The Restless Forest by SWatts
It shouldn't have happened. There were many procedures and safety protocols in place to prevent it. Certainly, a simple machine malfunction - one which led to a number of vials falling from a conveyor onto the floor - should not have been an issue. The safeguards in place were designed to handle such a mishap with ease. None of the vials had even broken; it simply should not have been a problem.
Yet, when humans are involved, even the best laid plans sometimes go awry. One worker taking a shortcut to save time. Another distracted, upset over an argument with his girlfriend the day before. Separately, neither the machine failure nor the worker shortcomings would have caused the error. But together, the series of miscues by man and machine, each independent yet so perfectly timed as to make them appear coordinated, led to one of the vials being placed with the wrong set.
The vial itself looked innocuous enough - it was small and, like all the others, contained a clear liquid. But this particular vial, labeled 'X3790S44', was actually quite different. Nearly all of its companions were being packaged and shipped out to various research establishments for use in their experiments. Not this one. The initial tests performed with the contents of vial X3790S44 were so bizarre that it was immediately slated for destruction. The compound's effects were far too strange and unpredictable to allow its use even in an experimental setting.
But instead of being destroyed, vial X3790S44 found itself in a package with 23 other vials. The package was wrapped with care, placed on a truck with similar packages, and sent on its way. Later, it was delivered to a remote location. All the vials in the package were used for the ongoing research project there. The scientists performing the experiments suspected nothing; there was no reason why they should. Little did they know what fruits their labors would yield ...
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*********
Nikki, having picked up some groceries and other supplies, was on her way back to the station. She and her coworker, Sandra, took turns performing this duty. It was a little bit of a pain, being an hour drive to the nearest town, but they only needed to do it once every week or so.
They worked in a remote location - a heavily forested area surrounded on three sides by mountains. The fourth side, the one providing the only real way in, was secured by a tall wire fence. This was accompanied by a gate with a guardhouse protecting the only road into the valley. The two guards stationed there also assisted with maintenance duties when the need arose.
Nikki and Sandra, both graduate students working toward their doctorates, were residing there for the summer. It was their job to oversee the research which was in progress at the site - setting the experiments up, monitoring them, collecting the results, and so forth. This was great experience for them and could provide jobs once they had graduated. Nikki, the senior member of the pair, was only a year away from completing her thesis.
At the moment, their research station was the only one in the valley. The company planned for four other such stations in the future and had, in fact, started construction on two of them. But for now, Nikki and Sandra were the only two people working in the entire valley, other than the two guards positioned at the valley's entrance.
The research station was a single story structure divided into two areas: one for conducting the research and the other for living. The research area was a fairly large room housing the various equipment and devices needed for the experiments. The living area was small, but comfortable. It consisted of two bedrooms, a living room, a small kitchen, and a bathroom.
Other than the research station, there was just one other building in the valley. This was an emergency shelter which Sandra had termed "The Bunker". Nikki had only been in it twice. Its entrance - the only part of the shelter which was above ground - was roughly halfway between the guardhouse and the station. Its only access was via a very heavy steel door. Nikki never understood why it was there. Certainly in the event of a severe storm it would come in handy; it had its own internal power generator and supplies for at least a month. But to Nikki, it seemed like overkill - why have something that elaborate and obviously expensive? She had her suspicions, though. She thought that at some point in the future, the company planned to do some more "exotic" research in the valley. That was just a guess, however; she had no way of knowing for sure.
Certainly the experimentation that she and Sandra were performing was pretty mundane. The overall goal was to improve crop yields - hardly something that required an emergency shelter! Still, she found the work fascinating. Lately, in fact, it had become especially interesting. Just within the past week they had found several entirely new species of plants growing in the experimental zone. Nikki was puzzled by this, as the type of work they were doing should in no way have led to the development of new species, yet she was delighted with their find.
*********
After the hour-long drive, Nikki reached the research station and parked there. Grabbing the items she had purchased, she got out of the vehicle.
Nikki was perhaps, in some ways, the stereotypical scientist - brilliant, but absent-minded; methodically logical, yet sometimes lacking in common sense. If she encountered something which piqued her scientific curiosity, she had a tendency to completely forget what she was doing while she tried to analyze whatever had caught her interest.
In other ways, though, she was not at all what many might picture as a typical scientist. She was young and vibrant, with firm breasts which proudly pushed her tee shirt outward, and a cute, delightfully curving bottom which, in her jean shorts, could be termed "magnetic" - it had a tendency to attract and hold the attention of interested onlookers. She was oblivious to the captivating view her swaying rear presented as she walked, however, as her thoughts were typically dedicated to some academic topic.
She entered the station, expecting to find Sandy in the research area, but her coworker wasn't there. Nikki then noticed that all of the new plant species they had been studying were missing. Frowning, she then heard beeping coming from one of the laptop computers. Nikki walked over and looked at the screen - Sandy had left her a message:
"Gone to the bunker. Something's here! Come right away!!"
As she tried to understand the message, Nikki thought, "That girl!!" Nikki thought her coworker tended to be a little excitable. She and Sandy got along well - after working there together they actually became friends - but Nikki sometimes got a little annoyed when, in her view, Sandy overreacted to something.
Nikki read the message again. "So she found something in the emergency shelter?" she thought. "Why didn't she just wait here and tell me?"
Nikki decided she'd call Sandy and find out exactly what was going on. She pulled her phone out of her pocket, but then remembered that the bunker could not be reached by phone - both the bunker and the guard station were in a dead zone. She put her phone back in her pocket; she'd need to use the small radio transmitter they had set up in the lab instead. The transmitter was sitting on a table in the corner. Except ... it wasn't. The transmitter wasn't there.
Her frown deepening, she walked toward the table while scanning around the room for the transmitter. "What's going on?" she wondered. She arrived at the table. The transmitter was nowhere in sight. A couple of small pieces of it, however, were there - one of the buttons had popped out, and there was part of one of the switch mechanisms as well.
"Why would she take the transmitter with her?" Nikki wondered, exasperated. Then she went back to the laptop to reread the message. She focused on the text 'Something's here'. She thought a little more. Then it dawned on her - when she had first read the message she had interpreted it as meaning there was something at the bunker. But now she realized that when Sandy was typing the message, she had been right there - right at the research station. So by 'here' Sandy had meant the station itself. "Oh, OK," Nikki thought, "so she meant there's something right here ... right where I'm at. Something that made her flee to the bunker." As the repercussions of this hit her, the cold chill of fear crept up her spine.
Nikki scanned the room. Not seeing anything, she told herself, "This is silly - there's nothing here. I'll head to the bunker and have a talk with her. I'll find out what spooked her and try to get her calmed down. I wish she wasn't quite so high-strung!"
Sighing, Nikki went to the door and tried to open it. Although it was not locked, for some reason she could only push it open a few inches. "What in the world?" she thought. She looked through the crack in the door and saw heavy foliage. She folded her hands on her chest and just looked. This didn't make any sense at all - she had just gone through that door a few minutes ago!
She pushed harder, but it just wouldn't open more than a few inches. Baffled, Nikki stepped back to think. Not understanding at all, she decided she'd spray some herbicide through the crack in the door; they had several powerful herbicides right there in the lab. She got a sprayer, opened the door as far as she could, and sprayed through it. Had she stopped to think, she would have realized that this wasn't going to work well - the herbicide would take hours to have an effect. In any case, the spray hit the vegetation blocking the door.
As she applied the spray, she heard a loud rustling from the back of the building. Startled, she turned to look; she didn't see anything out the window, though. Somewhat fearfully, she walked across the room toward the back. There was another exit there, but she was not inclined to go outside right at the moment. "Was that an animal?" she thought. Maybe that's what Sandy saw. "But what about the missing plants and the transmitter?" she wondered. Then an even more disquieting thought hit her: had someone else gotten into the valley? Was there an intruder there ... of the human variety?
Nikki decided she'd contact the guard station. She walked over to the table where they kept the radio transmitter and reached out to use the device. "Oh, right," she thought, as she again saw the empty spot where the transmitter used to be.
She told herself, "Nikki, you're just scaring yourself. There's no one else here. I'll go out the back door, go around the side of the building, then head to the bunker and get that girl straightened out." Not wholly convinced, however, that she was alone, she took the herbicide sprayer with her in case she needed it for defense. Nikki wasn't always at the top of the class when it came to common sense - the herbicide in the sprayer only had an effect on plants!
She exited through the back door of the station and turned to walk around the side of the building. She froze, baffled by what she saw. Vegetation had grown right up to the building where she had planned to walk! She turned the other way and saw exactly the same thing. She couldn't make any sense of this at all. She thought of using the sprayer again, but this time realized it would take the herbicide far too long to have an effect for it to be useful to her. She thought a little, then decided she'd simply follow the trail forward. She knew it first led past a small garden that she and Sandy used to grow some of their own food, then through a small section of forest, and then to the fields where the experiments were being performed. From the fields, the trail bent back around through the forest and ended up at the road, right near the bunker. "Fine," she thought, "that's exactly where I want to go anyway. It'll just be a little bit longer of a walk." She went forward on the path.
As she walked along, Nikki scanned both sides of the path. She kept her sprayer at the ready in case she needed to ward off an intruder. She still hadn't thought about the fact that spraying a human or animal with the herbicide would simply make it a little wet ... and possibly a tad annoyed. After a few minutes, she became more relaxed and just held the sprayer with one hand loosely at her side. Her thoughts returned to the thick vegetation that had grown right up against the building. She couldn't come up with a hypothesis to explain that. As she continued pondering, she reached the garden.
Nikki looked at some of the vegetables growing there and started thinking about her next meal. She thought that once she collected Sandy, she'd come back to pick some things to have with dinner. Some nice, crispy lettuce for a salad would be good, as well as some assorted vegetables she could cut up and cook. She suddenly heard a rustling noise from the side of the path opposite the garden. As she turned toward the sound, she felt something grab her wrist! Startled, she dropped the sprayer and looked to see what had grasped her. There was a smooth, green tendril wrapped around her wrist - it was like a vine with no leaves!
Nikki recognized it immediately; it was just like the tendrils on one of the new species of plants they had recently discovered, except that it was much thicker. Amazingly, she wasn't the least bit concerned - her scientific curiosity had taken over. She tried to mentally calculate the size of the plant based on the thickness of the tendril, using the much smaller samples she had back at the lab as a basis. As she thought about this, the tendril started to pull her by the wrist into the woods bordering the path. Fascinated, her thinking switched to analyzing the purpose of the tendrils. Neither she nor Sandy had figured it out, although Nikki had a theory - she thought the tendrils might be used to actively collect food for the plant. There were a number of carnivorous plant species which were capable of actively capturing food through various means - Venus Flytraps, for example. As the tendril continued pulling her along, she excitedly thought she might finally be able to confirm her theory! She really hadn't thought through the consequences of this!
Fortunately for Nikki, the plant obtained nutrients from the soil and energy from the sun; it had no interest in her for her potential nutritional value. The tendril continued pulling her through the forest until she came to a tree with a smooth, thick horizontal branch a few feet off the ground. It pulled her right up to the branch. Then another tendril wrapped itself around her other wrist. Together, the tendrils pulled her up and over the branch so her waist rested on it. Her hands and feet just reached the ground. She wondered why in the world the plant had put her into this rather undignified position, with her butt raised high in the air!
The tendrils on her wrists continued to grip her, so she couldn't get herself off the branch. She saw another tendril approach from the front. This one was different - it had a large, flat leaf on the end. "Now what?" she thought. It moved alongside her. She glanced back at it, then looked forward again to see if there was anything else approaching. All of a sudden ... "Ouch!" - she had felt a sharp slap on her backside! She whipped her head around and saw the large, flat leaf hovering over her butt. Then it slapped down hard. "Ouch!" she exclaimed again. What the hell was this thing doing? "Ouch!" ... another slap.
As she struggled to get off the branch, the leaf continued to strike her. Despite her fairly thick jean shorts, the slaps really stung! It felt like the leaf was made of leather; it had to be really sturdy to be delivering slaps like that! Getting over her initial surprise, she yelled at the plant, "Cut it out!!" The plant just ignored her and continued.
Nikki, while generally fascinated by the plant kingdom and its enormous variety of different species, was finding it difficult to appreciate this particular plant. In fact, she was growing annoyed. She was being spanked like some naughty girl, by a plant no less, and her bottom was getting increasingly uncomfortable. Failing in her efforts to get off the branch, she tried twisting herself around. She was successful at this - she managed to turn so her back rested on the branch and, more importantly, her bottom faced the ground, away from the chastising leaf. It wasn't the most comfortable of positions, but with her hands and feet just reaching the ground, she could keep some of the weight off her back. Happily, the leaf stopped striking her.
She breathed a sigh of relief. It was short-lived, however. Another tendril came along, wrapped itself around her waist, and with seemingly no effort at all flipped her back over. Immediately, the leaf began spanking her again. The tendril remained around her waist, preventing her from flipping back over.
As the stinging in her bottom grew, she yelled several times at the plant, first demanding, then pleading for it to stop the spanking and release her. Nothing she said made any difference at all. Then, very annoyed, she said, "Just wait! I'll put you between a couple slices of rye and have you for dinner!" The spanking stopped.
"Thank goodness," she thought. "Now if the stupid thing'll just let me off this damned branch!" It did not. Suddenly a whole slew of tendrils came toward her. "Uh oh ...." she thought.
The tendrils were all over her, clutching and grabbing. Actually, they weren't grabbing her - they were grabbing her clothes!! First her shoes were pulled off, then her tee shirt. Her socks came next, followed by her jean shorts. "Hey!!" she shouted as these were removed. Her bra came next ("How did it do that?" she wondered, as it was unclasped). Finally, her panties were pulled off her legs. "HEY!!!!!" she yelled.
The tendrils which had briefly released her wrists while she was being undressed rewrapped themselves, holding her arms fast. A couple other tendrils wrapped around her ankles, holding her legs in place. Then another came along and wrapped around both her waist and the branch over which she lay. When they were all done, she was held firmly in place over the branch, stark naked.
She saw the large, flat leaf approach again. "Oh no ..."
The leaf resumed spanking her. With its target completely devoid of any protection, these slaps stung much worse than before.
SMACK
"Ouch!!"
SMACK
"Stop it!"
SMACK
"That hurt!!"
SMACK
She struggled to get off the branch, but the tendrils held her fast. Her bottom was rapidly growing red.
SMACK
"Damn you!"
SMACK
"Stupid plant!!"
SMACK
"Owwww!!!"
SMACK
"Let me go!"
SMACK
"Ouch, damn it!"
This continued; none of her comments had any noticeable effect. Her bottom, raised high in the air, presented a perfect target for the leathery leaf. Her eyes began to water.
SMACK
"OOWWWW!!!"
SMACK
"STOP!!!!!"
SMACK
"ENOUGH!"
SMACK
"*** FUCK!!!!! ***"
It was unusual for Nikki to use such language, but under the circumstances it was, perhaps, understandable. The spanking stopped.
"Thank God!" she thought.
Another tendril emerged from within the forest and came right up to her face. She watched intently, wondering what it was up to. The tip of the tendril waggled back and forth. She looked at it in disbelief; it was acting almost like a parent admonishing a child who had uttered a naughty word!
The tendril retreated back into the forest. The leaf positioned itself right above her naked bottom.
"Oh shit ..."
*SMACK*
*SMACK*
*SMACK*
The leaf began spanking her harder and faster than before.
*SMACK*
*SMACK*
*SMACK*
*SMACK*
*SMACK*
She struggled with renewed effort, but the tendrils kept her in position over the branch.
*SMACK*
*SMACK*
*SMACK*
*SMACK*
*SMACK*
She started bawling, her bright red bottom blazing in anguish.
*SMACK*
*SMACK*
*SMACK*
*SMACK*
*SMACK*
Her howls echoed through the forest. Still, the leaf continued peppering her bottom with hard, stinging slaps.
*SMACK*
*SMACK*
*SMACK*
*SMACK*
*SMACK*
*SMACK*
*SMACK*
*SMACK*
*SMACK*
*SMACK*
Finally, it stopped. The tendrils continued holding her over the branch, but the leaf had vanished into the forest. The bright red glow of her soundly spanked cheeks contrasted sharply with the green of the surrounding vegetation.
Then the tendrils gently picked her up off the branch and set her down on her feet. All of them released her except for one tendril which remained around her wrist. This pulled her slowly along; she wondered where she was being taken now. She looked behind her at the branch over which she had been spanked. She saw a few tendrils draping her clothes over the branch. She thought to herself, "Well, at least they're off the ground. Still ... I really would have preferred to have put them back on!"
As she was pulled through the trees, Nikki reached her free hand back to her bottom and rubbed it gingerly. Damn it, that spanking had hurt! Tears were still falling, although more slowly now. Walking barefoot through the forest was starting to bother her feet a little. She wished she would have been allowed to dress; some of the terrain was a little too rough for walking without shoes.
In a little while, the tendril had guided her to a place she was familiar with. It was one of the small clearings in the experimental zone. In fact, it was the exact area where she and Sandy had found the new species of plants. She scanned the area, then spotted the specimens they had collected and taken to the lab. "So that's where they got to," she thought. She assumed the tendrils had taken them from the lab and brought them back to where they had originally been growing. A tendril plopped something down beside her - it was her shoes! She waited, expecting the rest of her clothes to come along and join her footwear. They did not; only her shoes had been brought. "Well, that's better than nothing," she thought, putting the shoes on. They would be a big help if she was to do much more walking in this environment. Her shoes were designed for the outdoors; they were plenty rugged enough for this type of travel. It felt a little odd, though, wearing shoes but absolutely nothing else!
The tendril unwrapped itself from her wrist. It then pointed to the small plant specimens. A few moments later, it pointed to the field from which the specimens had been taken. It was obvious to Nikki what the plant wanted - she was supposed to put the little plants back from where they had been taken! "OK," she thought, "no problem." With her bottom still blazing, she would do whatever the plant wanted her to do. The last thing she would want would be to upset it in any way!
She proceeded with the replanting. One of the specimens was a miniature version of the one that had been leading her through the forest. It was only six inches high, with a diameter of about an inch. It had small, thin tendrils connected to the "trunk". She thought it was kind of cute.
She continued putting the specimens back to their original locations. Then she came to one that she had had a mishap with back at the lab. Like the other specimens, it was small. It consisted of a low, round, flat leaf, about five inches in diameter. It was shaped like a water lily. In the center was a small, dark green shoot pointing straight up from the leaf. Back at the lab, she had made the mistake of accidentally brushing the back of her hand briefly against the leaf. She should have been more careful, dealing with an entirely new species, but she had been too excited with their find to remember to wear gloves. After making contact with the leaf, the back of her hand had stung badly. It had hurt for over an hour; nothing she put on it had helped at all.
She had examined the leaf to determine what made it sting. She had assumed it operated in the same general manner as a nettle, but in fact, it did not. There were no stingers on the leaf at all. The reason for the stinging sensation on her hand had been a chemical with which the leaf was coated. She found that the chemical itself was completely harmless and slowly broke down with time. She wasn't sure why it created the intense stinging sensation; presumably it interacted in some way with the nerve cells in the skin. She further discovered that the more of the chemical that made its way onto the skin, the longer the stinging would last. She had been fortunate to have only brushed against it - she had contact with the leaf for only a fraction of a second. She determined that for each second the skin made contact with the leaf, it would take about five hours for the chemical to break down and thus for the stinging to stop.
She prepared to put the small stinging plant back into the ground. She wished she had gloves, but as long as she was careful, she shouldn't have a problem. After making a small hole in the soil, she carefully moved the little plant into it. She was successful; it was replanted without any mishaps.
That had been the last specimen; they were all planted back in the field now. She looked expectantly at the tendril which had stayed nearby the entire time. It motioned her forward. As she approached, it moved further into the experimental fields, then motioned to her again. It was obvious it wanted her to follow. "Interesting," she thought. "It's letting me follow along on my own rather than pulling me by the wrist."
Soon she reached an empty field consisting of nothing but smooth dirt. This was an area that had been prepared for their research project. All that was needed was to plant seeds that had been treated with one of the compounds they were testing. The tendril pointed to a small container sitting at the edge of the field. Apparently, the plant had brought the container there from the lab. The tendril then pointed at the field. It did this a second time, pointing first at the container and then at the field. Nikki sighed. It wanted her to plant the seeds - a task that would take a couple of hours. She walked over and looked at the container; it was labeled 'X3790S44'. She recognized that designation - they had planted seeds treated with that compound in one of the other fields about a month ago. She knew that this field was actually supposed to be planted with seeds treated by one of the other experimental compounds, but she wasn't inclined to argue.
Nikki hoped that once she was done working on the field, the plant would let her return to the lab. Then she'd grab some clothes, try to find something to soothe her backside, and then head over to the bunker for Sandy. Her thoughts turned to the plant specimens she had just replanted. She was a little annoyed at that, since she hadn't been done studying them in the lab. "No problem," she thought. "I'll just come back and dig them up again later."
All of the sudden several tendrils came flying out from the trees. Some of them wrapped around her waist; others wrapped around her legs. They picked her up and rapidly carried her into the forest. "Oh shit ..." she thought.
Nikki was whisked along to a small clearing deep in the woods. When she saw what was growing there, she gasped. There were a number of the flat stinging plants, identical to the specimen she had collected - identical, that is, except for their size. These were much larger, with leaves several feet in diameter. As with her sample specimen, they had dark green shoots in the center, pointing straight upward. These shoots varied in size; the plants nearest her looked to have shoots nearly half a foot long and an inch or so in diameter. The shoots all had rounded tips. The tendrils were moving her right toward these plants!
The tendrils put her into a sitting position just above one of the stinging plants. There was a low tree branch there that she grasped onto. It was just within her reach; with her arms fully extended, she desperately held onto it. It was the only thing that kept her from falling, butt down, right onto the large leaf! Some light, thin tendrils emerged from the stinging plant and draped themselves over her thighs. She thought they were going to pull her down, but they didn't.
She was in a most unenviable position. The thin tendrils from the stinging plant kept her from getting up out of the sitting position she was in. A couple of the much thicker tendrils that had carried her through the forest were wrapped around her ankles, keeping them firmly in place. Some other of these tendrils were pushing against her waist from all sides. These were not supporting her weight; they simply kept her in position above the stinging plant. Her outstretched arms just reached the tree branch she was grasping. Panicked, she looked down at the leaf she would fall onto should she lose her grip on the branch. What she saw increased her anxiety further - not only was the leaf glistening with the substance she knew produced an intense stinging sensation, but the shoot in the center was positioned directly below the smaller of her two most private doorways! Should she fall, not only would her very sore and tender bottom, still blazing from the spanking, land right on the leaf, but the shoot would go right up her butt! She recalled with alarm the properties of the shoot on the specimen she had in the lab - it was coated with an oil similar to that of the ginger root, but stronger. It was not something she wanted stuck up her ass!!!
At the moment, everything was stable. She had a good grip on the branch, so there was no immediate danger of her falling. She wondered how long she could hold on, though. How long would it be before her arms grew tired? She looked down at the stinging leaf and the shoot all ready to invade her. She decided her arms wouldn't grow tired - not ever.
A few minutes went by. She was glistening with nervous sweat; it was rolling off her and landing on the leaf below. She couldn't even imagine what it would feel like if she lost her grip. She remembered how the back of her hand had stung when it simply brushed against one of those leaves. Her bottom, especially now, was far more sensitive than the back of her hand. Then there was the "superginger" ready to journey inside her. She knew it would cause an incredible burning sensation if it got in there.
She was having increasingly unkind thoughts about her captor. She hadn't done anything to deserve this! Well ... granted she collected some specimens for study. But they were just fucking plants! She glared at the tendrils which had been carting her through the forest and had brought her to this unpleasant place. Just wait until she got back to the lab. She'd come back here much better equipped. She'd follow those obnoxious tendrils back to the source and turn the owner into a giant salad!
She felt some tendrils brushing against the backs of her hands. "Now what?" she wondered. Were they trying to make her lose her grip? They weren't smacking her hands though, just lightly brushing against them. As she watched, she saw that they were also brushing against the branch right aside of where she was gripping it.
In a minute or two, she started feeling her hands slipping a little. It was like the surface of the branch was getting oily! So that's what the tendrils were up to - they were spreading some slippery substance onto the branch!
To make matters worse, some other tendrils came along and removed her shoes. Then they started tickling her! Not only were they rubbing her feet, but a few other tendrils tickled her under her arms and on her stomach! It was becoming nearly impossible for her to keep her grip on the branch!
Finally, her hands slipped off. At the moment of realization that she was about to fall, her eyes grew wide. She quickly tried to get her grip back, but it was too late; she had already started to fall.
Fortunately, the thin tendrils from the stinging plant slowed her descent. Rather than just plopping down, it took several seconds for her bottom to reach the surface of the leaf. As she felt the shoot penetrate inside her, her eyes widened even further. A long, steady moan accompanied her widening eyes.
"oooooooooooOOOOOOOOhhhhhhhhhHHHHHHHHHHHH."
Her bottom reached the surface of the leaf. Immediately, the thin tendrils which were draped over her thighs pulled tight, making it impossible for her to get up. She would be forced to sit on this most uncomfortable chair until the plants decided to release her! In a few moments, she felt a powerful stinging sensation on her rear end.
"YYYYYEEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOCCCCCCCCCCCHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!"
Frantically she tried to get off the leaf, but she was held fast. She knew that the longer her skin made contact with the leaf, the more of the stinging substance would transfer onto her skin ... and the more of that substance that worked its way into her skin, the longer the stinging would last! As she struggled, a burning sensation inside her accompanied the stinging on the outside. This was the "ginger shoot" that was stuck up her rear! The pretty scientist started bawling.
After what seemed like a very long time, but in reality was only about ten seconds, she was lifted back up off the leaf. While relieved, the stinging outside and burning inside were most uncomfortable! She felt tears rolling down her face. For as long as she had been held against that leaf, it would be DAYS before the stinging would stop! Also, it felt like something was still stuck inside her. She looked down, puzzled, and saw that some thin "cords", presumably from the stinging plant, were wrapped around her upper thighs and her waist. She reached behind her and confirmed her suspicion - the shoot was still inside her, and was being held there by the cords. She pulled at the cords, but she couldn't tear them - they felt as strong as steel!
At that point, the thick tendrils which had been moving her about the forest picked her up again. She was taken back to the empty field that was all ready for planting. She knew exactly what she was supposed to do, and did so with no hesitation - she started planting the experimental seeds. Conveniently, one of the tendrils had brought her shoes along, so at least she didn't have to try to work barefoot!
She had to move around slowly and carefully; her backdoor invader made movement especially uncomfortable. She managed, though, and was making good progress. She thought about the truly absurd situation she was in. A plant, a plant of all things, was forcing her to work for it. This same plant had punished her repeatedly for stepping out of line. She was butt naked except for her shoes, had a fiercely stinging, glowing red bottom, and had a piece of plant stuck up her butt which caused a deep burning sensation. But there was nothing she could do about it. The plant had the upper hand - or was it upper "leaf", she wondered.
She again realized that the seeds she was planting, labeled 'X3790S44', were not the right ones for this field. That offended her scientific sense of duty. She felt a tendril wrap around her wrist. Quickly, she said out loud, "But that's OK, these seeds will grow fine here! I'm happy to plant them!!" The tendril released her again.
When she was about a quarter of the way through the planting, a tendril came and wrapped itself around her upper waist. She stood still, not knowing what it wanted. Another tendril came and touched the thin cords that were wrapped around her waist and thighs. As she watched, the cords unraveled. Another tendril came and reached behind her. She felt the shoot being slowly pulled out of her. She kept very still; it only took a few seconds. Once the shoot was removed, the tendrils released her. She felt better with that thing out, although it still burned fiercely inside!
She found it easier to move now, and returned to her planting task. She worked quickly, even though she was still far from comfortable. The burning inside had subsided just a little, but her bottom stung as badly as ever! At last, after about two hours, she had finished the planting.
As she stood there looking around the field, a tendril came and wrapped itself around her wrist. This then led her into another section of the forest. She recognized the place immediately - it was where she had been placed over a branch and soundly spanked. She could see her clothes still hanging on the branch to the one side. Some other tendrils came, picked her up, and draped her back over the branch. She was in perfect position for another spanking.
"NO!!!" she shouted, and started struggling. "I did what you wanted!!!"
She saw something else emerge from the trees. It was a tendril tipped with an object of the same size and shape as the "ginger shoot" that had familiarized itself with her. It was obvious what its intention was.
"NOOOOOOOOO!!!" she shouted and struggled furiously. Some more tendrils came and held her firmly against the branch; she couldn't move her bottom at all. She watched as the probe moved to the back of her. She braced herself as much as she could, which really wasn't much at all. In a few seconds, she felt it penetrate and move slowly inside.
"ooooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO"
Then she felt it slowly rotate.
"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
In a few seconds, she felt it start to pull out again. Once it was out, it disappeared back into the forest. She felt strange inside; then she realized the burning feeling was gone - gone completely! As this realization hit her, a large leaf emerged from the trees. It was about the same size as the one that had spanked her, but looked a little different. It was glistening with some liquid coating. It placed itself on her bottom and gently rubbed. When it first made contact, it really stung, but that feeling was brief. Nikki felt all the pain and stinging in her backside vanish! As the probe did, the leaf went back into the trees. Then the tendrils lifted Nikki off the branch and put her on her feet. Amazingly, Nikki felt absolutely fine! All the discomfort from her punishment was gone! "I've made a new friend!" she thought. "Thank you!!!" she said out loud.
A tendril motioned for her to follow. Apparently she was again to be allowed to walk on her own, rather than being pulled by the wrist or carried. She obediently followed the tendril until they came to another experimental field. This one was ready for planting, like the one she had just worked on. However, this field was about three times larger. She walked up to the container of seeds that had been placed there; it was marked 'X3790S44'.
"What is it with this batch of seeds?" Nikki wondered. Again, these were not the right seeds for the field, but she was hardly going to argue! She sighed - apparently the plant wanted her to work on this field as well. That was going to take quite a while; it was a large field!
Then another tendril came up to her. She saw it was carrying something. As it got closer, she saw what it was ... her phone! It must have fished it out of the pocket of her shorts! What in the world did it want with that? Then the tendril held the phone out to her. Automatically, she took it.
Nikki stood there holding her phone. She had no idea what the plant wanted her to do. In a few moments the tendril pointed at her phone, then pointed toward the field. Nikki watched, baffled. It repeated these motions more emphatically, pointing first to her phone, then to the field. Slowly, comprehension dawned. "You've got to be kidding me!" Nikki thought. "The plant's acting like it wants me to call someone, to get someone else to come and plant the field! No, it can't be that - how could the plant possibly know what the phone even does??"
Then the tendril gently took the phone from her hand, waved it in front of her, and placed it back in her hand. "Well, it certainly seems like it wants me to call someone! I don't believe it! I'm sure not going to argue, though! But I wonder who I could call?"
As Nikki scanned through her contact list, she spotted the name 'Rachel'. She paused and thought a moment; Rachel was a coworker of Nikki's, someone she was not overly fond of. Rachel was, in Nikki's view, a really snobby girl, someone who thought she was better than everyone else. Fortunately, Nikki didn't have to work closely with her, but when she did have dealings with Rachel, the girl really rubbed her the wrong way. Rachel's family was quite wealthy, and the girl tended to flaunt that fact, often wearing expensive designer clothes, for example.
Nikki thought to herself, "Oh, I couldn't ... I just couldn't! Or ... could I?" Nikki knew that whoever she called would NOT be very pleased with her.
Nikki thought of Rachel being forced to do manual labor ... for a plant! "Oh, how that would gall her!" she thought. She pictured the stuck-up girl working in a field wearing nothing but her shoes. Knowing Rachel, they would be some fancy shoes not at all suitable for the outdoors. Nikki couldn't help but to smile - it had been bad enough having to plant a small field with her bottom on fire the whole time, but Rachel would have to do one three times as large!
Then Nikki brought her thoughts back down to earth. "No, I just couldn't do that!" she thought.
Smack!
The tendril had given her a light smack on her rear end.
"Owww"
"On the other hand, why yes, I COULD do that!" she thought.
But what could she say to Rachel to bring her to the lab? Nikki started thinking about that. She imagined herself saying to Rachel, "I want to introduce you to my new friend!"
That got her thinking; now that things had calmed down, her tendencies to get lost in scientific lines of thought had reemerged. "But is it really correct to say 'friend'?" she thought. "It's possible the plant is part of a communal organism; that might help to explain some things. What's the correct way to refer to a communal organism - should it be singular, 'friend', or plural, 'friends'? On the other hand, there may actually be multiple communal organisms involved. This is very interesting ..."
SMACK!
"OWWWW"
"OK, OK, I'll make the call," Nikki said. "I just have to think of what to say to get her here. Honest - as soon as I figure it out, I'll call!"
The tendril patted her on her upper back.
That show of support from the plant got her thinking again. "The plant obviously has the ability to read thoughts, as incredible as that seems. I wonder how its telepathy works. It's possible it can understand speech as well; I'm not sure though. A simple experiment could be designed to test that ..."
The tendril waved itself in front of her face.
"Oops - sorry!" she said. "I'll get back to the phone call!"
She spent a few moments thinking, until ... "Ha! I've got it!"
Then Nikki made the call: "Hi, Rachel, we've made an astonishing discovery here at the station. This is huge - the media will be all over it! Could you come right over? I know it'll take a few hours, but this is big news! I thought you'd want to be a part of it."
That got her. Seeing the chance for positive publicity, Rachel agreed to come right to the station.
*********
While waiting for Rachel to arrive, Nikki decided to go get Sandy out of the bunker. She continued walking along the trail as it bent back through the forest, her mind churning with countless thoughts and ideas relating to her experiences with the seemingly intelligent plant. Finally, the trail emerged onto the road connecting the guardhouse to the research station. She started walking down the road toward the entrance to the bunker.
Before she got very far, though, she saw the two guards walking up the road toward her. She heard some rustling coming from the trees to the side of the road. She decided she'd better just tell the guards everything's OK. She didn't want to anger the plant; she was sure the rustling she had heard was some of its tendrils.
She waved to the guards. They waved back, but there was something odd about their gesture; they seemed uncertain somehow. As she approached the two, she could tell something wasn't right. They had odd expressions on their faces, plus they weren't meeting her eyes. "What's wrong?" Nikki wondered. "Do they know about the mutant plants?"
Finally she was standing right in front of them. They were staring intently, but still weren't meeting her eyes. In fact, their focus seemed to be lower. "What on earth are they looking at?" she wondered. She looked down at herself. "Oh dear ..." she thought, realizing the only thing she was wearing was her shoes.
She put one arm over her breasts, and put the opposite hand over her crotch. Somehow, that made her appear even more naked. "Sorry!" she said, and turned to face back up the road. As she ran back toward the station, she continued covering her breasts and the front of her crotch. The two guards watched in disbelief at the completely unobstructed view of Nikki's bare bottom wriggling its way up the road. The one guard's mouth had dropped open; the other's eyebrows shot way up into his forehead. They continued staring until Nikki was out of sight, then they turned to look at each other in astonishment. Eventually, the one guard remembered to close his mouth, and the other's eyebrows descended to their normal location.
*********
A few hours later, Rachel arrived. As Nikki had anticipated, she was wearing fancy, expensive-looking clothes. Nikki took particular notice of her shoes - more suitable for a formal social function than for walking around outside! Nikki herself was, to her relief, dressed again in her far more casual attire.
Nikki, trying not to smile, said, "Hello Rachel! Would you mind waiting here just for a moment? I'll be right back!" She felt a little bad lying to Rachel, but only a little. Nikki was going straight to her vehicle outside and was going to drive away from the station, after first picking Sandy up at the bunker. She was leaving Rachel behind as an "assistant" for the plant!
Nikki walked outside the station. As she approached her vehicle, a thought hit her. "Oh my! ... Oh my, oh my!!" She covered her mouth and tried to suppress a smile. She wasn't entirely successful - the corners of her mouth turned upward behind her hand. Nikki had remembered what line of business Rachel's family was in - where all their money came from. Rachel's father owned a large food processing plant. One of their main products was vegetable soup! "Wait until the plant finds out about that!" she thought. She heard a rustling from the trees. "Oops!" she thought. "I guess I just gave it away!"
Nikki pictured Rachel, stripped of all her fancy clothes, bent over a tree branch having her bare bottom spanked long and hard. Her smile, despite her attempts to keep it at bay, broadened. Then she thought about the stinging plants. When she was having her "encounter" with one of them, she had noticed that, not surprisingly, they varied in size. In particular, she recalled seeing some with longer and thicker shoots pointing upward from the main leaf. Nikki's bottom cheeks reflexively clenched together. "OH MY!" she thought, still smiling.
At that point, a tendril came right up to her face. It touched her lips - the tendril was moist. "Did that plant just KISS me???" she wondered. "But how could it know about human friendship behavior? Well, I ASSUME it was a friendly kiss. Surely it wasn't a sexual kiss? Hmmm ... that would really be strange. But in either case, how did it learn such behaviors? This is really very interesting. What experiment can I set up to answer this question? How about ..."
Smack!
The tendril gave her a light little swat to get her on her way. It didn't hurt; it just got her attention.
She turned, smiling. "OK, I'm leaving now! Have fun!!!"
Then she left.