Chapter 89: Acid rain in the soil.
Owen’s sister Julia was in charge of monitoring the environmental changes in the greenhouse. She was a botanist, and she had a small team of fifteen people that worked with her on this task. The team was deliberately small because Sunshine wanted to keep out greedy hands and eyes. One needed to pass three security check points, a drone with facial recognition and a biometric scan before reaching the gardens.
Most of the plants were grown in pots or sacks on wooden boards that were above the ground.
There was a section of the greenhouse however where crops were grown in the soil. And that was where trouble was. Julia was the first to notice something strange with the soil.
First was the unnatural shimmer which looked like morning dew mixed with some oil! She put on a weather absorbent under suit, covering her nose and hands too. Then she scooped up some of the soil to take a closer look.
That was when she realized that on the surface, water was pooling in the soil!! Acid rain had made it into the base even after every precaution that had been taken.
She sent out an alarm and called her team in to examine every section of the green house. There were six sections in total.
The team started cataloging changes to the plants in the soil. Some had started shriveling, others had changed in various ways: Spinach leaves had curled and some had thorns.
Mint leaves had changed color and expanded, shadowing the neighboring plants.
Most of the strawberries were on their way to ruination. The fruit was no longer red but dull brown. The toxic fruits would have to be thrown out before someone ate them.
The pineapples were forming spiral patterns which they did not have before. Whether they were toxic or not was unknown.
The botanists noted down all of the changes and took pictures. Sunshine had long told them that some plants would mutate and remain edible, but others would turn poisonous and toxic. Those were the ones that needed to be disposed of immediately.
"How did this happen?" Doctor Peach Trellison asked, holding on to the mask that was covering her nose.