Sjdtx

" ████ ██ █████ ██ ██ ████ "

## A MONSTER, EMERGING FROM;

It cracked, groaned, whined. One alien-like rock-covered arm reached out after another, gripping onto the earth for dear life as the monster climbed out of a deep, dark, damp hole made by mother nature herself. Shaking, thoughtless, a mutated figure emerged, holding onto a smooth, white surface found above the uncovered cave. It was a familiar sight, damaged over years and years of neglect and pressure built from the cave system it was built into.

The mutated figure groaned deeply once more, making its full way to the surface of the half-pristine room. An almost magma-like substance being left from the hole where it crawled from, becoming the only source of luminance. Allowing dead, pin-prick eyes to scan every familiar feature within the white interior of the building, Fluorescent lights dangling from their original bed, cracked and unpowered. The roof and trims, adorned in weathered copper, falling apart and scattering to the floor below. A shallow pit running along both the left and right side of the room, filled with solid igneous rock. Red vegetation spread through visible cracks from the walls and floors, similar to that found growing, almost pulsating within the being's own body, moving. Almost as if the humanoid itself was infected itself, the vegetation, parasitic to the almost functional monster's own mind.

This is the Bloodvine.

## AN UNDERGROUND LABRATORY;

Stakes in ground, men and women trading lightly towards the debris from the crash site, home to disrupted alien technology too complex for a human's mind to decipher. Samples of rubble being taken back to gazebos now positioned surrounding the crash. The head of a bizarre, foreign vine taken within heavy glass tanks. When cut, a thick, red substance oozes from the vine, almost as if it has veins travelling through every part of the living plant. Emitting orange and red spore-like deemed unsafe and hostile to a human being's anatomy.

Those unfortunate enough to be exposed to these parasitic spores are euthanized on site, or taken into custody for inhumane experiments, making the patient beg for the hands of death to take their pleads for mercy.

The studies conducted by astrobiologists were projected to take as long as three and a half decades. Government officials giving the all-clear to allow these studies to continue with time, allowing this branch of scientists to place a sterile environment deep within the ground, close to the alien's crash site. Within the next few years, only half of this building was complete. Walls built with a white material, able to sustain the pressure built up from the low environment. Seemingly bottomless pits allowing lava to traverse through drainlike structures and heavy duty pipes without heating the working environment. Copper taken as decoration and adored the entire structure. Dark, almost metallic stone accenting and used as a cooling mechanism throughout the building. Rooms shot from a main hall, acting as a courtyard type structure for scientists within. Accommodation, labs, storage, dining facilities. This structure was livable, and far from finished. This building was dubbed *The Vault.*

Soon, a certain laboratory was put into place on the right side of the court, housing the alien lifeform and those who wished to study it.

The peculiar flora was soon tentatively named the *Bloodvine.* This wasn't an Everglow based plant. Everglow didn't even have bright red, near glowing vegetation which wriggled and writhed at the touch of an uninfected human. Everglow didn't have something that spread the moment it touched fresh grass, oak trees. The planet didn't have something that changed the anatomy of that infected by this worrisome parasite.

Thus, a wall was erected around the crash site, acting like a dome in the attempt to help contain the spread of this unknown vine.

## A WOMAN, A FOOL;

Determined, headstrong. Almost blinded by the fantastical findings of alien flora, a woman stood in front of a glass jar housing the writhing, alive parasite threatening a biological hazard to those who dared to enter the walls of the Vault. Equipped with a full body suit already tailored to suit the hostile environment of the vine, she was sent to collect samples from the crash site, deep from its core rather than from the surface and what had originally been gathered. Surprisingly, hesitant humans refused to enter the site in fear of infection, in fear of the corruption caused by the vine.

Except for this woman, dubbed a fool, cretin, idiot. *There's no way that you'll make it into the site and live - in one piece!* Rumoured by the colleagues within the Vault's walls. Did she listen? No, no!

Boots crushing once pure dirt, compacting it back towards the earth. Heat emitted from the core of the crash, almost beckoning a soul to enter, to fall and become one with unfamiliar life forms. A Kevlar rope essentially attached to a harness, fitted on the woman's shoulders and body in case of extreme emergency. The woman looked back at the lead team of scientists guiding her through what needs to be gathered from the core below.

Peering below, a lavalike substance filled the bottom of the site. Roots from grass and trees framing the hole created, now red, wriggling with the infection of the vine. Dirt below now turned into more of a mixture of hard stone and sediment. Unknown metals, brittle from the crash spread across the surrounding area and the impact zone. Told to pick up as much as she could, she made her way, climbing into the hole below.

## TAKING HER FINAL GASPING BREATHS;

Upon her ascent from the hole, gathering more than enough specimens to put the biologists ahead of the game, something happened that would end up changing this woman's life forever. Thrashing against the environmental suit, the roots found within corrupted soil bashed and threatened to enter and rip the only protection that she had. In fact, the suit was the only thing made within the Everglow planet that could dare to withstand the forces at play. In an attempt to hurry to the top of the site, squirming vines pierced the suit, violently attacking exposed skin beneath. In a desperate attempt to get up and become free, the fool begged for a helping hand. To which she was assisted, cleaned up at the end of the day. Decontaminated within a laboratory, something was incredibly off. She was admitted to research immediately.

Her skin almost becoming like shale, eyes bloodshot, itchy and red. A sense of restlessness emitted from her very being, confined in an isolation room. Infected by this parasite, garbling words barely making out the phrase, *Spread it, spread it, it must contaminate everything!*

...

She was taken out of her misery that same night. It wasn't that doctors and researchers couldn't bare to see her suffer, they couldn't - wouldn't risk the potential to become what she was turning into. A mindless zombie, thoughtless. Her body contorting into something that shouldn't be possible. That woman's body was shortly disposed of the following morning. Thrown into a pit located at the bottom of a ravine found on the inside during of the Vault's creation. A horrible way of disposing rock, infected matter. There was no care for the potential biohazardous conditions that may arise from uncared for disposal.

In fact, over the course of a period of time, the vine spread quickly. Unrelentlessly. Everything within the walls became infected. Life was given to things that would have never seen sentience within a normal world. Including crops, flora, rocks even. Trees felt alive.

Corpses became reanimated.

## SUCCUMBED TO AN ALIEN PARASITE'S INFECTION;

Rising above the ground, a familiar setting was where the humanoid mutant was left. Climbing up further however, escaping white walls and towards the entrance of this laboratory-like structure a familiar warmth from Everglow's sun brushed over a corrupted land. The monster had the thought of touching the grass below, only to see an attempt of spreading a parasite be cancelled by the fact that the entire land that it stood upon was already a deep crimson.

A feeling couldn't be shaken. Spread it more.

Looking upon and around, a hanging location nearby the entrance to the Vault was soon spotted. Worn down copper and lava spewed from the small location. The rock being approached slowly. Only to find out years down the track that a life-long bond would be made with a few beings similarly being used as a host by the virus. One being, a steam golem, worn down and forgotten to time, proposed the ambitious idea of creating an empire, one to assist the spread of the vine.

Another, an alien, joined with the creation. They explained and studied the virus to the best that an alien lifeform could. Showcased findings to those within the potential empire.

Another simply farmed on infected soil. Its a mystery to know how incredible those carrots turn out every single harvest.

The four vastly different souls now work together to create something fantastic, unbeatable. A place, and empire, capable and strong. Hosts of an alien virus, headstrong. Desire to spread, conquer. Their empire, their achievements.

This was soon to be known,