Infestation Chapter One

1

As the early dawns rays seeped their way through my curtains I opened my eyes and squinted against it. My dog Hunter leaped onto the bed and lay down next to me laying his head on my chest. As the curtain of unconsciousness lifted from my mind I laid a hand on Hunter’s head. Hunter was an Australian Shepherd with multicolored eyes, the right Teal and the left a chocolate brown. He had no collar on as I was against the idea of putting collars on pets, As was the rest of the city. Hunter jumped off the bed and I got up as well and went over to my closet to get dressed. I then followed Hunter into the main room of my apartment sitting at the counter was my girlfriend Lena. 

“Good morning!” I said cheerfully. 

“Good morning!” She replied happily.

“I need to go into the office today.” I told her.

“I’ll take care of Hunter.” Lena told me, petting his head.

“Thank’s a lot.” I said to Lena, relieved.

I sat down next to Lena at the counter pulling a piece of toast towards me.

My watch pinged, displaying an alert that I needed to get to my office ASAP. 

“Damn” I muttered 

“I need to get to the greenhouse ASAP.” I said to Lena sadly 

“That’s fine, I can take care of the apartment.” Lena assured me confidently. 

I got up from the counter and walked out the door. When I got outside the noise of the street hit me like a truck, Electric cars were driving by on the road. Vendors lining the walkway shouted at me selling me what they sold. I marveled at the city and all of the plants and greenery around me. I loved plants, that was why I worked in a greenhouse. I was still hungry and headed for one of the many street venders that lined the walkway. The one that I stopped in front of was selling salads. 

“Hi,” I said to the vendor 

“Hello!” they said in a cheery voice.

“I would like a Caesar salad please.”

“Right away!” 

The vendor got to work on the salad filling a compostable bowl with lettuce, croutons, permission cheese and finally the dressing. 

“Enjoy!” They said happily, handing me the bowl and fork. 

As I continued down the street vendors were shouting and there was a general happiness in the air. I took a bite of the salad and felt the pop of flavor hit my mouth like a wave. A minute later I was at my desk in a greenhouse, I set down my bowl of salad and tapped the center of my desk. A ghostly blue hologram appeared in front of me. I grabbed my salad bowl and brought up the nutrient levels of the bed I was working on, I scanned over everything and stopped suddenly looking at something on the screen. I tapped the top right of the screen and it showed me more info on the certain part of the bed that had caught my attention.

“Hey Britny!” I called. She was my co-worker for garden bed B

“Yeah?” She called back.

“Come here will you?” 

“Okay.” She said walking over.

“What do you need?” 

“Look at this.” I said, showing her the screen.

“Huh.” She said in confusion.

“That’s odd.”

We both got up and walked over to the garden bed that has given me pause. I put on a pair of gloves and took a handful of dirt in my hand to put on a tray to examine what could be in the dirt. I put the tray on a machine to sift through the tray of dirt in hopes of finding what could be the problem. While the machine was working it’s magic Britny and I went back over to the garden bed to see if we could find anything. We both began to work our way through the bed looking for signs of something that could be causing the odd dip in nutrients.

I was digging by a dying plant when I saw a glimpse of something silver. I didn’t give it second thought as it was probably a pipe that was providing the plant with water and food. 

“AHA!!” I heard britny cried as she held up what looked like a worm.

“What is it?” I asked her, walking over to get a closer look.

“I think it is what is causing our plants to die.”

“Then what is it?” I asked again.

“I have no idea but isn’t what we put in the bed to help the plants.”

“Can I have a closer look?” I asked, holding my gloved hand out.

“Sure.” She said and handed me the worm-like creature. 

It was definitely a worm as it had no eyes or legs, but instead of having a smooth skin the worm had large spikes that were dripping a thick slimy goo that dripped onto my hand. 

“I think that we have our culprit!” I declared triumphantly.

“Don’t be so sure.” Brinty said to me with concern in her eyes. 

I walked over to a table with a silvery metal box, I put the worm inside the box and pressed a button. The box emitted a rapid beeping noise and then it stopped and a ghostly blue display like the one on my desk popped up above the box. I looked at it and a spike of fear shot down my spine. . .

“Oh god. . .” I muttered under my breath.