Into the Forest Shadows (17 page)

He set off at a slower pace that gradually
quickened as they traveled. She recognized a bush with edible
berries and grabbed a few as they passed without him having to show
her.

She smiled. She was finally learning more
about the forest and how to survive in it. The thought gave her a
welcomed sense of satisfaction and security.

A limb reached down and swatted at Ayden. He
ducked to the side. Kate ducked with him, grabbing the edge of the
coat. The limb shivered in the air, but did not recoil.

The hatred from the tree who had attacked
buffeted her mind. "Something is really wrong here."

"I would say so. Bunbun is at the bottom of
my shirt, shivering." He grabbed her hand and inched by, just out
of reach. "Can you discern a safe way to travel?"

She studied the surrounding trees and shook
her head. "They're all the same. Furious isn't enough of a word.
Not even hatred is. They want to attack."

"I hope they hold off. We're almost
there."

"I hope they haven't attacked the camp."

Ayden came to a complete halt and turned an
expression of horror to her, "Don't give me thoughts like
that."

"Someone had to voice it," she said in a
small voice.

Ayden took a deep breath before continuing.
Images of trees filled Kate's head, making it hard to concentrate
on where she placed her feet.

Emerging out into a wide clearing came as a
shock. Squinting, she stopped, momentarily blinded.

As her eyes adjusted to the bright sunlight
her eyes widened. Fallen trees filled the clearing, but they lay
over each other. The trunks around the clearing told her it wasn't
a natural clearing. The edges of the stumps looked just like when
Ayden used his axe to chop down the tree.

Kate turned to Ayden. He stared at the
clearing in horror, his eyes wide. He swallowed hard. "This is
against the rules."

"I thought there were trees we're not
supposed to touch. Every tree in this area has been cut," Kate
said. The trees around the clearing buzzed with anger. Anger, fury,
and hatred mixed with fear. All in a strength that vibrated against
the insides of her head.

"We're not. This isn't the way to gather!"
Ayden took a bold step forward and then faltered. "Who could have
done this?"

Her eyes darted to the shadows, expecting
them to start moving. But no, how could a Shadow Creature
accomplish this level of destruction? Could they even use human
tools such as the laser-axes?

"I don't see any bunts," Kate said quietly.
"In fact, there aren't any animals around here."

"Stay close," Ayden said as he advanced along
the edges of the clearing.

She recognized a Trailing Willow that had
been enormous. It lay on its side, partially buried under another
tree, its protective leaves brown and crumbling.

Ayden stopped and gasped. Kate stopped next
to him.

Folds of light brown bark covered the trunk.
Even laying down it towered over her. Once, it had been a colossal
tree but now it lay silent, the bark starting to turn shades of
gray. A bright mark of red on the trunk was fading, going gray
almost as she watched it. From where it had been severed from the
stump a thick dark brown substance oozed out.

And Kate felt it. The trees around the
clearing sighing in sadness. The bouts of anger. Not one of the
branches of any of the trees around the clearing were upright.

They were in mourning.

And she knew. The waves of movement and
emotion moving through the forest was connected to this spot.
Perhaps even to this tree. The realization made her shiver in
dread.

"Ayden, this tree almost looks like it's
bleeding."

"This is one of them," Ayden whispered. "This
is one of the trees we don't touch, much less cut down. On pain of
death. The Watcher said anyone who did so would never come out of
the forest alive."

Kate took an involuntary step back. "Then who
did this? I mean, if the Gatherers know better?"

Ayden didn't answer. His chin tensed. He
turned and started walking around the trees. Kate hurried to keep
up with him, worried at how the trees above them quivered. As if
waiting for the right moment to whack him. Or even nail her.

As they passed around the top of one of the
dead trees, one of the upper limbs of a nearby tree tenses and
wiggled. Kate pushed her way closer to Ayden, reaching out to grab
the back of his backpack.

She lost her hold while trying to pick her
way through a tangle of dead branches. She reached out to catch
herself before falling but snatched her hand back when she came in
contact with a trunk. She didn't like touching the dead trees. It
felt so wrong.

A shadow moved over her. Kate looked up,
having the impression a large body with pincers flying at her.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

"Look out!" Ayden shouted

He turned back to her and pushed her off the
log she was trying to climb over.

As he did the log shifted and moved. Kate
landed hard on the ground and found herself showered in dead
leaves. The limbs and branches of the trees around the clearing
came to life, swatting and moving towards the object, but they were
too far away to touch it.

Kate's vision cleared. She rolled on her
back, pushing the debris off her body. A black metallic body with
four huge pincers on the bottom of the long rectangular body
descended out of the sky. She scrambled out of the way, wanting as
far from the thing as possible.

The pincers dug deep into the wood, lifting
the tree up from the heap. It rose up above the trees around them,
carrying it away.

"Does that belong to the Gatherers?" Kate
asked.

"It's one of the logging robots. It helps us
move trees safely through the forest when we're selectively
cutting. But where are the operators? There should be someone
here," Ayden said, looking frantically around the clearing.

"Wonderful, we found the Gatherer camp!"

"This is no Gatherer camp. This is a killing
field!" Ayden bit out.

"If Gatherers did this, then it explains the
trees reactions to you," Kate said as she picked herself up.

"No sane Gatherer would do this." He gave
himself a shake and took off running. He shouted back at her, "Come
on, before we lose sight of it!"

Kate ran after him, keeping her eyes on the
trees around them. She worked hard to silence herself. She knew
Ayden simply wanted to find out who did this, but the way he ran
she feared for his safety.

She caught up to him on the far side of the
clearing. She grabbed ahold of his shirt sleeve just as a wide
bushy tree aimed at him. At her contact with him it relaxed, but
she could see that it stood ready to attack the moment she let
go.

She took an even stronger hold of him,
pointing up at the trees when he stopped to scowl at her. "Don't
scowl at me. Do you know you almost got hit? Being close to you
isn't enough anymore!"

Ayden looked up. He gulped when he saw so
many limbs just above them. "Now we know why there is no operator
around here. The trees would have killed them."

"We hold hands the rest of the way. Just to
be safe," Kate insisted.

"But someone must be controlling the robot.
It isn't capable of independent programming," Ayden continued.

Ayden accepted her hand, but he kept up his
fast pace through the forest. Which made keeping up more
interesting, as the forest paths weren't made for two people
walking side by side.

The diffused light of the forest was a
welcome relief from the bright sun of the clearing, even with the
trees tense all around them, ready to attack Ayden if the
opportunity presented itself.

Considering what happened in the clearing,
Kate was surprised they didn't do it anyway, despite her red
cape.

Pain intermingled with the anger. It grew as
they walked, to the point that her body hurt in sympathy. The trees
stopped moving, the limbs hung wearily. A stillness pervaded the
trees, and yet the pain grew.

A wide and gnarled tree with a glass window
in the middle of a knot marked the edge of the Gatherer camp.

"What is it about this forest and having tree
houses? I mean, they are cute, but it's a little too much like
living underground," Kate said.

"With the fogs and other problems, they are
the safest places to live. Besides, why not live in a living tree?
On most other worlds you live in dead trees," Ayden said.

"I hadn't thought of it that way."

Ayden walked up to the window and inspected
the inside. He circled the trunk, dragging Kate along behind him.
Small scrub grew up close to the trunk, making it more difficult
for them to find their way around.

The front door stood wide open. Ayden let go
of her hand and stepped inside first. Kate looked around. Still no
movements in the trees, and no animals at all. None of it felt
right. She hurried after Ayden.

Directly inside sat a table and chairs, with
the chairs knocked over and dirt covering the top of the table. The
kitchen showed the same level of dirt and disarray.

Kate wandered over to a broken window. A
window that looked like it had been broken from the inside to judge
by the fallen glass.

Ayden came back from the back of the house.
"This doesn't make sense. I can tell the bedrooms have been used
recently, but look at the rest of the house. It's a disaster!"

"And needs repair," Kate said gesturing
towards the window.

"A tree house is a place of safety from the
dangers of the forest. Why would anyone be this careless? And where
is everyone?" Ayden shook his head in confusion. He grabbed her
arm, "We'll check the other houses. Someone must be about."

The other houses didn't shed more light on
the situation. The bedrooms showed use, specifically the beds, but
the rest of the rooms were a filthy disaster.

And the longer they went without seeing
anyone the more uncomfortable Kate felt. The feeling something had
happened continued to build. She jumped at every noise and
shadow.

Where were the birds and insects? Where were
the bunts? They'd loved getting into Grandma's house. She missed
their twitchy little noses.

Kate's eyes narrowed. In fact, BunBun had
taken residence at the bottom of Ayden's coat despite being very
active before arriving in the clearing.

"Find the robot?" She suggested after the
fourth empty tree house.

Ayden set his jaw and nodded. They worked
their way deeper into the camp. Equipment sat on the ground as if
dropped. A small hovering scooter lay against a tree, a scattering
of leaves on the top of it indicating it hadn't moved in some
time.

A thud echoed through the trees, followed by
the loud noise of breaking wood. Ayden tugged at her hand, breaking
into a run.

In the middle of a small clearing they found
one of the large tree refineries. A tree slowly fed into the open
maw at one end. The other end was covered with canisters to capture
the refined byproducts.

In front of the refinery stood a tall
brown-haired man with wide shoulders with his back to them. Ayden
let go of her hand and rushed up to him. "Hey! What are you doing?
That tree is taboo!"

Kate followed and then stopped. A chill went
through her. She recognized the tree getting fed into the refinery.
One of the taboo trees.

Why didn't the trees in the camp react? Why
did they broadcast so much pain?

The man didn't turn around even when Ayden
grabbed him and shook him. Ayden looked up in his face, and
immediately let him go and stepped back. Kate reached out and
pulled him back from the disturbing expression.

No, that wasn't right. The lack of
expression.

A woman stepped around the processor carrying
a canister over her shoulder. The blank look on her face,
completely devoid of any emotion or animation had Kate rubbing her
arms.

Silence reigned over the camp. Even the
people weren't talking to each other.

Ayden made to go around the processor. She
ran forward and grabbed him. She pulled him back despite him
fighting her. She didn't say anything. Somehow she was loathe to
break the oppressive silence of the camp. The only thing she wanted
to do was get away from this place.

Then she saw the tree. To the side of the
processor. She pointed it out to him.

Ayden looked over and swallowed deeply,
stepping backwards along with her, no longer resisting her
pulls.

White and gray tendrils curled up through the
bark. The limbs drooped, the leaves almost gone from the tree
canopy. The tree looked like it was well on the way to dying. The
more she looked around, the more signs she found similar to the
tree that had saved them from the prescription bottle contents.

The pain around her took on a whole new
meaning.

"We need to contact the city and get out of
here," Kate said in as soft of a whisper as she could manage.

Ayden nodded, searching the area. Kate looked
around, as well. Where would their communication device be? She
hoped it wasn't in as bad repair as the houses.

Ayden turned and dragged Kate behind him. He
rounded the refinery, working his way through a field of canisters
towards another tree house.

A deep thrumming emerged from Ayden's coat.
The forest around her started whispering on their own, but Kate
couldn't figure out what it might be saying. But, she could feel
the hatred amidst the painful haze. Emotions not aimed at them, but
towards someone else. Someone near.

Ayden froze, causing Kate to bump into him.
From around the tree house stepped a small creature. It was far
shorter than her, with a plump middle, moving cautiously on two
stumpy feet. It reached down once in a while with one hand to help
its progress, moving in a three legged walk. Gray-green skin
covered with patches of rough hair covered the parts of the body
not covered in a suit of connected pieces of matte-black armor.