Leave my comrade or burn the Plant 42.
This choice is so easy.
"Burn them!" I ordered my companions, who were staring at me in shock.
"Don't think about the supplies, think about your life!"
While it was a shame, I could guess these foods were probably contaminated already. Roots had already taken over the ground, and the warehouse itself was dirty and stank.
And that Plant 42 was the source of all trouble. I couldn't let it survive. My gut instinct was telling me it was dangerous to be near this thing.
"These roots have covered the whole area, the food and the water must have been contaminated already!"
I reasoned, trying to convince the soldiers with me.
"Remember the mutated zombies? One of the files I read mentioned this plant. It can spread the infection by roots. They will spread to the whole city, and that means more dangerous infected!"
I knew it from Resident Evil games. But it would work to convince these people. I had already lied about the lab thing earlier, and I knew these two soldiers would believe in my words.
Behind this area was forest. If Plant 42 ever took roots there... I couldn't even imagine the number of zombie hordes it could summon. This must be destroyed!
"But..." Private Clark still tried to protest.
"No, Busujima is right, we can't take the risk of spreading more infection." Corporal Williams finally said, his eyes fixed on the giant tree in the middle of the warehouse.
"Corporal..." The man sighed, but didn't argue further.
"How many grenades do you bring, Private Clark?" Williams then turned and looked at him.
I didn't say anything because he didn't ask. Well, I also didn't exactly hide the two hand grenades on my vest. The two of them stared at my vest for a while before looking up at me.
"Do you know something we must be careful of?" Williams asked me.
"Just make sure to dodge anything that comes to you. And there is a nucleus. If we destroy that, then we kill this mutated plant."
"So helpful." Clark sighed.
"I am just telling the truth. By the way, the nucleus is that pink core in the middle of this room."
"Fine, let's do this." William nodded. "We will split and try to destroy it from three directions. Be careful not to shoot each other."
I took a deep breath and reloaded my rifle. The first magazine had been used up and the second had 5 bullets left. I still had 4 full magazines, which meant a total of 85 bullets.
How different was this Plant 42 from the one in the game, I don't know. I only hoped it wasn't that much different and we could kill it with firepower. Finding the chemical that would help kill this thing wasn't on the table right now, so we only had the old-fashioned method.
We spread to three different directions, preparing our rifles.
Zombies also present in this room, the mutated type that were stronger than a normal one. Their bodies were bloated and had purple veins pulsing. Their movements were slow, but they were also tough. We didn't have the time to deal with them right now.
I looked at my companion and saw that they were also in the ready position. The three of us nodded and fired our weapons at the same time.
With Corporal Williams' shout, we emptied our rounds and violated the tree with our bullets. It screamed, a high-pitched shrieking voice. It sounded like a human being in agony. The sound of it was ear piercing, almost causing me to cover my ears.
Private Clark screamed in pain and covered his ears with his hands. His eyes were red with tears, his face was pale. The same condition could be seen at Corporal Williams.
However, I was fine. I quickly reloaded when the Plant 42 transformed.
Its bark opened up, like a flower bloomed.
Vines moved like a whip, lashing and flailing around. Its tip was made from a hard and spiky wood, so if you get hit by that, you could expect your skin to peel off like a paper.
And then the nucleus itself.
Tentacle-like appendage appeared, each one was dripping sticky fluid that smelled like an acid. It dripped to the ground and sizzled, corroding the concrete below. I couldn't believe my eyes. The acid was that potent?
Maybe this was a prototype, not the actual Plant 42. However, that didn't change its danger level.
"Fire in the hole!" Clark threw the grenade toward the opened nucleus.
The small object arched beautifully.
However, whether it was due to Clark being distracted by the scream earlier or the wind suddenly blowing stronger, the grenade flew at a slow speed.
As a result? It could be imagined.
One of the vine-like appendages hit the grenade and redirected it.
If it flew toward an empty space, then that would be good. Unfortunately, the grenade flew toward me at a fast speed.
I quickly jumped away and rolled to dodge.
It exploded and sent a shockwave enough to push me forward. I flew like a ragdoll and fell to the ground, rolling on my stomach. I quickly stood up and looked back at my companions.
Clark and Williams were fine, but Clark looked shocked.
"Hey, are you okay?!" He yelled in worry, his voice trembled a bit.
"Yeah!" I gave him a thumbs up and repositioned myself. I jumped on the piling box to get a better look of my enemy. "Corporal Williams!"
The second grenade flew from Williams and exploded on the pink core of the plant, sending a shockwave strong enough to blow my ears off.
Green mucus and pieces of flesh flew in every direction as a result of that. The smell was awful. It was like rotten eggs mixed with dead rats' smell.
The appendages and tentacles slacked down to the ground but the vines were still active. The plant was weakened. We just had to attack that thing a bit more to destroy it completely.