I slowly wake up, inside of a small cave room, with neon crystals and rocks embedded into the ground. The ground seems to be made of grey bumpy rocks.
"I- hu-an aw-ke?" A voice asks out of nowhere, to my right. The voice seems motherly, almost. I turn my head lazily to the right, as I see a plantix gootraxian standing just feet away from me. "..wh..." I try talking, but am unable to due to my dizziness. My head spins, as I take notice of the plantix in front of me. I weakly back up against the wall, until the plantix puts their paws up in the air, showing me they mean no harm. "I-Is this a trick!" I blurt out.
"If o-ly h-man- cou-d un-ersta-d us.." The voice says again. "W-who is saying t-that!" I exclaim. The plantix tilts its head at me, then turning to a shade to their right. The shade stares at me, curiously, while I just sit there, with my head spinning, unable to process what has happened. "Human..c-n you un-erstand us..?" The voice asks again, becoming more clear with its words. "..wh..is that..are you talking to me?! Is that voice you!?" I exclaim. "Yeah!" The voice replies.
The shade to my left begins to talk. "I thought humans would never be able to talk to us...what's up with this dude?" The shade asks, motioning to me. "I don't know..." The plantix says. "..I- this can't be happening.." I mumble to myself. "Ya might've found one of them...crazy people." The shade says. "He's not crazy! He's..completely mentally well!" The plantix says.
"..I..somebody please tell me what is going on..my body feels like it's on fire.." I say. "..well...we thought you were dead! We heard a thud and we decided to check it out! That's when we saw you..passed out. We couldn't just leave you there!" The plantix says. "..I..passed out..mmkay.." I say. "You're not like the others..." The shade says.
I sit in silence. "Anyways! Moving on...I haven't done any proper introductions yet! My name is Flora, and this is Shade!" The plantix says, pointing to the shade. "What's your name?" Flora asks. "I...my name is Ja...Jake." I reply. "Nice to meet you, Jake!" Flora says, reaching a paw forward to hand shake. I look down at my normal, human hands, sighing in relief before taking my right hand out and shaking Flora's paw. Once we finish the hand shake, I set my hand back down to my side.
"..why..why did you take me here?" I ask. It's silence for a few seconds. "We couldn't just leave you there..so we picked you up and took you to our secret cave!" Flora replies, with a hint of sadness. "..but..why?" I ask. "Well, first off, your ears look like a manic's, and whenever Flora finds a gootraxian hurt or passed out, she tends to..have motherly affection towards them." Shade says. I cover my ears in embarrassment.
"..but..I'm not a gootraxian.." I say. "Yeah. Flora thinks of you as one of her own though." Shade says. I take my hands off of my ears, and put them back down to my sides. "Well it's good that I took him in, because if I didn't, then one of the guards would have found him, and made him a subject!" Flora says. "All you did was tell me to pick him up and bring him here." Shade says. "Because you're stronger than me! I can't lift 140 pounds of flesh!" Flora protests. "Whatever." Shade says, scoffing.
"..I..I need to get back to a friend of mine.." I say. "There are guards EVERYWHERE. You'd have a better chance of living if you jumped off of a mountain!" Shade says. "..yeah..those guards are going to catch you and lock you up!" Flora says. "..but..they won't." I say. "...how so?" Shade asks. "..well..they all think that the manic ears on my head are fake. They think someone pranked me, and super glued these things to my head." I reply. The whole cave is silent.
"They must be more stupid than I thought." Shade says. "..I..I feel uncomfortable..." I say. "How so?" Shade asks. I turn my head slowly to him. "..I..I don't feel comfortable around..gootraxians.." I say. "Oh great, another case of the racists!" Shade says. "Wh- I'm not- I'm not being racist!" I exclaim. "Well ya sure are acting like it." Shade replies. "..I- I'm not!" I exclaim. "Tell me why you don't feel comfortable around gootraxians then." Shade says.
"B-because..I- I have trust issues with highly infectious goo creatures!" I exclaim. "Fair point." Shade mumbles. "..but..you're already becoming a gootraxian! Why would we harm our own kind?" Flora asks. "..I...I'm human..I'm not supposed to- I'm supposed to keep my humanity!" I exclaim. "Well you're clearly not doing a good job at it." Shade says.
"Shade!" Flora exclaims. "Don't start being mean to Jake already! We just met him!" Flora says. "Alright, alright.." Shade says. "Anyways, I'm just so excited to finally meet a human that can talk with us! Maybe you can help us with talking to the staff here!" Flora says with excitement. "..I..I don't think I can.." I say. "Well..why not?" Flora asks. I stay silent for a few seconds. "..because..I work here." I reply. Flora and Shade stay silent. "You're..not a subject?" Flora asks. "..uh..nope.." I reply. "I will still take care of you!" Flora exclaims, walking up to me and hugging me.
Her body feels warm, solid, and gooey at the same time. "You know this guy is a scientist, right?" Shade asks. "..and?" Flora asks, still hugging me. "Scientists are the people who ruined our lives, Flora." Shade says. "Wh..what? But..all I know is I am plantix! How did..they ruin our lives?" Flora asks. "For Christ's sake, Flora...you don't remember?" Shade asks. "..all I remember is being born in a cell.." Flora says. "Oh yeah, riiight..you lost your memories.." Shade says. Flora just tilts her head at this, letting go of the hug she put me in.
Shade goes silent once again. "Sometimes all people need is a hug!" Flora exclaims. "..uh..sure..yeah..." I say. "What is it like..working here?" Flora asks. "Uh...stressful." I reply. "That doesn't sound good.." Flora says. "I mean..the pay is nice..I guess." I say. "What is pay?" Flora asks. "It's...how do I explain this..uhh...like..we do a job, and we get paid money for it. And we can use money to buy things like food from stores." I say. "Ooooohhhh, I think I get it now! Why do we not get pay?" Flora asks. "Uhh..I'm not sure." I say, not wanting to get any deeper into this.
I suddenly hear a faint noise of the intercom.
"Testing will begin shortly. Scientists, be ready to pick a subject to test on."
"..I..what?" I ask. "Oh no..no..no..nononono! Friends are going to get tested on! Please don't give our spot away new friend!" Flora says, almost begging. "..I..won't. But how can I get out of here without attracting attention?" I ask. "We have a cave system thing! It goes to a bush in the garden!" Flora says with glee. "..a..what?" I ask. "A cave system! Not a cave..but a tunnel! We used it to get here!" Flora exclaims. She points to a hole with a ladder made of dirt inside it, going down.
"..is that how I get out..?" I ask. "Yeah! Just..use that! I hope to see you again, new friend!" Flora exclaims. "..uhh...yeah..sure..sometime..soon.." I say, going down the dirt ladder. The hole goes down about ten feet before going straight forward, then a left turn. I walk straight under the tunnel, and surprisingly, there is just enough room for me to stand. As soon as I reach a corner, I turn left, and see another dirt ladder twenty feet ahead. I walk to the ladder, climbing up into a bush.
The bush is just made of leaves to my relief. No spikes, goo, or anything else. I finish climbing up the ladder, and I poke my head through the bush. I immediately see Dr. L recoil to the wall. He grasps his heart, before calming down. "You almost gave me a heart attack! Is this revenge or something?" Dr. L asks. I then crawl out of the bush. "No..I didn't mean to scare you..." I say. "Wait- Why were you even in that bush? You're no damn plant gootraxian!" Dr. L says, before chuckling.
"..uh...I was looking for something." I say, not wanting to tell him about the secret cave. "Looking for what?" Dr. L asks, raising an eyebrow. "..uh..something." I reply. "What something?" Dr. L asks. Silence engulfs the garden. "..something." I reply, simply. "You're definitely lying about something, I'm not stupid." Dr. L says with suspicion. "..I can't really tell you." I say. "Whaaaaattt? Why not? You can trust me, maaannnn!" Dr. L says. "I..it's a secret." I say.
"Well I'm damn good at keeping secrets!" Dr. L says. 'Is he trying to peer pressure me?' I think to myself. "I'm not telling you." I say. "What can you tell me about then?" Dr. L asks. "..uh...I passed out...and used the syringe you gave to me." I say. "Damn. You already used it?" Dr. L asks. "..yeah." I reply. "Alright..well..I'm going to have to get you another one..." Dr. L says. "Uh..okay.." I say, as he begins walking off. "Stay there!" Dr. L says, hastily walking to the elevators.
I am left in a feeling of complete loneliness, until someone grabs me by the shoulder. "Dr. Wesson." A familiar voice says behind me. They take their hand off my shoulder as I turn around. It's Harry. "I'm going to offer you something Wesson." Harry says. "..uh..y-yeah..?" I ask. "M-Ext. I'm offering you to watch it.." Harry says. "..uh..what is M-Ext?" I ask. "Confidential, for now. Anyways, follow me!" Harry says, motioning for me to follow him.
"Sir..I just got asked to watch something that I have no information about. Also, I'm supposed to stay here, and wait for Dr. L." I say. "No! Wesson..you must see this! It's part of your pay! Now follow me!" Harry exclaims, in a demanding demeanor. "..but..." I say, before getting cut off. "NO BUTS! Follow me.." Harry says, sounding more demanding. I sigh, closing my eyes, before opening them once again, walking with Harry.
After a few minutes of walking, he brings me to a door with an ID card reader on it. Harry takes out his ID card, and scans it on the reader. The door clicks, and then slides open. Inside the room is two button doors. Harry presses a button on the door to the left, revealing a staircase. He walks up the staircase, and motions for me to follow. I follow behind him, revealing a large research room with a large window to my right. The room I am currently in has chairs, tables, research equipment, and other things.
I peek through the large window, and what I see looks just like the garden. There are four trees, a few bushes, and the floor made entirely out of grass. What catches my eye the most however, is blood stains on the ground and walls. Harry steps up to the glass, with his hands behind his back. "This is the arena. Don't be alarmed by the blood and goo all over." Harry says. "..wh..what is going to happen?" I ask. "M-Ext. Have you ever thought about what that could mean?" Harry asks. "..yeah..ever since you told me.." I reply. "M-Ext is short for 'Manic Extermination'."