The pitch black shapeless shadows -Viruses- attacked a candy factory, likely attracted by the brilliant and vibrant colors of its products. They wriggled into what looked like gummy worms, animating them with life and changing what was candy into wryms at the larval stage.
The various Virus worms clustered together appearing as an amorphous translucent silhouette. It floated throughout the aboveground mostly empty city. Before long it targeted a teenage girl with navy blue hair. Fusing into her body the few minutes she was away from any of the adults present. She convulsed and whimpered in pain as the creatures settled inside her body.
Then she returned to normal as if the incident didn't happen and stepped on the helicopter to return home. Thanking her father for convincing her to come along with him on the trip.
**Earth; Underground Refugee City**
Vince admired the lustrous gardens and vivid flowers of his old tattered book about gardening. His green and brown eyes wide with fascination at what he saw.
Vince's eyes were an unusual color, brown on the bottom and green on the top, arranged in a diagonal position that couldn't have been for an ordinary human.
He sat in his chair at the underground orphanage reading, since he finished his math excercises and was waiting on the orphanage manager to check his work. Reading about plants was his favorite pastime as there were so many unique ones and plants were rare in the underground city he resided in.
Going to the aboveground wasn't permitted because of the dangerous existence known as Viruses which attacked humans and converted them into Viruses as well. Unless you had special permission, or were part of the Virus Resistance or were surveying the land like the big loud helicopters he'd heard about.
There was no approaching the stairways that led to the surface.
But he knew there was a garden near the surface, in a sort of middle ground between actually being on the surface where the buildings and helicopters were, and the safety of the underground refugee cities.
The environment was constantly monitored by gardeners and looked after since some gardens had food good for the people of the underground.
He wished to visit one but knew it would never happen.
"Your name's Vince Crylight right? Mine is Ado Lukas," a boy introduced. Ado looked strangely like him in terms of facial features and height. But Ado's eyes were blue grey. His clothes were like Vince's: grey sweatpants and sweatshirt with red stripes down the sides.
" You like plants, right Vince?" Ado asked causing him to look up again.
He nodded slowly. "Yeah.. why do you ask?"
"Wanna see real plants? Up close?" Ado asked.
His eyes lit up, book forgotten "yeah definitely!"
"Well one of the times I ran away I noticed something. There's a gap in the times a guard will be around. Let's go check out the garden at the end of the street," Ado commented.
Being a foolish seven year old kid, he agreed.
Sneaking out and approaching the greenhouse on the corner. Carefully hiding in the long shadows of the buildings in the poorly lit world he called home. Ado kept telling him to shush and keep quiet so they wouldn't get caught and scolded. But somehow his attempts to be serious felt awkward and funny.
He wondered with glee of the plants he would see. Would they look as colorful as they do in the picture books?
Even so, the greenhouse was dangerously close to the surface, where the viruses could potentially be out looking for humans to consume.
Vince looked at the numerous helicopters and flight craft. The noise was unpleasant but they were good ways of keeping time with their given options.
The rotation was every thirty minutes; he felt that was enough time to at least look at the garden and come back. If he got caught on the way back the guards would probably assume he was trying to go to the surface because he didn't understand the dangers and 'put a stop to it' after he made a show of being unable to handle the helicopter noise.
They quickly darted in when the closest helicopter sounded far enough away. The allure of the picture perfect garden, to someone who spent his entire short life underground, it was a utopia.
"Hey Ado why did you do this for me?" He asked admiring a white Lily.
"I always see you reading books all by yourself. It seems more sophisticated than me running away all the time." Ado looked a bit bashful.
"I'd hoped that by doing something cool like this I'd get your attention and we can be friends." He admitted, standing on his tiptoes to look at a flower Vince hadn't seen in his picture books before.
He felt his mouth open in wonder as he looked at the vivid green plants. He looked at the smaller flowers, dandelions, patches of clovers.
The lights overhead seemed stronger than the lamps used in the city. They were brighter and hurt his eyes a bit but he focused more on the greenery and the empty spots with labels of what he recognized to be fruits.
Then he stopped short.
"Why'd you stop-" Ado froze in surprise.
Face to face with them was a girl.
If her attire wasn't so bizarre it might have been pretty.
Her skin tone was deathly pale, almost unflatteringly so in comparison to those he'd heard of to have alabaster skin. Her navy blue hair, as he and his friend stared at her in terrified silence was adorned with a translucent headband decorated with molded gummy worms in green.
"Do you work h-here?" Ado asked nervously.
Her eyes stared at them, empty and blank.
Her dress is short and puffy, with a sleeveless black top with shiny lines and a dark blue skirt with gooey gummy worms, in hues of green, pink and blue, with a dripy cut and a dark blue sheer underskirt, in ruffles. The top, around the arms and neck, has red, navy and black gooey dripping material, framing the dress sleeves and neckline.
She took a step forward.
Her boots are wedged with wrapped red and green translucent gummy worms all around and in the heel. To add to the unsettling air, all the worms appeared to be wriggling a little. Vince recoiled as he realized that they were moving.
She was most likely a Virus. Or she was a normal human infected by one.
In either case, apparently she had thought it a good idea to seek refuge there. Poorly timed with their escapade.
He swallowed hard.
"Uh--" his voice cracked on that alone and he hadn't even said anything. Her gaze focused intensely on him. He took a step back unsure what would be the best course for action.
"....here," she said vaguely. Her hand extended as if she were going to touch one of them.
They bolted as he processed the worm-like creatures extended from her as if to touch them.
*'I read somewhere that things - living things that are brightly colored... Are very often -not always but *often*.....'* he couldn't help but think as he charged fearfully through the garden, pulling his new friend with him.
The worms swarmed towards Ado, latching on to every part of his body as he howled in terror, praying someone would be around by now to help.
The swarm caught up to Ado just as Vince reached a door.
*'Poisonous.'*
"YEEEAAÀAAAAARRRRGGHHH!!" He howled in agony. Screaming in pain until Ado blacked out.
"Ado-!!" Vince yelled.
"I'm inspector Sage Mandarin " the man before him introduced himself. He wore a dusty looking beige coat.
"Inspector Mandarin, may I ask what you know of this situation?" The orphanage manager asked.
"We're investigating what you were doing in the southern garden on the peak of
A guard noticed a disturbance among the greenhouse. We were called and found this boy alone with a dead girl around 15. He was crying hysterically."
The orphanage manager gasped in shock.
"Vince I've told you about going places without telling me! It's the first rule of the orphanage!" She scolded.
"I'm not lying...! My friend Ado Lukas was there too! He should be found! I wanna know where he is!" He insisted, shaking the Manager's arm.
"He claims that when he came to, his friend was gone and the mystery girl was on the ground," the man next to Mandarin added helpfully.
"Your friend's physical description sounds a lot like yours... You sure he wasn't some imaginary friend?" Mandarin responded.
Vince looked offended "I didn't dream up Ado!"
"Oh the other boy ... His name is Ado Lukas and he does look similar to Vince." The orphanage manager remarked while signing some paperwork.
"He's one of my wards who feels the care here isn't enough for him. So he's often running off and getting into trouble. Although many of the children are happy here." She explained calmly.