₴₮Ɽ₳₦₲ɆⱤ ₮Ⱨ₳₦ ₣ł₵₮łØ₦ | 9 | The Inoculation

Daphne and Gaby prepare to enter 8 Bells together, hoping the lead they've followed here will provide them with some much-needed insight on how to combat the infection. Early this morning, Daphne received a call from Evangeline, the military woman she met before, offering intel on the research she was involved in. Although Daphne was a tiny bit disappointed not to also be asked on a date, she agreed to meet Evangeline at the bar and convinced Gaby to tag along as back-up.

"Are you sure we can trust this woman?" Gaby asks before they walk inside.

"Not entirely, but she's the best option we've got, isn't she? Now, remember what Gracie said: be on your best behavior."

Gaby scoffs, clearly still uncomfortable with the idea of anyone bossing her around. "What does that even mean?"

"Just don't scare her off, okay?"

Inside, Evangeline's first question to Daphne mirrors Gaby's almost exactly: "Can I really trust her to do the right thing with this information?" She's clearly still nervous about whatever threats the military has made to get her to keep what she knows under wraps. But Daphne can sense that she has a good heart and that her desire to save people's lives will triumph over her fear for her own safety. Daphne just has to ease her mind first, which luckily turns out to be a breeze. She's never met anyone she's found so easy to talk to.

Once she's sure Evangeline is ready to spill, she surreptitiously motions for Gaby to make her way over. Evangeline reveals that, in the final days before the "explosion," she was in charge of assigning guards to the lab, where the scientists were working overtime to formulate a cure for the soldiers who had been exposed. Eating the fruit had infected them, as the military expected, but the infection was too unstable to be of any use; it had only succeeded in further empowering the mother plant, which grew even larger and more furious. During a scheduled visit by the Mayor, a freak lightning storm occurred. ("In my memory, the lightning was pink," Evangeline muses distractedly. "It was the strangest thing...") The lab was left badly damaged; its transmitters shorted, and the security system was temporary disabled. All hell broke lose. With so many people scrambling to get out at once, the door mechanisms jammed, allowing the mother plant's spores free reign. By the time the security system was back online, it was too late. The damage had already been done. Anyone who was within a several-mile radius of the lab was at risk - soldiers, scientists, civilians, everybody.

The mood is heavy by the time Evangeline finishes telling her story. But now that the weight of what she knows is off her shoulders, Evangeline herself seems practically weightless with relief. Gaby bolts out of the bar, eager to share her many suspicions that have now been confirmed with the others, but Daphne lingers. "I bet you could use a drink right now," she says hesitantly.

"Definitely!" Evangeline responds. "But what I would really like is to share that drink with you."

Daphne's cheeks grow hotter than she ever thought possible and her heart feels like it might beat right out of her chest, but somehow she keeps it together. "I might be able to stick around for a few more minutes..." She's done her part now; she doubts the others will miss her.

Back at the trailer, everybody has different ideas about how to proceed. Ros, in a brief moment of clarity, thinks they should focus on recruiting a ragtag group of citizens to help them destroy the mother plant, which can surely be taken down with enough manpower, and wouldn't defeating the source be their safest bet? Gaby isn't so sure about that. She worries that prioritizing the cause over the effect is the wrong move. What if the cure dies alongside its mother? Where will that leave them? Nowhere, and with nothing to show for it. Gracie attempts to cut through their overlapping arguments. "Did that Evangeline woman know anything about precisely what steps the scientists were taking to identify a cure?"

Gaby momentarily looks up from the frenzied back-and-forth she's been having with a group of science-minded amateur sleuths online. "She couldn't give me any specifics. But she did say that they were constantly requesting access to the mother plant to gather large volumes of spores. When she asked one of the scientists why, he only muttered something incomprehensible about reverse engineering."

"They must have been trying to identify the plant's biological makeup in the hopes that it would lead them to a vaccine," Gracie replies, "which means we should try to do the same thing."

Even though Juniper would likely be able to wrap her head around the technology in the lab more quickly than any of them, Gracie and Gaby know it's pointless to even ask her to come. She refuses to leave Ros' side, for fear that she might wander off while in a possessed state and never find her way back. So it's up to the two of them alone, along with Gaby's arsenal of half-remembered knowledge from the Internet, to get things done.

"Do you know how to work that thing?" Gracie asks suspiciously as Gaby pokes tentatively at one of the chemical analyzers.

"Do you?" Gaby shoots back, and Gracie is tellingly silent. "Then shut up and let me work, okay?"

Gracie is curious to see the mother plant in all its horrific glory, but she's too nervous to enter its lair alone. Instead, she stands by, as patiently as possible considering the circumstances, while Gaby curses her way through a series of bewildering screens. Luckily, it seems whatever data was already collected by the scientists before fleeing the scene remains intact. They just have to figure out how to turn thousands of lines of unintelligible code into a real live vaccine. Easy... right?

One thing is for certain: the cure can't come soon enough. More and more citizens are becoming infected, and as long as they're wandering free, nurturing every strange plant into fruition, the entire town is in danger of becoming zombified.

Ros tries to hold off the infection's takeover as long as she can, but she ultimately has no choice but to succumb to its strange desires. The flower planted in their yard by Daphne, now in full bloom, beckons her. It whispers in its unique language for her to summon its fruit as an offering to tempt those who remain uninitiated.

Gaby isn't sure if the mysterious substance she's come back from the lab with is a cure, but she'll try anything. Besides, it doesn't seem like it can do much worse to Ros than the infection has already done. She feels badly about administering the experimental vaccine without Ros' explicit permission, but she won't know for sure that it works unless she tests it against the infection at its strongest.

Gaby worries it might just be wishful thinking on her part, but she thinks the experimental vaccine causes a slight reaction, even if it fails to entirely pull the infection out of Ros. At any rate, it didn't harm her in any visible way, which has to be a good sign.

Gaby is at least left comfortable enough to test the vaccine on others who have been infected. She wonders if the length of the infection might have an effect on how successfully it responds to the vaccine. Just in case, she doubles the strength of the next batch. Still, it's not yet strong enough.

Eventually, she has a small breakthrough. Her most aggressive attempt at the vaccine briefly snaps a possessed Jess Sigworth into normalcy. Although she soon returns to her infected state, it's a promising outcome that must mean Gaby is on the right track, even if she's had to blindly fumble her way there.

Juniper and Ros have been trying to keep their romantic relationship under wraps, but clear-minded moments are so few and far between for Ros that Juniper can't help but shower her with affection at every available opportunity. It isn't long before their newfound intimacy is noticed.

"Oh my god, you guys!" Gaby exclaims, eyes glimmering with excitement. "How long has this been going on? I must know everything!"

Even Gracie's heart surges, though she can't help but feel a pinprick of jealousy, considering the uncertain status of her own relationship. She left Oasis Springs without even attempting to come to a resolution with Ana, and it's been quietly eating away at her ever since.

It isn't long before Ros is all business again, returning to her weight training like nothing ever happened. Her feelings for Juniper are real, which makes her even less inclined to want to flaunt them publicly. She's always believed that the things most important to you are the ones you should keep closest to your chest. Besides, there are more important things to focus on right now. None of them can afford to be distracted from the task at hand.

"I don't know about everyone else, but I won't be able to sleep properly until we solve this thing once and for all," Juniper says. "We know we're on the right track. We just have to keep grinding out vaccines until we get one that's strong enough."

"And no matter what," Ros pipes in, her voice raspy with exertion, "we should be ready to take down that fucking thing in the basement. If it gains any more power, we're all doomed."

Gaby is desperate to redeem herself for not stopping Ros from eating the glowing fruit, even if it means pulling an all-nighter to perfect the vaccine. This time, at least she's got Juniper, whose head is practically bursting with formulas and ratios suggested by the eggheads online, to help her out.

Between the two of them, despite their near-complete lack of scientific background, she's confident they can get the job done - because there's no other choice. Failure isn't even an option.

Meanwhile, it doesn't take long for the infection coursing through her veins to draw Ros toward the mother plant. At home, she felt only rage toward the massive creature, but now she feels a strange sense of... family. The sensation reminds her of how purely she loved her own parents as a child, before their actions permanently destroyed any possibility of a healthy relationship. She wants to be nurtured by it. Mothered. When Juniper notices her dazed expression as she passes by, she quickly follows, concerned for Ros' physical safety.

The mother plant defies all expectations created by Gaby's vague descriptions. It's simultaneously the most beautiful and horrifying thing Juniper has ever seen. Ros is hopelessly possessed in its overpowering presence, speaking to the plant in guttural grunts. Strangely, the plant almost seems to speak back.

"Ah, good," Gaby says, entering the room with a freshly-created vaccine in hand, "the possession's already in full swing. It shouldn't take long to see if we get a reaction."

Juniper is too nervous to watch.

At first, Ros appears unaffected, and Gaby begins to feel her heart sink miserably...

But then Ros' grotesquely distorted expression morphs into a steely scowl Gaby already knows well, despite their brief acquaintance, proving the vaccine's effectiveness. Her first sentence upon retaking control of her body and mind further erases any doubt: "Let's kick this motherfucker's ass."

So many distinctly human emotions churn to the surface at once. She feels possessed, but by her own feelings this time, not some bizarre mutant plant. Anger is all tangled up with passion, their potent union further intensified by a rush of adrenaline. She can't help herself from rushing down the platform and sweeping Juniper off her feet for a steamy kiss.

Gaby looks on awkwardly at what seems to be their never-ending make-out session. "I think I might have preferred it when you guys weren't madly in love," she deadpans.

They return to the trailer, ostensibly to get some much-needed rest, but they're all too excited to close their eyes for much longer than five minutes. Instead, Juniper updates the message boards on their breakthrough while Gaby breathlessly relates the events of the night to Daphne. She can't believe they've accomplished what the scientists and military couldn't. If the vaccine works as well on the other infected townspeople as it seems to have worked on Ros, they'll be hailed as heroes and the long nightmare will finally be over.

They spend the rest of the day crafting a stockpile of vaccines. True to her word, Gaby first tracks down the red-headed scientist's friend, Lilly, and administers the cure to her. Lilly is so grateful that she agrees to help them defeat the mother plant by whatever means necessary. She's seen enough in her research to know that letting it continue to thrive in its basement enclave can only lead to more trouble. She also reveals that it often took four or five armed soldiers at once to keep the plant under control in the days leading up to the "explosion." It will likely take just as many to wrangle it now.

As soon as their conversation ends, another victim stumbles into Gaby's path. The vaccine works like a charm on her, too. Afterward, she properly introduces herself for the first time. Her name is Leslie. Even though she's only a civilian, an aspiring author with no combat experience, she wants to join their makeshift army. "I just want everything to go back to normal," she says simply. "Besides, it'll be good material for my book!"

In the alley behind 8 Bells, Gaby runs into a tipsy Alvin. He's let down his usual guard and is in the mood for flirtation. Unfortunately, as much as Gaby likes him, now isn't the time. She needs to focus on inoculating and recruiting more victims.

When she tells him what she's doing, Alvin offers to assist in an adorably drunken way. Before she can even respond, he's off and running to catch up with another possessed wanderer. "Hey, dude, slow down!" he shouts. "My girlfriend wants to cure you!"

Gaby smiles to herself, letting her mind drift momentarily from the mission. He called her his girlfriend. On one hand, it seems a little premature considering they haven't even been able to go on a proper date or even spend more than ten minutes at a time together so far. Besides, he's drunk and probably doesn't know what he's saying. On the other hand, though, something about it just feels right. Whatever this thing between them is, she can't wait to explore it properly once the dust has settled around them.

The night continues to be full of surprises. An unusually loud clamor draws her inside 8 Bells, where she finds the servicemen inside swooning over a celebrity presence. It's not just any celebrity but her own half-sister, Ana. "What are you doing here?" she asks.

Ana, always so confident and poised, appears crestfallen. "I was hoping to talk to Gracie... She left in such a hurry, and things between us haven't been great lately... I don't know how much she told you."

"She told me enough," Gaby replies carefully. "I know what you did while she was gone."

Ana's eyes brim with tears. "Oh, Gaby, I really messed up! I'm afraid she'll never forgive me. I'm afraid I might not even deserve her forgiveness."

Gaby wants to be angry for Gracie's sake, but she loves Ana, and she knows mistakes sometimes happen. She pulls her in for a reassuring embrace. Even if they can't make their marriage work, she knows it's important for them to reach a resolution for their children. "I think some distance is still necessary," she says, "but I'll see if I can get Gracie to call you."

Ana nods in relief, they say goodbye, and Gaby leaves her to sign autographs for the oblivious soldiers still lurking in the background.

Later, without revealing that Ana came all the way to Strangerville to relay the message, Gaby encourages Gracie to extend an olive branch. "If I know my sister, I know she feels awful right now. I'm not asking you to forget what happened, but it's not healthy to dwell on it either. You don't have to decide anything right away, but won't it help to open a conversation?"

Maybe Gaby is right. Gracie takes out her phone and begins tentatively typing out a text to her wife. It'll be a hard conversation, one that will eventually have to shift from the digital realm to the real world and become even harder, but only a weak person would run away from it and Gracie doesn't want to be weak. They've possibly just saved an entire town from near-certain annihilation, and they're about to battle a gigantic sentient plant straight out of a horror movie. If she can stand up against all that, she can survive anything, whether it be the end of her marriage or a new beginning.

10 | The Battle