by Moore, TJ
Now, entering a small clearing, Cameron held up his right hand and pinched the highway in his mind’s eye. When he was carried into the forest via wheelbarrow, he didn’t realize the incredible distance the men took him before reaching the hidden stump hatch. And in the conditions that surrounded him, the immensity of the distance seemed even further.
Step by trudging step, Cameron caught up to the others. A large group of thicker pines blocked some of the harsher gusts, allowing the group to advance with less resistance. However, the thickly wooded area also blocked more moonlight. As the shadows fell even deeper around him, Cameron kept his gaze on Stan’s swinging lantern.
The group walked another few acres, carefully weaving between trees. The highway, now closer, provided a goal. From his current vantage point, Cameron also saw semi trucks hauling concealed freight.
As the group neared the slanting ditch just below the highway, the majority of the violent wind became trapped behind them amongst the army of pines. Several more oaks and pines littered the stretch of the ditch, and Cameron recognized the area from when he’d first been pulled from the wreckage.
While Stan forged ahead, Max motioned to Cameron to stay a few yards behind. Then Max leaned against Cameron’s shoulder, speaking through chapped lips. “We’re almost there, Frosty.”
The group stayed hidden from the highway passengers. Stan held the lantern more firmly, holding it up to the dark trunks of the solid oaks. He was checking them. He did this the way a carpenter might scrutinize the different stains on planks of wood. Moving the lantern from left to right, Stan’s sweeping motion caused the shadows of the trunks to sway and bend. Then he walked up the steep incline of the ditch.
After a few more moments of searching, Stan planted his feet in front of an abnormally large trunk. He pressed his hand against the bark. But instead of reaching out to feel a solid strip of bark, Stan’s fingers pressed into the side of the trunk as if it were made of foam rubber. It had a spongy texture. Satisfied with his find, Stan kicked the base of the truck until a thin sheet of metal fell to the slanted grass. Guiding the metal rectangle with his feet, Stan slid it up against the far edge of the highway’s shoulder lane.
Another semi zipped by, this time flinging mini pieces of rubber across the pavement. In the momentary streak of illumination from the semi’s headlights, Cameron caught a glimpse of metal rungs leading up the oak’s thick trunk. Stan placed the wire handle of the lantern in his teeth and began to climb the ladder built into the tree. Cameron stepped closer to the trunk and saw it was crudely painted a range of browns and blacks. He pressed his hand into the foam-like material and watched as Stan climbed up the tree.
When Stan reached the top of the trunk, he climbed over a steel railing and placed the lantern on a metal platform. Looking up, Cameron noticed how the entire platform was carefully concealed by groups of fake branches and leaves.
Max leaned against the tree and spoke to Cameron in the darkness. “We call this The Mechanical Trap.” Holding one of his arms straight up, he turned it parallel to the ground. “It only takes one motion for it to fall across the highway...it’s a hydraulic system.”
In the dim glow of the blue moonlight, Cameron watched Max reach down near the base of the trunk and pull a thick cable from the grass. “This power line leads all the way down to the bank replica.”
“Aha,” Cameron said. “The breaker switch.”
“Exactly. Stan can fiddle all he wants with the remote. He can even dink around with the manuel levers up there. But it won’t work. No power. No trap.”
By the light of the lantern above, Stan yanked a pull cord.
Nothing.
He yanked it again.
Still nothing.
“This is our chance,” Max said, rubbing his hands together.
Cameron saw the speckle of moonlight reflected in Max’s eyes. He was giddy with excitement.
Stan to grumbled to himself. He tried to yank the pull cord one more time. Then, he began to wonder if the abnormally chilly temperatures could have caused friction within the tree’s generator.
Fully aware of how the fake leaves blocked Stan’s sightline to the darkness below, Max and Cameron moved away from the base of the tree. They walked down into the ditch, hiding in shadows.
A few more vehicles zoomed across the highway. Max pushed past several other trunks, leading them about thirty yards away from the mechanical tree. He ran back up the slanted ditch to the shoulder of the road and poked his head out.
A set of headlights approached in the lane closest to them. Max moved his arm across in a rhythm, watching the traffic carefully. The single headlight of a motorcycle rumbled past. Max moved to hide behind a nearby trunk. Checking both directions, he signaled with his arm.
“All clear.Let’s go!”
Max and Cameron ran across the highway in a single sprint. And as they passed the yellow line down the middle of the pavement, Max raised his arms like an Olympic champion. Once across the other side, Max and Cameron ran down the other ditch, keeping low in their strides.
A pickup pulling a camper clunked above them, and Max pulled Cameron down behind an area of tall grass. “Now, we watch.”
Crouched below the swaying blades, the two friends followed the beam of the pickup’s headlights in the distance. The beam stretched across the highway for twenty seconds before illuminating an underpass further down the road.
“Yes,” Max said. “That’s it. That’s where we need to go.”
Cameron looked across the black highway. The pickup passed under the small bridge and now appeared only as a small dot of light moving away from them.
Pressing off the ground, Max bolted further down into the ditch and hid behind a section of bushes.
“So, what?” Cameron asked. “We just wait here and hitch a ride?”
“That’s the plan. Stan’s got his head so far up his ass, he’ll never find us over here.”
“Let’s go further down...make sure we’re out of the headlights,” Cameron said. “The grass is thicker over there.”
“You’re right.” Max remained crouched, turning his head. “We can’t screw this up. I’m not going back.”
They stayed low and stepped even further down into the ditch. The steep slope up to the highway now concealed the passing lights.
“Good. This is good,” Max said. “I can’t believe we’re out here. We’re gonna go home.”
“One step at a time,” Cameron said. “We’re not home yet.”
Max tapped his foot against the ground. “We...we have to keep moving. That’s the only way.”
He looked towards the mechanical tree. “We’ve got enough distance between us.Holy shit, man. Holy shit.”
Even though Cameron couldn’t see much of Max’s face, he could tell by the tone of his voice that he was grinning from ear to ear.
The gusts of wind that followed them out of the forest remained only as a cool breeze now. In a moment of relief, Cameron took a deep breath, holding it in his chest.
But Max’s voice suddenly became anxious again. “Dude, we’ve got to get to that underpass. I don’t like waiting here. Something feels wrong.”
“Why? It’s pitch black out here. We’re safe.”
“I don’t know,” Max said. His voice broke on the last word. “I guess I’ve just been paranoid for so long now. I don’t know what to do with freedom. God, its like they conditioned me to be afraid to the leave the compound.”
Cameron punched Max in the shoulder. “Chill out, buddy. It’s over. It’s all over now.”
“We can’t wait.”
“Max...”
“No.” Max stood up. “Let’s get under that bridge. I want to sleep in my bed tonight. I want to see my father.” He started to walk faster now. “We’re not far now. All we have to do is...”
Then suddenly, Max stopped. He gasped, locking a pocket of air in his lungs. “You hear that?”
“What?”
“Frosty. Stop.”
Max turned around. The dim moonlight reflected the horrific look on his face. “Listen...”
Cameron planted his feet in the grass.
Sure enough, carried on the night breeze, they heard it.
It was the sound Max feared more than anything else.
And it was coming from his ankle tracker.
The high-pitched frequency was barely audible, streaming on the very edge of the silence.
But it was there. They definitely heard it.
And as they stood there, the mind-numbing sound grew in volume. Cameron heard it coming from his own ankle, too.
Eyes wide, Max opened his mouth, his dry throat hardly forming the words.“We’re...dead.”
A thin band of clouds cut across the moon.
“No, Max. We’re not dead...”
Max’s voice quivered worse than before. “You remember what happened to Blake. They tore him to shreds. The...”
A lone howl pierced the night air.
“...wolves.” Max fell to his knees. “Oh my God. We’re dead. We’re so dead!”
“Stop saying that!” Cameron rushed over and pulled Max up. “We’re gonna run, okay? We just have to get to the underpass.”
Another howl wafted across the sky.
“No,” Max said. “That’s where they are. Listen.” Max pointed towards the underpass. The forlorn howl sounded more aggressive now. “Their den. That must be their den.” A wave of panic came over Max’s entire body. He tasted sour cherries at the back of his tongue. He reached down and grabbed his ankle tracker, slipping his fingers in between the cold metal and his leg, desperately trying to loosen it. “If we just get these off.” He pulled harder, sitting on the ground and raising his ankle into the air. “Shit! No!”
“Stop it, Max. It won’t work. We have to run.”
Max lowered his leg and glared at Cameron. “We can’t outrun apack of wolves.” He stood up and paced in the grass. “Oh, God. I bet they’re already on their way over here!”
Then, they heard a disturbing growl, a deeply vicious bark from the direction of the underpass.
It was louder than before.
“Come on,” Cameron said, offering a hand to Max. “We’re too vulnerable here. We have to get to higher ground.”
“Okay, let’s move.”
Taking the lead, Cameron turned around and started running up towards the ditch. As he scaled the steep grass, he felt a slight strain in his legs. Fighting through the wind in the forest took a tole on his stamina.
When they reached the shoulder of the road, a jeep zipped past. Out of the corner of his eye, Max saw the pack. Appearing as slanted shadows across the highway, the pack of wolves raced towards them, ready for a chase.
Max stood at the shoulder of the road, petrified.
His legs wouldn’t move.
They were all locked up.
The pack of wolves shifted around the jeep and bounded together, claw-hitting pavement, straight down the highway. Another pickup whizzed past, then Cameron pulled Max across the road. Resistant to Cameron’s momentum, Max’s tripped over his own feet. He couldn’t stop watching the hungry pack emerge from the black horizon.
When they made it to the other side of the road, Max followed Cameron. “Where are you going?”
“The mechanical tree!” Cameron yelled. “We have to get higher up!”
Max ran faster, faster, pushing himself with every stride. Dashing between oak trunks, trying not to tumble into the ditch, he ran for his life. And as he ran, he kept looking behind his shoulder to catch a glimpse of the howling creatures.
He counted six yellow eyes.
Three wolves total.
A family.
The pack was only a hundred yards away, and gaining fast.
“Hurry up!” Cameron shouted. “They’re getting closer!”
Cameron maintained a steady sprint, keeping his eyes forward. Seconds later, he saw the light from Stan’s lantern.
In a quick twist of his neck, Max saw the front wolf only yards behind him. The pack’s tremendous speed outmatched their human prey.
“Get ready to climb!” Cameron jumped over a group of bushes and pushed off a nearby trunk, lunging towards the mechanical tree. He gripped the rungs of the metal ladder and pulled himself up, quickly moving his hands over each other in fearful ascent.
Max, only a few yards behind, looked back once more. The wolves were barking to each other.
Communicating.
And Max knew he was on the menu.
Focused on the snarling pack close behind him, Max jumped too early and landed in the scraggly bushes. But just as he fell, he shot out his back foot, snapping the supports of the bush underneath. The front wolf barked and dodged the crumpled bush before plunging teeth-first towards Max.
But Max grabbed one of the metal rungs.
Cameron tried to climb the platform, but Stan stood on top of the metal railing, blocking the path.
“What did you two do?!” Stan shrieked.
Max tried to pull his legs up, but the bottom of his pants snared at the base of the ladder.
The wolf pack at Max’s feet jumped, competing for his dangling foot. One of the wolf’s claws swiped up and scraped against Max’s ankle, followed by a set of razor sharp teeth.
Pulling itself off the ground, the largest wolf caught Max’s foot in his jaw, biting down hard.
Max screamed out and shook his body, wrapping his arms around the metal rungs. The wolf snarled and foamed, digging his clenched daggers into Max’s work boot. Cut by the wicked teeth, thin strips of rubber pealed off the sole of the boot.
But the wolf wasn’t hungry for rubber.
Max yanked on his pant leg, twisting and turning his hips to set it loose, but the vile fiend only sank his teeth further into the boot.
Startled by the ravenous pack at the base of the machine, Stan slipped on the platform and fell against one of the power levers.
Then, in a moment of impossible horror, the mechanical tree lurched to life. There were no lights. Just movement. The motors to the hydraulic lift began to whir, sucking in air from the tree’s foam exterior. The pressure began to build inside the steel chambers.
Cameron slammed his arm against the bottom of the machine’s platform. “Get out of the way, Stan! You have to let us up there!”
Gasping for air, Stan clutched the railing in a fit of panic. The shock caused him to hit his head against the back railing of the platform, rendering him unconscious.
In a frenzy of matted fur and moonlit teeth, the other two wolves jumped over each other, grasping at Max with their spiked paws.
The hydraulic chamber, now full of air, jolted the mechanical tree upward, raising it by six inches. But instead of moving further up, the chambers stopped and locked in place as other gears vibrated within the machine. The internal gears rotated the vertical trunk down.
As the trunk continued to rotate towards the highway, the wolf with Max’s boot in its teeth clawed at his pants. The first few swipes grazed his jeans and missed, but the rotation of the trunk pulled the wolf off the ground, ultimately giving it an advantage to overtake Max. The wolf’s back legs, dangled off the ground, and the wolf suspended himself in the air with his closed jaw on Max’s boot. In another swipe, the wolf’s razor claw pierced the denim, tearing a tear pattern down his pants.
The mechanical tree, now rotated at a forty-five degree downward angle, allowed the wolf enough incline to climb up Max’s body. The wolf tried to tear more stitches, but slipped against the metal rungs of the ladder.
Cameron stepped down a few rungs and tried to reach his hand down to Max. “Hold on! Reach for me. Here!”
Losing control from the wolf’s extra weight on his body, Max hooked his left arm deeper into the metal rungs. Then, Max stretched out his right arm to grasp Cameron’s reach, but the constant motion of the hydraulic machine pitched them almost parallel to the highway as a few cars zipped underneath.
One of the smaller wolves venture
d onto the highway. Jumping up towards Max’s dangling feet, the small wolf slipped each time it landed on the pavement.
Pff-Kkkkkkkkkuu!A sudden blast echoed from the shadows.
Then another.
Max looked down to see the wolf that once barked on shoulder of the road now lay motionless.
Pff-Blam!Another loud shot cracked through the night.
Then, Max felt the foaming wolf’s bite loosen slightly.
The wolf cried out in agony.
Pff-Blam!
The jaw loosened more still, releasing a painful cry.
Blam-blammm!!
Gurgling blood from its mouth, the wolf scratched its paws against Max’s legs in a series of reflexive fits. Then, it loosened its clenched jaw and went limp. Max shook his leg, kicking the dead wolf onto the highway.
The mechanical tree hung directly over the highway, and the hydraulics ran out of air. Now, the gears took over again, yanking the entire mechanism lower to the road.
The final wolf clawed towards Max, but just as it looped its deadly paw in his torn jeans, a Chevy Prism zoomed past, smearing the wolf across the pavement into a trail of bloody fur.
Stan, though still unconscious, now lay within the fake branches of the hydraulic oak.
Cameron saw a semi approaching just over the hill. He jumped down from the trunk’s ladder and tried to pull Max off before the semi made road kill of his friend.
And just as Cameron and Max cleared the road, the mechanical tree lurched back up, faster than its descent, rising from the grinding hydraulic lift. The semi truck passed underneath, scraping chucks of foam from the man-made trunk before clearing it completely. And as the tree pivoted back into its vertical position, Stan fell again onto the platform. He whacked the back of his head against the railing and jostled himself awake.
Cameron and Max rolled back down the ditch from exhaustion.
Lying there in the tall grass, looking up at the moon, the two friends couldn’t help but laugh - mostly out of relief.