While she was still visible, Amber lifted her arm and pointed. “Keep heading in that direction,” she told them. “Even though you won’t be able to see me, I promise to stay by your side until nightfall.”
Thankfully, Amber had spoken up when she did, because the rapidly approaching sunrise had reduced her glowing form to the point where she looked like a mirage. A minute later, she was gone entirely. Not even a shimmering trace of her remained visible.
“Well, I don’t think you will like my opinion very much,” Edward stated bluntly. “In my eyes, we should keep going until—”
“While I understand your reasoning for pushing everyone to their physical limits, I think it would be wise to at least stop from time to time,” Katie interrupted. “Even if it is only for a quick meal and a short nap.”
“She has a point, Edward. If we are tired and hungry we will be more likely to travel slower, not to mention the hallucinations that sleep deprivation would cause. It would be foolish to allow ourselves to get to that point, especially if the machines catch up to us and we are forced to engage them in battle,” Brian added.
“Okay, okay. No need to get all uptight.” Edward raised his hands in surrender. “I was merely sharing my thoughts on the matter. This isn’t an autocracy, and I am not so bullheaded that I won’t consider what everyone else thinks. Although most of you consider me to be your leader, I will not do so with an iron fist.”
Despite her weariness, Katie couldn’t help but laugh. “Since you put it that way, I vote to take our first break now.” She grinned.
***
By the time the sun began to hang low in the cloudy sky, Katie was thankful for the cat naps she had managed to take throughout the day. If Edward hadn’t agreed with her and forced them to soldier on, she would likely be an overly tired, mega-bitch right now. That was the last thing any of them wanted.
A fluffy, dark cloud scuttled across the deepening blue above them as evening rapidly approached, blotting out the fiery orb of the sun and allowing the hazy form of their ghostly friend to become slightly visible. Even though they could see Amber, she wasn’t completely substantial. The biggest drawback of this state of being was that they couldn’t hear her voice. She had to be fully transformed for her words to be audible. In this mirage-like form she could only communicate with gestures, making it similar to talking to a deaf person. Even so, Katie could tell that Amber was excited, or perhaps nervous, about something.
As she glanced around, trying to figure out what Amber was attempting to tell them, Katie realized for the first time just how creepy her surroundings looked. Though the forest around them was still dense with foliage, the wooden sentinels in the immediate area appeared different, somehow less lively. It made her think of a blighted graveyard, the landscape filled with things that were withered and dead. Her arms broke out in gooseflesh and a shiver crept up her spine, feeling like an icy finger was running along her backbone. Despite how much this section of forest was giving her the heebie-jeebies, her stomach rumbled loudly. “I don’t relish the thought of hanging out here for long, but can we stop for a little bit and get something to eat?”
Tapping Brian on the shoulder, Edward spun his head around to face her as the shaman brought their mount to a stop. “Certainly,” he smiled, “I’m feeling a bit famished myself.”
Needing no further invitation, the four of them quickly dismounted. Opening up the panel on the chest of Brian’s steed, Katie rummaged through their dwindling food supply. Julie and the two men huddled around her, holding out their hands like starving inmates who were standing in line at the prison kitchen. The metallic bands encircling Julie’s wrists only added to this illusion. They accepted the food Katie passed to them and wolfed it down greedily, not bothering with idle chit chat or sitting down.
By the time the impromptu meal was finished, the sun was sinking below the horizon. With their bellies satisfied for the moment, the group mounted their metallic transportation and turned their eyes toward their ghostly friend. Amber was swiftly becoming more substantial. Once the sun had set, she almost appeared solid. Her glowing form was the only real indication that she wasn’t.
“There is something nearby. I think it’s the source of what has been urging me to come this way,” Amber informed them, pulsating from bright to dim like a giant, beating heart.
Whether the shifting glow of Amber’s form was due to excitement or nervousness, Edward was unsure. “I believe we are ready to go, so if you would please?” Extending his hand, he gestured for the ghostly woman to lead the way.
***
After traveling for what seemed like half the night, the terrain began to slope gently downward. Amber’s pulsating glow started to become more erratic, though none of them had an inkling as to why. Over the course of the last hour, in the sparse light provided by Amber and the moons overhead, they had noticed a couple of minor changes in their surroundings. The normally thick copse of trees around them had begun to thin out slightly, more so, it seemed, the further they trudged forward. The night air, usually cool, felt almost stagnant and oppressive. Without a breeze to stir it, they could feel the humid moisture assaulting their lungs with each breath in the shifting climate. It almost felt like trying to breathe underwater, or perhaps the air of an underground tomb.
“We are getting very close,” Amber’s whispering voice echoed back to them. Her glowing form had begun to pulsate more rapidly, the way Katie associated with fear. Within moments, the terrain evened out and Amber stopped dead in her tracks.
Following suit, Brian and Katie brought their mechanical horses to a stop. There was a strange, new light emitting from somewhere just ahead. The four of them dismounted and cautiously moved forward. Inching ahead, Edward tapped Brian on the shoulder and whispered in his ear, “Are you sensing anything?”
“I’m getting mixed signals from whatever is in front of us. There is evil present, but not to the degree of anything I would deem as a threat, and my senses tell me there is also something to balance it,” he confessed quietly, his tone of voice almost conspiratorial.
Nodding his head, Edward continued forward, pushing low hanging branches from his line of vision. A couple of minutes later, he froze in his tracks. The sight before him was awe inspiring. The forest gave way to what appeared to be a giant meadow, the trees lining it in an enormous circle. What seemed like thousands of tiny blue orbs of light fluttered and swirled through the air about two hundred feet in front of him, some leaving blazing trails of brilliance in their wake. It felt like he was staring into the heavens at a constantly shifting constellation, with a multitude of microscopic comets zipping between the stars.
Slinking up behind Edward, Katie peeked around him at the swirling commotion of light. “Oh my God! It’s so beautiful,” she whispered in awe.
The Tree of Life
Chapter 1
Attempting to push past Edward, Katie sighed with frustration when he stuck out an arm to block her path. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to get any closer. At least, not until daylight when we can see what we’re up against,” he whispered harshly.
“But—” Katie protested, her eyebrows furrowing and her cheeks puffing out angrily.
“Brian said there was something evil out there,” he reminded her, cutting Katie off before she could argue any further. “As much as you may hate me for it, I can’t allow you to go blindly rushing toward the lights, no matter how pretty you think they are.”
Spinning on her heel, Katie stormed away. Still unsure of what was happening, Julie chased after her.
“I hope her friend can talk some sense into her,” Edward commented as the shaman stepped beside him.
“What did you do to piss her off this time?”
“I told her no. Now she’s throwing a temper tantrum like a child because I wouldn’t allow her to get any closer to that,” Edward replied, hitching a thumb toward the swirls of blue light.
Brian nodded his head as Edward spoke, knowing the wizard h
ad likely done the right thing, but wondering about the tactfulness of his wording.
Noting that Amber was no longer nearby, Edward glanced around to locate her. When he saw her floating beside Katie and Julie, he couldn’t help but hope the ghost was talking some sense into her.
“Correct me if I’m wrong, but you were wanting to stay here until sunrise, right?” Brian inquired.
“Yes. I want to assess the situation in the light of day,” Edward confirmed.
“Can I make a suggestion?”
“By all means,” Edward replied, casting a questioning glance toward him.
“We probably still have another few hours of night left. I think it might help relieve a little stress if we start a small campfire and get some rest.”
His brows wrinkled in concentration as he rubbed his chin thoughtfully. After considering Brian’s proposal for a minute, he let out a soft sigh of resignation. “Perhaps you are right,” Edward admitted. “Maybe she is moody because she’s tired.” His lips stretched out in a thin smile, showing that he, too, was exhausted.
“I think it would be a good idea to get the ball rolling,” Brian stated, hearing the heated tone of Katie’s voice a short distance from them. With a grim expression, Edward nodded his agreement and they set about the task of gathering firewood. It was a relatively easy task considering that the surrounding trees were dead. They didn’t need to search for usable timber; all they had to do was start snapping the low hanging branches from the surrounding, lifeless woods. In no time at all, the two of them managed to gather enough to get them by until daylight.
The crack of breaking limbs distracted Katie from her conversation. Squinting into the near darkness, she realized what the men were doing and exhaled a soft breath of defeat. Since it was obvious that Edward and Brian were preparing to build a fire, she led Julie back to their horse and began removing blankets from its chest cavity. Katie was disappointed that they weren’t going to investigate the hazy, blue anomaly right now, but at the same time she was thankful for the opportunity to rest. Although, with all of the thoughts bouncing through her head at the moment, she doubted she would get much sleep.
“Are we setting a watch? Relying on my senses? What’s the plan?” Brian asked, directing his inquiry at Edward.
“Since Amber is here, I don’t think a watch is necessary,” he replied, casting a hopeful glance toward the ghostly woman.
Confusion momentarily crossed her features, but she soon felt like she understood the implication. “You want me to watch over everyone?”
“If you would, please. If anything approaches us while we sleep, yell, scream, wail … do whatever ghosts do to get our attention.” He smiled. “Oh, and if we aren’t awake when the sky begins to lighten, wake us before you fade.”
***
Despite her belief that slumber would elude her, the warmth of the fire had coaxed Katie into a deep sleep. Once she had entered the coma-like state, Katie was oblivious to the distant cracks and rattles coming from the nearby meadow. Although her companions didn’t sleep quite so heavily, their repose was not interrupted by these sounds either. During the night, the noises never grew louder than a faint clatter. Not once did anything approach the sleeping men and women, and not once did Amber attempt to wake them, though she did study the swirling blue dots curiously. She studied the lights so intently that the first rays of dawn rose on the horizon before she realized the sun was starting to rise. Her form had already begun to dissipate, and her vocal cords were useless now. She had no way of waking her friends.
When Katie finally stirred and began her ascension to consciousness, the first light of morning penetrating her closed eyelids, she raised a hand to block the sun’s rays. Yawning, she cracked open her eyes and squinted to focus them. The others were still unconscious. Propping herself up on one elbow, Katie turned her gaze toward the meadow and let out a soft gasp. She hadn’t known it was there last night, but in the same area she recalled seeing the blue lights there stood the largest tree she had ever seen. Its branches stretched toward the sky like hundreds of slender tentacles, grasping at the clouds overhead. The leaves adorning the limbs appeared huge, even from this distance. Something was hidden amongst the foliage as well, perhaps a fruit of some sort. It was almost what her mind envisioned the fabled tree that Adam and Eve ate from would have looked like. She almost expected a serpent to be writhing within the branches, waiting to tempt anyone who dared get close to the tree with the enormous, polished apple. Even so, she rose to her feet and quietly stepped out of the forest into the sea of withered grass, being careful not to make a sound.
Her boots whispered across the green-brown turf while she approached the massive, foreign-looking greenery. As she stepped closer and closer, Katie was awed by the size of the enormous trunk supporting the giant tree. By her best estimation, it had to be at least ten feet wide at its base.
Halfway across the meadow, she stopped abruptly. Unless her eyes were playing tricks on her, she had seen something peeking at her from behind the mammoth trunk ... something red, and perhaps taller than human. Suddenly, Katie wasn’t sure getting closer was such a good idea. She nervously turned her head to gauge the distance she had come, and quickly calculated how long it would take her to reach the safety of the forest and her friends. Letting out a soft sigh through her nose, she slowly spun around to face the strange growth once more.
Curiosity getting the better of her, Katie decided that she had to get closer. As she closed the distance, she scanned the branches carefully. Even though the idea was ludicrous, she eyed the limbs with suspicion, as if expecting Adam and Eve’s devilish serpent to be staring back at her.
When she was within fifty feet of the massive trunk, Katie realized the tree was even larger than she had first thought. Already, she was standing under the canopy of its branches. Temporarily forgetting about the red shape she had seen moments ago, she swiveled her head to gaze overhead. Blinking her eyes as if she were hallucinating, Katie’s mouth gaped open when she realized what she saw was real. Hanging from the limbs were what appeared to be some sort of egg-shaped fruits. There was no uniformity to their size or color, and Katie could see one of the larger egg-fruits undulating.
Mesmerized by the strange, pulsing shapes overhead, Katie was unaware that she was still moving forward. It wasn’t until her toes bumped into an obstruction that she looked down, and the oddities above her were instantly wiped from her mind. Stretching from the tip of her boots to the trunk of the tree, scattered in a huge circle surrounding it like an obscene mulch, the ground was littered with bones. Human bones. A large, python-like snake slithered across them. Enormous spiders, looking as if they could be distant cousins of the tarantula, wove through the pile, spinning their webs and ducking in and out of the eyeholes of skulls. Katie froze in terror, desperate to get away, but momentarily too scared to move, knowing it would attract unwanted attention if she did.
Before she could decide what to do, the giant serpent turned its massive head toward her and slowly flicked its long, black tongue, tasting the air to see if the woman was suitable prey. When the reptile continued to slither closer, Katie knew she had to make up her mind quickly. She could only hope and pray that her legs would work when she needed them to. Letting out an uneven, frightened breath, she spun around quickly and darted toward the forest, screaming at the top of her lungs.
Chapter 2
The sound of Katie’s scream startled Edward and the others to immediate wakefulness. After determining what direction the high-pitched shriek was coming from, the three of them pushed through the underbrush and were nearly plowed over by the frightened woman.
“What’s wrong?” Edward’s brow crinkled with concern.
“I should have stayed put … like you told me to … but I couldn’t help myself. My curiosity got the better of me.” Her words came out in jagged bursts as Katie tried to catch her breath.
“What did you see?” Brian inquired, nervously glancing over her shoulder at
the enormous wooden sentinel.
“At first, my attention was pulled in several directions at once,” Katie wheezed, “but when I saw a giant snake slithering toward me, I bolted. I wasn’t about to stick around and become a meal for it.”
Having seen her share of large serpents back on Earth, Julie couldn’t recall ever laying eyes on one that was gigantic enough to eat a human being. “How big was it?”
“Hell, I don’t know! It’s not like I stuck around to measure it.”
“Perhaps your fear is clouding your perception of the creature,” Edward stated calmly. “Once you catch your breath, we’ll head over there as a group and investigate.”
Julie stepped closer to her friend and wrapped her arms around her. “I’m sorry,” she whispered in Katie’s ear. “I didn’t mean to sound like I didn’t believe you. Forgive me if that’s how it sounded to you.”
Katie waited a moment before she responded, relishing the comforting embrace of her best friend. “I didn’t mean to snap at you like that,” she confessed apologetically. “I was petrified, though I don’t know why. It’s not like I haven’t run into things that were far worse in my time on this world. I should be used to this shit by now.”
“I’m sure you were only caught off guard. It isn’t like you can constantly be prepared for anything that comes your way, and it would be unrealistic of you to expect that from yourself,” Julie stated in a soothing tone, hoping to keep Katie from further beating herself up about the situation.
“I suppose you’re right,” she admitted, her cheeks puffing out as she exhaled softly.
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