₴₮Ɽ₳₦₲ɆⱤ ₮Ⱨ₳₦ ₣ł₵₮łØ₦ | 10 | The Battle
There's no point in putting it off any longer: today is the day they will take down the mother plant. They don't particularly relish the idea of killing a living, breathing thing, no matter how much havoc it's wreaked, but they also don't see any way around it. The only way to ensure the flowers, and thus the infection, will not continue to propagate is to permanently cut off their source of power.
Gaby and Ros plan to take down the mother plant with the weapons stashed in the lab's basement. They've already seen how easily it can hold its ground against one measly human, so Lilly and Leslie will provide backup, their passion hopefully outweighing their lack of preparation. Finally, Gracie is along for the ride to document evidence of the mother's existence.
Ros isn't sure their helpers are serious enough about the mission. As they navigate the lab's many levels, now ventilated enough due to their frequent usage to navigate without hazmat suits, they don't seem to understand the gravity of what they're about to attempt. Maybe Lilly is just confident, having extensively researched the plant, but Leslie seems downright flippant, stopping for a glass of water and strutting the halls like she owns the place. Her carefree attitude rubs Ros the wrong way.
As they prepare to cross the final barrier separating them from the mother plant's dark, dank home, Gracie stops to take photographs of the vines that appear to be oozing from the walls. It's like the mother plant is trying to grow in size as well as strength, and it will rip through even the sturdiest layers of metal and concrete to do it.
The sight of the mother plant itself is even more sobering. Gracie is most struck by the overwhelming but indescribable energy with which it fills the entire cavernous room. It makes her feel drained and disoriented, like all of the wires in her brain are being crossed at once. It's a struggle simply to think clearly enough to press the right buttons on her phone's camera.
Once Gracie has finished photographing the mother plant from as many angles as possible, it's time for the battle of their lives to begin. None of them can be certain it's a fight they'll end up winning, and the possibility of losing - and what that might mean, not only for the town's continued survival but their own - weighs heavy on all of their minds. But everyone knew what they were signing up for and what it might cost them. There is ample opportunity to back out, but nobody does. They're in this together now, until the bitter end. Gaby puts her best effort into raising a confident rallying cry, and everyone wordlessly gets into position.
Her work completed, Gracie heads out. They agreed in advance that she should stay on the outside, safely out of harm's way. On the off chance the others don't make it, it will be her duty to convey their unfortunate demise to the rest of the world. That way, at least their sacrificial deaths, if it comes to that, will have meant something.
Their plan is to come at the mother plant, each of them in possession of a military-grade blaster, from all four sides. Lilly has informed them that the blasters are loaded with a top-secret poisonous spray formulated specifically to weaken the mother plant's instincts for self-preservation. The military used them to keep the plant in check while the scientists collected samples for their research. If they're able to keep up the stamina to maintain a steady flow of spray, they might just have a chance, though it won't be easy. It seems the mother plant has telepathically summoned those still infected, including Mayor Roswell, to serve as her devoted foot soldiers.
Not that the mother plant isn't capable of defending itself. Although its lumbering size may suggest sluggishness, it's an incredibly quick, agile, and intelligent being whose swinging arms remind Gaby of those sticky hands she used to buy out of vending machines as a kid, just exaggerated to an absurd extent.
Kid Gaby, with her hunger for adventure and lacking sense of reality, might have found the idea of being slapped with a giant sticky hand exhilarating. But Adult Gaby only finds it to be an exhausting distraction from the task at hand. It's difficult for her to be amused by the ridiculousness of it when the hand is strong enough to knock her to the ground with a single blow.
Meanwhile, Gracie watches the sky darken ominously with every minute that passes. Hot-pink zigzags of lightning make contact with the transmitters outside the lab. She wonders if what she is observing now is similar to the strange sights reported by Lilly, George Cahill, and other witnesses she's interviewed. The "explosion" occurred when the mother plant was finally able to overpower the military's strength; now, her friends are the ones fighting this unfathomably monstrous creature. She hopes the outcome will be different for them, but the longer they remain inside, the more worried she gets.
Her concern isn't exactly misplaced. Although Ros' combat training kicks into gear to help her fend off any infected minions that get in her way, the others are too spent to maintain a consistent level of assault against the mother plant without her. As soon as it senses their weakening defenses, it strikes. Gaby only just manages to untangle herself from the plant's vice-like grip and shout at the others to retreat before it's too late.
Ros hates the idea of giving up before they've accomplished their goal. Perhaps they've succeeded in weakening the mother plant slightly, but it's clearly still strong enough to pose an immediate danger to the town. But even she must admit to growing tired. There's no way they can continue the fight right now.
"What are we going to do?" she asks Gaby, breathing heavy with both effort and exasperation. "One way or another, we have to destroy this thing!"
"I know," Gaby admits, "but we were stupid to come into this without a solid plan of action. We didn't think carefully enough about the people we should choose for the fight or the weapons we should choose to fight with."
Ros rolls her eyes. "That Leslie woman had no idea what she was doing."
"That might be true, but it's not all on her. We need to be smart about this. Creative. In fact, I have an idea..."
Gaby leads Ros to one of the chemical analyzers she used to formulate the vaccine. "We've found a formula that we know works to dispel the infection," she says, her brow furrowed in concentration. "So what would happen if we pushed it to the extreme? If we dial up the potency levels as high as we can, we might be able to deplete the mother plant more effectively."
Ros shrugs. "I don't know the first thing about how to run this machine, but if you're confident, I trust you. After all, whatever you've been doing, it managed to save me. But I also think we should consider replacing Leslie with someone a little more formidable."
At Ros' suggestion, along with the super-powered vaccine bombs intended for the mother plant, Gaby concocts a vaccine to cure another victim in the hopes of persuading her to join them in their next battle. They're hoping Jess Sigworth's military background will give them a leg up this time around.
Once Gaby apologizes for tossing an unidentified substance directly in her face and explains the situation, Jess is more than happy to help out. Now that she understands what the military was knowingly exposing her to during that study, she's willing to do anything to ensure no one else is harmed. She wants to be on the right side of history, even if it means betraying an organization she was once proud to belong to. After all, they betrayed her first.
There's no need to stall. Early the next morning, they arrive at the lab with clearly-laid plans, in which every single one of them has a defined role to play. They're determined not to give up until they're certain the mother plant has been drained of every last drop of power. This time, they will walk away not with their heads hung in defeat but as victors.
While Jess and Lilly hold steady on blaster duty and Ros fends off the remaining infected, Gaby prepares to throw her first vaccine bomb. She aims directly for the mother's gaping maw, which seems to be the point of maximum impact. She can only hope it works as intended.
The vaccine bomb is a success! As soon as it makes contact, it erupts into a noxious green cloud that almost completely veils the mother from sight. But when the cloud clears, the plant appears significantly weakened, its limbs pulsing in erratic slow motion.
Gaby keeps throwing bombs, until the plant finally surrenders in a single massive shudder. Everyone holds their breath for an excruciating minute, expecting it to roar back to life.
But the plant remains entirely still, its final exhalation of purple spores quickly dispersing and disintegrating into thin air. Gaby can't help herself. She lets out a loud celebratory yelp, and the others soon follow suit, shaking off all their pent-up nerves.
Ros isn't usually one for hugging, but she can't help but be swept up in the excitement of the moment, too. The atmosphere of the room already feels so much lighter; having been freed from the mother's tyranny, it now radiates their collective relief and joy at experiencing such a satisfying rush of accomplishment.
She even lets Gaby snap a selfie of the two of them posed in front of the defeated mother plant. Gloating has never been her style, but this has been such a hard, long-fought battle, especially considering she's been fighting it - for a long time unknowingly - since the day she found those top-secret documents, that she can't help but feel proud of herself for surviving.
Before they leave the lab for good, Gracie takes a few final photos and jots down her remaining observations. It's hard to believe anyone outside of Strangerville will believe the mother plant is really here if she doesn't have as much proof as possible to support the claim. Even as she's happy for the town's sake that their nightmare is over, she can't help but feel a little disappointed as a journalist about all the unanswered questions that remain. They may never know the real story of how the mother plant came to occupy a clandestine basement in a heavily-guarded military lab. Even if the government finally investigates, the truth will likely be obscured in layers of red tape and redaction. She'll do her best to keep chasing the story, but she knows it will be plagued by countless dead-ends, as most worthwhile stories are. It's up to her to be relentless enough to find ingenious ways around them.
Right now, though, all three of them need a solid night's sleep to make up for all the hours they've logged at the lab. But even through their heavy lids, they can see already that the ominous haze in the sky has cleared and many of the purple flowers seem to be disappearing in real-time. Soon enough, only a select few will ever remember they existed at all.
Before she collapses into bed, Ros shares the details of their final battle with Juniper, who is mostly just relieved she made it back alive. Now that their feelings for one another are out in the open, they have so much uncharted territory to explore together. Meanwhile, Daphne clears the kitchen sink of what they hope are the last remnants of the mother's terrifying hold over the town and its people.
Strangerville will always be just a little bit off, as many small rural towns are, but tonight a sense of normalcy has settled over the dusty desert landscape. There are still many hard decisions to be made as the military, scientists, and government hash out who is responsible for cleaning up which messes and what punishment, if any, should be doled out for all the damage done. But the citizens, at least, will be able to resume their everyday lives without the fear of infection looming constantly over their shoulders.