Rains of Heaven & Sprouts of Hell: by Nick Venom (ereader android .TXT) 📕

more hellplants appeared and attacked the others in his unit. The hellplants caught the soldiers off-guard and raised them into the air. Some of the soldiers fought back, piercing the hellplant’s head or roots, while others were unfortunate and they were dropped into what resembled their mouths. Though they had a mouth, it resembled a Muppet’s mouth. The threat, instead, was the spikes on the side of the hellplant’s mouth that pierced the head of the soldiers, killing them with ease. 

“Damn it!” Houston shouted as he reached the other side of the vegetation, going on the gravel side of the road, finding two soldiers dead. The others had killed their plants and the ones that killed their comrades. Still, they couldn’t reverse the deaths.

No one could… and that irritated Houston.

 

TBC…

Episode Seventeen "Hotel-Romeo-Echo"

Houston and his men continued to fire at the onslaught of hellplants as they reared their ugly heads from the vegetation, ripping off their camouflage and trying to snare the soldiers. The hellplants unrooted themselves, resembling a piranha plant from the Mario series that was able to move on legs. The unrooted hellplants, however, were horrifying to see as their legs, which were made of their roots, were soaked in blood and mattered with flesh. The rest of the body wasn’t far off in terms of appearance as the hellplants were a mix of human and roamers flesh---as roamers weren’t invincible against the hellplants---and blood and guts. These disgusting creatures used their tentacle-like plant limbs to unroot themselves from the dirt before sprinting towards the remaining soldiers. 

“Get the machine guns going!” Houston shouted as he brought his rifle to his eyes, pressing the trigger and hitting a hellplant, killing it instantly. The hellplants were sneaky monsters that used vegetation to blend in, but they were incredibly weak as a few bullets to the oval-shaped body of the hellplant killed it. This oval-shaped body contained the body and gaping mouth, which served as its only way of killing its target aside from its tentacle limbs that could grab and hold a human in its grasp until the person starved or was ripped to shred by roamers, disintegrated by acid rain, or mercy killed by other humans. The grip of a hellplant was iron-tight. Houston and the others knew this, deciding to flee whenever the hellplants were too close to them, quickly losing all of their ground and hitting their backs against the humvees.

“Ryder, get on the machine gun!” Houston ordered. Ryder glanced at him, nodding his head. He fired off a few more bullets, careful to not waste ammunition, before lowering his rifle and turning away from the action. He sprinted to the humvee and dove into the backseat. He then opened the machine pit hatch before climbing up and grabbing ahold of the machine gun. 

“Remember what we were taught! Keep your distance from them!” Houston exclaimed as he pressed the trigger a few more times, killing a hellplant that was getting frighteningly close to him.

Houston’s unit nodded, keeping their distance from the hellplants as Ryder and two other soldiers got into the machine gun pits and roared their weapons alive. They fired at the hellplants, easily decimating the small crowd of hellplants. Once the last hellplant received their friendly gift of a few bullets to the body, the machine guns cooled down. Ryder and the others jumped out of the machine gun pits as the others surveyed the damage. They had lost two soldiers and had a few more wounded. In total, six soldiers were lost and half of the remaining forces were wounded. 

Houston grimaced as he stared at the mangled bodies of his comrades, one of them half-chewed and nothing more than a pair of legs. The torso was in one of the hellplants’ digestive systems. Orlando glanced at Houston, noticing the expression on his face. He shook his head before approaching him, leaving behind his comrades for a split second. He had been riding in the other humvee that didn’t suffer as badly as the third humvee, which only had two soldiers left - the driver and the wounded backseat soldier. 

“We avenged our comrades.” He told him.

Houston nodded. “... I hope so.”

Orlando nodded, patting his shoulder. “We’ll take back what’s left of them and then we’ll continue moving. Winter Hollow isn’t more than a few days away.” 

“... Good. Send out this order. Refuel the humvees and load the deceased. We’re moving as soon as we can.” Houston confidently told Orlando who nodded, a small smile on his face, before leaving to inform the others. As soon as he was gone, Houston glanced once again at the deceased before turning away and approaching the humvees. He wasn’t far from them already, moving a couple of yards and arriving at his destination. 

Ryder slipped out of the humvee, nearly hitting Houston with the door. He quickly apologized but Houston stopped him. “Believe me, the door wouldn’t have done anything to me anyway.”

Ryder nodded. “Still, sir, my bad. I should’ve checked before I opened it.”

Houston shook his head. “It’s okay, Ryder… How has your girlfriend been?”

“Madelyn? She’s been well, I believe.”

“Ha!” He exclaimed. “I believe? You really do need this break time. Go check in with your girlfriend and make her feel loved. Who knows what will happen out here…” He trailed off, staring at the deceased. “Not everybody gets to go home.”

Ryder nodded somberly. “I will, sir.”

Houston nodded, turning back to face him, and planted his palm on his shoulder. “Good man. Keep her close and never let go. Don’t make the mistake I made. I pushed the only girl that meant anything to me and I lost her forever. Don’t be stupid.”

He nodded, thanking Houston for his advice. Houston nodded before glancing at Emile who had overheard their conversation and rarely strayed far from Ryder’s side. “I just want to tell the both of ‘ya. I’m always thankful to have such reliable and strong people by my side. I don’t take you both or anybody else in my unit for granted. You all mean so much to me. You’re all my family.” 

Ryder and Emile nodded, alongside the rest of the unit who overheard Houston. Orlando smiled at Houston before making a fist with his left hand and bumping it against his chest. The others followed him, all bumping a fist against their chest. Houston nodded, recognizing what they were doing. Since any overly loud sounds could intrigue nearby threats, they silently showed their support and appreciation for Houston through this gesture. 

Houston teared up slightly, but not enough to leak out of his eye socket and make its way down his cheek. “Good. Hotel-Romeo-Echo, let’s load up and leave.”

They nodded their heads in agreement.

 

TBC…

Episode Eighteen "Crash"

Squad Hotel-Romeo-Echo traveled single-file down the roads reclaimed by nature. The asphalt roads that used to exist were now covered in a thick layer of vegetation, mostly blending into its surroundings except for a few pieces of the asphalt poking out. As they traveled down the road, it began raining again, slowly melting the humvees. Though, the windows were considered “roamer-proof”, the roofs weren’t acid-proof, leading to holes forming. These holes began small at first until more acid rain enlarged them. 

Unbeknownst to Houston and the others, these holes were getting large enough that they couldn’t prevent the rain from getting inside. They were seeping through.

Ryder, meanwhile, stared out of the window, which itself had become corroded by the acid and appeared stiffer than usual, as if it was close to breaking. He watched as the endless sea of vegetation flew by him. The sight used to be memorizing and served as the image of freedom, the place outside the walls of Winter Hollow. However, now it was suffocating and only brought him bad memories. Memories of the comrades that he was leaving behind and the ones loaded up in the trunk, now only parts of themselves. 

“Hey Ryder, do you mind sparing me one of your days off?” Emile asked him, breaking him out of his concentration. Ryder turned his head to face Emile, tilting his head slightly.

“Uh, sure… Why though?”

“Uh… Well, I wanted some help and you’re my closest friend. You don’t have to, I know you want to spend every day with your girlfriend. Actually, yeah, you can just ignore me.” He backtracked.

Ryder shook his head. “No worries, I don’t mind. What will I be helping you out with though?”

“There’s been some issues I’m dealing with, nothing crazy or anything like that of course. I can’t really rely on my family and I don’t have many friends, so if you don’t mind helping me out.”

“Yeah, I can do it. Come on, I always got time for my bro.” Ryder told him, receiving a large and warm smile from Emile who appeared almost surprised but ecstatic at the same time. 

“Thanks, man, I was-”

“Ahhhhhh!” The driver of the humvee shouted, taking his hands off the wheel and clawing at his face. “It burns! It burns like hell!”

“Pope! What’s wrong? What’s happening?” Houston exclaimed before the humvee suddenly swerved from side to side, throwing the inhabitants around. 

“God damn it! It burns!” Pope screeched, trying to stop the acid from going to his skull. The acid rain leaked through the holes and attacked Pope’s forehead, digging a sizeable hole in him. Houston didn’t notice this immediately, more focused on grabbing the steering wheel and correcting their path. However, the holes above him began to ooze out acid rain that attacked his body, putting holes through his clothing and grazing his skin. 

“Ryder! Emile! Help me get the wheel!” He ordered as he tried to shift away from the holes where the rain was coming from. Unfortunately, the rain still managed to hit him, beginning to burn into his skin. 

Fighting through this pain, he attempted to grab the steering wheel but the constant swerving knocked him off balance and threw him into the chairs and pieces of equipment around him. Ryder and Emile, meanwhile, weren’t having better luck as they kept smashing into the walls and hitting the chairs. 

Pope, during this, was attacked by more acid rain that leaked onto him in small amounts, burning through his skin and effectively damaging his veins and bursting multiple blood vessels all over his body. Blood quickly began pouring out of his wounds, some of the blood overflowing from his forehead wound and trickling into his ear sockets, impairing his vision. He attempted to wipe the blood out but the humvee swerved dangerously around, hitting bumps and getting a millisecond of air before