The pastor stood before the grieving people, all sitting together, for the burial of one of their own. Family, friends, government officials, all filled with feelings of sadness. As the pastor spoke about this man he'd never met, the people cried. They cried, and they weeped, and they maoned, and they sobbed.
Many others poke that day, all talking about this one man with whom they all shared a connection. Afterwards, once everyone had said their peace, the corpse, sealed inside his coffin, was lowered into the earth. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
The people eventually left, scattering to their various homes and houses, to grieve further. But, that was far from the end. In fact, it was the beginning. For a proverbial wind moved the ashes, a gust that stirred up the dust.
Thursday, 1:43 AM, Washington D.C.
Six feet and eight inches below the earth, something stirred. After three days of solitude and immobility, something decided to move, to rustle, to come to life once more. A man, young and in his thirties lay inside his coffin, in a suit, believed to be sealed away from everyone and everything. Except, it was not. It was aware.
Muscles, long atrophied, started to move. Bones creaked, neurons started to flash once more. But, something was different. Something else was there, something new, something foreign. Flesh, started to fall away from the skeleton. Not rotted, simply detached. Roots creeped across the bones, and leaves sprouted. The suit, picked out with love and care as the last thing people would see this man in, likewise fell apart. It started to shred, as the newly growing plants tore through it, just like it did through the dead flesh.
This thing, this amalgamation of plant and bone, pushed out against it's surroundings. It thrashed and spasmed, eventually loosening the earth around it and breaking out of it's wodden prison. It dug swiftly through the dirt, emerging from it's grave like something out of an old horror movie, one hand out of the dirt, pulling the rest of it up, lightining flashing and a heavy rain falling.
The creature stood upright, covered head to toe in thick leaves, roots, and vines. The occasional bit of bone was visible underneath, as well as the thing's skull, devoid of vegetation, except for the top, where leaves grew in a mockery of hair. Inside the skull, a strange mix of plant matter and grey matter existed, forminga mind that was vaguely aware of what happened. It died, it came back, and now it was curious.
As the rain splashed down on it, the creature sprung off, leaping and running with great acrobatic skill. It jumped away from the graveyard, towards the city, and towards a place it held some unknown significance, and where it knew it needed to go, if it ever wanted to know.
Sunday, 2:30 PM, Washington D.C.
The pastor stood before the grieving people, all sitting together, for the burial of one of their own. Family, friends, government officials, all filled with feelings of sadness. As the pastor spoke about this man he'd never met, the people cried. They cried, and they weeped, and they maoned, and they sobbed.
Many others poke that day, all talking about this one man with whom they all shared a connection. Afterwards, once everyone had said their peace, the corpse, sealed inside his coffin, was lowered into the earth. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
The people eventually left, scattering to their various homes and houses, to grieve further. But, that was far from the end. In fact, it was the beginning. For a proverbial wind moved the ashes, a gust that stirred up the dust.
Thursday, 1:43 AM, Washington D.C.
Six feet and eight inches below the earth, something stirred. After three days of solitude and immobility, something decided to move, to rustle, to come to life once more. A man, young and in his thirties lay inside his coffin, in a suit, believed to be sealed away from everyone and everything. Except, it was not. It was aware.
Muscles, long atrophied, started to move. Bones creaked, neurons started to flash once more. But, something was different. Something else was there, something new, something foreign. Flesh, started to fall away from the skeleton. Not rotted, simply detached. Roots creeped across the bones, and leaves sprouted. The suit, picked out with love and care as the last thing people would see this man in, likewise fell apart. It started to shred, as the newly growing plants tore through it, just like it did through the dead flesh.
This thing, this amalgamation of plant and bone, pushed out against it's surroundings. It thrashed and spasmed, eventually loosening the earth around it and breaking out of it's wodden prison. It dug swiftly through the dirt, emerging from it's grave like something out of an old horror movie, one hand out of the dirt, pulling the rest of it up, lightining flashing and a heavy rain falling.
The creature stood upright, covered head to toe in thick leaves, roots, and vines. The occasional bit of bone was visible underneath, as well as the thing's skull, devoid of vegetation, except for the top, where leaves grew in a mockery of hair. Inside the skull, a strange mix of plant matter and grey matter existed, forminga mind that was vaguely aware of what happened. It died, it came back, and now it was curious.
As the rain splashed down on it, the creature sprung off, leaping and running with great acrobatic skill. It jumped away from the graveyard, towards the city, and towards a place it held some unknown significance, and where it knew it needed to go, if it ever wanted to know.
It headed towards the Pentagon.