Labored breathing accompanied by hurried footsteps echoed along the brown tiled path of a park crowded with trees. An overgrowth of leaves and branches arched over the walkway, blocking any light from entering or leaving.
A bright white cone light stretches four trees down the path before turning to the tree line of the walk path. Jack, with his tactical hatchet in hand and the tactical flashlight the size of his thumb within his palm.
He shifted the light to the right along the path. The horde of trees sheltered the vast number of silhouettes that were bathed in the little light Jack provided. His breath hitched, switching the light to the left of the path before snapping his eyes down at the center.
A pool of cold light sat at the edge of the forest, and under the light was a military checkpoint. Jack emerged from the dark hold of nature, following the line of trees that separated the walking path from the vehicles, before walking under a traffic barrier.
Inviting the yakuza to a clear area of six rows of tents and the two green and black motor homes at the back.
He walked along the patches of grass and dirt. Eyeing the eight-by-four tree stumps settling to the left of the camp. On the right, a large, long, rounded tent with rolled flaps served as an entrance, presenting a spacious but tight interior.
Jack continued down to the center lane of the tents. Opening of the flaps with a wince. Inside was a cot bed with a footlocker at its foot. Jack watched his back before going inside.
He opened the footlocker, revealing nothing. He rose to his feet, grunting through his teeth, with his hand hovering over the bandage at his hip that created a pool stain of blood.
The ex-yakuza exit the tent before going next door to another near-empty room. Jack takes a knee, opening another footlocker, which reveals two handheld magazines and a protein bar wrapped in tan, labeled "MRE."
He stuffed the magazines within the loop pockets of his tactical vest before placing the MRE in the backpack.
After checking five more tents, he came out next door to the left of Jack. An open tent with an Sodapop Dan poster hung up on the wall and two figurines on the footlocker.
He picked up a cowboy Dan figurine before stuffing it in, followed by the bottle-opener toy. The ex-yakuza opened the footlocker, revealing a folded black quilt with brown combat boots stacked at the center. He lifted the shoes and the quilt from the box before he cracked a smirk.
"Now, we're getting somewhere." He pulled out a revolver.
Its handle is solid black with a comfort grip, while the J-frame is slim, featuring a silver dash that extends from the nose of the gun towards the handle with a charcoal chamber.
"It seems someone likes breaking protocol." Jack stuffed ReinHoover into the front of his pants, stuffing two-speed loaders containing five bullets into his backpack and the last one into his pocket.
He exited the tent before snapping his gaze to the motorhomes, listening to the gunshots erupting from afar within the treeline. Husk and mimics emerged between the gaps of the tents before landing their eyes on Jack, who steps back with his tactical hatchet in hand.
A groan made Walker spin around, and he faced a lunging husk. With a swift motion, he threw the creature over his shoulder. The body landed on his back, revealing it to be an ICC soldier. He wore a black army helmet, a dark blue jumpsuit, a black tactical vest with a yellow emblem that read ---ICC- on his chest, and black combat boots.
"You lied." The ICC Mimic fixates its purple eyes on Jack, who takes a step back. He shifts his gaze from the teeth-clenching ruin to the opportunists slowly approaching their late snack behind the fallen soldier, finally rising to his feet. "Why?!"
Jack turns from the horde, heading back to the checkpoint entrance, facing a few ICC ruins that emerge from the alley of the organized tents.
The ex-yakuza swung his tactical hatchet, taking a chunk out of the face of a ruin before shoulder-tackling another opponent onto her back. He weaved through the closing trap of flesh, sidestepping a lunge and stepping back onto the open field, three feet away from the tents.
Jack hunched, testing his grip on his hatchet, waiting for the Ten ICC ruins to close the distance. He rolled the tool within his palm, driving the spiked end into a ruin's eye.
The ICC ruins groans falling onto his back as Jack pulls it out, driving the end of the tool into the lower jaw of another infected soldier.
An ICC ruin on his left flashed her stained, red teeth as she stumbled towards Jack.
The ex-Yakuza sidestepped, kicking the infected foot from the grass, forcing it to stumble face-first into the dirt.
Jack, underhandedly slashes the throat of a ruined spilling its purple blood onto the trimmed grass. The infected soldier forced its teeth at Jack, grabbing onto his black funnel shirt, which was designed with scattered blue flowers.
"Fuck!" Jack draws his head back from the ruined glowing purple eyes, locking into his, drowning the ex-yakuza attire and hand underneath its cut throat with its purple liquids.
Another ICC ruin piled up behind the aggressor, forcing the added weight onto Jack, who screamed before punching the infected and kicking them back into a stumble.
Three more infected made it past the daze, forcing Jack to back away. He spun on his heels, turning his back to the horde.
An ICC ruin slaps Jack, forcing him to roll across the grass. Jack crawls back on his hands and feet, looking up at a ruin he tripped over a while back. She falls onto Jack, who snapped an ice beam into her, forcing two ruins among the crowd of eight onto the ground.
Jack stumbles to his feet with a cut on his cheek. Before he pulled his Vendetta. He fired into the crowd.
A bullet entered the eye of an ICC ruin who dropped, followed by the next. The next bullet entered the cheek of a ruin, which continued before earning another close to the right of its wide nose, making it drop.
Walker killed three more ruins, leaving two. His pistol clicked. Jack clicked his tongue, stuffing his pistol into his holster.
Approaching the lone ICC ruin, slowly approaching. Jack kicks the knee, forcing him to the ground before swinging the pointy end of the tool into his lower jaw.
"Ragh!" A feral cried, forcing Jack's eyes on the infected soldier, whom he tripped, closing the distance in seconds. She swung her hand while Jack leaned left, before stepping back from an upper claw slash.
The Feral ICC growls, performing an Overhead slap. Mr.Walker leans right, left, before scooping her arm under his. He threw her over his shoulder.
The feral climbed to her knee only to meet a Hatchet, separating her head from her shoulders. Her helmet flew off, followed by her head, which soon struck the grass.
"Ugh." Jack falls to a knee, collecting his breath. "Jack, come on." He pants, touching his leaking right cheek. "I can go for more."
He pried his backpack off, setting it onto the painted grass. He takes the carton from the pack, licking his lips. He took two chugs before prying it from his lips.
He coughs, covering his mouth. He beats his chest.
"Okay." Jack slings his backpack onto his back and stands up.
The ex-yakuza searched the bodies of the ICC Ruins, turning up four pistol mags, four combat knives, and a healing ointment.
"Hey!" A voice cried out from over Jack's shoulder. He stood to his feet from the ICC ruin corpse with his target within his crosshairs.
A sister of Eden with red glowing eyes, grey, sickly pupils. Black tree bark skin, four tree branches spewed from her skull like a crown sprinkled with patches of green bushes and vines that clung to the edges of the ears, and the curves of her alluring oak body.
"You're either brave or stupid." The sister locked her glowing eyes on Jack, whose breath hitched. "Which one is it?" She took three steps forward, swinging her arms, while Jack took three steps back, his pistol trained on her. "I'm talking to you."
"All I want to know is, are there any survivors?" Jack kept his aim on the Vendetta with both hands.
"Stupid." The sister answered. "Why are you so curious?"
"What do you think?"
The sister laughed.
"You think you have power here? Better yet, I'll give you a head start."
"I would rather we not."
The sister stood with her hands behind her back, surveying the bodies lying at the open front of the military checkpoint.
"Nah."
Jack fired while the sister blocked the bullet from entering her eye with her palm. She shakes her hand, approaching the ex-yakuza at a walking pace.
Jack fired two more shots at her chest and leg while the sister stumbled to skip.
"Gah!" She lifted her palm, firing a wooden spike. Jack leans left, watching a black object the size of a dagger fly towards the checkpoint bar, scraping off the paint. "You prick!"
She fired two more, aimed at his right leg and left arm. The ex-Yakuza dives to the ground on his left, rolling onto his shoulder, making a break to organize tents.
The sister continued her onslaught of flying spikes while ex-yakuza rushed to the second row of tents, losing sight of the sister.
He rushed eight tents down before entering one on his right. The tent features a cot bed and a footlocker positioned along the wall. Jack drops to his knee, panting.
"Okay. Okay." He searched through his bag, fishing out Reinhoover and exchanging it for his Vendetta.
"Come out!" The sister raised her voice, loud yet far. "I would like my beauty rest, thank you."
Jack peeked from the curtain of the tent to the darkened sister five rows down from his. She looked into the tent while Jack rushed out from his.
He ran down two more at the end of the lane before snapping at his back. Swatting a spike with his hatchet. The spikes drive into the grass from afar while Jack escapes the sister's sight.
"Wow! Great reflexes!" The sister cut between tents and entered the third lane. "So sad, we couldn't become gym partners."
She planted her foot onto the lane, eyeing a planted combat knife four rows from her, near a tent on the left.
The sister's eyes bounce across the tents around her, picking up her pace. Focusing on the knife before her.
She grew inches from it. Earning a spike in the back.
"Ugh!" She spins her on her heels, backhanding Jack, who ducks before uppercutting her with his tool of choice.
The darkened sister stumbled in a spin, hovering her shaky hand over the slashed face that covered the left bottom of her chiseled jaw to the top right of her forehead.
"Okay." The sister breathes out, her eyes bouncing at the tents before her. "I'll give you that." She stretched her palm.
A spike escaped her palm before hitting a corner of a tent, erupting in a spark of flames. The sister fired more of these spikes, igniting the row of tents into slow-building flames.
"You should be outside playing with the rest of the kids." The Darkened sister entered the fourth lane, firing spikes, adding more to her burn list.
She roamed along the lane, continuing her rampage, only for Jack to escape from a burning tent before her.
She fired her spike while Jack sheilded his face in mid-rush. Spikes of uneven ice erupt from along his left arm, his flesh arm as the spine of the cold, natural shield became encased.
The spike is planted on the shield while Jack shoves her arm away. He spins, planting the flat end of his hatchet into her right shoulder blade.
"Agh!" The darkened sister stumbled back while Jack rushed out of the lane of tents. "Ragh!" She rips the hatchet, sending splinters flying. "You and this damn toy!"
The sister grips the hatchet in her palm while Jack remains crouched in front of a tent in the fifth row.
His eyes quickly scan the imperfect frost shield and the black spike planted at its head. Mere inches from breaking through, leaving webs of cracks that soon slowly spread.
Jack snuck back before heading into the sixth row, his eyes bouncing at the walls of tents. He coughed, taking in the smoke and heat that slowly rose and spread.
He approached a tent six tents to the left of the entrance.
Jack entered the curtain before his eyes widened. A pinkfire weed plant remained at the entrance of the tent, awaiting his arrival. It grew, expanding itself, exploding.
The explosions of needles pushed Jack onto his back, shattering his shield into bits while shredding the tent into a tattered blanket.
He grunts, jumping to his feet. A wooden shard cuts his shoulder, forcing Jack's eyes down the lanes of tents to the darkened sister. Three tents down, her palm raised, and his hatchet in hand.
Jack cuts between the tents, entering the fifth lane, and watches as the entire lane of portable homes becomes engulfed in amber and thick black smoke, releasing a pungent smell of burning rubber, plastic, and grass into his nostrils, forcing him to reject the air it provides.
The darkened sister emerged from the thick smoke of the night, three tents away from Jack, sprinting with her glowing red eyes and grey pupils inching into his personal bubble.
Jack aimed his revolver, named ReinHoover. He fired, taking in a bass bark filling his ringing ears and the starry, warm night.
The Darkened sister draws her head back, and splinters and wood bits erupt from the back of her skull. She falls face-first onto the grass, bathing within the warm lights of the fires provided by the sister.
Jack clenched his teeth with his eyes teary and red. He covered his mouth with his arm before approaching the fallen sister with the Reinhoover train on her body.
Looking down on her. Her eyes stared elsewhere, never blinking, and the ex-yakuza military hatchet was just mere inches from her black and dry wooden fingers along the grass.
Jack fired into her skull once more, before taking his hatchet and making his way out of the lane of burning tents, baking his skin and filling his lungs with black smoke.
Amy and Rex walked along the dirt path, moving between the tree lines, shining their cone lights at any shadows lurking within. The two approached another checkpoint.
A booth sat to the right of the red-and-white traffic barrier, overlooking a large dirt road leading to three prefabricated housing units made from shipping containers.
Three stacked grey containers with six windows left to right, three windows down, and a third-floor scaffold board staircase at the right end of the containers, stationed with three single doors at each floor.
Five shelters were located within the grassy area: two on the right and left sides of the treeline, two at the far back of the area, and one positioned in the center between the two shelters at the front of the residents' area.
The dirt path leads to the stakeknife trail, which curves around the central shelter.
Amy and Rex entered, eyeing a single tree planted at the left corner of the center shelter, leaving a clear path for vehicles to pass through.
Amy and Rex shine their lights at the windows on the left shelter before approaching the door.
The white amu grasps the silver knob before looking to the scarred ranger taking cover to the right of the door, training its rifle at the door.
Amy swings it open, letting a sharp squeak. Rex enters, followed by Amy.
She aimed her righteous defender with one hand, swinging her aim across the room filled with four rows of steel-frame bunk beds and eight beds down across the dark room.
Amy shines a light on a stainless steel flask alongside a dark green blanket hanging from the mattress and onto the steel floor.
A click followed by the fluorescent (stretch) bulbs along the ceiling flickering on, and a white, cold light rained down, revealing every nook and cranny.
Amy looked back at Rex by the switch at the open door they entered.
"The room is barely touched." Rex's Metalliac steps echo along the stainless steel floor. Approaching a window, staring out at the single tree among the dirt yard at the corner of the center shelter.
"Or, likely, someone's is sleeping here." Amy threw the hanging sheets onto the mattress underneath the pillow before placing the flask along the white pillow.
"The sisters are the possible candidates."
"Maybe." Amy brushes her white metal hands along the sheets, smoothing them out. "Or a possible survivor." The amu heads for the door. "We'll recon the area before moving on."
"Understood." Rex followed with his firearm lowered.
The door swung open as Amy slowly entered with her R.D., trained at the crowd of bunk beds, briskly in the dark. Amy looks down at the steel floor, lifting her left foot from a black liquid that drips from her steel boot. Her wrist light followed the trail that continued between the third and fourth row on the right of the room.
Amy flicks on the lights, seeing a ranger's figure along the wall underneath the window five rows down.
"No..." Amy whispered, picking up her pace. She snapped her aim all over the room, following along the trail with Rex in tow. Amy stood before the downed ranger along the wall, only leaving its upper body to sit with its pool of oil.
Hungry?
Letters cut into the metal plates of the ranger's chest remained for the two to see.
"These sisters are shoot to kill." Amy squats beside the downed ranger, resting her hand along its chest.
"Understood." Rex watched Amy take a blanket from a bunk before covering the powered-off ranger.
Rex entered through a door with Amy in tow. Amy flipped on the lights, revealing nothing within the other set of bunks.
"We're bound to get moving." Amy watched Rex on a knee, checking under a bunk.
"We've wasted time here. Our best chance is within this checkpoint headquarters." Rex stood to his feet, facing Amy. "One moment."
The ranger heads for a bunk on the second row.
A crash pierced their ears, followed by shards of glass. A heavy sound of steel hitting steel came next, the head of an amu. Its head is white, its eyes open, revealing its orange, glowing eyes, as it looks elsewhere.
Carved on its forehead.
We see you.
Amy and Rex dropped to their knees before approaching the smashed window. They peaked only to drop their heads from the barrage of wood spikes that clashed into the ceiling.
"Enemies Inbound." Rex fired into the window, followed by Amy.
Two darkened sisters took cover. One was behind the corner of a shelter, and another was behind a tree.
The darkened sisters opened their palms from cover, firing shards of darkwood into Amy's and Rex's window. The bots lowered and leaned from the onslaught that tore and bent mattresses and bunks, embracing the chaos it provided.
A shard force an bunk on its side before smashing into a window behind the pinned bots.
"Your superiors are nothing but cowards!!" The first darkened sister spoke, raining hell on the duo.
"There are only so many toys we can break!" The second sister cocked her arm with a smirk before hurling a ball of wood into Rex's and Amy's window.
Amy rose from below the window, firing at the ball. That erupts into a gust of flames that stretches and claims its spot on the chunks and splitters of wood, resting on the dirt.
"Rex. How many?" Amy fired into the window, followed by Rex.
"Only two. My heat sensor is not detecting the sisters' signatures."
The sisters hunkered down in their cover, watching the dirt fly after each needle of light and bullet.
"I'm going around the shelter. If you think it's safe, or I don't make it back, come find me. Now, apply cover fire ." Amy rushed from her cover, zigzaging through the debris left over from the sleeping quarters.
She took cover along the wall of the exit leading to the scaffolding stairs. Amy peaked before sprinting from the door and squat jumping over the railing before executing a roll along the grass.
The amu sprint across the dirt yard, listening to the song of combat, before taking cover at the corner of the shelter from the shootout. She looked around the corner before advancing along the wall and windows of the lower floor.
A darkened sister appeared from around the corner.
"Nice try!!" The darkened sister fired down at Amy, who returned fire before diving into the window closest to her.
Amy rolled along her shoulder to a knee, firing from the corner of the sleeping quarters and into a window where the sister hunkered down, shielding herself from raining glass.
The amu aimed a little lower, firing three needles of light through the plated walls into and through the sister's back.
"Ah!!" The sisters cried out.
"Mal!" Another feminine voice cried out while Amy rose to her feet, aiming R.D. down the lane of bunks and to the exit door across the room.
"Go to Mother Arae! I shall rain hell upon these Invaders!" The sister croaked before grunting.
"These demons will not have us beat!"
"And I shall envision their defeat! With my seed!" The sister of Arae charged through the door, releasing steam from the cracks of her dark wood skin. The light of the night sky fell on the sister's shoulders, standing in front of the open door. Her heated red eyes pierce the darkness of the room, and into Amy, standing ready. "REVENGE ME!!!"
She charged through the lane of bunks and toward Amy, closing the distance to wide-eyed Amy.
Amy dives through the window on her left in mid-action, firing at the sister who tried to follow from within the sleeping quarters.
The amu lands her shot at her target before it erupts into an explosion, forcing all windows on the first floor to spill across and onto the dirt yard.
Amy lands on her back before aiming at the tree. To reveal another sister running towards the tree line. Amy fired, causing the Sister of Arae to holler.
The sister of Arae held her shoulder, disappearing into the tree line.
The sound of a roaring fire drew Amy's attention to the first-floor sleeping quarters, where smoke was billowing from the windows.
Rex leaps through the third-floor window of the building, landing onto the dirt with a squat. He aims the rifle around the environment, closing in on Amy.
"Target got away." Rex looks to the treeline, his weapon trained.
"Good." Amy rose to her feet, swiping glass from her plated skin. "It'll give us a moment to prepare." Amy glanced at Rex. "Let's clear out the remaining; we don't want to mess anything valuable."
"Understood." Rex stood tall.
Amy reloads her Righteous Defender before attaching it to her hip, carrying two on both hips. At the same time, Rex inspects a grenade launcher with six cylinders before attaching it to his back.
The duo remained within a building. Sleeping quarters on the first floor, standing before a bunk, hording ammunition and a few weapons.
"Ms.Amy?" Rex glanced at Amy, who planted herself on the lower bunk from the stockpile.
"Just Amy." The amu smirked from across the stockpile.
"We are down, Walker. Should we notify the commander?" The ranger paced around the stockpile, standing before Amy.
"We can handle it. Rest assured." Amy looks up at Rex, not moving an inch.
"Understood." Rex cocks his head at the window on the right of Amy. Getting a glance at someone emerging from a corner of a shelter across the dirt yard with a pistol hanging at his hip. "Possible Boogie."
Amy takes a look out the window, getting a glimpse of the individual.
"That's not possible." Amy rose from the bunk, heading out the door.
Rex followed, keeping his rifle in hand. The duo slowly crosses the dirt yard, their eyes trained on the stranger eyeing his surroundings before taking aim at the bots.
"Mr.Walker?" Amy stared wide-eyed before attaching the Rightous Defender to the left of her thigh.
"Yeah." Jack breathes out before holstering his Vendetta.
"We thought you were dead." Amy closed the distance before inspecting for wounds.
"I thought the same." Jack breathed out as Amy lifted up his bloody shirt.
"We need to get that clean. Come on." Amy held out a hand. Jack takes it following Amy's lead, followed by Rex. "Is that the only wound you succumb to?"
"That's about it."
"It doesn't make any sense. Take a seat." Amy points to a bunk while Jack follows an order. "You were gone about two hours, and there was no interference?"
"It's a cake walk." Jack avoided her eyes while blinking three times due to Amy applying alcohol wipes.
"Your honesty will come to good use." Rex rested his hand on a bed frame just above Walker. "What has transpired after the ambush?"
"Rex, relax." The amu cuts in. "Let him collect his thoughts."
"I met one of the sisters again. Their persistence even against their own kind." Jack raised his arms so Amy could apply a bandage.
"What do you mean?" Amy questioned.
"I mean, hell's spawn came to collect my soul, only for a sister of Eden to chase her off."
"Of course." Amy breathed out before looking up to Jack. "I heard there was a mother. Arae."
"Pointed to the evidence given. Our enemies are the Sisters of Arae." Rex filled in the blanks.
"Yes. Amazing work." Amy smiled, getting a side eye from Jack. "Help yourself, we are preparing for our last push." She pointed her open hand towards the stockpile on the bottom bunk before them.
"This can stockpile an army," Jack comments, planting his backpack from Amy and Rex. "Where did you get it?"
"Just about anywhere. Though the grenade launcher was a shock."
"I am licensed to carry this arm." Rex joins in.
"You could say dibbs?" Jack cocked his head before resuming resupply.
"That word has never been spoken."
"No. No." Amy raised her hands with a smile. "It's a rule between humans where the first to come serves first."
Rex remained silent.
"Dibbs." He answered.
Rex, Jack, and Amy paced along the dirt path crowded by trees. They were armed to the teeth. Rex with a grenade launcher (Cliff Hanger) on his back and a Dawn 14. Amy dual-welded a righteous defender, and Jack a fresh bulletproof vest. ReinHoover and a Righteous Defender.
"I hoped that's not too much to carry," Amy whispered, her eyes focused on the path ahead. "Though I would confiscate the revolver you're carrying, I'll pretend it was never there."
"Well. At least you respect the rule," Jack remarked.
"Hold. Up ahead." Rex voiced before pointing two fingers ahead of the path.
Steel fences with a white tarp stretched around the site ahead, denying any onlookers. However, a watch tower, a radio tower, and five manufacturers required black steel and a white color scheme, which could be seen just above the eight-foot fence.
The trio headed to the sliding gate at the Site entrance, just beside the watchtower behind the fence.
Amy looks to Rex
"Rex." Amy noticed Jack approached the gate." Walker? What are you?" She watched as Jack peeked between the gaps in the gate and into the site.
Two buildings remained on his right: a three-story steel building littered with shipping containers spread out in the dirt yard, and, towards the far end of the site, a radio tower encased in a deformed tree that wanted to swallow it whole.
"It's clear," Jack whispered, pushing the gate aside while releasing its usual squeaking.
"Next time. Wait for an okay." Amy walked past Jack, followed by Rex.
"I'm right behind you." Jack followed the bots that were aiming at the environment before them.
They continued through the dirt yard, eyeing the open and shredded body bags that littered the yard, scattered with shipping containers.
Jack's eyes ran along the body of an open container before looking up at the Radio tower that was swallowed up by a tree.
"This could be the problem."
"Maybe. Come on." Amy makes her way towards the closest building from the site exit.
Jack and Rex followed without a word, watching Amy pry open a metal door that let out a squeal within the near-silent night.
The amu flashed her light at a rolling chair and a desk at the end of the short hall against a two-pair railing, showcasing a square yard of dirt in the center of the room, embracing the moonlight.
The square yard along the room's walls is enclosed, with cells with glass doors, some open and some closed. Getting a closer look at the dry pools of blood that remained, and even a hint of ruin.
Jack flashed a light attached to his Rightous Defender along a door frame, revealing a messy purple handprint at the edge.
Jack furrowed his brows, following Amy to the second floor.
They stood within a room filled with desks and rolling chairs before landing eyes on the radio equipment that was smashed and hacked, pieces of metal, switches, buttons, littered the other edge of the room.
"Sabotage of government property." Amy grasps a pair of one-ear headphones.
"Is there another next door?" Jack questioned, keeping his eyes on the descending staircase from across the room and the ascending just a few clicks away from his position.
"No need." Amy takes a look around. "We're just here for the extra supplies and survivors. Rex, stay on guard. Mr.Walker, give me a moment. I will contact my superior. Commander, this is Amy."
Jack heads for the ascending staircase, listening to Amy's voice.
"We have established shelter within Base Eden, yet no survivors. How should we proceed?"
The ex-yakuza continued to listen to his own steps, finally standing on the last floor, presenting a green house.
No plant remained in sight besides one. A plant Shuan grew. It remains in the greenhouse's corner.
Jack plucks the fruit from a plant before chewing into it.