Chapter 5

As Jasmine felt along the doorframe for a light switch, a rusting movement resounded from the darkness behind her. Something groped along the back of her left calf and Jasmine cried out in alarm as she sprung away from it. Dodging quickly to the side, she slammed into a smooth immovable wall and leaned there, frightened and stunned. Then she threw her sandals into that direction of the darkness.

Bright light flooded the room, and a squinting Jasmine saw that the room was much smaller than she had envisioned. To her horror she saw that she was not alone in the chamber. Some very large plants also occupied the enclosure. They were much larger versions of the shrubs, which had fascinated her earlier. "Those must be great grow-lights they have up there," she mused, trying to bolster her courage.

The velvet-leafed plants had become true giants. The stubby trunks had attained a thickness of four to five feet and a height of ten feet. Large drops of sappy secretion nested on their downy skins. The creepers radiating from the trunks' squat bases were as thick as Jasmine's wrist and four to five feet in length. Jasmine's attention was immediately drawn to the fact that the tendrils were twitching spasmodically upon the earthen floor.

There were a dozen of these monstrosities planted in the chamber, with the nearest being five feet from the door that she had just used to enter. The thing that had touched her leg in the darkness, must have been one of the wandering vines. Jasmine saw, to her dismay, that one of that plant's tendrils was brandishing a sandal of hers. A corridor wove a slow 'S' through the midst of the strange garden, and led to a doorway on the other side.

Clustered along the far wall were the adult versions of the aloe-like plants. These had not grown so big, but looked like grotesque vegetable starfish with five or six pseudopods on each plant. The limbs of each plant had not changed in form, but had grown to a foot in length, and a thickness of an inch and a half at the phallus-like tip. The members increased in their width to nearly three inches, with the bulbous growths at their bases being only slight swellings through their smooth hides.

Jasmine was alarmed to realize that the aloe-type plants were not anchored to the soil, but instead were freestanding and capable of true mobility. She did not see any fast movements from them. Yet, as she watched, one of the creatures drew itself slowly up the cinderblock wall. It was probably using its suction cups to adhere to the vertical surface.

Besides the climbing plant, Jasmine estimated that there were probably forty or fifty of the little beasts in the group. They all undulated in unison, like grasses in gentle cross-gusts of wind, continuously.

The floor Jasmine was standing on was an alternately yellow and brown linoleum tile that extended four feet from the large glass wall at her back. A black box was at the ceiling of the wall above the climbing plant. Jasmine knew that it was some sort of speaker.

Chromed shafts extended from the walls from the height of seven feet and up. On each rod was a camcorder type of camera, with some additional cameras being nestled in the wall-ceiling corners. Jasmine figured that there were more than twenty-five of the imaging units. That's a lot of hardware to keep track of some plants, Jasmine reasoned. But why? They were all locked safely in here.

At the other end of the linoleum runway was a third door.

A sudden rapping upon the dark glass wall behind her caused Jasmine to spin around and yell, "HEY!"

Lights flickered overhead behind the glass and a laboratory was revealed under their illumination. It occupied a room almost as large as the one she was in. Jasmine could see several microscopes and various pieces of testing equipment on long benches within the cubical. A foot back from the glass wall stood a podium with a microphone centered on it. As Jasmine watched, a balding old man draped with a white smock, ascended the pulpit and stood facing her across its microphone. She saw instantly that it was the same elderly worker who she had been trying to evade.

Jasmine instantly became self-conscious and smoothed her sundress, which had risen to the swell of her hips. She also adjusted the dress's straps on her shoulders, then re-smoothed the garment again to its hemline. Jasmine glared at the old man and shaking her right index finger at him, said, "You'd better let me out of here right now, if you know what's good for you!"

The man in the white lab-coat shook his head no at her words and tapped upon the microphone. The result was a series of loud squealing thuds blasting into the room's thick air. Jasmine covered her ears and the codger made an adjustment to something on the podium.

"Testing - how's this?" His voice rang from the speaker in a loud but tolerable tone.

"Are you going to let me go?" Jasmine queried with demand. She went on to threaten, " I've got a friend who's a lawyer, and I'll sue your a..."

"I do not think that you have a true grasp of the situation at hand," interrupted the man in the booth. His words from the loudspeaker completely obliterated the ending of her decree. She froze open mouthed, and he flashed a flitting "gotcha-smile".

Jasmine risked a quick glance over her shoulder and she saw that the smaller plants were now beginning to disperse throughout the room. Their progress was not fast, but it was constant as they dragged themselves over the soil. Alarmingly, it looked like they were going places with a purpose. Jasmine looked back at the old-timer and pleaded, "Why me? What have I ever done to you? Please let me go."

"Let me see now." The voice from the loudspeaker intoned. "First you and your friend made sport of me, playing me for an old fool in the yard. Then you invaded my private area, and tried to steal from me. Finally you had the gall to try to intimidate me. After doing me so many wrongs, do I have that right?"

"No. Well umm, it's just that..." Jasmine uttered and trailed off. Damn, she thought, he must have had more cameras out there than she had seen. Jasmine reached into her purse and withdrew her wallet with the loose bill from earlier. She held them out towards the window and said, "Here, I'm sorry for any imposition, let me pay you for your troubles. Please."