Arid Region Plants

You see the teardrop shaped trunk of a humongous Baobab tree rising up in to the right. You seem to recall on a previous visit massive, odd shaped white flowers and long black seed pods too. You now find yourself in front of a patch of Aloe. Unfortunately, there are over 500 species of Aloe in the world, and it seems like half of them are here in the Botanic Gardens!

Your phone vibrates and you receive a confusing message from your uncle.

Come and bring the ingredients to me at the Planetarium when you are quite finished. Seven and one eights brandy my dear. And the plants I asked you to collect, yes. Plants.

You shake your head. That’s…strange. But there’s no time to waste. You walk past each patch of Aloe, examining the information plaques until you finally find the Aloe Vera. You hold your phone up to a fleshy leaf and scan it with the app.

You breathe a sigh of relief. You’re on the homestretch now. You’ve collected two ingredients, just like Uncle Frederick asked. Now all that’s left is to send him the information so that he can rematerialise the ingredients and synthesise a cure. You just hope that you picked the right ones.

You click ‘Upload Samples’ on your phone but it gives you an error message.

Error 304C: Telecommunications towers inoperative at this time.

You try sending him a text message but your phone repeats the same error message. Your heart sinks. Of course this would happen. Nothing ever goes smoothly does it? You could try making the cure yourself but it would be all pot luck. You wouldn’t know where to begin with preparing the ingredients or how to mix them and with what. Collecting ingredients was one thing, but advanced biochemistry and molecular biology is entirely another.

Luckily your uncle has set up his portable lab at the Planetarium, which isn’t too far away, though you would have to avoid a gauntlet of infected. But then there’s your uncle’s odd text message…confusion and nonsense was one of the symptoms of the older victims. What if he’s one of the infected? As you stand, indecisive, you see a woman in the distance holding some garden shears. She might be a gardener or a Botanic Gardens Education Officer. She’s too far away to make out whether she’s infected or not, but she isn’t crouched over throwing up, so that’s a good sign. She would know what to do with these ingredients. She could help you make a cure, and you wouldn’t have to face a potentially diseased Uncle while unprotected.

Do you:

Lagoon: Approach the Education Officer for help? You don’t want to risk coming across more infected in the Gardens and Uncle Frederick was acting very… confused, in that last text message. It’s possible he’s infected. If that’s the case, he won’t be able to help you make a cure. There might be a better chance that the Education Officer can help. Follow the path down towards the Lagoon and circle around to the point on the other side. There is a massive Swamp Cypress at the base of the point.

OR

The Planetarium: Get back to the Planetarium and attempt to combine ingredients with your uncle? You don’t want to take the risk that the Education Officer is infected and you know you can trust Uncle Frederick. You know it. Walk back towards the entrance by the restaurant. Follow the brick path through the gate and the Planetarium will be on the left of the car park.