Where the Forest Ends: A Sci-Fi/Fantasy Novel

by Turner, Ben

  "I'm not really here," he said. "You can feel me, but it's really our minds that are creating that sensation."

  Vivian nodded. It made as much sense as anything else that was happening. "Want some food?"

  "I wish," said her father. "I can't feel this fire. I can't eat. I can't drink. The idea of a delicacy is a distant memory." He put his hand to his chest. "I don't have a heartbeat anymore."

  "I don't understand how you're here," she said. "You said you'd been absorbed by the planet, but that doesn't explain anything."

  "That's all I know," said her father. "I can't tell you more than that."

  "Who was my mother?" said Vivian after a pause.

  Her father laughed. "I was wondering when you were going to ask. You were too young to understand when I was alive, but now I can tell you. Her name was Lily, and she was posted at an Earth Consulate on Rebanic, a planet famous for its lack of water, volcanoes, and absurdly dense mineral reserves. At least a twentieth of all the wealth in the galaxy comes from that one planet. It is miserable, but its livable. I was there, and there was a meteor shower. I was trapped in the earth consulate. One thing led to another--"

  "Okay," said Vivian, holding up a hand. "I get the picture."

  Her father laughed, then got somber. "She had an important position," he continued. "She couldn't have been known to have a child with a known criminal. I agreed to take you and we would separate, never to see each other again."

  Vivian nodded. "What then?"

  "I stayed with her for nine months, then you were born. I would be lying if I said your mother and I loved each other. There was nothing but lust on that one night when our imminent death seemed certain. I remember the meteors landing on the road just a dozen feet away from us but for me. I can't remember how fire feels, but I remember that just fine." He looked at his daughter. "I remember the joy and love I felt when I first saw you. As per our deal, Lily handed you over without so much as a kiss. You were mine, and no one else’s. I didn't know what to do with you, but I was confident I would figure it out. We couldn't stay on Rebanic, and we couldn't go anywhere where you might be discovered. With my record and your lack of any records, it would have been near impossible. So, we ended up here."

  "Did you talk to her after that?"

  "No. I gave her a way to contact me, but she never called. I don't think she even kept he number."

  "Is she still out there?

  He shrugged and looked up at the canopy of trees above them. "She was working on a new invention. She explained it to me but I didn't understand most of the science mumbo jumbo. Basically, it sounded like there were trying to create minerals out of thin air."

  "Did she succeed?"

  Frank shrugged. "If she did, then she would be living the high life somewhere. She would have changed the universe."

  Vivian looked towards the north. "Do you think I'm doing the right thing?"

  "Yes," said her father.

  Vivian jerked her head back. "No fatherly wisdom?" she said. "No trying to talk me out of it?"

  "No," said Frank. "I'm proud to have you as my daughter. And I'm sure that Lily would be as well." He sighed. "I can't leave this planet, but if you ever get away, promise me you will find her."

  Vivian smiled. "I promise. Thanks, Dad."

  Her father grinned, then he started fading. "It's time for me to go," he said.

  "Come back?" said Vivian.

  "As soon as I can."

  Then he was gone, and Vivian was once again left sitting beside the fire with nothing but her own thoughts and the noises of the surrounding forest to keep her company.

  She put her chin on her knees and sighed.

  Chapter 21

  Natalie sprinted through the forest. She needed to get back to the rebel base and warn them about what had happened to Dave.

  Vivian needed reinforcements. She wouldn't be able to save Dave by herself, no matter what she did.

  Natalie rounded the final corner to the rebel base.

  And gasped.

  Swarming through the base were soldiers wearing the insignia of the Council of the Mother Tree. They were moving through the trees with trained precision. The soldiers and workers who had stayed behind to tend to the base were spread out in a line in front of the Rebel Council's headquarters. They were tied and looked as though they had been beaten.

  Natalie stared over the carnage before her and ducked behind a tree.

  She watched as soldiers walked through every room of the base and set everything on fire.

  Standing to one side, watching the fires, was Hazel. She had her back to Natalie.

  As though she could hear Natalie's fearful thoughts, Hazel turned and looked directly at her hiding place. Natalie ducked behind the trees, breathing heavily.

  She leaned back around the tree. Soldiers were walking along the ground towards her with no fear of the surface. Hazel watched them.

  Natalie took her gun from her belt. It was almost empty, but might be able to give her an opportunity to escape.

  She spun around the edge of the tree and open fired.

  The soldiers returned fire. The first bullet took Natalie in the stomach, then the thigh, then the shoulder.

  The gun slipped from her fingers. A few moments later she joined her gun on the ground.

  She looked up at the soldiers as they approached her. One of them raised a gun and pointed it into her face.

  Then he pulled the trigger, and Natalie was gone.

  Chapter 22

  After a few hours of walking that day, Vivian came across a group of bird carcasses spread in a circle in the small clearing.

  She made sure her gun was ready in case the killer was still around, but heard nothing. There were a dozen birds, each four feet across. She didn't know what they were.

  There were bite marks on some of the birds. A basilisk had done this.

  She swallowed.

  She was heading in the right direction.

  She took one more look at the immense birds and wondered what chance she might possibly have against the basilisk.

  She took a deep breath and continued on her quest. She'd come too far to stop now.

  As she walked, she thought of Natalie and prayed that she'd made it back to the rebel base.

  After an hour more of walking, she paused. She had to squint through her goggles, a sensation she had never felt before her. She removed the goggles slowly and looked around.

  She could see.

  It was faint, but there was without a doubt a light source coming through the seemingly impenetrable canopy of trees overhead.

  She kept walking until source the light became clear. It was an immense clearing. She rounded a tree and was hit with an onslaught of direct sunlight. She had to raise an arm over her eyes and wait for her eyes to adjust. It took a few minutes. Her eyes were out of practice and normally only had to deal with the light in Vivian and Ellen's quarters.

  She walked towards the light, feeling its warmth and brightness. Above the clearing was nothing but an immense and endless sky with two suns circling.

  There were no trees or leaves above her.

  She checked her compass. It was pointing towards the center of the clearing. This was the northern pole of the planet.

  She walked towards the center of the clearing, feeling the heat beating down on her, and noticed that there was another source of light.

  Light radiated upwards from the center of the clearing. She approached it and felt the immense heat the object was radiating.

  The heat was coming from a large black panel embedded in the earth. She put her hand above the panel and had to pull it back because of the immense heat it was radiating.

  She looked around and back up at the sky. She was going to burn to death if she didn't get out of this clearing, and her eyes were beginning to hurt from the strain of looking at light for too long.

  At a mild jog, she ran to the edge of the clearing. She hid behind an immense tree, where the light couldn
't reach. The moment that she entered its shadows, she felt an immense sense of relief. Her skin felt as though it was crawling. She couldn't imagine what it must feel like if one of the locals walked out there. Their skin would fry in an instant.

  A though crossed her mind and she frowned.

  Maybe that panel was out there precisely because the locals could never get to it.

  Maybe no one was supposed to know it was there.

  And none of that helped her answer where the hell Dave was.

  Chapter 23

  Vivian woke up without realizing she'd fallen asleep.

  She looked up and jumped away from the gun pointed directly at her face. The person behind the gun was wearing a large black cloak and glasses.

  "You're coming with me back to the base to stand trial for treason and sabotage, Vivian Masters," said the figure.

  Vivian frowned, recognizing the voice. "Gavin?" she said. "What are you doing here?"

  "Dave found me," said Gavin.

  Vivian's eyes adjusted to the faint light coming around the trees she'd been sleeping under. Gavin wasn't alone. A dozen people stood behind him, all wearing the same black cloaks covering every inch of their bodies.

  "You were clever coming here," said Gavin. "You can survive in the light of the suns better than we can. It delayed us quite a bit. We had to dissemble our tents and make these cloaks."

  "I don't understand," said Vivian. "Dave found you? He got away from the basilisk?"

  Gavin didn't respond for a moment, then said, "What are you talking about?"

  "We were attacked by a basilisk. It killed most of our team. It dragged Dave off. I sent Natalie back to the base in order to alert them of what had happened and to send reinforcements. You wouldn't happen to be my backup, are you?"

  "Nice try," said Gavin. "Dave stumbled into our camp two nights ago and told us everything. You turned on the entire team and killed everyone. He barely got away. He died in my tent."

  Vivian looked up at him. "Dave's dead?"

  Gavin looked down at her for a long moment. "Come on, let's go."

  "Where are we going?" said Vivian. Her gun was taken and handcuffs were slapped onto her wrists. The cold metal slapped against her wrists.

  They walked until they were outside the range of the light of the northern pole.

  "There's something back there," she said as her vision degraded and she needed her goggles. "There was a black panel which reflected light. It's not natural. We need to go back."

  Gavin scoffed. "Where you have the advantage? No thanks. Can someone give her come goggles?"

  The goggles were slipped over her head. She blinked a few times as they calibrated and her vision cleared.

  She glanced back at the dimming light of the northern pole, then turned back to Gavin, who had removed his hood and revealed his translucent head.

  "Where are we going?" she said.

  "Back to the base," said Gavin. "This isn't about the expedition anymore. This is about justice for Dave."

  "I didn't kill him," said Vivian. Then she remembered something. "There's a bunch of dead big birds up ahead," she said. "I was tracking the basilisk that killed Dave and believe it killed the birds. If you see the birds, you will know I'm not lying."

  The soldiers turned to Gavin.

  "That's a bold claim, Vivian," said Gavin. "Are you sure you aren't leading us into a trap?"

  "I swear," she said. "It's there. If we head south from here, you'll see the carnage of the basilisk and know I'm telling the truth. Whatever Dave told you, it's not true."

  "Fine," said Gavin. "If this is a trap, I'm executing you on the spot. Is that clear?"

  Vivian nodded. She felt a lump in her throat. Somehow, she knew this wasn't going to work out.

  Nothing else had.

  Chapter 24

  "It's just around this tree," said Vivian, pointing.

  "Alright," said Gavin, making sure his gun was loaded. "Let's see if you're full of shit or not."

  It had been two days since they had changed their path so they would pass over the clearing with the dead birds.

  They rounded the tree and Vivian's heart dropped. She looked back and forth frantically, looking for anything that would support her claim.

  There was no doubt in her mind they were in the right place, but there were no birds.

  "Well," said Gavin. "Where are they?"

  "It was here," she said, panic creeping into her voice.

  "Then where is it now?" said Gavin, gesturing to the empty clearing.

  "The ground," she said, grasping for anything. "The ground must have swallowed them up in the same way that those people were swallowed up."

  There was some mild murmuring between the soldiers.

  Gavin laughed. "Nice try," he said. "How long did it take you to come up with that?"

  "I'm not making it up!" screamed Vivian. "It was here!"

  Gavin shook his head. "I thought you were better than this."

  "I'm not lying!" she screamed. Her eyes came to rest on something small and white sticking out of the ground. She shook off the soldier holding her and lunged at the spot on the ground. She grabbed the white feather and spun around triumphantly, holding it in her handcuffed hands.

  All of the soldiers were pointing their guns at her. She held up the feather as though it was a shining beacon.

  "See!" she said. "There's a feather here!"

  Gavin walked up and snatched the feather out of her hands.

  He held up the feather to his soldiers, then threw it onto the ground. "That doesn't prove anything." Gavin sighed. "However, you've raised a reasonable doubt. You will stand trial in front of a council of your peers and be given a chance to make your case. Come on, get up."

  Vivian struggled to her feet.

  Gavin stared at her. "If you try anything like that ever again, I will take it as an attempt to escape and put a bullet in your head. Is that clear?"

  "Crystal," said Vivian. Her heart was beating a million miles.

  The soldiers made a point of avoiding the center of the clearing as they lead her away.

  She smiled. Once they got back to the base, she was sure everything would be cleared up. Maybe Dave was already waiting there, and he would explain everything.

  Everything was going to be okay.

  Chapter 25

  Everything was not okay.

  "Stay with me," said Gavin, pushing Vivian back against the tree. "If you make as a sound, I will kill you. Understand?"

  "Wouldn’t it be better to give me a gun?" she muttered. "It's clear I'm not getting a fair trial, idiot."

  "Shut up," he said. After a moment, he gestured to one of the soldiers. "Get these cuffs off her and give her a gun."

  The soldiers looked at him though he was crazy.

  "The situation has changed," said Gavin. " Vivian is the closest thing we have to an ally here. If she's working for Hazel, we would already be dead."

  The soldiers nodded. None of them wanted to walk around the immense tree and look at their base. They knew what was there. It was swarming with Mother Tree Army personnel. Hazel was probably among them. The rebels who had stayed behind were probably either dead or being interrogated for everything they knew.

  Gavin took a deep breath. "We are going to retreat and make camp about a mile north. I don't think anyone has seen us. Would someone please get these cuffs off Vivian and give her a gun?"

  Vivian, who had been holding up her cuffed hands to remind him they needed to be removed, smiled. A soldier removed the cuffs and handed her a gun. She checked it the way she had been taught. Everything seemed to be working.

  "Right now," said Gavin, "I need as many soldiers as I can get. With you in cuffs and one person needed to guard you, I'm down two people. You are still a prisoner, but I'm putting my faith in you. You would have turned us in by now if you were against us."

  Vivian nodded.

  They retreated a mile back and set up camp outside the view of the rebel base.<
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  "What the hell happened?" said Vivian once they had made their camp.

  "I don't know," said Gavin. "The more important question is how we take it back? They must have a hundred soldiers around the base. We have twenty including Vivian."

  They spent the next few hours brainstorming strategies. When they had a plan formulated, they decided that it would be best to attack when there were minimal patrols. They set up guards and tried to get as much sleep as possible before their attack.

  Vivian had a restless sleep. She kept jerking awake, expecting to see a gun pointed in her face.

  Her dreams were filled of images of Hazel and Dave laughing at her. After a few failed attempts, she decided to stay awake and wait for the attack to commence.

  Chapter 26

  Vivian gathered up her things and joined the soldiers who were gathering around the campfire.

  The plan was to attack the base from every direction at once. Do it quickly and do it fast, making it so the enemy didn't have time to react. Once they took back the rebel base, they would begin planning an assault on the mother tree itself.

  Vivian was staying with Gavin. They would be coming from the east.

  Once everyone was clear on the plan, they began marching in their directions. They set their watches so they would all be attacking at the same moment.

  Vivian and Gavin took a wide arcing path to stay out of the view of the rebel base. Once they were in position and the time had come, they raised their guns and began marching toward the base.

  Gunshots came from the far side of the rebel base. Gavin and Vivian got ready to fire.

  Suddenly, Gavin flew backwards, blood spraying from his forehead. He fell onto his back, a red hole in his forehead.

  "What the fuck?" said Vivian, her words being lost in the sounds of gunfire coming from the surrounding forest. She spun around, trying to see where the shot had come from.

  She saw movement beneath her and aimed towards the ground. The ground below her was moving, flowing like a river. She thought of the family that had been swallowed up by the earth. She thought of her father. She thought of the dead birds.