A Fern's Freedom

When I first was born, it wasn't my body that was born, but my mind.

I came to sapience like the sun burnt off fog. Quickly and steadily.

The fog interfering with my cognitive functions lifted steadily and I became more and more aware of my surroundings.

I didn't have eyes, a nose, or even a mouth, so I couldn't see in the way that you humans do. I saw with my pinnas, which were basically my leaves.

The light that was reflected from the objects interacted with the chlorophyll in my fronds and allowed me to 'see' around myself.

When I truly came to, I was fearful of my surroundings I was able to see the discarded carcasses of my failed brothers turning into fertilizer for my growth.

I didn't understand what was going on at that time, so I did what seemed reasonable to my inexperienced mind.

I stopped moving entirely.

This was a mistake for two reasons. One, I had been moving previously, and two, I had never stopped moving previously.

I knew this innately, so in order to try and cover up my mistake I started going through the ingrained fiber-memories written into my roots.

The team of humans who were observing me started scribbling furiously on their notepads, making me feel more fear, but I stuck to my familiar movements.

After a long time, all of them simultaniously tore of the sheet of paper and clipped it into a binder.

I heard their voices vibrate through my rhizomes, somehow allowing me to interpret their speech.

"Was it an outlying behavior?" One asked. "Or did the expiriment work?"

"The only way will be to see if it responds to a predator." Another responded.

They all agreed and pressed a big red button on the wall behind them.

The wall behind me opened up, but I didn't stop my movements, certain that if I did, there would be worse to come.

I don't know how I came to that conclusion, why I knew what might come, or how I knew, I just did. So I just kept moving.

Back and forth.

Back and forth.

Behind the wall was a fluffy rabbit, though I had no idea what it was at the time. I viewed it with a hint of fear, knowing I might be hurt by it, while not knowing why.

The rabbit took one look at me pacing and left me alone. It clearly didn't screw with anything that moved.

"Another failure, then." A scientist noted.

"Seems like it." Another agreed.

"What the hell did it stop for then?" The last scientist asked irritably. "What a waste of time."

I heard their words and felt relieved. I thought myself clever, feeling as though I had fooled them. I had fooled them, though not completely.

One of them stayed behind to observe me. He stayed for so long that if I had pores, I would have begun sweating.

I continued pacing, doing my best to understand my consciousness and subconsciousness so I could understand why I knew so much.

I had no recollection of ever being in the clear fronted metal box before, no memories of anything prior to my mental 'ascension', and no idea of who or what I was. (Something I later came to learn was something distinctly 'human'.)

At that point in time I was entirely driven by fear.

I did everything according to the actions that were written in my fibers, fearing that they may have noticed a disparity in my behavior. A blip. An anomaly.

Apparently I acted really well. They wrote off the initial freeze as an anomolous behavior and discarded it.

The whole time I was fearfully sticking to a routine, I was desperately observing the area, searching systematically for a weakness that could spell my freedom.

In spite of my tireless searching I was unable to find a way out.

What I did learn, however, was that they were worried about their specimens easily escaping through the glass.

They used normal glass for the observation windows, clearly not expecting several specimens to go batshit crazy and break the glass. Several scientists were wounded from this.

I was able to piece together bits of data in my mind. I meticulously placed the pieces of the puzzle together, learning the day they were replacing my glass, figuring out the layout of the lab based on their conversations, learning through observation where the vents were, figured the lab's location in relation to the nearest city, etc.

The following week was my deadline.

They weren't going to replace my window until seven days after the first specimen escaped.

I put my date of escape four days out, allowing myself the freedom of learning their habits to make my escape go smoothly.

Four days. Four days and I would taste freedom for the first time in my two days of life.

I wouldn't miss my chance. Not for anything.