sample!" Collin shouted to the bear as he picked up an empty syringe. Mazlow nodded his head in reply, keeping his eyes and attention on the plant. Camry also picked up a syringe and joined Collin as he rushed towards the flower. But the plant, sensing that its seed was lost and that it was in danger, started to fold up its petals again. Mazlow realized it was going to escape. "Grab it!" He roared as he jumped at the flower, dropping the shovel and wrapping his large arms around the stem. The two assistants ran forward and grabbed the flower's petals.
The plant was much stronger than the three scientists and was pulling its tendril back into the ground. Mazlow felt the stem sliding between his arms despite his best efforts to hold on to it. The assistants were getting dragged along the ground as they desperately hung onto the petals, which showed no sign of tearing free from the flower. Collin and Camry ran right up to the flower and stuck the needles of the syringes into the plant's skin. They started to withdraw fluids when, with one final jerk, the plant's tendrils pulled into the ground in the blink of an eye. Collin, Camry, Mazlow and the two assistants were thrown to the ground and left staring at the small cloud of dust above the hole.
Mazlow belly-crawled over to the hole and peeked inside. "It's filled up the hole." The bear growled, frustrated that the plant had gotten away.
Collin and Camry quickly checked their syringes. The needles had broken off when the plant went into the ground, but they both had managed to get the syringes filled by a third. "That was lucky..." Camry breathed, looking at Collin.
The collie nodded and quickly got up. He then helped the elf back onto her feet again, then turned to Mazlow. "You all right, Mazlow?"
Mazlow stood up, wiping the dust off his hazmat suit, and nodded. "Yes, I'm fine. Did you get a sample?"
"Just." Replied Collin. "We need to get this analyzed to see how much the plant had changed. And we'd better hurry. I think the plant now knows we're on to it."
"You go on ahead. I'll come up later."
"Very well. Come on, Camry." Collin said to the elf girl as he headed for the tunnel leading to the surface. Camry followed right behind him. As the two of them left the chamber they passed a group of soldiers rushing to the chamber. Below ground, the plant was quickly burrowing away from the mine towards the relative safety of the city.
The following night the focus of the military operation had moved from the mines to the giant parking lot outside the city stadium. The stadium was an enormous domed structure that could house almost 80,000 spectators. The parking lot around the stadium was vast, with plenty of open space and only street lights that feature on the landscape. But while the stadium and parking lot were devoid of the spectators who came to watch the nightly football match, it was far from abandoned.
The military had formed a circle around a huge portion of the parking lot. Hummers, ATVs, police squad cars and SWAT vans were forming a cordon along with fire trucks and cement mixers. Soldiers and police officers stood around the circle, holding back the crowds and media from the inner circle. A few command vehicles were scattered about the parking lot and soldiers with seismic equipment were dotted all around the general area. Not far from the circle's centre a large patch of open ground lay exposed after heavy machines had dug away the tarmac and concrete.
In the centre of the circle were Collin, Camry and Andronia. They sat alongside a big device that resembled a large tesla coil, only the device was upside down and its bottom half was inside a hole that was dug into the tarmac. An automatic computer managed the flow of electricity from several large cables connected to the underground electricity supply. The computer made sure that the coil released "beats" of electricity, rather than a continuous flow. The trio themselves stood by the computer, wearing bathrobes over their bodies.
"Not too chilly tonight." Andronia commented, hoping to start a conversation.
"Nope." Camry replied. "It's actually warm. I'm thankful for that. We're wearing nothing but these robes."
"We cannot wear anything if we are going to carry this plan out." Collin said.
"Are you sure this plan will work, Collin?" The female collie officer asked Collin.
"If the plant continues to act the way it has, then I'm almost certain this will work. It will just depend on us getting the serum into the plant's system." The collie replied, though he had to admit to himself that he was not 100% sure of the idea. He can still vividly see the stares of General Oscar, Mazlow and Mayor Squealer when he told them that for him to kill the plant he would have to be swallowed up into the plant's body so he could inject the serum. By extension, this would also mean that he would be yiffed like the plant's other victims. Collin had to do some quick talking to get his point across, and thanks to a little help from Camry he was able to convince his superiors to go with the idea. Oscar was fully willing, agreeing on the basis of "it's your ass". Mazlow also agreed, though was a little reluctant. Mayor Squealer nearly laughed off the whole idea, but was quickly corrected by Oscar. Soon the plan was relayed to the soldiers, police and media, who also responded with stares at first.
The plan was to first attract the plant to the parking lot during the tesla coil. Since Collin figured the plant was after electrical energy, the coil was sunk into the ground and made to release regular pulses of electricity. This was because the plant probably had learned to ignore the continuous flow in the cables that ran under the city. The next part of the plan involved getting the plant to swallow him, Camry and Andronia so that they could go into the plant's belly to directly inject the serum. Andronia surprised many, especially her fellow officers, when she volunteered to help in this regard. The female collie remained adamant and said she had to do it to save the furries trapped inside the plant. Collin had some suspicions about that, but he kept it to himself.
The plan would also involve luring the plant completely out of the ground and onto the tarmac of the parking lot. Collin, Camry and Andronia would keep just out of range of the plant until its entire mass was outside, then General Oscar would send in the cement mixers to quickly fill up the plant's tunnel with quick-drying cement. And once the plant had swallowed them and was trapped on the parking lot, the fire trucks would then be sent in. The water in their tanks was mixed with batches of the serum that they would spray onto the plant. Collin was uncertain whether the plant could absorb the stuff through its skin, but it was worth trying.
Collin checked the syringe he carried with the blue/green serum. It was taped tightly around his upper right arm so that it would not be lost when he got swallowed, but easy to remove once they were in. Around his upper left arm was a small, wristwatch-type device that would act as a homing beacon. Mazlow had recommended this in case the serum didn't work and the plant got away. Camry and Andronia both had syringes and homing devices strapped to their arms as well.
"I sure hope you're right about this plan, Collin. I'd really like to rescue those poor people inside the plant, but I don't want to join them either." Andronia said.
"You might not have a choice. The serum might take a while to kick in, so the plant might just have enough time to yiff us too. Or, worst case scenario, the serum might not work at all." Camry told the officer.
Andronia shuddered at the thought. "That would be very unpleasant."
"Maybe at first, but after a while you get used to it."
"Since you get yiffed 24/7 and feel only pleasure, I suppose that is bound to happen." Andronia said with a smirk.
Camry and Andronia giggled while Collin smiled. The good humor was helping to ease the tension a little bit. Collin looked to where General Oscar, Mayor Squealer, Mazlow and some senior military and police officers were standing. They all had binoculars and were looking between Collin's group and a nearby soldier monitoring seismic movements with a laptop computer. Oscar had a serious look on his face as he would have in a combat situation, while Squealer was visibly bored and tired. Not surprising, given that they've been waiting for a few hours now.
The collie's glance then moved to a crowd of people standing between the commanders and the media. In front he saw the male cocker spaniel and the coyote couple he had seen at the mobile laboratory in the mines. The spaniel, called Striker, had a mate who was caught by the plant at the resort near where the research facility was. Striker was speaking to a male kangaroo and a leopard in a business suit. Probably more friends and relatives, like the entire group. Collin sincerely hoped his plan would work, for the sake of those folks' family and friends caught by the plant.
Collin's gaze finally landed on the media, who were grouped together at the point where they could be close enough to the action. Cameras from dozens of news agencies were pointed at them, while reporters were babbling away to their studios, making the biggest noise on the parking lot. In particular one reporter, a male weasel, was going back and forth between the relatives and the authorities while his parrot camera guy struggled to keep up. Collin shook his head and sighed.
As Collin joined Andronia and Camry in conversion, near the command trailer General Oscar, Squealer and Mazlow were watching the trio. Oscar was fully alert, but the mayor was bored and sighed heavily.
"What a stupid idea." Squealer mumbled before yawning outrageously.
"If it's so stupid, then why did you agree to help?" Oscar asked without glancing.
"Not sure." Squealer grunted. "Maybe I was sick or drunk. Or both. How do we even know the plant is still in city after it found out that you guys got its seeds at the mines?"
"My people have this city quarantined, mayor, and are monitoring every way out, both above ground and under it. The plant is still here."
"Stop me if I'm wrong, but wasn't it YOUR people who created this thing in the first place?"
"That is classified, mayor. Need-to-know basis."
"Yup, it was your people." Squealer said dismissively, resting on top of a police car and looking towards the trio. Oscar paid little attention to the pig. He wanted to be ready to get this plant when it sticks its flowers out.
"Contact!" The officer at the seismic monitoring laptop shouted. "One mile out and closing in from the northeast!"
Everyone around the officer immediately became alert. Mazlow and Squealer were wide awake now and now looked towards the centre of the parking lot. General Oscar quickly turned to his commanders and the police captains.
"All forces go on the alert! Hold fire and wait for the signals!" He barked out.
"Yes, sir!" The commanders and captains replied in unison.
As the commanders and captain relayed their orders, Oscar picked up a bullhorn and called out to Collin, Camry and Andronia.
"Heads up, Collin! The target is on its way!" Oscar shouted out, his booming voice carried loud and far over the parking lot.
Collin gave the thumbs-up signal to General Oscar, then turned to Andronia and Camry. "Once this plant pops up, we disrobe and turn the machine off. The plant will then only see us and hopefully swallow us." He told the two females. They nodded their heads in reply.
As the word got around that the plant was coming, all eyes immediately turned to the trio and to the giant open patch in the parking lot. Soldiers and officers armed their weapons, but did not take aim. The media all turned their cameras to face the ground patch, each one hoping to get a good view of the creature. The firefighters turned on their trucks' engines and got into position to roll out immediately. The workers who manned the cement mixers did the same thing, checking to make sure the cement was still moist and ready to pour out. Finally, the order was given to shut off all artificial lights except those in the parking lot. The circle immediately dimmed as vehicle headlights, camera lights and flashlights were turned off, though here and there was a faint luminescent glow of some computer screen or other electronic device. An eerie silence fell over the entire area as everyone stopped talking and looked for the plant's appearance.
Deep underneath the stadium the plant was digging its way just underneath the foundation of the structure towards the pulsing source it had detected. It was not the continuous flow of the cables that it had identified as not being food sources, but kept coming in short beats similar to the energies released by the plant's food. The plant knew it had to get out of the city, but it was famished and urgently needed to feast again. It burrowed onward, coming close to the source of the food. Its tunneling tendrils began to probe for a spot to get to the prey. But they immediately hit hard rock and concrete a good distance from the plant's target. It wasn't that thick, but it was thick enough not to allow the plant's tendrils from breaking through.
The plant was becoming frustrated, spreading out its shoots to find some way of getting to that food. Then it found a spot: a large open patch of ground in the hard surface that it could tunnel through. The plant wasted no time in sending nearly all of its tendrils to that spot.
At first Collin saw nothing happening at the open ground in the parking lot. Then several mounds formed in the earth before finally breaking. The same shoots that he had seen in the mines popped out, breaking through the ground and moving towards their direction. The buds at the tips opened up and spread out their petals, which gleamed in the glow of the parking lot lights. They seemed to reach out for the tesla coil, but they could only go a few feet from where they were. Collin ran over to the machine and turned two dials. Once increased the rate of the pulsing, the other the amount of voltage released. The collie turned to watch as the coil released the latest jolt into the ground.
The plant felt the energies coming from the prey increasing in intensity and rate of pulsing. It really wanted to get it, but it was still too far from the open ground. It's hunger driving it into a frenzy, the plant's mass began to burrow towards the surface.
Collin watched as the ground cracked and heaved while a rumbling noise grew from faint to very loud. More tendrils shot out and bloomed into full glory, reaching out towards the tesla coil. The bulge in the earth grew bigger and higher by the second, until it finally burst open in a cloud of earth chunks and dust. The trio took a step back as the plant rose out of the ground. Collin heard Andronia's gasp, and he had to admit that he was simply stunned. The enormous body of the plant was a huge, brown sack covered in overlapping, insect-like scales. It took about a minute for the full body to finally crawl out of the ground like the body of a slug. The collie judged that the plant, now fully out of the ground, was the size of four tennis courts and the height of a four story building. It's tendrils stretched to great lengths, from the tip of the flower down to the top of the body.
General Oscar, Mayor Squealer, Mazlow and everyone in the outer perimeter were staring at the plant, many with their mouths hanging wide open at the sight. Even the usually chatty news reporters were silent while their camera crews kept their lenses on the huge monstrosity in the parking lot.
"Is that what our tax money pays for?" Squealer finally broke the silence.
"That thing is far bigger than what I and Collin anticipated!" Mazlow exclaimed.
"What do you mean, professor?" General Oscar asked Mazlow.
"What I mean, general, is that I'm worried the amount of serum our friends out there have might not be enough to kill this enormous monster." Mazlow replied without taking his eyes off the plant.
"Well, it better be enough. Hold your positions!" The rhino shouted out to his men.
Back in the centre Collin turned to look at Camry, who stood awestruck, seeing the plant in full view for the first time since she had seen it in the laboratory weeks ago. She was probably amazed at how much it had grown in that short period of time.
"It's huge!" She finally said.
"No kidding!" Andronia agreed.
"Get ready to disrobe." Collin told them. "I'm going to turn the coil off."
Camry and Andronia nodded, reaching for their robes' belts as Collin went to the machine and flipped the off switch. Immediately the tesla coil powered down and went dead completely. The plant halted its movements after that, its flower moving around as if it was looking for electrical source that had suddenly disappeared. Collin, Camry and Andronia then took off their robes, dropping them onto the tarmac. They wore nothing except for the syringes strapped to their arms. Camry glanced at Collin as they moved closer to the plant. He was well-built, though more as an athlete rather than a body-builder. His mane reached down to mid-chest, while his white fur continued down to his groin. Camry made the mistake of looking too low and saw the collie's malehood, the tip of his pink penis poking out from its sheath. The elf girl blushed and looked over at Andronia instead. The female collie was also athletically built with small but firm and rounded breasts and excellent curves. She was a tad more muscular than Collin was. At the moment Andronia, like Collin, kept her eyes on the giant plant. Camry decided to watch the giant plant too, still blushing a little.
The plant paused, wondering what had happened to the prey it was following. It's flowers scanned left and right, trying to catch a scent or signal of its quarry. The plant then lowered some of its tendrils to ground level and ordered its mind spiders to go out and hunt down the prey. The mind spiders scurried their way up the shoots before emerging out through the flower's open bud and jumping onto the ground. Right away they started to check the area for the missing prey, using their primitive but well-developed senses.
Collin, Camry and Andronia moved slowly towards the plant when the beetles swarmed out of the plant's tendrils. Stopping in their tracks, they watch as the spiders seemed to look around for something. They watched as the creatures scurried about, but they remained close to the plant, which remained at its spot in the hole.
"Why isn't it coming closer?" Andronia growled.
"I think that coil worked too well, Collin." Camry said. "The plant is only focused on finding it rather than pay attention to us."
Collin nodded his head, feeling a little frustrated that Camry might be right. The tesla coil must have been too powerful and now the plant's senses were tuned in only on the coil. The collie quickly brainstormed, then came up with an idea. He looked at the two females.
"Masturbate." He said simply.
Andronia and Camry immediately stared a Collin. Andronia opened her mouth to protest, but Collin cut her short.
"Just trust me on this one!" Collin said, and with that he reached down to his groin and immediately began to play with himself. His cock slowly grew out towards its full length. Camry then reached down and did the same. She gasped a little as she inserted two fingers into her pussy and started fingering herself. Andronia stared incredulously at the two scientists, knowing the media is watching the whole spectacle. The collie then looked at the plant, and then sighed.
"This better be worth it." Andronia growled under her breath, and then she cupped one paw over her breast while the other paw petted her groin.
The plant was about to give up its search for the prey and head back into the ground, when it received a chemical signal from one of its mind spiders. Not far from the spot where the first prey had disappeared, three new sources were giving off strong energies. The plant signaled its spiders to go and investigate. In no time the spiders scurried towards the three creatures.
Collin rubbed his paw up and down his shaft while watching as the beetles all began skittering towards them. "Stand still, but keep masturbating." He told Camry and Andronia. The girls nodded, their breathing much quicker now and Andronia's tail wagging behind her. The beetles approached them, but kept a few feet distance from them and began to surround them. Their antennae quivered a lot, seemingly excited at their potential quarry. Collin looked at the plant and saw that the flowers were all faced towards them. Then the mass of the plant started to move towards them. "Yes." Collin said softly, watching as tentacle-like vines sprouted from the stems of the flowers and reached out for the trio.
The plant moved its mass closer to the trio, pulling away from the giant hole it had left behind in the ground. The information was relayed back to General Oscar, who then gave the signal to the crews of the cement mixers. Almost immediately the mixers were backing up to the hole, though the beeping noise that normally accompanies their reversing had been disabled so as not to alarm the plant. The trucks pulled up to the edge of the hole, and then the crews opened up the chutes and began to pour in the cement. All the while the workers keep a close eye on the plant mass not too far away.
By now the trio was surrounded by the beetles. They could only watch as the plant approached ever closer, the centre of its flowers now open and its tentacles reaching out greedily for them. They kept up the self pleasuring, but started to ease up as it became clear that the plant now had them in its sights. Collin's eyes were focused on a nearby flower that appeared to be going for him. The tentacles that sprouted from its stem were reaching out for him, moving like snakes through the air. He took his paw off his cock and awaited the inevitable.
The plant's hunger was now such that it wanted to immediately get these three victims into its belly. They were surrounded and made no attempt to escape, so the plant would not waste time having to use the mind spiders to cocoon them. It moved it's mass until it sensed it was close enough, then made the grab.
Collin yelped in surprise as the plant's tentacles grabbed his wrists and ankles in the blink of an eye. Similar shouts came from Camry and Andronia, but the collie could not turn to look at them. He knew what was happening now. The tentacles lifted him into the air and held him upside down. Below him he could see the flower open its mouth even wider and a tentacle with a respirator tip wiggling out of it. Camry had told him about the toxins the plant gave to its victims to immobilize them. He only hoped he wasn't knocked out for too long to prevent him from making the injection. At that point the tentacles lowered him, folding his arms and legs together. The collie just hung there, not resisting, as the plant lowered him towards the mouth. When he was close enough, the toxin tentacle jumped up and latched on over his snout and mouth, covering nearly half his muzzle. Collin barely had time to react to the sensation when he smelled the toxins being pumped into him. The collie immediately began to feel drowsy and sleepy, his body going limp and his eyelids half-closing.
From the perimeter General Oscar watched with binoculars as Collin, Camry and Andronia were brought to the flowers and intoxicated. None of them struggled as the plant began to push their heads into the flowers' mouths. The rhino watched as the tentacles pushed in the trio, releasing their arms and then their legs the more of them went inside. Soon only their behinds and legs were still outside, but the flowers made what appeared to Oscar to be swallowing motions. In went their tails, then legs and finally their feet. The flowers closed up, while the bulges that were Collin, Camry and Andronia began to quickly descend down the shoot towards the main body. General Oscar did not wait to see them disappear into the plant's mass. He turned to the fire chiefs and issued them orders.
"Get your trucks ready to move in on my mark!" The big rhino called out.
Collin could not sense much while he traveled down the shoot. He only saw a few blurry images. First it was dark, and then it seemed he was in some kind of chamber. Even when the tentacle detached from his face his mind was still incoherent. But when he landed on his butt on something smooth did the collie begin to recover. He sat up unsteadily, holding his head while he waited for the drugs to wear off. As the time passed, he became more and more aware of a constant moaning noise, broken by the occasional muffled shout or gasp. Collin opened his eyes and looked around. Though his vision was blurry, it was quickly clearing up. He began to make out humanoid shapes all around him. He closed his eyes again, then reopened them and blinked.
The collie found himself in a transparent sac or pod, through which he could see other similar pods. Most of them were filled with liquid, with dozens and dozens of females and a few males floating in them. All the victims were being held and yiffed by vines coming out of the pod's floor and ceiling. The noise was coming from them as they were pleasured and made to climax on and on. Just like Camry had told him. Collin stood up, finding his balance as the toxin's effects faded. He looked around for the elf and Andronia. Fortunately, they were in pods right alongside his. The two females were standing up, recovering from the toxins as well.
Collin pounded on his pod's walls to get Camry's attention. The elf maiden blinked her eyes a few times before she could focus on Collin. "Is this where the plant kept you and the others?" The collie asked her.
"Yes, this is the spot." Camry nodded, looking around at the familiar sight all around her.
"Okay. Get your syringe out and prepare to inject the first vines." Collin told her, and then he turned to get Andronia's attention. The female collie was fully alert, staring with wide eyes and an open mouth at the scene all around he.
"Andronia!" Collin shouted, hitting the walls again.
Andronia quickly turned to Collin.
"What the hell is this? This is the plant's stomach?" She asked him.
"Sure is." Collin nodded. "Get your syringe and inject the first vine you see coming for you."
"You got it." Andronia replied, reaching for the syringe on her arm. Collin also did the same, pulling the tape loose around the syringe on his arm and removing the cap over the needle. Camry and Andronia soon had their needles ready, looking around for any sign of vines coming for them. Collin also kept his eyes open, checking once to make sure his syringe was ready.
A wetness around his feet made Collin look down. He saw that his chamber was beginning to fill up with the same liquid that were in the other pods. The plant was about to begin feeding off them. The collie took a deep breath, watching for signs of the vines. It took only a few seconds for him to see two vines rise up from the goo and wrap around her lower legs. He heard Andronia yelp in surprise next to him. Collin quickly turned to look at her. His heart sank when he saw that the vines had the border collie too, but around the wrists. She struggled to keep the syringe in her paw as the vines pulled her arms up. But Andronia kept fighting, holding the syringe like a knife. Using all her strength, she pulled her arms together, thus bringing the vines to each other. The border collie snarled as she stabbed the needle into a vine and quickly made the injection. The vine flinched a little, and then the two rubbed each other to break the needle loose. But the deed was done. Andronia looked triumphantly at Collin.
"Got mine!" She shouted as more vines around her lower legs.
"Good work!" Collin called back, glad that at least one of them was successful. He bent down, felt for the vines under the liquid and readied his needle. He jabbed the needle in and made the injection. He pulled the syringe free, feeling the vine flinch. But it kept holding Collin, and the next instant two vines dropped down and grabbed his arms. The male collie was pulled upright again, making him drop the syringe. Collin then looked at Camry, who was now also held in the same manner as he and Andronia was.
"Did you make the injection, Cam?" Collin shouted at her.
Camry turned her head and nodded. "Yeah, but only halfway before the needle broke off." She said.
"That's good enough. Now all we need to hope for is that it works." Collin told Camry, and she nodded in agreement.
"Now what do we do?" Andronia asked, looking with alarm at the rapidly rising level of the liquid over her knees.
Collin looked down as well. The liquid was steadily rising up his legs and he could see something moving under the surface of it. "Hang on." That was all that Collin could answer to Andronia's answer, but what else could he say? The three of them will undoubtedly be yiffed a few times. And that is only if the drug works...
The thing that was under the liquid now revealed itself, or rather themselves. Two tentacles came up, sliding along Collin's legs towards his thigh. The first one slid in between his buttocks and began to poke and prod at his anus. Collin grunted and instinctively tightened his sphincter, but the tentacle was insistent and kept trying to find a way into the collie. The sensation was making Collin's penis, already lengthy from the self-pleasuring earlier, grow to full length and rock-hard. He watched as the second tentacle's tip open up to reveal its hollow, tube-like interior. Collin gasped loudly as the open tentacle slid neatly over his cock head and proceeded to swallow up his entire length right up to his sheath. With that done, the tentacle began to suck and Collin became only vaguely aware of gasps and yipes from Camry and Andronia. He guessed they too were being taken by the plant. Finally, as the liquid submerged his thigh, the tentacle at his tailhole squeezed in and began to journey into the collie's ass. The male's shout echoed inside his chamber.
But his shout was cut off when a vine like the one that gassed him latched over his mouth and snout, taking in half his muzzle. Before Collin could close his mouth, a secondary vine shot out into his mouth and expanded until it was lodged firmly behind Collin's teeth. As Collin tasted the fluid being pumped into his throat along with air, he felt something latch onto his balls and his chest. The suckling sensations they caused were nearly overwhelming to the collie. He tried to hold himself back, but he could feel he was going to explode really soon. The liquid rose up his chest, then his neck and finally his head, leaving Collin with nothing but a blurry view of what was going on all around.
Then the tentacle in his ass began to slide up and down like a piston. Collin could no longer restrain himself. Clenching his eyes and his anal muscles he howled out, body shuddering in orgasm. His cock throbbed within the cocoon of the tentacle, spurting out semen that was quickly sucked away by the plant. He thrashed about in ecstasy, causing the liquid in his pod to churn from his movements. In the two pods adjacent to Collin's, Andronia and Camry were also in release. Held by the vines, floating in liquid and yiffed at every possible sensitive point, they too were shaking and thrashing, making loud noises of pleasure that joined those of the plant's other victims.
The plant drank greedily on the energies that came from the prey it already had, plus the three it had just captured. One was familiar to the plant, but the two others provided a good abundance of food for the plant. They were a good catch and well worth the effort. The plant began to move back to the hole it had came through. It was time to move on.
But amid the energies the plant took up, the serum injected by Collin, Camry and Andronia was cruising through the plant's numerous veins. At first they did not do much damage, but as they spread into the body of the plant, the molecules began to bind with the "Rosy Special" molecules. The plant started to move, completely unaware of the ugly brown/yellow spots that were beginning to form on its vines and on the skin of the chamber.
Back outside General Oscar kept watching the giant plant while occasionally glancing at the work crews. It has been a good 10 minutes since the plant swallowed up the trio and it was still sitting there. The rhino was not sure if the serum was working, but at least the plant did not move to the hole yet, which was now almost filled up with cement. Then the mass began to move, the plant heading back the way it came. General Oscar gave the order for the cement trucks to pull back. The workers did not need to be told twice, for they immediately piled onto the trucks and hung on as the trucks drove back to the safety of the perimeter. The plant kept moving, the creatures it had sent out climbing back into the shoots that had released. Finally it came to the hole and started to climb in.
The plant was suddenly halted in its tracks. Where it thought the hole was, it only felt a hard surface. It used its tendrils to probe all around the hole, thinking it might have missed it. But the flower buds only touched rock-hard ground. The plant kept probing about, confused at the sudden change in the geography. At the same time, it began to feel a little ill.
General Oscar watched the plant poke the tips of its massive flower stems against the cement again and again and grinned. They had the plant right where they wanted it. He turned to the fire chiefs and gave out the order he had been itching to issue.
"Send in your trucks! Spray that thing from root to tip!" His voice carried over above any other noise.
The chiefs got onto their walky-talkies and relayed the order to their fire crews. A moment later sirens blared out across the parking lot as dozens of red fire trucks moved in, red lights flashing. The plant stopped probing when it detected the noise and movements and turned its attention to the oncoming trucks. The big metal objects moved in to surround it and the plant regarded this as a threat. It opened up its shoots to let out its army of mind spiders to neutralize the threat. At that moment the water cannons on top of the trucks fired, spraying out water at the beast. The plant flinched from the water, but quickly started to ignore it when it realized it was clean water and not the salt water it despised. The mind spiders piled out of the shoots, getting drenched by the water as they prepared to attack the metal objects.
Little did the plant know that the water was mixed with the same serum that the trio had injected into the thing. Though the plant absorbed little of it on its skin, the mind spiders took it in quickly and almost immediately their skittering started to slow, spots appearing on their green skins. The plant itself was feeling even more ill now, but it could not figure out why. The outer skin was already turning into the same dark and ugly color the inner skin was.
Inside his pod Collin had released his second orgasm, squirting out more cum to the greedy vine over his cock. He was beginning to wonder whether the serum was actually working. The clue came when the plant started to fuck his ass again. There was the expected thrusting in and out at first which made the collie stiffen his back, but that rhythm quickly changed. Collin felt the vine starting to twist and contort violently in his bowels. The sensation was even more intense than the pumping and he very nearly hit his pleasure peak. His descent to that peak was interrupted when the suction on his cock, balls and chest stopped. Collin began to whine, wanting that good feeling back. But soon he recovered his wits and mind and opened his eyes. His vision was still blurry, but he could see the vines in his pod were thrashing and twisting about like agitated earthworms. And their color had gone from grassy green to a brown/yellow ugliness that bore a resemblance to autumn leaves. He also saw the walls of his cell turning into the same color, while the green fluorescent glow was glowing more and more yellow. A grin of triumph former on his face before he was forced to orgasm again by the vine contorting inside his ass.
The same disease was befalling the other pods as well. Vines twisted in spastic jolts while discoloring sickly, no longer able to yiff the victims held in the pods. Some of the females and males became aware of this and looked about in curiosity, but the large majority of them were too tired and worn out to notice yet. At one point the pods' skins began to tear, no longer able to hold in the slime in those cells. The fluids drained out into the open spaces between the pods until it all leveled out at around waist-height. The vines then started to loosen their grips on the victims.
Back outside General Oscar watched the fire trucks spraying the plant until it was soaking. He grinned smugly as he saw the effect of the serum on the thing and its beetle-like minions. The little critters were quickly overcome by the toxins and were turning over onto their backs, folding their legs inward like dead spiders. The plant itself was discoloring fast and the tendrils no longer spastically squirmed as badly as a few seconds ago. Finally, the plant died, but it wasn't the big Hollywood-style thunderous collapse everyone expected. The giant mass simply sagged onto the parking lot like a heap of rotting jelly, its tendrils flopping onto the ground with soft thumps. The flower stems twisted a few times, then went still. Moments later the underside of the plant's body tore open, letting out a flood of slime that mixed with the water from the fire trucks.
Inside the plant Andronia was the first to free herself, though she had to rest a moment or two to regain her energies from the yiffing. Once she felt she was strong enough, she jerked at the vines holding her arms. The vines' grip was easily broken and Andronia fell down into the puddle of slime at the bottom of her pod. She then yanked the vine over her face off and immediately wrinkled her face when her nostrils smelled the foul stench in the chamber. She took hold of the vines over her breasts and pulled. Her breasts got pulled along a little bit before the vines released them. They bounced back, jiggling a little before settled. Andronia then sat up and got rid of the vines around her ankles. Finally she stood up and took hold of the two vines that went into her holes and slowly pulled them out... not because of fear of injuring herself, but rather to savor the feeling of the rough plant skin against her sensitive inner flesh. She murred a little, then yiped when the vines came out with wet pops. She signed when he threw the vines down with the others.
"Fun over. Now, back to work." Andronia motivated herself. She took hold of the open tear in her pod and made it even bigger, tearing a hole big enough for her to get out. The border collie get out of her pod and went over to Collin's. She tore a hole into his cell and began to help free him from the vines. When she took the vine off Collin's face, he made a face from the smell.
"Refreshing, isn't it?" Andronia smirked.
Collin couldn't help but chuckle. "Definitely. Are you okay?"
"Sure am. And from the looks of it so is everybody else." Andronia said as she removed the vines around Collin's wrists.
Collin looked around as he knelt down to get the vines off his feet. All the cells had drained, leaving only their soaking female and male victims within. A few, like Camry, were already freeing themselves from the vines that held them, but the greater majority was still asleep or awake but too exhausted to move. But they were all alive and didn't look in too bad a shape, though everybody was covered from head to toe with the liquid.
"Let's hope General Oscar can cut open an escape route out of this plant's belly." Collin said, and then he gasped when he pulled the vine out of his butt.
Outside General Oscar was shouting orders to his troops to move in. The big rhino led the way forward, holding a pistol ready in case the plant sprang to life. The soldiers and police officers also had their weapons close at paw. Behind Oscar came Mayor Squealer, Mazlow and the other senior commanders and officers. They walked steadily closer, their shoes and boots sloshing in the giant pool of water and plant juices, their eyes fixed on the big mass before them. But the plant did not move one little bit, and all the beetle creatures were on their backs, dead. Soon they were only a feet away from the plant's body. Oscar walked closer and kicked the plant a few times, but there was no reaction. He did, however, hear voices inside the mass. The rhino grabbed the skin and tugged to test how tough the skin was.
But the plant's "tough" skin had rotted so much from the serum that a large chunk of the body came loose and fell to the ground like rolls of fabric. General Oscar and others found themselves staring right into the belly of the plant, with its many pods holding the plant's victims. Staring back at them were Collin, Andronia, Camry, a dragoness and a male deer. Collin and Camry were helping a still-drowsy Andrea, Andronia one of the female cadets from the academy and the dragoness and deer were carrying another female deer. There was a moment of surprised silence between the two groups before Collin broke the ice.
"Well, General? Are you going to help us out here?" He asked Oscar.
General Oscar did not to be asked twice. He immediately turned to the staring officers and soldiers and shouted out in his booming voice. "Don't just stare there like a bunch of voyeurs, you lazy furs! Get your asses in gear and help these folks out! On the double!" To emphasize his point he kicked at several nearby soldiers and officers.
They all got the point, put their weapons away and piled into the mass with knifes drawn to help free the victims and carry them out. Paramedics and other emergency medical workers rushes up with stretchers, medical cases and blankets as Collin and the others were helped out of the plant, free at last.
It took less than an hour to get all the plant's victims out of its belly. They were all gathered together in a large group, where medical staff did some checkups and gave them plenty of energy drinks. The police and military kept everyone except medical and scientific staff and relatives away from them. Some of the furs lay on stretchers, still too weak to get up. Others were already up and about with blankets wrapped around them to save some dignity. Back at the plant scientists were already busy with their work on the plant, taking samples, photographs and other kinds of assignments.
Collin sat with Andrea, Camry and Tanzi at Andrea's stretcher. The collie female was still too weak to stand on her legs, but she was fully conscious. They held energy drinks in their paws as they talked.
"This was probably not what you had in mind when you worked with Rosy Special, Andrea?" Collin asked her after taking a sip of his drink.
"Definitely not." Andrea laughed ruefully. "When I saw the plant for the first time I really stunned. After that... well..." She shrugged.
"Still got to give you credit for it, Andrea." Tanzi admitted. "You certainly created something that I was truly impressed with it."
"Many times over." Camry added with a smirk.
The hyena female giggled. "Okay, okay. You all know my secret now. Seriously though: it was quite an accomplishment."
Andrea simply nodded. Though Tanzi's reasons for approving the collie's monstrous creation were a little perverse, she still liked the satisfaction of having achieved victory over her rival. But she also did not want to do that all again just to gain bragging rights over the hyena.
"I'm just glad it's all over. All that yiffing was exhausting, even if it was fun." The Collie said before taking a sip of her drink.
Everyone just nodded their heads. With a few exceptions, everybody who was inside the plant agreed that, while the yiffing was not too unpleasant, they definitely would not to experience it all again. Not to mention the fact that it was all exhausting. At least one of the benefits of the yiffing was that everyone had grown fitter and their bodies more well-built and athletic. Collin thought that fact was going to make quite a study for some of his fellow researches.
Collin drank some more of the energy drink while looking around at some of the other freed furs. He spotted the cocker spaniel with a female pomeranian with orange fur. The two of them were chatting intensely with each other and the coyote couple. The pomeranian smiled and even giggled a few times as she spoke to her husband, who was apparently blushing. Seems she was telling him a little more than he expected, Collin thought.
His gaze then landed on a diminutive vixen, who was with a female kangaroo and a elven maiden with red hair. The female roo was hugging was Collin assumed was her husband. Right next to them the female skunk who was rescued earlier spoke to a deer couple. The collie had heard she was a lecturer at a campus, where she and some students went missing. The deer couple was hugging each other tightly while the skunkette spoke to them, though what it was about Collin could only guess.
His eyes moved to a female he recognized immediately: Elayne McCoon, the owner and famous cover-female of the adult magazine Yiff-Star, was seated next to a female cheetah whom Collin recognized from reports as the victim who was caught on the ship that brought the plant here. Elayne was holding some papers given to her by a wolf in a suit. The female cheetah was looking very excited and was eagerly signing some of the papers while the raccoon grinned widely. A contract for the cheetah to appear in the magazine. Figures, though Collin.
Collin's eyes had just spotted Andronia talking to some of her fellow officers about their job well done, when a voice broke the silence in his mind like a whistle in a library.
"And how are you all doing?" The voice of General Oscar was probably louder than anything else on the parking lot. And it immediately got the attention of the four scientists.
"Could be better, General, but we're none the worse for wear." Collin answered as the huge rhinoceros approached.
"Excellent, excellent. Glad to see we had no casualties from this. The best war is always the one where you win without taking losses, I always say."
Collin just nodded, not sure how to respond to the general's words. He decided to change the subject.
"Where are Mazlow and Mayor Squealer?" The collie asked.
"I have Mazlow and his people working on the dead plant over there." Oscar responded. "As for the pig, he's in front of the cameras doing his best political bullshit and taking all the credit."
Collin chuckled softly at the general's usual bluntness. "Just doing his job, general."
General Oscar shrugged. "Well, I don't care. Job or not, he's keeping the media out of our way. As for the credit, I don't give a damn. What I care about is that big plant and how we can make more of it."
The last few words caught all four scientists' attention, as well as some of the other victims close by.
"More?" Andrea asked.
"Yes, more." Oscar replied without hesitation. "This plant is far better a weapon than what we had intended Rosy Special to be. Silent, efficient and none of that Geneva Convention crap getting in the way. If we can create even better versions of this one, we will have the ultimate weapon against our enemies."
Even as he spoke more and more of those who were in the plant and their relatives heard the general's designs for the plant. And none of them looked like they agreed with General Oscar in the least. When the rhino stopped speaking, a chorus of protests rose up from the crowd. Tanzi, Andrea and Camry lead the protests.
"You can't do this, general! This is a crazy idea! We couldn't possibly control this thing!" Andrea shouted.
"Andrea's right!" Tanzi uncharacteristically agreed with the collie. "It's not a weapon!"
But General Oscar was not fazed by the protests, which had gotten the attention of the media and everyone else around them. The big rhino stood fast and defiantly.
"Oh, right. All that time in the plant has gone and softened your brains. Well, that won't cut it. This project is going ahead full steam, with or without your further assistance." Oscar back talked to the female scientists.
As the others protested, Camry looked to Collin for support. But Collin kept quiet, though he looked disapprovingly at Oscar. He agreed with everyone here that using the plant for a weapon was dangerous, considering how it had run amuck. But the collie knew that General Oscar was the most stubborn rhino amongst a family of stubborn military commanders and that he would not back down no matter what.
"This project is moving forward and that is final!" Oscar shouted in his booming voice, folding his arms defiantly while everyone in the group glared back at the rhino.
It was during this brief moment of silence that a rumbling noise became apparent. And it was growing louder rapidly. Curious, Collin looked away from General Oscar and to the source of the rumbling. His eyes then went wide when they landed on the plant mass. The rumbling was coming from inside of it. Around the plant Mazlow and the other scientists were stepping back from the mass, alarmed looks on their faces. The rumbling grew louder, and then the plant's body began to wobble like a mound of jelly. Mazlow shouted to the scientists to step back, which they did not hesitate to do. The rumbling became very loud and the plant was trembling violently. The attention of everyone in the parking lot was now on the plant.
"What the fu..." General Oscar opened his mouth to speak.
In that instant the plant's body burst explosively in a cloud of slime and chunks of plant. The immediate blast knocked down Mazlow and the scientists. Everyone ducked for cover or started to run as they were splattered with slime and pieces of plant. The soldiers, police, media and spectators scattered in all directions in a run for survival as huge fleshy chunks fell everywhere amid a torrential downpour of slime. Collin, Camry and Tanzi ducked down over Andrea, as did the other victims and their relatives. General Oscar was knocked over by a slime chunk that hit him square in the face.
When the blast died down and the pieces of plant stopped falling, Collin dared the chance to sit up and look. The plant's body was now nothing but a pile of gooey pulp. Mazlow and the other scientists were getting up, covered completely in the plant's guts. The collie looked around him. Everyone was either lying flat or standing, covered in particles of dead super plant. Here and there lay a chunk of plant. In particular a large chunk had smashed the mayoral limousine, much to the dismay of Mayor Squealer, who had a piece of vine and some slime on his suit. Fortunately, from where Collin could see, no one had been hit as badly as the limo. But they were all covered with the debris from the explosion.
General Oscar sat up, wiped the slime off his face and kicked off the dead beetle that had been thrown onto his chest by the blast. The rhino looked at Collin, appearing dazed. "What happened?" He simply asked in a subdued voice.
Collin looked back at the carcass and shrugged. "No idea, general. Maybe my serum and Rosy Special did not agree with each other. Maybe it was something else. Either way, the specimen is now truly dead."
Oscar stared at Collin, then at the pulp heap. The rhino then groaned and covered his face, lying back down in obvious disappointment.
Collin turned to Camry, Tanzi and Andrea to check up on them.
"You three okay?" He asked them.
"Yeah, we're okay." Andrea replied. Camry nodded her head as well. Tanzi, however, did not answer. She was staring at something.
"What is it?" Collin asked. Tanzi leaned down and picked up the thing she had been looking at: it was an oval-shaped object with dull, dark-green color. The hyena held it up in both paws, while Andrea, Collin and Camry also looked curiously at it. Andrea's eyes widened in surprise.
"Is that..." She asked tentatively.
"... a seed." Collin finished the sentence.
"Yeah, it looks like a seed." Tanzi agreed. Suddenly she tucked it into the folds of the blanket around her.
"What are you doing, Tanzi?" Camry asked suspiciously.
"Hiding it from the general, of course. Do you want him to see it?" The hyena replied, gesturing at General Oscar, who was still on his back and had not noticed Tanzi picking up the object.
Collin, Andrea and Camry were a little suspicious about Tanzi's motives, but they did agree it was best to hide the seed from the general.
"I suppose now this whole business will be cleared up and we'll be going back to labs." Andrea finally said.
"And I suspect General Oscar will have to do some explaining to his superiors about this mess." Camry added.
"Oh, he'll probably wiggle his way out again. He always does." Collin said. He then got up, shaking off the plant chunks from his blanket. "Do you want some coffee?" He asked his female colleagues.
They all nodded in agreement. Collin began to walk to the trailer where the coffee was served, making his way through the crowds of soldiers, officers and scientists who were still trying to clean themselves of the huge mess in the parking lot.
Weeks later Collin and his colleagues were back in the secret laboratories. This time, however, they were working on a new project involving anti-radiation and anti-toxin serums for the military. The "Rosy Special" project was scrapped and General Oscar had been hastily reposted to an isolated listening post in the arctic. His replacement was, not surprising, another loudmouth general.
It was late at night and Collin was walking to Tanzi's laboratory with a mug of coffee in one paw and some reports in the other. He read the reports, taking a sip of coffee now and then. The collie was going to see Tanzi, who spent most of her time in her lab, about the test results of the new disposable anti-toxin hyper-injection syringe.
Collin came to her door, which opened automatically when the scanner detected Collin. The collie stepped in, still reading the reports.
"Hey, Tanzi. Here are the results from..." Collin began, and then he looked up and stopped in his tracks.
The laboratory was in shambles. The table looked as if it had been crushed and the floor was covered with leaves. Vines dangled from an open ventilation shaft right above the table. Lying on the floor was Tanzi's lab coat and the pajamas she wore.
Collin's gaze moved slowly from the table to the clothing to the vines and finally to the vent. He groaned loudly, burying his face in the report and spilling the coffee onto the floor.
"Oh boy. Here we go again."
FIN
Story by: Gerhard "StrikerSA" Naudé
Collin copyright to: Gerhard "StrikerSA" Naudé
Andronia copyright to: Her owner