Tangents, vol 1

by Rae Agatha

  “Guess it’s gone,” Matylda said and put the knife back into her pocket.

  “Let’s go,” Dan said and started moving ahead, Anna was following him. Matylda looked around again and began walking, too.

  “Rick, you’re coming?!” Anna shouted when she saw him standing behind them, looking at the ground.

  “Something’s wrong here!” He shouted.

  “No shit something’s wrong,” Matylda snorted.

  “No, really, it looks like,” he bent his knees and squatted, “the ground’s moving, I think it’s – it’s alive,” he said and reached out his hand toward it. His palm quickly disappeared in the mist.

  “Don’t touch it!” Dan shouted.

  “Matylda, give me the headlamp!” Rick said and got up.

  As Matylda was walking toward him, he felt something grip his right leg, wrapping around it so fast he was dumbstruck. He looked down and wanted to step aside immediately, but the thing was already holding him.

  “Shit! Matylda, the knife!” He shouted while trying to pull his leg.

  A thick but springy root was quickly twisting around his ankle, moving slightly up. It was so strong, Rick fell over. “Crap,” he hissed when he felt the pain in his back, even though the backpack absorbed the fall a bit.

  “Coming!” She shouted and ran toward him. She swiftly put the headlamp on her head to have her hands free.

  “What’s happening!?” Anna shouted.

  At the same moment, she felt something began wrapping around er hand. She looked up and saw a liana swinging above her head, entwining around her arm.

  “Oh my God!” She exclaimed and started unwrapping the stem with her other hand, which, in a matter of seconds, was also grabbed by another liana dangling from the tree.

  “Dan!” She screamed. Dan looked around and saw Anna almost hanging above the ground, swinging from two lianas.

  “What the fuck?!” He said and jumped toward her.

  When Matylda came to Rick, he was hopelessly trying to pull his leg out of the root’s embrace. She looked at him.

  “I can’t see anything clearly despite the headlamp, the mist is very dense, it’s covering your legs,” she said.

  Rick looked at her and lifted his right leg, the one that was held by the root. It was a major physical effort. “It’s holding me real tight,” he puffed. “Cut it.”

  Matylda looked at him. “I – I can’t see it well,” she said.

  “Damn it, Matylda, cut it, it’ll break my leg, it’s becoming tighter with every second,” he hissed. As he was saying it, he spotted Anna hanging about a yard above the ground and Dan who was desperately trying to set her free. What the hell is happening, Jesus Christ!

  “Okay, I’m on it,” Matylda said and dried her face with a sleeve.

  Even though it was cold out, she felt sweat as it rolled into her eyes. As she was about to cut the root, she dropped her knife which disappeared in the mist. At the same time, Rick felt another root appearing from under his back and reaching out to his stomach. It was much thicker than the one holding his leg.

  “Oh no! No, you don’t!” He shouted and tried to grab it with his hand. The root, however, immediately changed direction and wrapped around his chest, holding him tight around it.

  “Matylda!” He wanted to scream, but he felt he didn’t have enough of air in his lungs. The root was squashing him, making it more and more difficult to breathe, so he only whispered her name and coughed; his face was contorted by pain.

  Matylda was desperately looking for the knife among the mist while Dan was frantically trying to figure out how to help Anna.

  “Hang on, Anna,” he said.

  Anna snorted, “Oh my God, Dan, I am hanging, that’s the problem,” she said and was biting her lip, the pain of having her arms stretched was excruciating.

  “Right, hold on,” he said quietly, picked up Anna’s flashlight and was looking around, trying to find anything that would help him. He heard Rick groaning from pain, looked in his direction and saw him lying on the ground, it looked as if he was tied to it. Matylda was next to him, Dan thought it meant he could focus on Anna entirely. He looke around, then looked at her and he had an idea. She was wearing a knitted sweater. Knitted. So it could be unraveled.

  “Matylda, give me the knife!” He shouted.

  “I can’t!” Matylda replied, “I’ve lost it!”

  Damn it.

  “Anna, listen to me,” he said, “I’m going to unravel your sweater, okay? Once it’s gone, the size, the circumference of your hands will be a bit smaller, you’ll have to try to slip your hands out of the grip.”

  “Okay, just do it!”

  ***

  “Found it!” Matylda shouted. She picked the knife off the ground and looked at Rick. He was now pale, breathing heavily. It seemed that whatever the plant was, it had a goal to suffocate him. A thought appeared in his head that he was lucky the root did not wrap around his neck; otherwise he would have been dead by now.

  “Hold on, just a few more seconds,” she said and grabbed the root that was twisted around Rick’s leg.

  “No, the other one first,” he said quietly. “It’ll crack my ribs.”

  She stood up, walked above him and squatted next to his chest. he root was firmly holding its grip, it was growing from under Rick’s back. She thought he was fortunate enough it didn’t pierce him through, because it was thick enough to do it without any problem. Matylda opened the Swiss Army Knife and looked at Rick. He was looking at her, saw her hesitating and delicately nodded his head.

  “Do it.”

  She stabbed the root which immediately shrank and loosened its tight grip, but did not let Rick go entirely.

  “Oh Jesus, the one on the leg has just tightened more, Christ, it’ll break it,” Rick cried out.

  Matylda stabbed the root on his chest again, this time it crawled back a bit and fell to the ground, motionless. Rick immediately sat up and struggled for breath before he began breathing in deeply. She then began cutting off the one that was wrapped around his leg but just as she was about to get rid of it, a liana unfolded right above her, twisted around her leg and lifted her up. Within a few seconds, Matylda was winging head down about three yards above Rick.

  “Oh my God!” She screamed.

  “Matylda, throw me the knife!” Rick shouted. She closed it, opened her hand and the Swiss Knife fell right on Rick’s lap. He grabbed it, opened it, and started ferociously cutting the root off.

  “Let me go, motherfucker,” he said through his teeth.

  ***

  At the same time, Dan tore Anna’s sweater, grabbed one end of the thread and started quickly pulling it to unravel it as fast as possible.

  “Hurry, Dan, I can’t feel my hands,” Anna said nervously.

  “It’s almost done,” he said.

  As there was only a small part of the sweater left, he looked at her.

  “Okay, this is it, get ready, the sleeves are next. Just remember you need to free both of your hands at the same time, or you’ll end up hanging by one arm and it might dislocate your shoulder.”

  She nodded and waited. The sleeves began to fray and Dan was trying to unravel them simultaneously.

  ***

  Rick finally cut the root off and got up. The tingling in his right leg did not allow him to take a step, he stood there holding it a bit up, trying carefully to put it on the ground not sure if it would hold him up.

  “How is it?” Matylda asked.

  “It’s completely numb and I think it’s twisted,” he said still breathing heavily. Goddamn it.

  Rick looked up at her. She was hanging upside down, too high above for him to reach and cut her down. Her red pony tail was now falling down, the bangs were hanging freely from her forehead, but the flashlight was still firmly attached. He looked around trying to figure out what to do.

  “Give me the knife, I’ll cut myself off,” she said while reaching out her hands down, “just close it first, I don’t wa
nt it to wound me.”

  It seemed to be the best idea. He threw it up to her, Matylda grabbed it firmly.

  “Do you want me to swing you?” Rick asked. He had no idea how he would do it, but it was his only idea to help her.

  “No, it’s okay. Just make sure nothing else wants to get me. Or us, for that matter,” she replied firmly. “Take some steps back, you’re standing right where the roots attacked you, there might be more of them.”

  Ricked looked down; she was right. He hobbled aside.

  ***

  “Ready?” Dan asked. Anna nodded. “Okay.”

  He pulled the threads rapidly and both of the sleeves disappeared. Anna moved her wrists, changed their angle a bit, and slipped the lianas. She fell to the ground.

  “Oh my God, it worked, Dan, it worked,” she said happily. He was overwhelmingly relieved. He helped her get up and hugged her. A few seconds later they were standing next to Rick, looking up at Matylda. She was pulling herself up, trying to grab the leg that was held by the plant.

  “How’s your leg? What can we do?” Dan asked, looking up at Matylda.

  “I’m okay, although it seems my ankle is twisted.”

  Anna pointed her flashlight at Matylda.

  “It’s okay, Anna, don’t do that,” she said.

  “Isn’t it helpful?”

  “No, I have my own source of light, I can see what I’m doing. You should be using yours to check if there’s nothing else around that wants to get us.”

  Anna started lighting the surroundings. Matylda finally managed to grab her leg and, with huge effort, she started cutting the liana.

  “She’s going to fall right on us,” Dan said.

  “We better catch her then,” Rick replied. “How is it going up there?”

  “I’m almost done, but the harder I cut it, the tighter it gets around my leg,” Matylda said.

  “Yeah, I had the same with that crap around mine,” Rick replied.

  “Okay, I’m – whoa!“ Matylda said and fell down. Dan and Rick grabbed her.

  “Thanks,” she said as she stepped on the ground.

  “Let’s go, let’s get out of here,” Anna said. “I’m pretty sure this is not the only place in the forest where the murderous lianas and roots are, Jesus.”

  “Oh my God!” Dan shouted and pointed ahead. Anna and Matylda turned their flashlights in that direction. Something resembling a gigantic root was emerging from the ground about thirty yards away from them.

  The ground was delicately shaking as it was becoming bigger and they were all able to see smaller roots coming out of the ground and lianas slithering disturbingly around it. It didn’t grow up, it was rather coming closer to them by emerging from the ground.

  “What the fuck is that?!” Anna shouted.

  Rick took off the backpack and reached out for a flare gun.

  “It’s too moist here, Rick, it won’t work,” Dan said petrified.

  “If you have a better idea, I’m all ears,” Rick said, “just hurry up, because I don’t think it’ll let us pass.”

  Dan looked at the root, which was now about five feet tall. There was no other way; they had to try to fry it.

  “Okay, I loaded the gun,” Rick said and pointed it at the monstrous root. As he did that, they saw roots bulging out of the ground around them.

  “The mother-root is defending itself,” Matylda said. “Shoot it!”

  Rick pulled the trigger and a flare flew straight at it. Once it reached its body, it exploded with red brightness. The moment the root started burning, all the smaller roots, all lianas stopped moving. As ridiculous as it felt, they all thought the smaller ones had no idea what to do, their leader was bleeding burning resin and they were all distracted. The roots surrounding them shrunk back into the ground and as the mother-root burned, it allowed them to see the way clearly.

  “Let’s get out of here!” Dan shouted and they started running ahead. Rick wanted to run, too, but his right ankle wouldn’t let him. He was clumsily trying to at least walk faster, but every time he would put his foot on the ground, a bolt of pain shot up his leg taking his breath away. Rick wanted to call out to the others to help him, but just as he was about to shout to them, he stumbled upon one of the roots and fell to the ground. He howled with pain and rage.

  Rick turned around and realized he couldn’t get up because one of the roots was holding him by the twisted ankle, clenching it as it was twisting around it, making him cry out in pain. Lying on his back, he tried to crawl his way out of there leaning on his elbows, but some ferns and ivy stems twisted around his arm and kept pulling him down. He tried to tear them off of him with his other hand, but another root appeared from the other side and started pulling his free arm to the ground. The mother-root was burning, lighting Rick’s face. He had a sudden thought, a crazy one, that it was getting closer to him, but was that possible? In this place, was it really not?

  Finally, exhausted and physically anguished, he lay on the ground, loosened his muscles and thought that either he was going to burn along with the mother-root as it really was crawling closer to him, he was already able to feel the warmth of fire on his cheeks, or the smaller roots would either suffocate him or crush his bones. This was it. He took a deep breath, being convinced it was, most probably, his very last one and closed his eyes. He could feel the stems and roots slowly twining around his body and tightening their grips around his legs, arms and torso. He was thinking of Mon; not being able to see her again, leaving her while things between them weren’t settled, those were the things he regretted most as he was lying there, coming to terms with the fact that this was the end. He couldn’t move anymore, he was being pressed to the ground. The warmth of the fire was now even closer, and Rick was only hoping he would pass out before it started burning him. He clenched his eyes and waited for the final things to begin.

  A flare rocketed right above his head, making a hissing sound as it pierced the air. Rick opened his eyes just in time to see another explosion on the body of the mother-root.

  A few seconds later, Matylda was near him cutting the stems and stabbing the roots ferociously one by one.

  “Just make sure you stab the right thing,” Rick said and smiled weakly.

  “No worries, now can see very clearly what I’m doing,” she replied focused.

  The gigantic root was burning like a torch lighting everything within at least fifty yards. The small ones holding Rick were letting him go even before Matylda started stubbing them.

  “Hit it again, Anna!” Matylda shouted.

  “We’ll have only one left, then!”

  “Shoot it! If the big one dies, they all will!”

  Anna pulled the trigger and another flare hit the root. It stopped moving and all the smaller ones around them were now crippled, lying on the ground motionlessly, lifelessly. Rick took a deep breath, Matylda and Anna pulled him from the vegetation and helped him sit up.

  “I can’t get up, my leg,” he said and felt he was being lifted from behind when Dan slipped his hands under Rick’s armpits.

  “Ready?” He asked.

  “Yeah,” Rick replied and Dan pulled him up. Rick hissed with pain, but managed to stand up.

  “Come on, let’s get out of here,” Dan said putting Rick’s arm across his shoulder and his arm around Rick’s waist, helping Rick to keep his balance.

  “I thought you were gone, that you had left me,” Rick said. He was so happy they came back he felt a few tears falling down his cheeks. He had never been as scared in his life as during the moments he thought he was going to die in those damn woods, in those flames, alone, in pain.

  “No way, you still have some books to write,” Anna winked and embraced him.

  Rick smiled and reciprocated the gesture.

  “I’m taking the backpack now,” Matylda informed him. He didn’t even realize he had forgotten about it, most probably once he put it on the ground when he was taking the flare gun out of it.

  “Yeah, you
do that,” he said, “by the way, where did you get the gun from? I had it with me.”

  “You must have let it go when you fell over, because it was lying on the ground a couple of yards away from you,” Dan informed him.

  Chapter 10

  They walked for about an hour before the forest finally started to thin out. One of the first indications was how much more moonlight shining on them. The two silver planets hanging above the horizon were giving them enough of light to allow them to turn the flashlights off and save the batteries.