Watch the Green Grow (excerpt)
Lara is a mid-level office worker at a nameless, faceless corporation. This story explores how civilization’s devotion to growth becomes its undoing. As spores bloom in cubicles and bodies quietly transform, no one acknowledges the horror. There are no alarms, only metrics.
Status: Submitted
Excerpt
Jyn giggled again and stuck out her tongue. Fleshy buds tinged olive, she blew a razz. She glanced at her watch, breath misting faintly on the glass face. “Lunch soon, right?” She asked, then quieter “Can’t wait to get some fresh air.”
Humming, Lara peeled their coat from the hook on the cubicle wall. “Think I’ll go a bit early.”
Jyn waved her hand absently, flicking wet mucus from her nails. She was already setting her headset to attention. Her hair was black in places, heavy with wetness, the headset sucking against the moisture as she adjusted it on her ears.
I wonder if my portfolio is diverse enough?
On the street, a tire bloated with algal bloom split along the seams and burst. No hiss escaped as the green inside plop-bounced to the asphalt. Emptying, the rubber folded weak into the muck.
Across the street, a child stepped into the splash of the ruined tire. Their boots hissed, sinking ankle-deep in the warm slop, and when they stepped free, threads of green clung to the soles. A long smear of lichen ran from the child’s coat sleeve to their cheek, like a bruise still blooming.
A billboard above the crosswalk blinked through a static loop.
HAPPY EARTH = HAPPY PROFIT GREEN IS THE FUTURE BLOOM TO BELIEVE
Each message was moss-framed, the edges dripping with slow, fibrous growth. Beneath it, pedestrians hunched in coats damp with dew that never dried. Their mouths slack. Their eyes unfocused.