It would have been easy, that was, before Toni had decided to boost our fleet’s signal around the globe. I untwined the vines of my transformed hand from Jeff’s fingers, trying not to see the sorrow that bloomed in his eyes in response to my withdrawal, and held it up for him to see.

“The green hasn’t spread outside of here,” I said. “It’s still just a patch on the inside of my elbow.”

“Maybe it’s beneath the surface.”

“They’re taking blood samples and X-rays daily. I should probably be worried about the radiation. But it hasn’t spread. They find meat, meat, meat, and suddenly, this little patch of vegetable.” They had taken scrapings and biopsies and samples, enough so that the bend of my elbow looked like a warzone and ached every time I bent my arm. If my vegetable skin scarred like my meat skin, it was never going to be the same.

I sort of hoped it would. I wanted to remember this forever. I wanted to know why I could no longer trust the bulk of humanity. I wasn’t theirs and they weren’t mine. Maybe we never really had been.

“So what do you think that means?”

“I think … the signal primed us to start changing, and the forest spreads and speeds the change.” I put my pseudo-human hand over the base of the vines, feeling them twist and twine beneath my fingers. There was strength in those creepers. The kind of strength that could put a plant on a level with the animals around it. The kind of strength that could, if properly marshalled, conquer a world.

Jeff nodded. It was getting easier and easier to read the expression in his vegetative face. “That matches up with what the rest of us have been experiencing. I’m glad you’re all right. I’ll check on you as much as I can. We’re trying to find a way to get you out of this.”

“Good,” I said. “Please keep an eye on my people. Don’t let them get hurt.”

Jeff’s smile was quick and wry. “This is a war, Stasia,” he said. “Everyone’s going to get hurt.”

I nodded and closed my eyes, letting my chin dip toward my chest. When I opened them again, I was looking at the ceiling of my room. The lights were set at a constant dim almost-twilight, making it easy for me to see what I was doing as I sat up and rolled back my sleeve, rotating my arm. I wasn’t worried about the hidden cameras around me picking up the motion. There were no secrets here. Better for me to know as soon as possible.

The skin around the edges of the green patch on my arm was peeling and thin, like the papery coating on an onion. I plucked gingerly at one of the edges, tugging until it came loose and tore away in a long, lifeless strip.