Truth

They ran far from McCaysville. X picked up Charlie and threw him over his shoulder so he didn't get left behind as they ran. Penny wasn't sure why they were running but she didn't want to question it. She tried her best to keep up and when she began to fall behind Shiny grabbed her wrist and forced her to keep up with him. When they felt the got a safe distance away they slowed to a stop. The only one really gasping for air was Penny, who had to be practically dragged to make sure she kept up with the others. Everyone else but Charlie was only a little winded and X set him down. Charlie immediately ran and clung to Shiny who just rested his hand on top of his head. "What the fuck was that?!-" X asked but no one had the answer. What they just witnessed didn't have an explanation that they could come up with. A whole building had just gotten dragged under ground by plants that seemed to actually be alive. Not just the normal photosynthesis alive, actually moving and grabbing things within mere seconds instead of having to grow on them for years.

       Penny felt lightheaded. She stumbled back and Bones caught her, lowering her gently to the ground. Her breathing was still very heavy and she gripped his arm. She had a wild, scared look and her hands on his arm felt cold and clammy. Bones tried to pull his arm away from her, not liking to be touched by people he's not extremely familiar with but she held onto him. Bones looked at Mama Williams with a pleading expression and she quickly ran and knelt in front of Penny. She pried Penny's hands off of her son's arm and cupped her face in her hands. "Penny are you alright?-" she quickly asked but Penny seemed to be just staring off somewhere over her shoulder, still struggling to catch her breath. Mama tried to give her one of their canteens so she can drink some water but Penny paid no attention to it. After a few minutes of just mumbled gibberish Mama finally managed to make out what she was saying. "This wasn't supposed to happen...." She stammered out and Mama gripped her shoulders and gently shook her. "What wasn't supposed to happen. I need you to focus and talk to me" Mama told her and Penny finally looked her in the eyes and burst into tears.

       She finally spilled everything. The secret society that she was a part of, trying to find a cure, it being her fault that she let a rookie handle the failed experiments, how her facility came crashing down in the matter of an hour. Every last detail she told Mama Williams and the others quietly listened to her ramble. She explained that she didn't know how it affected plants, she only knew that it affected the zombies and the people who were bitten by the mutated monsters. She wasn't sure how the new plague managed to get to the plants but she worried that the animals would possibly be affected by it too. It took her awhile to get all the details out and once she was done she turned and quickly ran behind some trees. They could hear her gagging and Mama guessed that she had worked herself up so much that she would throw up the small breakfast she had this morning. The rest of the group quietly talked about what they had just been told. This had been going on for a year now, who knows how far this new plague at spread. Whatever it was it apparently spread fast if it took down a facility of 2,000 people in the span of an hour.

         When Penny came back she was running and screaming for them to run as well. They saw a large creature smash through the trees to try to get to her. It looked to be about 9-10 feet tall with large arms that looked long enough to reach the ground and small eyes. It roared and clumsily ran after her. It wasn't the fastest but still tried to reach for her, just barely missing her when Shiny grabbed her arm and yanked her away. They all sprinted off and tried to lose the big creature but they were easy to follow in the group so all Mama, Shiny, and Lasso had to do was look at each other then take of in different directions. Charlie was being carried by Lasso so he wouldn't be left behind, Penny sprinted with Mama and X stayed with Shiny. Pippin also stuck with Mama and was actually a few steps ahead of her. Bones then tripped and fell but the creature didn't seem to notice him.

       Bones quickly rolled out of the way before the monster could trample him and he quietly got up and took after Lasso and Charlie. The creature ended up tripping over a fallen tree and tumbling to the ground with a loud thud. When it slowly rose to its feet again and looked around, all of it's prey was gone. It then grunted loudly then turned and slowly trudged back the way it came. The group that was now split into three individual groups kept running, wanting to get a far from the monster as the possibly could. Mama, Pippin, and Penny ended up in Franklin, Tennesse after long hours of running. X and Shiny ended up in Nashville while Lasso, Bones, and Charlie had ended up somewhere between cities. They ended up at an old rest stop that looked to have somehow caught on fire at one point. Lasso put Charlie down and took a minute to catch his breath. Charlie quickly clung to Bones in fear and Bones wasn't winded what so ever. Lasso then drew his 9mm Ruger and started looking around, making sure there was nothing that would be of danger to them.

        All he found in one of the bathrooms was a rotting corpse with a rusted shotgun next to it and most of it's head gone. The smell was horrid so Lasso quickly retreated out of it and just went and sat with the two boys under and old canopy. They drank some water and Lasso checked Bones to make sure he wasn't hurt from the tumble he took. All Bones had was bruised knees and a few scrapes. None of them noticed some of the roots of near by trees slowly coming out of the ground and slithering towards them.