Read Online Charged - Book One by L.M. Moore - Free Book Online Page B

The
black stones didn’t feel like stones, more like a hard rubber.
    I motioned for Aaron to be silent as I waited for
military people to make themselves known, for the bright overhead
lights to be turned on and for us to be put in cuffs, but this
didn’t happen. I heard no footsteps, no alarms, nothing. Even if
this was a military experiment, splicing plant life for weapons or
cures, something wasn’t right. Where were the scientists? Where was
the security? There were no pipes overhead, no ventilation ducts or
heating ducts. I pulled out my .357 Magnum and handed my pistol to
Aaron. “Safety’s off,” I said. He grabbed it and we continued.
    Facing us to the left of the path was a flower the
size of my head, or what looked like a flower. It was slightly
transparent and opening and closing like it was breathing. To our
right was what I can best describe as glowing white vines that were
also moving a little more actively than what made me
comfortable.
    “Do you hear that?” I whispered.
    “I don’t hear anything.”
    “That’s my point. No insects, no birds.”
    Aaron pointed up and to my surprise; we were not in a
cave but a metal dome. The ceiling radiated the soft, blue light
like the black stones in the path.
    Then the red dirt on my right side started to move.
No, it wasn’t the dirt moving; something was moving under it. My
curiosity was immediately replaced with panic and I pointed my
revolver at the moving dirt. Aaron quickly shook his head in a no gesture at me.
    A yellow glowing bug with a red glowing head crawled
out of the dirt. It sent a shiver down my spine and I unconsciously
took a step back. I was almost positive that it stopped to look at
me for a moment as it tilted its head up. It was the size of my
shoe, with long spiny legs and a glowing gelatinous body that
bounced a little as it crossed my path. If it had inched toward me
at all, I would’ve shot it.
    Aaron and I watched as it simply crossed our path
over the black stones and crawled back into the red dirt on the
other side. We said nothing. Though, I was positive that what was
going through my mind was not what was going through his. I was
thinking that the government was splicing more than plants. And
Aaron….he had a large smile spreading across his face.
    As we continued into the dome, I noticed most of the
plants were several feet tall. There were some with flowers, some
without. Some of them looked like large cornstalks. Their stems
were glowing orange and faded to white at the tops of the plants.
There were red grapelike clusters on the tips of them running down
about three feet on the sides of each stalk. They looked like
fist-sized grapes.
    Slowly, they leaned toward us, but there wasn’t a
breeze. It was unsettling even more than the bug because the stalks
were massive. Their stems were thicker than my thighs and some of
them reached twelve feet into the air. I started thinking about
what military scientists could do to plants. Just then, hundreds of
the stalks started bending farther and farther in synch, like they
were alive. I tightened my sweaty palm on the butt of my gun. If
these things started lashing at us, I was going to blow them to
pieces.
    They bowed towards us and then pulled back. Then,
they started moving just a little quicker. After only a few more
steps they were bending over again and again, just barely touching
the ground, like they were dancing. One of them bent all the way
over, brushing against the side of my leg and then bounced back
bending in the opposite direction. If I could’ve jumped away from
it without unbearable pain, I would have. Their movements were like
a ballet as they swayed back and forth. It was alarming and
mesmerizing at the same time. The light they gave off seemed to
disperse into the air around them as they moved. More and more of
them started brushing against us as we moved deeper into the dome
and I was certain that, at any moment, the military were going to
show up really pissed