Living Forest

by Lyle, Travis

  She vilely screams,

  “Is this all your fault? Did you kill everyone I love? What did you do to the trees you demon? I’ve never smoked a cigarette in my life and look what you’ve done to me. Why don’t you just kill me too?”

  I don’t know how to respond, I thought she’d be happy. Instead she’s ready to die herself. Maybe too many years of lies has brainwashed my kind to believe that we’re at fault. I got to find out why she feels this way. A guilty tone carries my voice to say,

  “This is because of me, but you don’t know why this was done. How many members of your family were raped and murdered by the English settlers? Do you not know how much has been stolen from us through hate and greed?”

  The weeping woman rises from the ground flailing her arms at me connecting a few times. Stumbling back, I fall to the ground, but I quickly manage to get back up. I move far enough away from her to avoid physical altercation again. She angrily screams at me,

  “You son of a bitch, you’re the only murderer I know. You killed my husband and my children. They’re now stuck in a…”

  She begins to erratically bawl. I say nothing more to the weeping woman only because now she has me at a loss for words. I don’t think she understands me, but maybe it’s I who doesn’t understand. I pick up a few bags of chips and some non-smashed bottles of water that lay scattered in the rubble. Walking north through town, no store or building is left standing. The roads can’t be driven on due to smashed vehicles and sunken holes the trees made upon the impact of walking. If I’m to go anywhere fast, I need something that can go nearly anywhere. I reach the once proud Delaware County Court House and find that it also didn’t survive the terror that the living trees brought.

  With the gloomy outcome, I’m finding it very difficult now to agree with my ancestor’s destruction. That woman’s traumatized face when she said her husband and children were killed is still haunting me. I continue to walk down Highway fifty-nine in search of transportation. Also, I need to catch Sleeping Star and ask him to stop this. He’s destroying too much and it’s my fault. I didn’t know that he’d do this.

  I hear soft whimpering cries come from a ditch drain ahead. I cautiously move to the noise to see who or what it is. From this distance I can’t tell if it’s a person or a dog that’s terrified. Anxiously I speak,

  “Hello, who’s there?”

  A familiar female voice confusingly responds,

  “Hollister... I- is that you?”

  Quickly I reply in an investigative manner.

  “Who are you? Are you hurt? How do you know me?”

  The female voice reluctantly responds,

  “Please don’t kill me Hollister. It’s me, Amanda.”

  Chapter Eleven

  With Hollister confused on what to do with Amanda, Sleeping Star wreaks havoc across this state quickly gaining an army of trees to fight at his side. Sleeping Star has another agenda on his mind besides destroying everything, he wants to live again. When he was banished from his tribe, he didn’t stay like they told him to do. He traveled to exact revenge through the help of the Aztecs. Seeing through the eyes of Jack and feeling through Sleeping Star’s soul, we will continue.

  Billions of trees now cluster along the Texas state line. Everything from Jay, Oklahoma south has fallen to the trees. Only a few thousand people remain alive in these areas. The trees continue to infect others, spreading across the United States of America. On the Texas side, millions of soldiers come to fight against the trees to give their families enough time to escape into Mexico. The border patrol in Mexico is refusing to take in American refugees, shooting anyone caught crossing the border. A short war ensues, but quickly turns to fighting together once the trees start to cross over into their territory.

  Bright reddish-orange lights glow through thick blackish-grey clouds. The light’s that which is made from fire, and the clouds are made from smoke. Many choppy whipping sounds echo, sounding like a fleet of hummingbirds. Roaring screams above, explosions ahead and distant whistling sounds speeding this direction fill the air. Car, trucks, and flaming trees can be seen hurling into the sky, colliding with helicopters, planes and tanks. Speaking to the trees,

  “Brothers and Sisters, continue to drive them away from our land. I must head north to my bones.”

  As I turn to leave, Jack’s eyes witness a devastating view. Miles upon miles trees with angry white glowing male and female Natives, stand inside them, stretching across the horizon. People dangle from limbs like impaled Christmas ornaments. They continue to kill, smash, and hurl those brave enough to stand in their path. The massive armies of trees begin to fade into desolate land. Resulting in what looks to be the aftermath of a war zone. Pieces of dead bodies pollute the ground along with much metal debris and smoldering coals.

  Moving north, the land is bare from trees. I continue to race through much land. Tiny figures lay ahead in the distant, clustering to holes in the ground like a frightened fox. A fire quickly breaks out into a wall trying to protect the small band of people from my torment. Calling forth,

  "Rise from the ground to do my work. Entangle, enslave, and suffocate until they become dirt."

  Roots rumble from the ground underneath. In a full circle around them, rock and dirt flings through the air in massive amounts as roots rise high above their heads. The rooted jail creaks and squeals with every movement. The dome, made from roots, curls down at the center top and wiggles its way back into the ground. Screams bellow from the people below,

  "Noooo... God help us."

  The roots keep wiggling further into the ground, quickly enclosing the people and tangling them in vines. Sounding in the air as death bears down on the remaining survivors,

  “Crunching, cracking, tearing, and ripping”

  Now passing by the red rooted cocoon, black smoke is seen in the distance. Screams from jets flying low, rumble through the branches of my tree. Low tone chants begin to emerge from me. The deep chant sounds like,

  “Heaiya heeyua heeyua, Heaiya heeyua heeyua.”

  Lightning pierces the sky, strikes a jet engine, and ignites the fuel.

  “Snap, Crack, Boom,”

  Rumbling concussions rip through the upper atmosphere. Strike after strike lightning crashes down around my tree leaving me unharmed and still destroying everything in its path. The darkened skies of shifting wall clouds make seeing any distance nearly impossible. Baseball size hail rains down from the sky, and funnel clouds begin to spin across the open land miles ahead in sight. People and vehicles tumble through the spinning twisters of air, still yet I continue to tread towards my grave.

  Jack’s eyes now lay looking at Hollister Wolf holding the last true living Templar Knight, his daughter, Amanda Mason. Anger races immediately through me. I debate which task is more important, Life… or to eliminate the only thing that can eliminate me. Shear winds tear through the land, forcing flight to everything not anchored to the ground. My voice resonates through the atmosphere,

  “Hollister Wolf! You will not live with her, you both will die. I’ll return as a God and all that remains will perish to the afterlife.”

  I watch Hollister and Amanda run into a Jeep, a tornado quickly lifts it through the air out of sight. I press forward with evil joy knowing their soon fate, but I know a secret they don’t. This secret though, may no longer challenge my newfound existence. Closing in on the burial ground, I see dead trees or non-walking trees. Trees just standing proudly like they once had. Timber lie polluting the ground like a protective barrier will not let any trees in or out.

  I stop moving just within touching distance of a transparent barrier. At times Jack’s eyes can see a rainbow like light glistening through. The ground beneath us trembles. No words come from me, but chanting can be faintly heard underneath the ground. My roots dig deep, fishing for my bones. One by one, root after root they appear as I prepare for my resurrection.

  At the heart of the tree where my soul stands, the roots bring forth my bones. T
he tree separates at the grain allowing the roots to place my bones inside. My vision gets shaky as I watch my sight being pulled away from the tree top and be brought forth to the heart of the tree, face to face with Sleeping Star. I am Jack Mason, the last male Templar that holds the secret of my ancestors. My ancestral grandfather waited at the coast, but none return. We searched for our legacy, our history. I found the truth and now at my death, I know the curse that came with the truth weighed far heavier than I could’ve ever imagined.

  Staring eye to eye with Sleeping Star, he brings me forth into the massive tree he encumbers. The tree’s grains crush and crunch the remains of my bones and body into liquid jelly. Blackness takes over my sight. I can see no more, but I remain feeling what Sleeping Star feels. No pain, pure hatred, and a sudden stop of time ponders heavy on my mind leaving me feeling dead once again.

  The tree that once held Sleeping Star immediately collapses to the ground as if all life truly left it. Quakes shake the ground as each massive limb trembles before the force of impact. Lightning pierces the sky, repeatedly striking the heart of the tree. With each snap cracking sound shimmying the atmosphere, a circle of fire breaks free around the tree. High in the air the real Sleeping Star rose. His eyes glow white. Dark red stained blood covers his body in a tribal tattooing.

  Black hair, pulled back in a ponytail, reaches the small of his back. His skin tone is dark red, nearly brown, making it mildly difficult to see his tattooing. Sleeping Star hovers down from the air with lightning flowing from his hands. His eyes are burning out in fire and smoke from surges of lightning. All that remains for his eyes are two charred eye sockets. The moment Sleeping Star touches foot onto the ground he leaps high in the air. In mid leap, he transforms into a Giant Jaguar.

  Standing on four paws almost seven feet tall from ground to back and over fifteen feet in length, he’s a prehistoric monster. In transformation he now has eyes, and it’s a pair that glow bright yellow. His entire body is covered with dark brown fur that has a black spotted design. Sleeping Star quickly runs to where he previously met Hollister and Amanda. Not taking any chances, he wants to confirm their death. We will now continue the story through the second life of Sleeping Star.

  Racing upon where I last seen the jeep with disappointment and anger, raging growls bellow from me.

  “Rrroooaaarrrr!”

  Hollister and Amanda are nowhere to be found. Their bodies are expected to be mangled, but yet not even one drop of blood remains for evidence left behind. Trying to sniff out a scent, none can be found, it’s like they disappeared without a trace. For miles I race around hunting down even the slightest trace of them.

  The blood scent of a woman momentarily bristles through the breeze. I think to myself,

  “Wait! I have it.”

  A quick southern breeze shifts me near the direction this all began. Almost the exact same place I gave my soul to the box for me to have life. Quickly, I cover much tree barren land with my four giant paws. I stop. I stand up. As I stand I transform back into myelf, Sleeping Star. Even though my eyes have been burnt, I see differently. The same lightning that took my sight, gave me sight. I see from looking at the electrical currents in all life. Even a blade of grass can be seen with my sight now. Even though everything is the same color, seeing who it is I’m killing is simple. Maybe even more simple than before, because every feature about you stands out more.

  There’s one thing about me everyone should know before I go into this cavern leading to the City of Gold to kill Hollister and Amanda. I need to let everyone know why I must live. I must remain to remind everyone of their crimes. Civilization after civilization falls to blind hate. Taking whatever they want and claim that it’s theirs. Even go as far as to kill the first people to have ever walked this land, over land. They’ve stolen mountains of gold and silver, deep wells of oil, and destroyed historical artifacts of great non-replaceable meaning. Taking all of our precious things and claim them as their own.

  Rape, kill, and torment races until near extinction. Still today many different races continue to suffer from their new world wrath. They don’t stop to make right their wrongs, but instead they keep making wrongs thinking it is right. Worse of all, if anyone stands against them for what’s truly right, they destroy them and make those left settle for cracker crumbs to survive on. I’m here to end generations of pain from suffering. I am Sleeping Star, and this is my vow to those who don’t belong.

  Walking down a small cavern opening, I find three possible paths to take. Two of them lead nearly the same direction. The other path is hidden under a rock ledge to my left. Just ahead to my right contains a carved tunnel on top, and a natural tunnel on bottom. The bottom tunnel resembles that of a washout tunnel. Choosing the top right man made tunnel, it’s perfectly flat on bottom with an upside down U shape top. There’s just enough room for me to spider crawl through. The tunnel stretches out for at least five hundred feet.

  Reaching the end, it opens into a giant cavern. Bats dangle from the ceiling like an infestation of flying rats waiting on a meal. There are seven visible paths to take. One tunnel is directly in front of me and continues to move straight. It’s a much larger hole than the rest of the tunnels. Moving through the path, I can tell after about forty feet in that man has carved this hole. This tunnel is leading North, North-East. A half collapsed wall nearly blocks the path ahead. It looks like debris has been moved around recently to get through.

  A pungent aroma, lingering through the near stale air, sends nausea pains through my gut.

  “Sniff, Sniff.”

  The smell is of Amanda’s blood. Knowing I’m on the right trail, my muscles tense as I pick up the pace. The tunnel floor begins to split open in the center, dropping down to another cavern below. Carefully walking around a corner, the tunnel ends.

  “Click, clank, clack,”

  Rocks tumble down what looks to be a never ending hole. I look around for any path to take around the large drop, but there are none. I know they had to come this way. Pondering the situation I think,

  “Maybe they turned back and climbed down through the lower cavern.”

  Turning back around the corner, I find myself at a foothold down. The crevice is very narrow, causing great difficulty for myself. It continues to get smaller. I can’t help to find myself wandering how they’d even fit here. The pungent stagnated aroma of Amanda’s blood curls my sense of smell once more, but letting me know that I’m on the right path. Now ready to drop down to the level below, it’s a ten feet drop with no good place to land. Dangling off of the ledge, I let go. The breaking of bones sound through the stale dusty air,

  “Crash, crack, pop, snap”

  I land on top a pile of human remains. The snapping of rib cages and tumbling of bones had to have alerted Hollister of my presence. Knowing there’s a deep drop no more than fifty feet in front of me, I look elsewhere for the path which they would’ve taken. Quickly I realize this is no cavern room, but a giant tunnel. I leap into the air transforming into the Giant Jaguar.

  Racing down the tunnel with four paws, I adjust naturally as if I’ve always been like this. Stampeding like a herd of Buffalo’s, I can’t help noticing the massive amounts of human remains scattered throughout this seemingly never ending tunnel. Before the tunnels end, I come upon a rock alter that stretches eighty feet in length. The stone slab is around twenty feet wide, and it stands five feet tall. Encumbering the top of it is what looks to be a giant gold suit of armor and a thirty foot sword made out of a substance resembling diamonds. A name is etched in gold across the hilt of the sword. It reads,

  “GOLIATH”

  Painful groans echo towards me from the tunnel. Faint noises can be heard ahead in the distant. Creeping stealthily, I gain the element of surprise. A quivering female voice slightly echoes through the large cavern ahead,

  “I know you’ll get blood everywhere, but it’s the only way to end the curse before he finds us and kills us.”

  A weakened male voi
ce reluctantly responds,

  “I know there’s no other way. Didn’t it say something about we had to do this at the alter?”

  The female voice quickly replies,

  “Yes, but we must hurry. He will be...”

  The vicious sound of a snarling roar rips through the cavern walls as if near explosion, silencing Amanda’s tongue.

  “RRRRROOOOAAAARRRR!”

  From the shadows I creep into sight, my fur still camouflaging me with the rock. Amanda, being the closest to me, is frozen with fear. The smell of blood is angering me to the point of prance and kill. Instead of ending it quickly, I feel like playing. It’s not like they’re going anywhere as the only way out is behind me. I lift up, stand on two paws, and transform into man as I stand. Static electricity surges from my fingertips like miniature lightning bolts as I await any kind of movement from the two of them.

  Chapter Twelve

  In this chapter we will rewind the clock up to the point when Hollister found Amanda inside the storm drain in Jay, Oklahoma. I will now continue through the life of Hollister Wolf.

  Looking at Amanda, I don’t know how to respond. At one moment in my life she’s making love to me, the next kidnapping. Even worse, she helped or at least is an accessory to my death. Otherwise Sleeping Star would still be just that, sleeping. A quivering tone shakes through Amanda as she manically says,

  “He’s going to find me and kill me.”

  Tears begin to flow from her like a river. She begins shivering as if she’s cold. I’m cold too, but not from the weather. It’s because of the death and destruction that resonates across this land. Reassuringly I reply,

  “There are no trees in sight Amanda. I want the death I brought to stop. Do you know how we can do this?”

  Still mentally broken from the hell on Earth, Amanda seems to do nothing, except weep. I’d leave her here to die, but I know this is a journey that can’t be made alone. I raise my voice to Amanda and talk in a scolding manner while pointing my finger at her.