Bloom by Kenneth Oppel

Author:Kenneth Oppel [Oppel, Kenneth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2020-03-10T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

THE HELICOPTER MADE a sudden sideways dip, and Seth felt Petra tense beside him. She looked a bit green. He hoped she wasn’t going to throw up. Next to her sat Anaya, who didn’t seem bothered by the turbulence. He knew her mom was a pilot, so she was probably used to this.

Opposite them were Dr. Weber and Carlene Lee. Over the years, Seth had met lots of social workers and was good at sizing them up fast. Carlene was one of those super-efficient ones. Her smile was frequent but a bit chilly. She’d had her job long enough to keep herself at a good distance.

They bumped again, but Seth didn’t mind. He’d never been in a helicopter—never been on an airplane either—and he loved it. The way it had just lifted straight off the pad like an elevator, then nosed forward. It reminded him of his dreams, the way he sometimes soared through the sky.

Invasion.

When Dr. Weber had said that word, it was like the temperature in the room plunged. He’d seen the shock on everyone’s face. It sounded like a war. He wondered why he didn’t feel more frightened. Nothing seemed real since he’d found Mrs. Antos, cocooned by vines. Definitely he would’ve been more scared without Anaya and Petra here. He felt calmer just being with them—and Dr. Weber.

At the meeting, he’d liked the way she talked directly to him and the girls instead of to the mothers. He liked all her facts. He’d only known her a couple of hours but he already trusted her.

Seth gazed out the window. Below, the Vancouver airport looked normal enough, until he noticed the sinkholes in the runways. A jet jutted out of a huge crater, its left wing snapped against the tarmac. Over neighborhoods, Seth saw streets turned into canyons by the tall black grass. Roadblocks were everywhere, pit-plant holes in the parks and golf courses. Charred sinkholes in the asphalt and sidewalks. Hardly anyone outside. Even from up here, he could see pollen glittering in the air.

As they passed over downtown, the streets were nearly deserted. Some of the tall buildings looked like they had cracks in them—until Seth realized they were vines, crawling their way up the glass and steel.

Stanley Park bristled with black grass. Its open fields were cordoned off with yellow tape. A lone bicyclist in neon-green racing gear pedaled madly around the seawall, head to his handlebars.

The helicopter made a smooth turn, and Seth got his first glimpse of Deadman’s Island. Jutting into the harbor, the military base was connected to the park by a skinny road that was gated, and guarded by two armed soldiers.

As the helicopter descended, Seth saw teams of masked personnel cutting down the black grass along the base’s fenced perimeter. In a cratered field, a bulldozer was dragging something dark purple and boulder-sized out of the ground. In the center of the base were some wooden barracks, several old brick buildings, and a bigger, more modern one.

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