The early morning sun failed to penetrate the fog which carried ash particles in the sky.
Ethan pushed westward through the land which was covered by blackened soil that made strange cracking noises beneath his footsteps. Every breath he took felt like a mix of soot and metal.
The wilderness now presented itself with a different character. The wilderness underwent a fundamental transformation which surpassed the effects of monsters because of a deeper process. The area maintained a living sensation because unknown observers monitored each movement made by him.
Every step he took further from the city destruction made him feel like he left behind the natural world he knew in his entire life.
Ethan began to detect abnormalities in the trees when he walked for two hours into his journey.
His exhaustion initially made him believe he was seeing things. The initial view of these trees revealed them to be dead objects with empty trunks and missing leaves. When he stopped to take water he observed that the trees actually moved.
Not swaying from wind. Not collapsing from decay. The trees moved by advancing their roots through the soil like large underground worms. Trunk bark showed movement as trees leaned multiple degrees before establishing a new position.
Ethan crouched behind a warped log, eyes wide. A single tree completely dug itself out of the ground before dragging its root network across the ground with a painful ripping sound before it met another tree trunk.
It wasn't natural mutation. The plants had acquired basic migratory instincts that made them move on their own as if they possessed primitive instincts.
He felt his skin crawl.
The transformation of trees in the apocalypse made him wonder about all the other changes that occurred in that wilderness.
The pathway continued onward until it became completely covered with crimson vines which tangled together. The plants emitted weak pulsations through their diseased light veins which lay beneath their surfaces. The plant signals radiated from each pulse which triggered nearby plants to twitch.
Ethan tried to lift the vine using his crowbar until...
CRACK!
The vine launched itself upward like a venomous snake as its thorns cut through the space where his arm should have been.
He stumbled backward while his adrenaline levels reached a dangerous peak.
The vines retracted slightly, then writhed in unison toward him, sensing warmth or movement. Their tips glistened with clear fluid, sizzling on contact with the earth. Acid!
The wheel spun instinctively.
DING!
~----~
[Improvisation Draw Activated: Environmental Threat!]
…
Ethan slammed his hand down.
…
[Improvised Gear: Null – Root Boots]
>Rudimentary footwear coated with repellant compound. Temporarily masks weight and heat signature against organic ground sensors. Duration: 15 minutes.
~----~
The boots appeared out of darkness with their dark color and they had a faint liquid dripping from them. Ethan rushed to change his shoes while his heart pounded because the vines approached him.
The vines halted their movement when Ethan advanced because their thorns displayed uncertainty before they returned to the soil.
Ethan stared at them, breathing hard.
Ethan spoke his discovery in a hushed voice: "Adaptive flora…". "Great. Plants have joined the list of creatures which seek to destroy me.
Each step became a test for him as he moved with caution. The boots provided him protection for now but he needed a permanent solution. The boots would save him from instant destruction but without them he would become a victim of the thorns within seconds.
Ethan entered a clearing at late afternoon which resembled no other place he had seen since the world ended.
The ground beneath his feet felt like a soft sponge which sank down slightly with every movement. The ground released mist puffs with each movement which produced a bad smell of sulfur and decay.
Then he noticed the sound.
The air transmitted a peculiar breathing pattern consisting of gentle breaths that seemed to come from the earth itself.
A large glowing orange growth occupied the center of the clearing as it pulsed with life and displayed its flesh-like roots beneath a thick layer of vegetation. The thick fleshy pods expanded and contracted in a breathing motion.
The surface of the growth was home to insectoid creatures which cared for podlike openings that emitted green sap.
Ethan crouched behind a shattered boulder while he watched with frozen disbelief.
Every few seconds, the mound released a wave of energy. He could feel it ripple through the ground, making nearby vines twitch and align themselves toward it. Even distant vines responded, shifting toward the mound like flowers turning to sunlight.
The mound gave off faint heat, making the mist swirl around it like smoke.
DING!
~----~
[System Advisory]
[Environmental Core Detected: Unknown Function]
~----~
"This isn't just mutation," Ethan muttered. "And it's not random either. It's… coordinated".
It was while Ethan muttered to himself that a sudden sharp clicking sound reverberated, making him freeze.
One of the insect-like drones had noticed him. It had a segmented and armored body. As soon as it noticed outside presence, its antennae twitched as it scuttled toward the clearing's edge. Then, it shrieked…
In mere moments, another joined it, then a third, all of them circling the clearing like guards around a queen.
Ethan's pulse spiked. The wheel spun.
DING!
~----~
[Improvised Ability: Silence Veil]
>Muffles all sounds produced by the user for 20 seconds. Effective for avoiding sonic-based detection.
~----~
Ethan reacted instantly by instinct.
Sound vanished from his footsteps instantly, and he slipped sideways silently into the mist, circling wide as the drones clacked and scraped the ground where he'd been seconds before.
From the corner of his eye, he saw one drone pause, mandibles dripping sap, staring blankly. Another joined them, then a few seconds later, they returned together to the mound, seemingly confused.
Ethan retreated carefully into the forest, boots muffling every step.
As evening approached, he found high ground to rest, crouching on a jagged cliff that overlooked the breathing mound. From here, he studied the hive's behavior:
Drones moved in predictable patrol patterns, scanning vibrations. The mound's energy pulses seemed to command surrounding flora, shaping growth direction. Acidic vines and shifting trees formed a defensive perimeter around it.
This wasn't wild or random mutation. Something was rebuilding the ecosystem. It was an apex-level adaptation, a central intelligence warping the ecosystem for survival, reshaping it into a hostile, coordinated network.
If the forest itself was organized enough to hunt intruders, his journey west would only grow more dangerous.
'Troublesome,' he thought, brows furrowed.
DING!
~----~
[Environmental Threat Logged: Improvisation Pool Expanded]
>Future draws may include countermeasures for adaptive flora and hive-linked entities.
~----~
Night fell with eerie stillness, the hive's glow faint in the distance. Ethan tightened the rope harness he'd strung between two high boughs, whispering to himself as sleep fought its way past dread.
"Monsters I can fight… but how the hell do you fight a forest?"