Sneha entered the facility making a mental list of chores she had to finish today. She came early as she had to assist Trisha in organizing an upcoming seminar and she was glad. She spent her weekend watching romantic comedies and sleeping till late. She slothfully did her shopping for groceries, housecleaning and listened to her mother nag about her father's excess television mania, her brother's insensitivity not to call their mother back and the house which needed a paint, new furnishing and remodeling for apparently no reason at all. Her mother had talked for two hours ending up accusing Sneha too for not taking out enough time for her only mother.

'Hey!' It was Jai. 

'How was your weekend?' He asked hoping it had gone as miserable as his. He spent it playing on his PSP while thinking about her. Doing his laundry while dreaming about her. Trying to invent a new flavor of noodles while thinking about her. Cleaning his apartment while dreaming about her. And then too exhausted from all the thinking and dreaming, he couldn't sleep and played chess all night on his computer.

'No complains.' Sneha said, amused by the irony.

'How is the project?' She asked.

'Great, thanks for the samples, they should show some progress by evening.'

'I am going to check on mine, you want to join?' She asked.

'Tempting, but I can't, I have to make a few calls from the administrative block to order hmm.' He pretended to focus hard.

'Let's see, Trisha said order bouquets, bottled water, food, pashmina shawls and give pamphlets in printing before she kills me.' Jai recited.

Sneha smiled and scanned the lobby, 'where is everybody? And why are the rooms still locked?'
'Oh, everyone is in the seminar hall visualizing the arrangements to be made for upcoming event. Don't worry Rajeev Sir's cabin is open and I hope you are carrying your set of keys to open the culture and incubation room.' Jai suggested her.

Sneha searched her bag tensely and took out a pair of keys relieved. 
'Got it!' She said.

'Adios then.' Jai waved her a salute and left.


Sneha walked down the corridor which gave her a partial view of her incubation room. She cringed and dropped her bag horrified by the picture. She took few steps to certain that it was not an illusion then stared at the immense green creature in front of her engulfing an entire eight feet tall test tube stand. As the stand skidded making curves in its thick stem, she saw it moving creepily through its multiple tentacles towards the door, towards her!
Sneha slammed the main door tightly then deceased the front stairs. She exploded in Mukesh's cabin looking for a lock. She found some steel chains and a lock to shut down the facility and climbed back plucking them. Trembling, she tied the chains round the door handles and staggered towards the block of seminar hall.

'SIR, SIR!!' Sneha almost broke down in tears. 

Rajeev Sir turned, he was briefing Trisha, a small build chubby girl with eyes jutting from her face, on the stage.
'What's the matter Sneha?' Rajeev Sir asked, worried all of a sudden as he had never seen her so terrified. 

'Breath, slow down.' Rajeev Sir said walking up to her. Sneha stood there ghastly unable to imbibe what she just witness. But she had to tell him, tell everybody!

'It's huge, its...its ...big...it has tentacles and...and it's ...its crawling !!'

'What is?' Rajeev Sir asked, confounded.

'The pitchers.' Sneha exhaled.

'Did you say the pitchers? The pitchers...the plants...you saw a moving plant!' Rajeev Sir said, trying to omit the sarcasm.

'I know I sound crazy but it's true.' Her voice broke down as her eyes welled up again. 

'Ok, ok. Ahh..' Rajeev Sir said, figuring out his next move.

'Let's go and see first.' He walked up to the gate then turned to address the team.

'Trisha, you continue with the preparation, we don't want a no show tomorrow. Mukesh you wait for my call and if something is wrong prepare everybody to leave the campus.'



'So run me again.' Rajeev Sir asked marching up to the facility. Sneha shook her head then decided to speak up.

'The pitchers have grown to a majestic size and have swallowed the entire culture room.'

Rajeev sir threw an askance look wondering what the hell was today's generation taking. Sneha brought her eyes to face him then shrugged, 'What? I am serious.'

They reached the rectangular glass door, opened the chains and entered the reception which greeted them with stunned silence.
'Where?' Rajeev sir inquired.

'Straight then left, first incubation cell.' Sneha said wondering why she gave him the directions, he almost lived here, and the room caption would have been enough. 
They hurried to the incubation room. At the center of the lobby, Sneha pulled Rajeev sir's arm to push him back to take the few final steps carefully. Sneha couldn't understand why it was so quiet, it was definitely making noises when she last saw the creature swallowing the flasks. As it struck to her that it only made noises when it was swallowing or breaking anything; the window of the incubation room banged with full force shredding the glass into pieces. They stooped then fell on the floor terrified of the adverse event.
The fire alarm broke loose and white smoke started to fill the lobby. 

'Are you ok?'
Sneha heard Rajeev Sir, his voice felt miles apart. 

'I am alright sir, are you?' She shouted.

Before she could hear him respond, her eyes caught the reason of the break.
Through the dust of smoke Rajeev Sir followed her sight of awe. His eyes viscidly stuck on the six feet tall and ten feet wide green, slimy, grisly creature with thick appendages spreading itself out of the broken window. It wrenched and a wide capacious mouth sucked the broken pieces of glass in its abysmal body.
Rajeev sir watched every move of the pitcher in desperation.

'We need to talk.' He screeched through the staccato of the alarm. 

Sneha looked up to the approaching pitcher then yelled, 'Not now.'

She swiveled back then tapped hard on his shoulder to run towards the gate.
They crawled like an excited baby on their hands and knees then jumped to rush outside.

'W-w--wait..I have to get my laptop and notes.' Rajeev Sir said.

'There is no way...hey wait.'

'Look..it's all my work in there..I can't leave it to get eaten by a plant. You chain it up here, I am going through the back entrance. Bring more chains and lock. Meet me back in five minutes!'
Before Sneha could stop him, he ran towards the back of the building. Hastily, she chained the facility back then rushed towards the other exit. She examined the premises before entering then slid past the reception. She trembled in her own skin when she felt the floor vibrate. She could hear the motile tentacles mapping the surface of the lobby for its next prey. It had grown twice in size from the last time she had seen it. She looked towards the cabin but there was no sign of Rajeev Sir. She dashed towards his cabin and found him knelt on the ground, his hands scanning thousand reports.

'Sir, it is coming close, we need to leave now.'

'Almost done, almost done.' He repeated unperturbed.

'Here, take these files.'
He unloaded a massive bundle of hardcopies in her hands then placed his laptop on the top of the pile, crushing her hands.

'Let's go.' He opened the door for her than balked.
The lush green appendages had covered the lobby and now closing up on the reception. 

'What the hell, what are these?' Sneha asked.

'Hyphae.'
Sir replied analyzing its movement.

'It is growing faster than I thought.' Sneha exclaimed.

'Quick, give me some notes.' He took a few files beneath the laptop then instructed.

'Listen, we need to run for our lives here, follow me and don't stop no matter what. Ok?'

Sneha nodded then blurted, 'Wait, What? Run for lives?'

Rajeev Sir elbowed her, 'Just say ok.'

'OK.' Sneha repeated.

Rajeev sir opened the door of his cabin again then started to tear out pages from the report and throwing them in succession.

'Run, Sneha run!
'
Sneha bolted out, dazed seeing the hyphal structures whirling those pages and retracting to the mouth clearing enough area for them to sprint out.

'Oh god! That was smart!' Sneha said.

They ran like people competing in Olympics. They reached for the door handle but got wiped out by an arm of the pitcher and landed on the ground flat on their backs. The arm swung in a circle but missed them.



'Open your eyes.'
Sneha heard Jai's voice. She opened her eyes and saw him leaning over her. His face was grave and shone in bewilderment.

'Are you ok?'

'I am fine.' She said ambushed by the fact that she was lying flat on the ground. 

'How did you find us?' She asked, handling the laptop to Jai.

'We got worried when you guys didn't call, the front entrance was closed so we figured something's wrong and when we reached here...let's say..we were just on time.' Jai explained.
'Now, please can anybody explain me, what is that?' Mukesh asked locking the door. Rajeev sir and Sneha got on their feet and looked at the verdant appendages breaking down the door of Rajeev sir's cabin. It could have been them, the thought weakened their knees.



***

The seminar hall was adorned but not for a conventional day. The set up was with monitors and screens streaming live feed from the webcams inside the facility. The pitcher had continued its fondness for doors and had engulfed almost all on the ground floor. It had been two hours since their last encounter with the monster, still Sneha could not curb her fright. Rajeev Sir had called police but one look at the pitcher and the inspector had suggested him to contact a more capable force. Although everybody was sent home and armed forces had been called for help, Sneha knew that she still is and always be reprehensible for this no matter if nobody got hurt or not. She glanced at the galactic pitcher on the screen with great repugnance than shifted her sight to Rajeev sir talking to a big brawny man in uniform with gestures suggesting that he had regained his composure.



The forces had created barricades along the building and placed five small camps for immediate security with two soldiers per unit. It was a joke to the army when they were called to help; then as they watched the first feed on the screens, it turned into a hassle of commands. Unbelievably, this was the good part for Sneha. Once the security measures will be complete, it will be time for serious rebuke and root cause analysis which most definitely lead to her permanent suspension. She had never screwed up anything at this level. Her other things always landed in comic category but this mess, this mess will finish her career, her life and worse of all, maybe the career of everyone she ever cared about.

'Come on.' Sneha saw Rajeev Sir standing in front of her. The horror had begun.
 Accepting her fate, she got to her feet and followed sir to the guest room which was used as green rooms during seminars. The room was hospitable with two huge off white couches, a computer table, wooden dresser and chairs. Four pot plants were kept at each corner of the room as per the green initiative of the founder. The curtains matched the couch and the walls which gave an urbane ambiance to the room justifying the honor of guests. If everything would have been normal, Sneha realized that she would be decorating the same room with flowers and changing towels for their guests for tomorrow cheerfully.



While Rajeev Sir paced up and down the room Sneha imagined it was not a great time but a valid time to apologize for the recent events.

'I am so sorry sir, I don't know how this even happened but I know that I am really sorry for all this.'

Rajeev Sir's deadpan expression didn't change as he sat on a office chair. He stifled with his disappointed face then said, 'We can have an intervention ceremony after all this is over and trust me there will be.'
Sneha perceived he was referring to the commission that would be set up by the government to investigate the damage to national property with unnecessary grilling questions. For her, the right thing to do is to tell him the truth. No matter what happens, she didn't want any casualties because she cowered.

'How did this happen?'

She heard him, recollected her thoughts than spoke.
'I used the third technique.'
She drowned her face in her hands unable to meet his eyes. Then uttered another subdued apology. 'I am sorry.'

Rajeev sir got up, there was no time to panic or scold.
His adept mind quickly evaluating thousands of possibilities which could have gone wrong. He was not surprised though, somewhere in the first few minutes of his interaction with the green monster he had inferred that he had being disobeyed. But there were major aspects of pitcher's behavior that couldn't be explained by just the utilization of the third technique.



The third technique or the random mutation technique was risky. It included a bombardment of gold particles to mutate gene, a technique which is not accurate and can result in no mutation at all, one perfect mutation or many mutations together to spoil the sample plant. By now Rajeev Sir knew that many mutations must have been triggered leading to abnormal growth and ravenous hunger of the pitcher but no gene could have exaggerated it to this level and induced locomotion. This was impossible even in the worst case scenarios. He realized that Sneha still had her head in her hands.


'You did contribute to this mess sweetheart but you are not the only culprit here.'

He placed both his hands on the table to support his incline while facing Sneha. He needed her artful mind to solve this mystery. Her adroit and adept knowledge of pitchers was the reason that he chose her for this project. He had to keep her mind engine running.

'Come on now, gear up! Let's have a small walk and get an update from Colonel Singh then we will brainstorm.' He said picking his phone from the table and reaching the door knob. 



Sneha stayed unperturbed in her place. She had tried to solve the mystery herself and the last, least probable, but currently most applicable reason hit her like a rock.

'What's the matter?' Sir asked seeing color fade out from her cheeks.

'Sir you must think this is complete sophistry but the reason can be Jai,' she stated. 

'WHAT? HOW?'

Sneha was already befuddled that how on earth could Jai pick the wrong samples but it all fitted in the equation. She did label them and separated them from the other samples and Jai wasn't a careless worker. How can he pick up the wrong samples?

'How Sneha?' Sir pressed the question again.
 Sneha explained how Jai needed some samples to continue his research and she agreed to lend some of her samples. She obviously didn't expect him to pick the mutant ones. Rajeev sir returned to his seat with a grim face.

'So the worst case scenario is if Jai has used the wrong samples for his own set of experiments. We need to talk to him now.' She finished.

'That should not be the reason. It makes things complicated.' Rajeev sir signed, tormented by the thought of the million new possibilities which could have gone wrong.
Sneha gave him a sympathetic glance then dialed Jai's number.



 ***


Jai sat dumbfounded with his hands on his ears. Sitting beside him was Sneha with her hands on her mouth and in front of them sat Rajeev sir with his hands on his eyes.

Jai was not expecting such a warm hearted welcome. When he had arrived in the seminar hall from the administrative block, he was dragged single handedly by Sneha up to the guest room. Even after his girlish screams; she didn't let him loose. The next thing he was able to remember after the shock of his indulgence in this mess was the realization that Sneha was still yapping on and on about the cross connection, she was way behind updating him, now she was just babbling annoying theories. Jai's thoughts wandered to retrace his steps and figure out when he could have slipped but he couldn't. He was mad at himself. He may have forgotten to turn the stand to check a new label, but he was not sure as working in lab had become a routine and such activities are performed involuntary.
 Back into his senses he banged his head on the table.
'May be.'
That's all he could utter and turned to face Sneha.

'Here.' Sneha exhaled and turned too.

'Hey, but it is your fault.' Jai swallowed his anger. 

'You are supposed to change labels, not add one more.'

'I don't believe you, old label, that's your excuse, you didn't even bothered to turn the rack but want me to remove an old label.' Sneha countered sharply.

'Well I guess it is my fault.' Jai flared with anger.
 'Always covering up your mess.' He wavered looking deeply in her eyes but the words came out, 'and now you have developed a habit of blaming me, this time, framing me when it's you who is so incompetent of doing anything right.'
He regretted as soon as he spoke, far rude than he had thought. He had crossed the line, he could see the hurt in her eyes rise instantly which lost its color quickly and created a void. Before he could calm himself and apologize Rajeev sir interrupted, 'Stop it, you two.'
He commanded them with his raised brows.
'Jai, you tell me the contents in that media.' He drew out a notepad and passed it to Jai.

'Sure sir.' Jai said resenting his earlier tone.

'I used the normal formulation complementing it with a mutating strain of fungi, the GZXR2518 which has the ability to symbiotically associate with any type of plant species. He gained his rhythm as the subject directed to his thesis.

'This fungi can breakdown virtually any substance or compound for its nutrition except the plant itself as it is the host.'

Rajeev Sir bent over the table to emphasis his point. 'So what was the problem?'

'Hmm?'

'The problem with your experiment? Why were your samples dying if they had such a power metabolism?' Sir repeated.

'Oh, well now that I think about it. The media was the water source and the plant a nutrient factory but as the media exhausted the fungi attacked the plant for water and other nutrients leading to necrosis of the samples. The fungi was killing my samples as the last source of energy.'


Rajeev Sir nodded but spoke nothing. His mind boggling to put the last pieces of puzzle together. Jai still showed sign of confusions.

'Why didn't the fungi fed on the pitchers then?' He repeated.

'Isn't it obvious?' Sneha spoke finally breaking her silence. She threw a glance at both astounded males then continued.

'The characteristics shown by this mutant is because of three different aspects.'
 She picked up a pencil from the stand then started drawing three columns. She labeled one as fungi, next as pitcher and the last as fungi plus pitcher.

'Now we know the attribute of the fungi after mutation was to be able to break any substance into energy and water.' She added the point in fungi column.

'The mutation caused pitchers to amplify their hunger thus suction power and secondly give them enhanced growth.'


Rajeev Sir contorted as the picture became clearer and clearer in his mind but he continued to listen. 

'Now, add these both consummating each other's needs.' Sneha accelerated on her seat drawing the dividing line between the last two columns. 

'Infinite hunger meets the power to use anything as substrate. And most probably the fungi has incorporated its genome into the genome of pitcher causing the growth of hyphae like appendages and flagellated motion.'

All three stared for a moment on the piece of paper in disbelief. Just a day before they were dealing with things that got fitted in test tubes.

'This sure does explain everything.' Jai muttered.

'Yes, yes it does. Larger the plant, more powerful the suction. That's why it could draw those glass pieces from ten feet distance.' Rajeev sir said conclusively. 

They were still absorbing the facts when the heard a knock on the door. It was Mukesh with the same brawny man Sneha saw with Rajeev Sir an hour ago. He advanced towards the three of them and outstretched his hand to greet Sneha and Jai introducing himself.

'Colonel Mahinder singh.'

'Please to meet you sir.' Jai gestured towards his chair and walked to stand near the window resting himself on the narrow slit.

'Well I am glad to inform you all that everything is under control, security wise. All buildings have being evacuated and I have come here to relieve your subordinates.' He spoke with an authoritative air which made him appear hostile than assertive. He had thick mustache like a toothbrush and the way he inflated his chest and his broad shoulders every time he opened his mouth, it seconded his pompous nature.

'I appreciate your help Colonel Singh but I think you will require the aid of my assistants in this case.' Rajeev Sir replied trying to keep his docile way.

'The launcher jeep has arrived. We just need to go in there then boom bang and finish.'
 Colonel said dusting his hands like it was no big deal.

'Then if it would not take long I guess I am happy to wait with my team to see it.' Rajeev Sir said assertively.
The two men stared at each other.

'You do realize that I have been handed the complete charge of this mission.'

'Of the mission yes, but not the facility. This place remains my responsibility and always will be colonel.'

'Fine.' Colonel puffed. 'In that case please accompany me to the seminar hall where all of us can see the destruction on live feed.'

He held out his hand in the direction of the door indicating them to leave. Rajeev Sir stood up obligingly then passed a 'follow me' look to Jai and Sneha.