Chapter 176
We arrived at the location just five or six blocks from the hospital. In that short distance, the world had transformed. The familiar streets were gone, swallowed by a monstrous tide of green.
It was our backyard, our community, which made the sight infinitely more unsettling. This horror was on our doorstep, threatening to consume the very place we were trying to protect.
Before us, a mass of vegetation had completely overrun the area. The vines were thicker than ancient trees, coiling with a disturbing energy as they snaked over buildings, crushed cars, and strangled the streetlights. Their tendrils probed the air like grasping fingers. It was just like a scene from a waking nightmare.
A profound chill seized me. "What… what is this?" I stammered, my voice lost beneath the rustling and creaking of the living green.
