Ex-Isle by Peter Clines (electronic reader TXT) 📕

didn’t want to waste time with Lester’s overexcited spiel about the garden. She glanced back at Gibbs and the building as the overly average man led her and Cesar away. First Sergeant Kennedy joined them as they headed down the first of the long, narrow aisles.

Eden had been a large community garden at one point, one of over fifty scattered across Los Angeles. There’d been individual plots filled by individual tastes. Now, though, it was wall-to-wall plants. More than a few sprawled into the aisles. Some of them were almost six or seven feet tall, and the group walked past a monstrous clump of cacti that stood well over ten. As the four of them made their way down the overgrown path, Danielle caught glimpses of an old lawn chair, some sun-weathered tools, and what looked like a birdbath half hidden in the weeds and vines.

Danielle’s shoulders relaxed a bit inside her ACU jacket, and she wasn’t sure why. She was outside, and she’d never been much of a nature person even before her phobias had kicked into high gear. They’d been walking for almost two minutes when she realized the thick plant life muffled the click-click-click of distant teeth.

“We’re lucky,” Lester said, half turning to them as he walked down the path. “So many things were already thriving when we got here. A lot has died off, and some things have gone wild, but there’s still plenty of variety up here for us to get started with.” He pointed at a plot filled with sprawling vines as they walked along. “That’s all one squash plant. There’s four or five more of them in this row. They’re monsters. They grow like mad, and each one’ll put out a couple dozen squash each season. We should have about a hundred pounds worth ready to send back to the Mount by the end of the week. There’s a few hundred soybean plants the next row over. They reseeded themselves and just took over four or five plots.”

“Oh, yay,” sighed Cesar. “More soybeans.”

Danielle reached out to smack him in the back of the head. Force of habit. But a flicker of movement caught her eye. Something gray two aisles over, hidden by a cluster of tall sunflowers.

The chatter of teeth seemed closer. Her sides tensed as her arms pulled in. She staggered to a halt.

Kennedy almost bumped into her. The first sergeant set a hand on Danielle’s shoulder. “Sorry,” she said. “Not any room to pass.”

The gray thing was gone. The sound of teeth was a faint echo. Two people in bright colors walked down another aisle, carrying garden tools and talking.

“Yeah, sorry,” said Danielle. She crossed her arms and grabbed her elbows. Her back was sweating. A cold sweat. She could feel it beading up.

A few quick steps and she caught up with the two men.

Lester hadn’t even noticed she’d fallen behind. He pointed at green beans and peas to be harvested, turned a corner, and pointed out more changes they were going to make. “Garlic’s like a weed up here,” he told them. “There’s some of it growing in pretty much every plot.”

“Too bad there wasn’t a vampire apocalypse,” said Cesar.

Lester grinned. “While you’re here,” he said to Danielle, “there’s a couple of rototillers I’d love to have you take a look at. It’d speed things up a lot if we could get them running again.”

Most of the plants were low to the ground. The overgrowth wrapped around fence posts and grew between slats and chicken wire. It was like wading through a wide, waist-deep pool of leaves and twisting vines and stems. A shredded shade umbrella hung like a tattered flag. Danielle took a deep breath. Her fingers bit into her arms.

Kennedy pointed at a thick patch of sprawling plants, one of the tallest things in the row. Their leaves looked like swollen ferns, and spiky purple flowers topped tall stalks. “What are those?”

“Artichokes,” said Lester with a smile.

“Really?”

He nodded. “The big flowers? That’s what happens to the part you eat if it isn’t harvested. Watch out for that,” he called to Cesar. “It’s a snare trap.”

The young man leaned away from the curved branch. “A what?”

“Believe it or not, we’ve got a rabbit problem,” Lester explained. He waved at the surrounding greenery. “Five years alone in here with all this let their population boom. There’s a couple hundred, at least. They were everywhere when we first showed up. There’s some cats and a fair amount of rats, too, but the rabbits are out of control. We’ve got snares set all through the garden.”

Kennedy’s mouth twitched. “A few people told me they had stew up here,” she said. “I thought they were joking.”

“It’s delicious,” said Lester. “And we’ve got sweet potatoes, carrots, lots of spices. I think it’s going to be a big draw to get people up here to work.”

“You’re killing bunny rabbits?” asked Cesar.

Lester looked at him and blinked twice. “Well, yes,” said the average man. “They’re a danger to the crops and a good source of meat, so it’s a win-win.”

“That’s messed up, bro. You know how much my niece would love to see a bunny?”

“Bunny rabbits?” echoed Kennedy.

Cesar shrugged.

“Believe me,” Lester said, “there’s no danger of us getting them all.”

Behind them, something rustled. Unsteady movement in one of the plots. Danielle turned, looked past Kennedy, and saw leaves moving. The teeth were near, the clicking was so close, and she was in the open.

Kennedy saw her staring and glanced back. “Something wrong?”

Danielle blinked. Two drops of cold sweat ran down her back. Another one ran between her breasts down to her stomach. “Are we…” She took another breath and turned around, forcing her hands down. “Are you sure it’s safe to be out like this?”

It was Lester’s turn to blink. “Pretty sure, yes.”

She grabbed the side of her pants and squeezed. “The whole place has been cleared? All the exes cleaned out?”

His face lit up again. “You don’t know?”

“Know what?”

“The story about this place? God, I