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The Wildflower Virus by X. Cytilinsk

The Wildflower Virus

X. Cytilinsk

This is my interpretation of an idea from a dear friend of mine who wrote a short story about an apocalyptic eden where plant life evolved rapidly and established control over the Earth, including the ruined civilization of humanity.

"The "Wildflower" is an artificial organism; more specifically it is the product of a recombinant virus designed for the purpose of encouraging plant growth.

It was during a world wide food crisis that this virus was first implemented. It was to improve the yields of dying crops and edible plants, and the tests showed that such yields would increase dramatically, almost impossibly so in fact. Unfortunately, the strength of the viral agent would also be the downfall of the scientists who created it as well as the remainder of civilization. The agent worked by networking between instances of plant life, communicating with each other and using their shared data to improve rapidly upon themselves. This made crops and other plant life resistant to extreme climates and able to grow virtually anywhere.

The catch? As the plant life communicated with each other through their viral agents, they acquired a form of distributed intelligence. This was negligible at first, but the plant life rapidly began to advance and even "question" the goals of their creators. The infected plants soon rebelled against their laboratory confinement, growing to tremendous sizes and attacking personal whom they recognized as a collective threat to their existence; should the scientists decide to scrap their test subjects. Soon the plants pierced through the containment walls of the vast laboratory complex. Once they reached the sunlight above, their growth exploded. Within only years, the entire Earth became a strange "Eden" where every lifeform was in some way affected by the Wildflower Virus. "

Model and textures made with Blender, color correction with Gimp.