The Apocalypse Survivor Who Can Plant Memories

Chapter 8: Garden of Thorns

Kael’s heavy boot ground harder into Vinícius’s ribs, pinning him against the lush, impossible green of the clover. The bandit leader’s face was inches away, his breath a foul cocktail of stale tobacco and rot.

"What was that, kid?" Kael sneered, his hand tightening around Vinícius’s collar. "I didn't quite catch that over the sound of your world ending."

"I said," Vinícius gasped, his voice cracking as a surge of amber light flickered in the depths of his pupils, "get. Off. My. Lawn."

[Emergency Protocol: 'Salted Earth' rejected by Host.]

[Alternative Defensive Synthesis Selected: 'The Black-Thorn Bramble'.]

[Cognitive Load: Maximum. Proceed?]

Yes, Vinícius screamed internally. Do it before he breaks me!

"You're still talking?" Kael laughed, glancing back at his men. "Did you hear him? He thinks he’s got a say in—"

Kael’s sentence was cut short by a sound like a thousand dry bones snapping at once. The ground beneath the green clover didn't just tremble; it heaved.

"Vin! Look out!" Gabriela screamed from the doorway, her knife already out.

"Back off, Kael!" Vinícius roared.

Black, obsidian-edged vines tore through the soil with a violent, wet screech. They didn't grow like plants; they erupted like shrapnel. One vine, thick as a man’s arm and covered in four-inch serrated spikes, whipped upward, catching Kael’s leather duster and flinging him backward.

"What the hell!?" one of the bandits yelled, stumbling as the earth buckled beneath him. "The grass! It’s turning into knives!"

"Don't just stand there, you idiots!" Kael scrambled to his feet, his duster shredded. "Kill him! Shoot the gardener!"

"I don't think so," Vinícius hissed. He slammed his palm into the dirt, ignoring the way his vision was fracturing into static. "Spread! Cover the perimeter! Don't let them touch the tree!"

"Vin, you're bleeding again!" Gabriela shouted, rushing toward him even as the thorns twisted around the house like a protective cage. "Stop it! You’re going to blow a vessel!"

"I’m fine, Gab! Just get back!"

"You are not fine! Look at the sky! You're draining everything!"

The sky above the street corner was no longer just grey; it was swirling into a localized vortex of ash and amber light. The thorns continued to multiply, forming a wall of jagged, twitching metal-wood that hummed with a predatory frequency.

"It’s coming for us!" a bandit shrieked as a vine coiled around his ankle. "Kael, help me! It’s biting through my boots!"

"Shut up and cut it!" Kael barked, firing his revolver into the mass of thorns. The bullets sparked off the obsidian surface, doing nothing but making the vines twitch faster. "It’s just a memory, remember? It’s not real!"

"Tell that to my leg!" the man screamed as the thorns dragged him toward the center of the thicket.

Vinícius felt every puncture, every snap of the vines as if they were his own limbs. "It’s real enough to kill you, Kael! Leave! Now!"

"You think this scares me?" Kael leveled his gun at Vinícius’s head again, his hand shaking with rage. "I’ve survived the collapse of three sectors! I’m not losing a gold mine to a kid with a headache!"

"He’s not alone, you vulture!" Gabriela leaped from the shadows, her knife catching the amber light as she lunged at Kael.

"Gabriela, no!" Vinícius cried out.

Kael swerved, catching Gabriela’s wrist and slamming her against the repaired stone wall. "You first then, girl. Let's see how much he likes his garden when I paint it with your—"

Kael never finished the threat. Vinícius let out a primal scream, his focus narrowing until the entire world was nothing but the point where Kael’s hand touched Gabriela.

[Synthesis Overclock: 120%.]

A single, slender thorn, sharp as a needle and glowing with a sickly violet light, erupted directly from the wall behind Kael. It pierced through his shoulder, pinning him to the masonry he had been mocking just minutes before.

"AGH! Dammit! My shoulder!" Kael dropped his gun, his face turning a ghostly white.

"Drop her," Vinícius commanded, his voice sounding like two stones grinding together. He was standing now, though his body was tilted at an unnatural angle.

"You... you bastard..." Kael wheezed, his boots kicking uselessly against the wall.

"I said drop her!"

The thorns around the perimeter surged, rising ten feet into the air like a wave of frozen lightning. The remaining bandits, seeing their leader pinned and the world turning into a jagged death trap, finally broke.

"Screw this! I’m out!" one yelled, dropping his rifle and sprinting into the darkness.

"Wait for me! Don't leave me here!" the one trapped in the vines pleaded, his voice muffled as the thorns began to knit together over him.

"Go! Run!" Vinícius yelled at the fleeing silhouettes. "If I see you near this block again, I won't just pin you to a wall! I’ll bury you under it!"

Kael looked at his retreating men, then back at Vinícius. "You think you’ve won? You’re a dead man walking. You can't keep this up forever."

"I can keep it up long enough to finish this," Vinícius said, stepping closer. The amber light was fading from his eyes, replaced by a cold, hollow exhaustion.

"Vin, stop," Gabriela said, her voice soft as she slid down the wall, clutching her bruised wrist. "They’re gone. Let him go."

"He’ll come back, Gab. You know he will."

"Look at him, Vin. He’s done. If you kill him now, you’re just becoming part of the waste."

Vinícius stared at Kael, whose breathing was becoming shallow and ragged. The violet glow in the thorn pinning him was pulsing, feeding off the bandit’s fear. Vinícius could feel the system’s hunger—it wanted more. It wanted to consume the threat entirely.

No, Vinícius thought, pulling back. I’m a gardener. Not a butcher.

With a sharp flick of his wrist, the thorn holding Kael dissolved into black dust. Kael slumped to the ground, clutching his mangled shoulder.

"Get out," Vinícius whispered. "Before I change my mind."

Kael didn't need a second invitation. He scrambled up, his eyes wide with a mix of terror and pure, unadulterated hatred. He didn't say a word as he vanished into the shadows, trailing a line of dark blood across the green clover.

The moment Kael was out of sight, the world collapsed. The black thorns crumbled into ash, the amber vortex in the sky vanished, and the vibrant green grass began to flicker, its edges turning back to grey.

"Vin!" Gabriela caught him as he fell, her arms barely strong enough to keep his head from hitting the pavement. "Vinícius! Stay with me!"

"Did... did they go?" he mumbled, his eyes fluttering.

"They’re gone. You did it. You absolute idiot, you actually did it."

"The tree... is it okay?"

Gabriela looked over at the sapling. It was dim, its leaves drooping, but the golden amber light was still there, a tiny, stubborn heartbeat in the dark. "It’s fine. It’s waiting for you."

"Good. That’s... good."

Vinícius closed his eyes, the silence of the wasteland returning. But it wasn't the silence of death anymore; it was the silence of a truce.

A few feet away, near the edge of the now-faded garden, a low groan drifted through the air. One of Kael’s men hadn't made it out. He was slumped against a rusted bus stop sign, his chest riddled with deep, jagged punctures from the thorns.

"Gab," Vinícius whispered, his eyes opening a crack. "Someone’s still there."

Gabriela stood up, her hand on her knife as she walked toward the fallen man. "He’s mortally wounded, Vin. There’s nothing we can do for him."

The bandit looked up, his eyes glazed with the approach of the end. He wasn't much older than Vinícius, his face thin and marked by years of starvation. He coughed, a spray of red hitting the grey dust.

"Hey," the bandit whispered, his voice a wet rattle.

"Don't try to move," Gabriela said, her voice lacking its usual hardness. "It’ll only make it worse."

"Doesn't matter," the man wheezed. He looked past her, his gaze landing on the glowing sapling. "You... you shouldn't have done it."

"Done what? Defended ourselves?" Gabriela asked.

"The light," the bandit coughed, a shuddering breath escaping his lungs. "It’s too bright. You think Kael was the problem? Kael is... he’s just a scavenger."

Vinícius pulled himself up into a sitting position, leaning heavily against the wall. "What are you talking about?"

The bandit turned his head toward Vinícius, a terrifying, knowing smile stretching across his bloody lips. "The Entity. It’s been sleeping in the deep ruins since the sky turned grey. But it likes memories. It can smell them... like blood in water."

"The Entity?" Vinícius felt a cold chill that had nothing to do with the wind.

"It’s watching you," the bandit whispered, his eyes widening as the light finally began to leave them. "It’s already here. It’s... in the shadows. It likes... the garden."

His head fell forward, his final breath hitching in his throat before falling silent.

Gabriela stepped back, looking around at the darkened skyscrapers that hemmed in their little street. The shadows felt deeper now, more intentional. The wind didn't just howl; it seemed to whisper.

"Vin," she said, her voice trembling. "What did he mean?"

Vinícius looked at the blue interface hovering in his peripheral vision. It was silent, no warnings, no status updates. Just a blank, flickering screen.

"I don't know," Vinícius said, his hand finding the rough, warm bark of the sapling. "But I think we just rang a much bigger dinner bell than we realized."

The golden light of the tree pulsed once, a soft, rhythmic beat that felt less like a promise of hope and more like a countdown. In the distance, deep within the heart of the ruined city, something far larger

than a dog let out a low, echoing boom that shook the very foundations of the world.

The garden had grown. And now, the garden was being watched.