Patient Zero: Messiah of Thorns

Chapter 6

"Nico! Wake up! Not now, please!"

Elena shook Nico's shoulder frantically. The man was still slumped, his breathing heavy and irregular, while his golden-yellow eyes stared blankly at the cabin ceiling. Outside, shadows emerging from behind the ash fog began to move. They were no longer just standing. They ran—fast, agile, and filled with a hunger that Elena could feel even through the cracked bulletproof glass.

"Damn it, damn it!" Elena cursed, tears of frustration welling up. "Nico, if you don't wake up, we're both going to end up as plant fertilizer!"

Nico groaned softly. His voice was no longer human. It was a low-frequency hum that made Elena's ears ring painfully. Nico tried to move his hands, but his muscles seemed locked by the mutation that had just erupted, holding him in Sovereign's grip.

"Sovereign..." Nico whispered hoarsely. "It's... calling."

"Ignore the call! Focus on me!" Elena grabbed Nico's seatbelt and pulled it with all her might. She had to move this man. The Thorn-Breaker needed a driver, and even though she had only ever driven a small sedan around campus, she had no other choice. Her survival instinct screamed loudly.

"Move to the passenger seat, Nico. Quickly!"

Nico moved like a zombie, half-conscious, dragging his body over the narrow center console. Elena climbed past him, taking the driver's seat, which still felt hot from Nico's mutation energy. The smell of gasoline, sweat, and a sweet nectar filled the cabin. Elena gripped the rough iron steering wheel. Her feet barely reached the pedals, but adrenaline gave her extra strength.

"How do I operate this monster?" Elena yelled to herself, her eyes sweeping across the dashboard filled with unfamiliar panels and buttons.

"Clutch... press the clutch..." Nico mumbled from the passenger seat. His head rested against the side window, his eyes slowly changing back to a dim red, fighting against the golden-yellow that had just taken over.

Elena stomped hard on the left pedal. She pulled the heavy-feeling transmission lever, finding first gear. The V8 engine under the front hood roared, shaking the truck's entire steel frame. The Thorn-Breaker lurched forward, crashing into the wreck of a sedan blocking the road.

"Good job, Elena. I didn't destroy the engine," Elena whispered, praising herself with a trembling voice, relieved.

She gunned the vehicle up onto the collapsed overpass in front of them. This road was an artery of Chicago, a concrete labyrinth now filled with thousands of cars abandoned during the massive evacuation five years ago. The iron wrecks were stacked like dominoes ready to fall.

CRASH!

The steel plow on the front of the Thorn-Breaker slammed into the line of cars, tossing them aside as if they were made of cardboard. Elena kept her foot on the gas, her eyes fixed on the rearview mirror. There, she saw them.

"Nico, what are those creatures? They're crawling on the building walls!"

Nico lifted his head with difficulty. On the sides of the skyscrapers they passed, thin figures with extraordinarily long arms leaped from balcony to balcony. They moved with an agility impossible for ordinary living creatures.

"Snatchers," Nico's voice began to return to normal, though still sounding tired. "They're aerial hunters. They won't chase you on the ground. They'll drop right on top of us."

As if in answer to Nico's words, a large shadow slid from the tenth floor of a ruined hotel. The creature landed with a heavy thud on the roof of the Thorn-Breaker's cabin. The thick metal above Elena's head bent inward, followed by the sound of sharp claws scraping steel.

"They're on the roof! Nico!"

"Stay on course, Elena! Don't hit the brakes!" Nico tried to stand, his hands searching for a grip on the cabin ceiling. "Give me the weapon."

"You're still too weak!"

"Or do we let them tear off this roof and take our heads?" Nico interjected sharply.

Elena grabbed a large, modified wrench from under her seat and handed it to Nico. The man gripped the cold metal. For a moment, the veins in his arms glowed brightly, channeling crimson energy into the mechanical tool until its iron began to shine reddish.

"Maintain speed. Whatever happens, don't stop," Nico commanded.

Nico opened the small hatch in the cabin roof. A strong wind carrying spores and the smell of death immediately rushed in. Nico jumped out, half his body on the roof of the vehicle speeding through the debris of the overpass.

Elena stared at the front rearview mirror, trying to focus on the winding road between the gaps of collapsed buildings. She could hear impact sounds above her head. The high-pitched growls of the Snatchers competed with the roar of the engine.

"Nico! There are two more on the left!" Elena yelled, seeing the creatures crawling on dangling telephone wires.

"I know!" Nico shouted back from above.

Elena could feel the truck sway each time Nico struck. Up there, Nico fought with cold fury. A Snatcher tried to grab Nico's shoulder with its long, thorn-covered hand. Nico dodged, twisted his body, and slammed the energy-charged wrench directly into the creature's face.

The Snatcher's head burst, spewing thick fluid that instantly evaporated from the heat of the crimson energy. However, a second Snatcher had already leaped from the opposite direction, knocking Nico down until he was almost thrown from the roof of the truck, which was traveling at one hundred kilometers per hour.

"NICO!"

"Focus on the road, Elena! Left! Turn left!"

Elena slammed the steering wheel to the left. The truck's tires screeched, almost skidding on the slick layer of ash. The truck slammed into the concrete road barrier, tearing through it, and continued speeding along the edge of the steep overpass. The violent jolt made the Snatcher pinning Nico lose its balance.

Nico didn't waste the opportunity. Crystal thorns on his back instantly shot out, piercing through the Snatcher's body and out the other side. The creature shrieked piteously before Nico hurled it down from the overpass.

Nico climbed back into the cabin through the hatch, panting, his body covered in foul-smelling mutant fluid. The thorns on his back retracted, leaving new tears in the already destroyed passenger seat.

"Are you okay?" Elena asked, her eyes still fixed on the road. Her hands felt stiff from gripping the steering wheel too tightly.

"Just keep going," Nico whispered. He looked at his trembling hands. "You drive well for a scientist."

"Don't mock me. I feel like throwing up every time that plow hits a car," Elena retorted, her voice sounding more stable than before. Something had changed within her. The paralyzing fear was beginning to be replaced by a pure instinct for survival. The world outside Chicago left no room for doubt.

"Up ahead, the road narrows!" Elena yelled.

The overpass had partially collapsed, leaving only a single narrow lane blocked by the wreck of a school bus. Elena had no time to think. She pressed the gas pedal deeper.

"The Thorn-Breaker won't let us down!" Nico encouraged, his hand gripping the dashboard to steady himself.

The Thorn-Breaker slammed into the school bus with full force. The sound of tearing metal was horrific, deafening. The truck tilted to the right, one wheel almost going over the edge of the collapsed overpass, sending sparks into the darkness below. Elena let out a small scream, but she didn't release the gas.

With one final jolt, they broke through the bus barricade. The Thorn-Breaker landed back on all four wheels with a heavy thud that made its suspension groan.

"We made it," Elena whispered, her heart pounding so hard she could feel it in her throat.

However, the relief lasted only a few seconds. As they descended the overpass ramp towards the main highway below, Nico suddenly sat bolt upright in his seat. His eyes, once again, turned golden-yellow.

"Elena, brake! Brake now!"

"What? Why?"

"BRAKE!"

Elena stomped on the brake pedal with all her might. The truck's large tires locked, dragging the heavy vehicle across the asphalt for a dozen meters before finally coming to a complete stop with a pungent cloud of tire smoke.

Elena stared ahead, her breath caught in her throat.

The road in front of them was no longer a road. It was a living wall. A giant vertical garden had grown to cover the entire width of the highway, climbing up onto the surrounding buildings. The plants were not green. It was a labyrinth of crimson tendrils as thick as a human body, filled with giant rose blossoms whose petals pulsed slowly, emitting an eerie red glow.

"This isn't an ordinary Briar Patch," Nico whispered, his voice filled with horror. "This is Sovereign's nervous system. We've entered its heart."

Behind them, the roars of hundreds of Bloomers began to sound again. They had pursued them from beneath the overpass. Ahead, an impassable dead end.

Elena looked at Nico, her eyes searching for an answer. "Nico, what do we do? We can't ram that wall."

Nico didn't answer. He stared at the giant roses in front of him. Suddenly, their petals began to open, releasing a pale red gas whose aroma was far stronger than anything they had ever smelled.

"Hallucinogenic gas," Nico said, his voice weakening, his pupils dilating. "Close your air mask, Elena. Quick!"

Elena fumbled for her mask, but her hands felt heavy, as if her own mind was weighing them down. Her vision began to waver. She saw the roses not as plants, but as the faces of people she knew. The faces of her research colleagues who died on the plane. Her father's face, looking disappointed.

"Nico... I see them..." Elena mumbled.

Nico gripped Elena's shoulder, but he himself was beginning to be affected. A shadow of himself—a monstrous version with thorns covering his entire body, his eyes golden-yellow—began to appear in the windshield, staring at him with a cold gaze that threatened his identity.

"It's not real, Elena! Don't listen to its voice!"

But outside, the crimson tendrils began to move forward, slowly creeping towards the Thorn-Breaker, which stood silent in the middle of the dead end. One large tendril began to wrap around the front of the truck, squeezing the steel plow with a force that slowly began to bend the solid metal.

"Nico... I'm sorry," Elena whispered, her hands falling from the steering wheel, completely affected by the hallucinogen.

Nico tried to grab the controls, but the monstrous shadow within him now leaped towards him, whispering words that made his soul tremble. He felt his consciousness being pulled in, sucked into Sovereign's ocean.

"Welcome home, Subject 01."