Dying Poppies

 “ I don’t wanna go!” Micheal screams at the top of his lungs while his brother, Luis, is trying to convince him to change his mind.

“It's not up to you to decide!” By this point, he’s holding onto the pole in the middle of the room.

“You can't make me!”

“Micheal! Get your dumb-self together and let’s go!” Luis takes Micheals’s feet and pulls him towards the door. “Aizen and Connor are already out the door!”

“My name isn't Micheal!” Micheal grabs a five-pointed golden star and attempts to stab his hand. Luis quickly stops him and twists his hand, causing Micheal to drop face-first onto the ground.

  “Hey, what’s going on in here!” Connor asks as he walks in, followed by Aizen. 

“He’s assaulting me!” Micheal is quick to point. 

“Excuse me?” Luis looks at him in confusion. 

“Well if he doesn’t wanna go, he can stay here and look after Shira and Polar,” Aizen tells them. “But if we find something cool, he gets none of it.” Rover and Polar come running down the stairs after hearing their names. Shira is an Alaskan Husky, while Polar’s a white Shiba Inu. ”I wasn’t able to feed them today so you’ll have to.”

Micheals glances at Aizen. “Why do you have two dogs if you can't even feed them?” Micheal says, obviously pissed-off.  

“I-I just forgot. It doesn’t matter anyway, we have to go.” He points Luis and Connor out the door.  “Make sure to feed them and pick up their crap!’ Aizen tells him as they close the door behind them.  

“Gosh, Luis. You didn't have to hurt him” Aizen says, as they walk down the stairs to the broken sidewalk. 

“Sometimes it's just necessary.” Luis sighs and shakes his head.

The boys walk in silence towards the base. 

“I hope,” Connor says, breaking the silence. “We find peanut butter.”

“Peanut butter,” Aizen repeats.

“Yeah. Y’know, the spread made from dry-roasted peanuts and salt.”

“I know what peanut butter is. I’m not stupid,” Luis coughs and Aizen throws him a look. “But if you could choose anything in the world, why that?”

“For your dogs... There's no way I could actually eat it. It's probably like..5 years old.”

“Yeah, Aizen. Are you stupid or something?” Luis grins. 

“Keep that up and you’ll be the one with brain damage!”

“Oh, I'm so scared.” The black-haired boy says sarcastically.

 “Now you're really gonna get it!” 

 “Hey- Guys!” Connor gets between them. “No fighting until we get to the base and gather the supplies like we said we would.  Until then, go like this.” He puts a finger through the middle of his lips and smiles slightly. 

Aizen clicks his tongue and looks the other way. Luis smiles and shakes his head. 

They walk silently, avoiding everyone they can, to the small shelter in the woods

 “Ugh, why are we here again,” Connor asks.

“We need supplies to keep Blade from completing his mission,” Luis informs him.

“I wonder what he’s doing now”

“Anything he does is a liability, that’s why we have to hurry.” They start looking around life-covered grass.

“Hey! I found it,” Aizen puts his arm up. ”Over here!”

  Aizen puts both hands on the sides of the bunker and attempts to open it.

“It's stuck.”

“Oh… Let me try!” Luis stretches both arms forward parallel to the sides of the bunker door. His hands beginning to glow blue.

“I can't… Ah-” He falls backward. “That thing has been tampered with recently, my magic can't open it.”

“That’s strange, who could be inside that thing. A homeless man?” Connor asks.

“No, he wouldn’t have been able to open it in the first place,” Luis tells him. “Dammit, if Micheal were here, he could’ve scanned the fingerprints with his goggles.”

“It's fine,” Aizen sighs,” We have no other choice.”

“Wait, no-!” Luis attempted to stop Aizen, but it was already too late. Aizen raised his arms into a fist shape and smashes the door open. Dust and metal pieces come flying out of the bunker.

“That was really… Reckless of you. What if you alerted the person inside!” Luis yells, coughing. 

“It's fine,” Connor puts his hand on Luis’s shoulder, “The bunker was made to be sound-proof. And plus, it was the only solution available.”

“I guess...” Luis sighs. “Come on, let’s just go inside.” 

  The dirty and rusty metal walls creak as they walk through the hallway.

“Blade hasn’t used this bunker in a long time, it's basically unusable,” Luis states as he wipes his finger against the walls. “Disgusting, the walls are greasy.”

“Yeah, the rats haven’t been cleaning the place,” Aizen tells him.

“A- Shut up!”

Boom

 “What was that?” Connor glances at Aizen and Luis.

Boom

“There it is again!” Luis points in the direction the noise is coming from.

“Let’s go!” Connor starts running through the hallway.

“Wait for us!” Aizen starts running after him

“You imbeciles, you’re making too much noise!” Luis sighs, “Why do I bother.” He starts chasing after them.

 “Why’d you guys stop?” Luis asks them. They’re both looking at a dead end.

BOOM

“It's getting louder...” Connor says. 

“The sound... it's coming from this wall.” Aizen looks back at a confused Luis.

“That doesn’t make sense.” Luis passes in front of them, inches from the wall. He puts his hand on the surface of the wall. 

“Door Activated” 

“What the...” Luis backs up. The wall breaks into 8 identical boxes and opens.

“Room successfully activated”

“I don’t remember this door being here,” Connor points out, “It must’ve been hidden purposefully. But why would Blade need to hide this?” The door opened to reveal a pitch-black room.

“Are we entering or what?” Luis asks as he looks back at them while entering. 

“Oh, yeah.” Aizen walks in, followed by Connor. As soon as they enter, the door shuts behind them.

“That’ll be a pain looking for later,” Luis groans, “ Anyways, what is this place even for?”

“Beats me, we should leave-” In the corner of Aizen’s eye, he spots a young woman, around her thirties, with blonde hair tied up into a bun. She wore an unbuttoned lab coat.

“M-Mom?”

“Huh?” Luis and Connor turn around and notice Aizen looking across the room.

“A-Aizen, that can’t be possible. Y-Your moms..” Luis starts. 

“Dead, I know.  That’s why I can't believe my eyes.” 

“Let’s take a closer look.” Connor takes a step closer.

“Wait,” Luis puts his hand over his chest, “I hear someone talking.” Faint noises are heard near her. Aizen walks closer. 

“Hello? is anyone in here?” Aizen says as the voices start getting louder.

“It was pretty lonely, I know you didn’t mean to leave me there though.” 

Aizen breaks into a sprint “Who’s there!” Suddenly his eyes meet with the owner of the voice.

“Poppy?” 

  Poppy abruptly stands up. Her carrot-orange hair waving in a glitched-out motion.

“Poppy, y-your skin,” Aizen takes a step closer. “It's extremely pale.” Poppy stands there, in shock and surprise.

“W-What… are… you… doing here?” She shouts, in anger.

“What are you doing here? Who's that lady beside you?” Connor yells, his voice filling with fury. Suddenly, the woman figure disappears, as if she was only a fragment of light.

Luis suddenly stands, “A- What is this? What is this room?” 

Poppy takes a step away from them.

“I-It's none of your business!” Her voice inhaling the confusion and rage in the atmosphere. “You don’t understand-” All of a sudden, she falls, creating a loud noise with the impact. Her body glitching back and forth.

“Poppy!” Aizen stumbles towards her malfunctioning body, picking her fragile-self up. “Are you ok? What’s happening?”

“A-Aizen, you should probably back off,” Luis tells him. “She could hurt you at any second.”

 Aizen turns his head towards Luis. “I don’t care! We have to help her!”

“And how do you plan on doing that?!” Connor suddenly steps in. “She tried to kill you once. She won’t hesitate to do it again. Her body is fading out of existence. How are you gonna fix that?”

 Aizen sits there, a dying Poppy in his hands.

A small cough comes from the girl. 

Poppy’s eyes open as she continues coughing.

“Poppy! You're alive!” Aizen starts, “Are you ok? Does any part of your body hurt-”

“Hahahahah,” Poppy laughs, with a disturbing tone in her voice. “You were always so brave, so smart, so kind… just like your mother.”

“Huh?!” Before Aizen could react, Poppy grabs his neck. Plunging her fingers into his throat. 

“Aizen!” Luis and Connor run towards her, head-first.

Poppy throws Aizen across the empty room, then extends her arms and grabs the others by their necks. Pushing them onto a wall.

 “Stop this!” Aizen stands, limping towards her.

“You wanna know why?” Poppy burst into laughter. “You wanna know why!?

She sighs, taking deep breaths. “After your father, Blade, killed your brother, your mother was devastated. So she created me, an artificial human. I worked just like a human did, except I wasn’t one. She and I played all day, she was my best friend, and I was hers. One day, they got into an argument about your brother.

  “She felt unsafe near him, so she devised a plan. She was gonna take me to space, to find intelligent life beyond earth. After a couple of months, she and Blade created a small ship that can sustain me and her while going extremely quickly. We had all the necessary items, food, water, oxygen, etc.. We just needed one more thing, escape pods for safety measures. She asked Blade and he supplied.” Poppy chuckles, loosening her grip on Luis and Connor.

 “We were supposed to stay in space for a couple of months, then we were ordered to return. After we passed Pluto, the ship started having maintenance issues.

Your mother knew that the ship wouldn’t be able to support us, so she went to find the escape pods. Only to discover that Blade intentionally installed one that would only carry one medium-sized person.” Poppy started to tear up, “ Haha, I was told to wait on that ship until she was to return with a solution. She got on the escape pod and left.” Poppy was now in full-on tears. “I eventually fixed the ship and wisely used the food and water so I could survive long enough. The fact I was artificial made it so I didn’t need to eat as much. After 6 years of waiting, I ran out of food and water and was approaching a black hole. I was starving, I was tired, I was dying. Eventually, the black hole obliterated the ship and consumed me with it.

“But I refused to die, I broke reality and grabbed onto the edges of the black hole, plunging myself forward towards earth at speeds faster than earth.”  Poppy tightens her grip on Luis and Connor. “How did you think I felt when I realized she was dead!”

  “Poppy! You don’t have to do this! Anger won’t make her come back!” Aizen grabs Poppy, causing her to let go of them.

“Let me go! She chose you over me! I have the right to be angry!” Poppy escapes his grasp and attempts to fight back, only to notice she’s been surrounded.

“Poppy, come with us, we can help you.” Luis puts his hand out. “The atoms in your body are detaching, you won’t live if you don’t let us help you!”

Poppy takes a step back “No! You don’t understand what I’m going through-!(@*#&$^%!)&#%@” Her voice suddenly becomes undetectable as she continues to speak. 

“What is she saying? She’s not making any sense!” Connor glances at Luis

“Her condition, it's getting worse!” Luis exclaims.

“Poppy we can help you!” Aizen tells her. All three of them slowly approach her. Poppy backs away, in fear. She pulls a small device out of her pocket and attaches it to her chest.

“P-poppy, what are you doing?”Aizen asks her, right as the device begins beeping.

“It's a bomb! Get out!” Connor exclaims. Before anyone can react, the device explodes, sending everyone flying.

  “Oh... my head. What happened?” Luis groans as he stands back up. ”Agh!” He jumps backward, after looking at the damage that was caused. “The entire place was d-destroyed?!”

“Yep, I wonder who did this mess, right Luis?” Luis jumps in surprise.

“Micheal?! What are you doing here.” Luis asks in confusion.

“I was walking the dogs near here and heard the loud bang. What happened here anyway.” 

“Where are we?” Connor sits up and looks around. “Why is Micheal here? And where's Aizen?”

“I don’t know I haven’t seen him,” Luis looks around. “He should be around here somewhere.”

“There he is!” Micheal points at a bush. “Behind that big piece of grass!” Micheal runs over to the unconscious Aizen. “Aizen! Wake up!”

“Gosh, my legs- Wait... where’s Poppy?” Aizen suddenly stands up. “We need to find her before-” Suddenly, in the corner of Aizen’s eyes, he spots her sitting up.

“Poppy!” Aizen runs towards her.

“Stay back!” She reaches her arms forward. “Don’t come any closer!” She's glitching vigorously now, her body unable to sustain itself. She’s majorly bruised and bleeding out of her knees and chest.

“Please, don’t make me hurt you!” Tears run down her eyes as she says that. Her body and face are now unrecognizable. All of a sudden, she disappears into thin air.

“What happened?!” Micheal asks with extreme confusion.

“She concentrated her glitching into making her teleport far from here,” Luis replies, “Unless she finds someone who can help her, she won’t survive another week.” 

“I hope she finds the help she needs.” Aizen sits on the soft-grass as the sunset shines over the tall trees.

“So… do you guys want to get some ice cream?” Micheals eyes glisten as his smile widens.

Aizen picks out a fresh poppy from the ground. Connor grins and Luis sighs as he shakes his head.

“Yeah, sure.”