by Steven Webb
Large grey tree like plants had emerged. Their roots jutting in and out of the broken ground. Their size was on par with the other plants of the ribbon forest yet these looked more Earth like. They had a few branches growing off the main truck. Large round fans adorned the ends of the branches and trunk running from red at the base to yellow at the tips, with consecutive smaller rings above them. They waved about in the gentle breeze. Their surface was rough to the touch. A thick blue moss like substance grew in patches around the base. Cup like growths were spread out along the trunk. From the branches dangled strange blue silk spheres.
A strange magic seemed to be at work. “Did I fall into wonderland? Where the hell did these come from? How did a rainstorm make all of this grow so fast?” Perhaps she was in such a daze from blood loss that she had missed them completely. But there had been a large empty field that was thick with red branches. “Did those small red branches really grow into these giant things? None of this makes any sense.”
Sophie was at a loss. She found a puddle in the ground and splashed the cold water on her face. She was awake that much was certain. The only thing she could do was head back to the cave and apologize to everyone. She passed through the field of newly birthed trees looking for the Boulder fruit she had partaken of the day before. Sophie wandered aimlessly for hours until, finally, encased in a set of roots, she found the boulder fruit with fresh holes in its surface. If she remembered correctly the path home was straight ahead, though given her circumstance even that might be wrong.
Deciding it was worth the risk and trusting her instincts, Sophie headed into the Ribbon forest. It never seemed to end. No matter where she turned there was only more tentacle plants, orange bubble trees, and ribbon trees. Nothing looked familiar, even the spot where she bled out was not to be found. The sun was no longer overhead but she was no closer to escaping the labyrinth. Even the way back to the hole she had survived in was now obscured in her mind. All she could do was continue on and hope for the best.
The path’s scenery gradually changed around her. Bizarre yellow and pink ribbed funnels replaced the bubbly green masses. Tall plants rose into the sky with green comb like branches on both sides. Small volcano shaped mounds opened up with purple umbrellas growing out of their tops. The ground under Sophie’s feet turned from solid to mush, and then into shallow water. She was no longer in a forest but what appeared to be a large bog. All kinds of strange things could be hiding in this water. It’s not worth the risk.
Sophie turned and headed away, but her feet found no ground. Instead the soft sand sank under her feet slowly swallowing Sophie. Aher body started shaking with terror. The cold wet sand oozed into her clothes. She struggled to free her legs causing her body to sink faster. This can’t be the end. I don’t want to down in sand. Now up to her waist in quicksand, the only way to survive was to pull herself out. She tried to keep herself from panicking more. Every movement of her body was amplified in her mind. Her hands were unable to find any solid ground and their attempts to gasp earth only caused her to sink deeper. “Ahh,” she screamed out, desperately hoping someone would hear and come running, but she was afforded no such luck. If she was going to get free she had to do it herself. The cold sand ws now pressing up against her chest, making each breath difficult. The sounds of the creatures around her seemed to be taunting her. In her moment of despair, her eye managed to catch sight of a funnel plant near by. Sophie grasped it’s silky surface, pulling herself free. Sand was in every crevice. Every inch of her body was trembling. Her breathing had become heavy from all the exertion of freeing herself. She stripped down and shook the sand loose. The cold air nipped against her wet body, but having just saved herself she was grateful for the feeling. I made it. Holy shit. She threw the wet clothes back on and sat down to regain her composure. She had faced so many life threatening scenarios in the last few days.
Thinking she was safe, and feeling more composed, Sophie ventured on in search of her lost comrades, unsure where to begin. It seemed no matter where she went nothing around her resembled the area she knew. With no food, water, or shelter her only option was to carry on and hope that she would find the others soon.
TRENT
“Sophie!” Trent hollord out. At this point he was certain that she was lost to them. Even if they did find her, she would probably just be a mangled corpse. It was the fifth day with no sign of her whatsoever. Adding to to losses of Diego, and Carl, Sophie’s absences weighed heavily on everyone. Trent had definitely had his spats with Sophie but even she didn’t deserve whatever terrible fate would befall her out there. Blame consumed his conscience, causing him restless nights. The only cure for the burden upon his soul was to keep looking. The rain had washed away all traces of Sophie’s being. The odds of finding her now were dwindling to nothing. “Any luck Taylor?”
Taylor walked back towards Trent. “Nope. We need to save our energy.”
“Fine you go back. I’ll stay out here a while longer.”
“At least take the flashlight and knife.” Taylor unclipped the knife from its sheath. With the blade in hand he offered the handle to Trent. “Here.”
Trent grabbed the knife and slipped it into his boot. “Thanks. I shouldn’t be out here too much longer, in case anyone else asks.”
“Remember if you see the trippers get away as fast as you can.”
“Got it.” Trent took the flashlight and continued in his search. If I were lost where would I go? Trent mulled over the different possibilities. Well I personally like food. But Sophie seems like the type who doesn’t mind starving herself. I could check Diego’s grave again. She could be anywhere by now. That’s assuming she isn’t nearby and just hiding. What if she went back to the ship. All of them seemed like viable options.
There was no better place to start than Diego’s grave. As he approached a terrible smell caught his nose. It was the unmistakable smell of death. The graves were just ahead. Something was wrong. Piles of dirt sat around where the mounds had been. “What the hell?” the graves were opened and the bodies had been removed. A pile of bones and hair sat not too far away. What ever did this must be close. These were undisturbed yesterday. Yellow slime coated the remains and the graves. Trent pulled the knife from his boot and readied himself.
Heavy steps shook the ground. Loud snorting sounds accompanied the incoming threat. Trent ran as fast as he could, but the quicker he traveled the more the steps sped up. Behind him a hideous beast loomed. The body seemed to ripple with excitement. The three eyes were locked onto Trent, following his every movement. It’s blank face split down the middle. Both sides of the face parted revealing a mouth with four rows of teeth on either side. Yellow slime dripped from the mouth.
Trent lept away and burst into a full on sprint. The beast followed suit and pushed off the ground with its massive legs, coming to a stop in front of Trent. It turned its ugly head around followed by its massive cancerous looking torso. Without giving Trent any time to react, the beast raised it’s massive claw and slammed him into the ground. The claws formed a cage around trent’s body locking him in place. The mouth hovered over his face. Two strange feather like projections popped up from the sides of the head and skimmed along Trent’s body.
This was absolute terror. Unable to move, faced with imminent death, and no one around to help him. The knife was on the ground out of reach. Trent bit the beast to no avail. All the kicking and screaming were useless. Without warning the paw raised up, releasing Trent from his earthly prison. He pulled himself up just in time to feel the paw slam into his back. He hurtled through the air and slammed into a ribbon tree. Pain shot through his back and his lungs seemed incapable of working. He fell to the ground, hands out, slamming his face into the dirt. The paw came at him again striking his leg and sending him flying into the air. He crashed down landing on his leg with a loud crack. With one leg cut from the claw, and the other dislocated or worse all he could do was crawl away. The beast reached out it’s paw and flicked Trent back to
wards itself. The mouth closed around him. The teeth punctured his skin. The beast swung its head back and forth and then dropped him onto the ground.
Trent begged for a quick death. Every attempt to escape was met with another swipe from the beast. If he could just reach the knife maybe he could put up some kind of fight. Gravity disappeared as the paw threw Trent against another tree, sending him whirling into unbearable pain. He could no longer focus. He had to hope he could get away. The second he stopped trying to escape the beast, he would be resigning himself to death. He tried once more to crawl away. It was working. He managed to put some space between him and the beasts reach.
The beast layed down watching Trent crawl away. It appeared to have grown bored of the game it had been playing. Trent dragged himself to his feet and limped off. From behind him, a large mass flew up and over his head. It crashed down in front of him. The mouth spread wider than before. The smell of sulphur surrounded Trent. This was it. He had nowhere to run. He closed his eyes and waited.
Instead of the usual roar, there came a strange sequel of pain. Trent opened his eyes to the sight of a scaled creature with two tails, covered in spikes, latched onto the beast’s side by its beak like snout. The Three black claws attached to each of its three back feet, disappeared inside the flesh drawing green blood. It’s front claws, which had a much flatter and wider appearance than those on the back, alternated digging into the beast’s soft naked flesh. The beast writhed in agony trying to shake the creature loose unsuccessfully. It’s jaws turned from Trent towards the assailant, closing around the scaled flesh. In retaliation the spiked creature bit down harder before being torn off, taking a chunk of flesh with it.
Green blood gushed from the wound. The spiked creature dropped the mangled hunk of flesh as if taunting the great beast. It raised its head and howeld into the sky. The sound of crunching branches could be heard coming from every direction. While the first creature had been selflessly attacking the beast, the rest of its pack had surrounded the opening, waiting for the signal to strike. They moved in, snapping their mouth with a loud clacking sound. All at once they launched themselves towards the beast, jaws open. One managed to attach to the face, digging away at one of the eyes. The beast gave up on Trent and fled off into the wilderness, trying to rip off the few creatures that managed to remain attached.
The creatures turned and faced Trent. The one responsible for the attack broke from the others and approached him.
Trent stuck out his hand towards the creatures head. “Please don’t hurt me. I just want to go home.” The creature lowered its head and pushed into Trent’s hand, nuzzling its body against his. “That’s a good boy, good spiker,” he said hesitantly.
At this point all he could do was go along with whatever was happening. The spiker pulled back and walked away. But stopped and looked back at Trent as if it was beckoning him to follow. Not wanting to upset it Trent followed along.
They led him to a large hole in the ground surrounded by foil wrappers. “Have you guys been taking all our trash?”
Seeming to respond to the question the leader let out a howl.
“I wish I had more for you.”
The lead spiker climbed into the hole leaving Trent with the others. Little spiked balls crawled from the hole which the big one had just entered. They bounced around growling at each other, biting, and flicking their tails.
The leader carried out a contorted pink ring with white spots and laid it down in front of Trent. He wasn’t sure what to make of it. The spiker pushed it closer. “I’m sorry do you want me to throw it?” Trent picked it up and tossed it into the ribbon forest. A look of confusion graced the spikers face. It disappeared back into the hole and pulled out a second ring. This one got dropped directly in front of Trent’s hand. “I don’t know what you want.”
The spiker cocked it’s head to the side. This time it brought out a third ring and ate it in front of Trent, consuming the entire thing.
“I gotcha.” The cold ring squished in Trent’s hand. One bite was all it took for the purpose to become clear. All the pain he had sustained during the attack was gone. “What the hell is this?” He took another bite. It chilled his tongue until all feeling was lost. The true test would come with resetting the ankle. He braced himself and pulled his ankle into place. There was a loud pop but no pain. It was time he returned to camp. The lead spiker rubbed up against Trent’s leg. “Iph guuda guo,” his words were obscured by the numbing effects of the ring. “Muph pwesh.” they circled around his legs the entire stretch back to the cave.
There at the entrance, the party split up in all directions except Trent who was left standing alone. Talking was useless still. He made his way towards the crew, getting almost directly behind them before they had any clue he was there. “Guth I’m hewe.”
Everyone let out a horrified gasp when they saw his bloodied body. Zea ran over with what remained of the medical supplies. “Tell me if this hurts.”
“I’m mum. Mo phewing.”
“You mean you can’t feel anything?”
“Mo.”
“Fine. I’ll patch up the external wounds and we’ll take care of the others later. These are are pretty superficial. What ever happened, you got lucky it wasn’t worse.”
You can say that again. He thought about saying it out loud but he new the only thing they would hear would be random grunts. He tried to remain silent until he felt the pain return.
All of the pain flooded back at once. “Ahhhh. God it hurts. Damn it.”
“I’m sorry Trent, but I need to check you for internal injuries now. Please don’t hate me for this.”
“ugh. Hate you for what?”
“This.” She pushed down on Trent’s back.
“Shit! What the fuck!”
“Sorry. But I did warn you, so….”
If he didn’t know any better he would think Zea was getting some kind of enjoyment from his pain.
“What did this to you?”
“Some massive creature. I lost the knife during the fight….ow. Would you stop touching them?”
“I need to make sure the bite didn’t do any other damage.”
“Yeah, right. Anyway, it dug up the bodies and chewed them up. Like nothing left but bones and hair.” Zea’s hands wrapped around his leg. “No..no. not the ankle…Shit! I already reset it.”
“Well better safe than sorry.”
“How did you get away from it?” Rocco seemed truly concerned.
“So, you know those wrappers from our snacks. It turns out some creatures have been eating the scraps inside them. They love them in fact. And I think they ate the foil too but I’m not really sure. They have a whole family out there. Anyway, getting back to the point, I was checking out the graves to see if I could find Sophie or maybe some trace of her and bam! This giant monster pops out of the wood, yellow slime dripping from its mouth. It chases me down and starts throwing me around like a rag doll. Just when I think I’m done for, those spikers who stole the foil wrappers popped out and took on the monster till it ran away. And then they led me to their home.”
“Okay but I still don’t get why you couldn’t feel anything.” Addison inquired.
“It was this weird cold, I don’t know, maybe a vegetable that when I ate it, it made all the pain numb, along with my tongue.”
“So you just found a random vegetable and started eating and got lucky?”
“Of course not. The spiker gave it to me to eat.”
Taylor stared at him. “And you just ate it?”
“Yeah. There were ten of them and one of me. Plus they just took out the monster.”
Zea interrupted the conversation, “Let’s get back to the numbing food. Would you be able to identify it if you saw it again?”
“Yes?”
“Good. Once you’re better we’re going to go find some. And please don’t ever go off on your own again. We’ve already lost too many people.”
All Trent could do for the next four day
s was sit and wait out his healing process. His nights were miserable. Nightmares of the beast attacking him popped up any time he fell asleep. Sometimes it was tossing him around. Other times the beast succeed in eating him alive. The results were the same either way. He would wake up out of breath, in a cold sweat thinking for a moment he was still in the dream. One night he woke up and punched Taylor who was asleep next to him, thinking it was the beast’s paw.
Zea took it upon herself to order her patient not to walk around until his wounds had healed. Any attempts to wander around were met with resistance from Rocco or Taylor. Joseph didn’t seem to care one way or the other when it was his turn to watch Trent.
Boredom was going to be the death of Trent. He could feel his muscles aching to move. The energy build up was frustrating. He had never been forced to stay still this long ever, outside of the Sleep pods of course. The only thing he’d been aloud to look at was the cave walls.
“Joseph, can I just walk around the cave a bit?”
“As long as the others are gone I don’t care. That’s on you.”
That was enough leeway for Trent to feel comfortable heading outside. It was a beautiful overcast day outside. He took in everything around him. After being here for a while the plants and animals were no longer a spectacle. Rather, it was as if he had grown up seeing the ribbon trees, and tentacle plants everyday of his life. An untraceable crunching sound caused Trent to panic. His body tensed up preparing for the worst. The cave was right behind him providing a safe escape. The monster wouldn’t follow him in there.
The source of the sound turned out to be the group returning. What a relief until he realized he was walking around and Zea was with them. She was going to kill him for not listening. He hustled back to his spot near Joseph. It hurt so bad to breath. “Shit my ribs hurt.”