Rooted (hypno)
by irrcapt
Trudging across the field, Barry was absolutely bored. He and his friend Martin had gone on a camping and hiking tirp, and had seen some amazing things. When they'd gone off solo the previous day, Barry had done a cool hike, but Martin swore he'd seen some really beautiful country by going off the beaten track on another trail, so they had agreed to take the same trail again today. The trail had started interesting, but when they took Martin's "detour", they stayed in the flats between hills, which made the view quite dull.
"C'mon, man. How much longer before these great views?"
"Not much further, just need to crest that hill." Martin pointed to a small hill at the end of the field.
Barry stripped off his sweaty shirt as they walked into some shade. He was about to ring it out when suddenly he felt his feet sink. Startled, he dropped his shirt. He looked down to see he'd sunk ankle deep into mud. "Crap. Martin, you want to give me a hand?" He looked over to see that Martin had stopped dead in his tracks and was just staring at him. "Yo, Earth to Martin. You in there?" No response.
Barry bent over and worked his feet out of his boots. "Dude, this is one of the most annoying and lamest practical jokes ever. Seriously, you suck." But Martin continued to stand mute. Clad in his socks, Barry stepped on top of his shoes and leapt to drier land. He wanted to whale at Martin. "What the hell's wrong with you?" But as he stepped towards his friend to shove him, he felt two sharp pricks in the soles of his feet.
"Ow, what the hell!" Barry cried out, and found his feet seemingly glued to the ground. A slithering sensation inside his legs started heading higher, and behind it, a wave of numbness already spread to his feet and calves, making them feel like they weren't there.
"Martin, help! I think I've been poisoned or something!" His friend, however, just stood there, staring. Panicking, Barry started to yell at the top of his lungs "HEL–", but at that point the numbness crossed his chest, and he could no longer control his breathing, which slowed to a steady pace. He silently screamed as the numbness washed over his arms and neck, and then engulfed his head.
He felt a weird sensation in his head, like something was wrapping around his brain. His emotions went away, and it suddenly was a curious puzzle as to what this sensation meant. And then a voice in his head answered it, telling Barry that it was in control now and that he would answer any question put to it. Barry's mouth opened under the voice's control.
"Conversion complete. I have pulled myself out of the ground and into this host."
Martin finally started speaking, "Good. We should refer to each other by our host bodies' names, to keep in practice."
"As you command, Martin."
"Did you see any others like you rooted during the crash, Barry?"
"No sir. You and I were the only ones who his dirt after being thrown from the ship."
"Then we can end the rescue operation and move on to the invasion. You will help make cuttings to infect more people."
Barry felt his mind fall into fog as he heard himself say, "Yes, sir."
The final part of the conversaion then transformed his brain into nothing more than a bit of animal matter, able to retrieve memories of his old life for the plant that now live in and controlled his body.
END