by Tim Flanagan
‘Tell Ethera what to do,’ said the voice of Edgar in Max’s head. ‘Visualize the energy that came from her when we were in the forest clearing. See the cleansing light pulsating from the tip.’
‘I can’t,’ replied Max to himself. ‘I’m not strong enough.’
‘You are stronger than you realise. Close your eyes. Think of the Moon Stealers, think of the death and destruction they have caused across our world. How many families have they ripped apart, how many children have been orphaned. The curtain is falling on the human race, but you can wash it away. The light has the power to disable the creatures; it will spread like fire across the globe, igniting life once again.’
At the mention of families, Max thought of his own parents and his four sisters. He didn’t know if any of them were alive, but unless he did something, he would never find out. He concentrated on the metal within the palm of his hands. He could feel a gentle vibration in the sword. He concentrated on it, synchronising his heart beat with the sword. In his mind he could see a tiny white spot far away in the distance, and as he watched, the spot grew and grew as it rapidly came towards him. It was like he was standing on a train track at night, watching the lamp of an oncoming train racing towards him. But he didn’t move or turn away. Instead he let the white light engulf him. His pulse quickened in time with the vibration in the sword. It was as if the sword was an extension of his body, it lived through him.
Strangely, Max now felt calm and confident. He was comfortable with this coexistence beside the sword. He seemed to know and understand who the eleven knights holding the swords were, but only because Ethera was connected to each one.
The knights waited.
Max thought back to the clearing in the forest and the pulses of white light that had burst from Ethera, then he took that thought and passed it to the sword. Immediately the vibrations increased until the sword hummed gently inside the rock that was holding it. The silver blade began to shine brighter than he had ever seen before, as did the other swords. A ring of light suddenly burst between them, like crackles of static and electricity looking for somewhere to go. The light shot up towards the golden blade of Excalibur which absorbed it momentarily before a thick column of perfectly channelled pure white energy connected the tip of Excalibur to the peak beneath the curved centre of the roof.
Light erupted with a crackle from the flag pole in the centre of the roof and into the sky. The pulsating vibrations carried the energy on waves rippling out from the castle roof, over the fields, out of Avalon and across the planet. Occasionally it was joined by static held in clouds creating thunderstorms that violently crashed around the planet, charged to a level higher than a storm had even been before. In cities where generators were providing survivors with electricity, the cables crackled with charge, overloaded the engines and caused them to burn out. As soon as one wave had left the metal pole another would follow.
Again and again, like endless waves washing over the land.
33. The Druid's Oak
As soon as Lady Flora could sense no more creatures outside, the underpass they had used for the night quickly reopened ready for them to fly away. They continued on the motorway heading south towards London, stopping only once for more fuel but continuing again almost immediately. Lady Flora had no way of knowing how long it would take Edgar to reach Avalon so she wanted to get to the Druid's Oak as quickly as possible to prepare herself.
'We need to ask for directions,' Lady Flora said.
They were approaching a place called High Wycombe. Scarlet slowed the car down.
'But, there's no one to ask,' she replied.
'Park the car beside those trees.'
Scarlet did as she was instructed and manoeuvred onto a slip road beside a small clump of silver birch trees.
'Of all the trees, the silver birch is the most sociable. Did you never wonder why they group together and live so closely to humans in their towns and cities?' Lady Flora opened her door and stepped towards the trees. She placed a hand on the smooth white bark and closed her eyes. Scarlet and Peter watched from inside the car and patiently waited. When she was done Lady Flora gave the tree a playful pat like a dog receiving praise for retrieving a stick, then she got back into the car.
'Look for signs to Slough and we will find Farnham Common and the entrance to Burnham Beeches,' she announced.
Scarlet drove along the motorway until she saw a sign for Slough. Taking that exit, the road became narrower and wound its way through clumps of woodland until they reached a more built up area. The name of the town was Farnham Common and it wasn’t long before they caught a glimpse of a brown tourist sign for Burnham Beeches. They turned right and followed the road until they came to a crossroads where a black and white fingerpost pointed them towards an area where the road became engulfed in the shadows of the trees. The road narrowed until they could go no further. A metal gate blocked their path and only a cattle grid allowed pedestrians into the ancient woodland.
Scarlet turned off the engine.
Everywhere was so silent and dead. It was like they were living in a vacuum where nothing dared make a sound. It was mid afternoon and the path they were going to follow was already dark, making them vulnerable to creatures hunting in the forest.
They all looked at each other, exchanging glances that shared the fears they were all too scared to voice.
'Well, we're not going to be much help if we stay inside this little car,' said Lady Flora as she opened her door and climbed out. Scarlet and Peter reluctantly followed. They took some water and snacks from the bags in the back and began to tread the path into the wood.
The path wound through dense old woodland. The trees on either side were tall and blocked out a lot of the light from the sky, preventing them from being able to tell if day had turned into night. They all grabbed a fallen branch or stick, knowing that they might need a weapon for protection.
The woodland was eerily quiet. No birds made a sound; no insects foraged amongst the fallen leaves. They felt tense as they crept along the path, not wanting to betray their presence by talking. They were twitchy and nervous, constantly checking behind them, as well as scrutinizing the shadows amongst the branches of the trees for signs they were being hunted.
Eventually the dense covering of trees began to thin as they approached a small clearing. Other trees had been pushed aside to give one tree a greater prominence and presence.
'Wow,' said Peter. 'I've never seen a tree so wide!'
They stood and stared at a tree that wasn’t as tall as those behind it, but the impressive thing about it was the sheer width of the trunk, wider than any they had ever seen before. Old, gnarled and covered in grey-green moss, this was the Druid's Oak. It looked like a giant foot of an elephant, lined and ridged, but solid and unmoving. Seeing the size of the tree for themselves, they could understand why the roots of the Druid's Oak could stretch so far beneath the ground.
Peter sensed something behind them. He turned and saw what the others could not. Glittering between two Mountain Ash trees, as if it had been caught and stretched between their twisted branches, was another portal to the Underworld.
'At least you wont have far to get back to your own world,' he informed Lady Flora. 'There's a portal between those two trees.'
'Then I hope we succeed,' she replied.
Stepping off the path she trod carefully between the cowslips and ferns towards the thick twisted bark of the oak. She placed her hand on the old tree and listened.
'It is old and frail. There is not much life left in it,' she reported to the other two.
'Will nature be strong enough to fight and succeed?' asked Scarlet as she too placed a hand on the dry bark. She could hear nothing more than a faint noise, like the wheezing of an old man in a deep sleep.
Peter stood beside Lady Flora. He placed a hand on the tree in the same way as the other two, but felt and heard nothing, so removed it immediately. He nervously looked into the sky, hoping not to spot a creature.<
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'Do that again,' Lady Flora said to Peter.
'But nothing happened, I didn’t hear anything,' he said.
'On your touch it was like opening a door to a room full of people all talking at the same time. Your ability to see portals also helps to open the gates of long forgotten and even longer used paths between these great and ancient plants. Please, I need you to touch the tree again so that I can talk through it.'
Peter nodded and placed two hands firmly on the tree trunk once more. Again he couldn’t hear anything, but he watched the facial expressions of Lady Flora. Her mind flashed at lightening speed through the vast tubes within the tree trunk, narrowing as she dived deeper and deeper into the earth, until she burst into a hundred million separate sparks of electricity that travelled along the fine root system miles beneath the surface. Each spark fluttered into the joining roots of other plants, gathering information and inciting support. The strain on Lady Flora immediately began to tell. The colour of Lady Flora's skin was beginning to fade and turn grey.
There was a rustling sound amongst the leaves of one of the neighbouring trees. In a world of silence, any sound was enough to cause the hairs on the back of Scarlet and Peter's necks to stand on end. They both turned in unison and stared up at a large shadow partially hidden amongst the branches at the top of a Beech tree.
Scarlet grabbed a large thick branch and held it in front of her. 'We have to protect Lady Flora whilst she wakes the trees up.'
Peter nodded and grabbed his stick too.
The shadow pulled itself through a gap in the branches and stared down at the humans. In the diminishing light, the single white eye glowed brightly back at them. The creature chirped playfully then leapt out of the tree towards the children. It swooped down, arching the leathery wings and thrusting its hooked feet forward ready to sink them into its prey. The two children stood their ground and waited for the creature to approach, then swung their sticks in a frenzy trying desperately to strike the creature.
It turned tightly in the small clearing and gained some height in the sky. Using its speed together with gravity, the creature dived towards them once again, ready to attack. Peter jumped out of the way, but Scarlet swung her thick branch at the creature, glancing its side slightly and knocking it off target.
An ear piercing scream cut through the night air. The creature took a few seconds to regain control of its flight but once it had it turned, ready for a third attempt. The activity and noise had attracted attention from other creatures. The tree tops around them had become alive with numerous chirping sounds and screams. An immeasurable number of black bodies seemed to dirty and darken the green canopy of the woodland, with every eye trained on the humans.
The children looked desperately in every direction.
They were surrounded.
Everywhere they looked the trees shook with excitement as the creatures anticipated the imminent kill. At its third attempt, the creature dodged the children's sticks, but managed to grasp one in its claws, which it dropped as it circled round once more.
A glow on the horizon drew Scarlet and Peter's attention.
Somewhere in the distance a white glow was racing across the sky towards them. As soon as they had seen it, the light had sped past them, onwards to other parts of the sky.
'The light of the White Knight,' muttered Scarlet.
'He has done it,' said Lady Flora as she let go of the tree. She looked pale and drained as if she had aged many years during the small time they had been there.
'Then let's call on nature to fight back,' said Scarlet.
Lady Flora kissed Scarlet on the forehead. 'I never realised the ancient network would be so weak. It has been asleep for such a long time that it is difficult to wake up. I must become part of that network, merge with it totally and live within every cell, leaf and branch that is part of it; otherwise the plan will not work. Help me into that crevice where I can sit amongst the Druid's Oak.'
Scarlet didn’t quite understand what she meant, but she held Lady Flora's hand, making her steady as she placed the toe of her shoe into a deep crack in the Oak's bark and lifted herself to sit in the tree.
Overhead another wave of white light rippled across the sky. The creatures had taken flight from the trees and were trying to outrun the light, no longer interested in the humans. They seemed to be flying erratically and disorganised, some of the creatures would clash in mid air with their siblings and fall in a tangle of wings and claws to the ground.
Lady Flora positioned herself in the junction of the Druid's Oak where the trunk split. The green robe that covered her body seemed to merge with the green moss of the tree. She joined her hands together as if in prayer, placed them against the tree trunk then rested her face against them using them like a pillow.
'Make the future better by not forgetting the ways of the past,' Lady Flora said to Scarlet as she closed her eyes. For a moment it looked as if Lady Flora was just sleeping amongst the tree, but as Scarlet and Peter watched, her robe began to stiffen and dry, her skin paled further into grey and the tree claimed her body as part of itself.
Instantly the world changed.
The plants seemed to shine brighter and stand taller than they had before. A breeze blew through the trees at Burnham Beeches that sounded like the deep sigh of a world waking up. The creatures that were trying to outrun the light were shaken from the tops of the trees, smothered in hawthorn bushes and swallowed into the ground.
The woodland was alive and fighting back.
Scarlet and Peter watched as, with every pulse of light, the creatures began to vanish from the planet.
Scarlet looked up to the crevice in the tree. She was sure that she could still see the outline of Lady Flora, but it faded with every moment she watched. She placed a hand gently on the bark of the Druid's Oak and listened. She could hear millions of voices all talking at the same time, and every one she recognised.
34. The Final Showdown
‘Shoot through the glass and aim for the two that stand up to fire,' Tracker instructed Steven. 'That will give our friends in the corridor a chance to move forward and take advantage. The two guards that are loading can then be quickly overcome.’
Steven nodded.
They stepped back from the glass window and took aim at the two people that were currently crouched down loading their guns. As soon as they stood that would be the cue for them to fire whilst the other two would momentarily have empty guns.
They waited.
The guards guns released more their bullets into the corridor. Every shot was agony for Steven and Tracker as they realised it could have killed another survivor. As bullets from the few armed survivors lodged themselves into the bookshelf in front of the guards, large splinters split from the wood. As soon as their cartridges were empty, the guards crouched down beneath the furniture whilst the other two sprang up ready to continue the defence of the room.
‘Now,’ Tracker whispered.
As soon as he said the word, they both pulled their triggers and two bullets span along the long barrels of their rifles and cut through the night air. As soon as their metal tips struck the glass panels of the doors they shattered into a million pieces, but did nothing to reduce their momentum as they continued into the Council Room. Although the guards registered the shattering of glass, they had no time to react. As one of the bullets struck a guard he was thrown forward, the bullet lodging itself into his shoulder. As he fell forward a shard of wood that had splintered from the book shelf slid effortlessly into his throat. The second bullet struck the other guard in the thigh, instantly causing him to collapse to the floor. He dropped his gun and clutched at his leg.
Wanda and the other remaining guard suddenly panicked. They had never considered an attack could come from behind them. They both fumbled desperately with bullets and magazine cartridges trying to push them into their guns as fast as they could.
Tracker kicked what remained of the external doors into the room causing them
to slam against the internal walls shattering what little glass was still left inside their frames. Both Tracker’s and Steven’s guns were trained on Wanda and the other guard. Knowing they were helpless to fight back they put their guns on the floor and raised their hands up in surrender.
Cautiously some of the survivors began to creep along the corridor towards the double doors. A pool of sticky blood was accumulating around the slumped body of the guard that fell onto the splintered wood. The survivors with guns moved forward and also pointed them at the two unarmed guards. Some climbed over the bookshelf, searched the guards and removed any other weapons they had.
‘Where's the American?’ Tracker asked Wanda as she was pushed into a chair.
‘He’s not here,’ she replied with a look of disgust on her face. She examined the features on Tracker's face and slowly they began to register some recognition in her memory. ‘I know you from somewhere.’
Steven walked around the room. He stood next to a highly polished dining table where the occupants had been eating. ‘He was here,’ Steven shouted to Tracker. ‘Six plates of food, but only five people. But where could he have gone?’
‘You should be dead,’ spat Wanda. ‘We left you and your friends out for the creatures! How…?’
‘Your leader hasn’t told you everything. There are ways to survive alongside the creatures.’
‘What are you talking about?’
‘This is not the only community of survivors,’ explained Tracker. ‘There is another that we know of where everyone is free, safe from the creatures and growing. You and everyone else here are just part of the American’s plan for control.’
Steven looked around the room. Access into and out of the Council Room was through the double doors leading off the corridor, as well as the other pair that Steven and Tracker had burst through. But, at the end of the room beside the fireplace was another door that must have led into an adjoining room. When they had been out on the patio Steven remembered passing another room with two windows facing the garden.