Tree of Life

by J. F. Penn

  A man stepped from the shadows, his eyes wide at the sight of the wild gathering.

  A hiss from the women. Trespasser.

  They ran at him as one, teeth bared, whipped into a frenzy. The first bowled him over and the others tore at his flesh, beating him and ripping at his skin until there was nothing left but a grisly corpse.

  The women smeared his blood on their skin and used it to paint the trunk of the tree with ancient symbols. This was the domain of Eve, and Adam had no place in it.

  Morgan gasped, and she was back in the cave again, surrounded by the monks who controlled the Garden—or at least, who tried. But she sensed that this place could not be controlled for long. Eden was no paradise for humanity.

  “It’s the Tree of Life,” Aurelia whispered like a prayer. She walked toward the door with hesitant steps, a smile on her lips, her eyes filled with wonder.

  She stepped over the threshold into the Garden, her first footstep on the soil of this holy place.

  A vine shot out and wrapped itself around her ankle, digging into her flesh with razor-sharp barbs.

  Aurelia screamed in horror and tried to step back through the door.

  Jake ran forward to help, but two of the monks stopped him at sword-point.

  “She asked for this,” the Abbot said, his eyes alight with anticipation. “Now she will understand what the Garden truly is.”

  The vine jerked back inside, pulling Aurelia to the ground. She screamed and scrabbled at the dirt, desperately trying to get back to the cave.

  Two more barbed vines squirmed across the ground and wrapped themselves around her body. One encircled her neck, choking off her screams, and they dragged her back into the impenetrable green toward the Tree of Life. Her muffled cries died to silence as more wicked vines wrapped her body tight until there was no way the heiress could breathe anymore.

  Aurelia’s corpse, now a cocoon of jungle green, rose up through the lower boughs of the tree, hoisted by monstrous lianas until it reached the fork of a branch.

  Cracks in the living wood opened up to receive the sacrifice, crushing what was left of the heiress as the vines fed the tree its bloody offering. The sound of cracking bone, creaking wood and the rustling of vegetation filled the Garden and then it was over. Nothing left but bright blood mingled with sap dripping down the trunk.

  The horror of it threatened to overwhelm Morgan. She had seen death in many guises, but this seemed an abomination, even as she understood that all must return to Nature in the end. After everything that humanity did to destroy the Earth, perhaps it was the most natural thing in the world for Eden to fight back.

  “This is the truth of the Garden,” the Abbot said. “Mankind was kept from the Tree of Life for good reason. Nature unfettered is Nature ascendant and She will devour the Earth if we allow Her to. The Order has spent generations ensuring She remains tamed and our sacred duty is to protect humanity from Nature unbound.”

  He pointed at the bloody stains on the trunk. “We knew of the mission of Aurelia dos Santos Fidalgo. With her wealth and desire to honor Nature above all, even at the cost of our entire species, she was a threat to our sacred purpose.” He sighed. “But perhaps she realized her mistake in those final moments.”

  The Abbot stepped closer to the altar, placed a hand on Camara’s brow and stroked the blood-matted hair back from her face. “This one, too, has been a threat. Now she must face the Garden she has sought for so long.”

  22

  At the Abbot’s words, Morgan looked over at Jake. They had to stop this now, but there was little they could do against the gathered monks with their swords.

  Jake gave an obvious glance sideways at one of the heavy candelabra topped with lighted candles. It was the closest thing to a weapon. She could reach it if he caused a distraction. Morgan nodded imperceptibly and readied herself for action.

  A sudden shout and a monk darted forward to the door, his sword raised.

  He chopped at one of the barbed vines that snaked its way out of the door. None of the other monks reacted, and the Abbot looked unsurprised at first. Clearly the Garden testing its limits was not an unusual occurrence.

  But then the sound of rustling grew louder, quickly joined by a rumble of soil pushed aside and the ripping of plants uprooted.

  The Abbot frowned. “Quick! Shut the door,” he shouted in alarm.

  Two more monks jumped forward to push at the ancient portal.

  A horde of vines exploded from the undergrowth.

  They slithered fast as snakes, some across the floor, some around the edges of the door. An immense mass of them, tumbling and teeming, as thick as a man’s arm, each slashing the air with thorns tipped with poison.

  The weight of the plants thrust the door wide as more of them joined the attack. The monks weren’t strong enough, and the ancient portal swung fully open.

  One monk went down, his screams quickly muffled by a bulky tendril that thrust down his throat, cracking his jaw and writhing within his torso before smashing out of his rib cage in a bloody burst.

  Jake darted forward and grabbed the dead monk’s sword, joining the others against a common foe.

  The Abbot retreated, his face a mask of despair, as the Brothers hacked and chopped at the writhing undergrowth. But the sheer volume of deadly plants overwhelmed them, squirming and twitching through the cave.

  One vine reached the narrow corridor to the giant statues and slithered inside. A monk ran to head it off, guarding the exit as he slashed and cut, trying to stop the Garden finding a way out into the world above. The vines came at him thick and fast, wrapping themselves around his legs faster than he could cut them away.

  Eden would soon escape its prison.

  “There is only one way left,” the Abbot shouted above the crack of branches and the rustle of thick stems. “Brothers, you know what we must do. Be strong in your duty.”

  The remaining monks around the cavern gave up trying to chop at the wild vines and ran for the huge wooden barrels that lay against the rocky walls.

  Two of them pulled the lid off one and tipped it over.

  A slick of petrol ran across the floor and ignited in the fire pit. The vines closest to it jerked away, but the dark liquid quickly coated the green surface. Stinking fumes permeated the cavern as other Brothers tipped over more vats until the stone floor ran ankle deep with flammable liquid and the flames began to spread.

  While Jake slashed at the slithering vines with their sharp thorns, Morgan clambered up onto the stone altar and pulled Camara close. The professor shivered in a fever, her skin burning up from poison that had seeped into her flesh. If she didn’t get medical help soon, she would die of infection, but it looked like they would all perish in the fire before then. The monks would burn the Garden to ash rather than let it escape.

  Despite the noise and fury around them, Morgan found a calm at the heart of the storm, a sense of peace in this ancient place. There truly was a Garden of Eden, a place where Nature ruled, but it was not a haven for humanity. It could truly be their end.

  The knowledge that Nature could be both good and evil, healer and killer, was a truth denied by so many, and yet here, it seemed simple to understand. In the end, Nature would always win, and the corpses of all who stood against Her would be food for Her next generation.

  A bellow rang out across the chamber.

  One monk called to God as he ladled petrol over himself, soaking his tunic. He struck his sword, turning it to flame and setting himself alight at the same time.

  He howled a final prayer and ran headlong through the ancient wooden door into the Garden. The vines ripped at him, but he made it to the Tree, wrapping his arms around it so his flaming corpse charred at its bark.

  The other remaining Brothers around the chamber followed suit, dousing themselves in flammable liquid, faces set with determination, hands clutching the swords with which they would fight to the death.

  The Abbot stood watching, his old frame bent over his s
word, his eyes betraying a deep sadness. He edged around the cavern to the altar through the wash of petrol, his gaze fixed on Morgan.

  When he reached the altar, he leaned in to whisper for her ears only. “Our mission has been the same for generations. To keep the Garden from the world or destroy Her with our last breath.” He held his sword up, a wiry strength left in his failing limbs. “I will die with my Brothers, but you must live.”

  He pointed to a side chamber. “There’s a tunnel back up to the surface. Go that way before the flames consume everything.” He pulled at the neck of his tunic to reveal a silver pendant and tugged it over his head. The Abbot took one last look, then gave it to Morgan. “Take this to the Order at the monastery of Adana in Turkey. Please, I beg you. This incarnation of the Garden must perish but it cannot be the end.”

  Morgan attached the pendant around her neck and hid it under her jacket. “What is it?”

  Tears welled in the Abbot’s eyes and rolled down his cheeks. “The last Seed from the Tree of Life. From this, She can grow again. There have been many Gardens over millennia, each destroyed by man and each grown again. The Tree is not life for humanity. It is life for Nature. It can spread faster than anything you've seen and is strengthened by blood sacrifice. Aurelia was right — given free rein, it would transform the Earth into Eden once more, and in that Garden, there is no place for mankind.”

  He clutched at Morgan’s hand. “You are the only way for the Seed to pass out of here. We will all die with this Garden, as is our vow. The place is mined to ensure its destruction. But you must escape, and the Seed must be protected. Go now.”

  The Abbot turned away from the altar and stepped over the writhing vines to a heavy lever on the wall. He pushed it down.

  A clunk. A grinding of stone on sand.

  Liquid spurted down in a fine rain from the cave roof above. Not water, but more fuel.

  The Abbot faced the fiery inferno that the Garden had become. He held his sword high and struck it to ignite the flames. With a cry to God, the Abbot ran with all his strength toward the Tree of Life.

  He fought through the vines with energy far greater than his age should allow, his faith sustaining him as thorns ripped at his flesh. His body ran with blood, but still he pressed on as the flames rose higher around him.

  With the last of his strength, the old man stabbed his blade into the heart of the Tree even as its bark opened up to consume him.

  Morgan jumped off the altar and Jake rushed to hoist Camara over his broad shoulders in a firefighter’s lift. They ran for the side chamber and darted up the staircase.

  A boom came from the cavern behind, then a whooshing sound.

  The ground shook.

  Morgan clutched at the wall of the staircase as chunks of rock fell down from the ceiling above. As the shudder passed by, she ran again, taking two steps at a time, Jake close behind with Camara.

  As the stairs wound up and out of the caves, the sound of rumbling pursued them. The very heart of the mountain began to collapse under their feet.

  Morgan sprinted, her breath ragged, grateful for her recent training, and glad that Jake was there to carry Camara. She could not do this alone.

  Together they made it out of the mouth of the staircase and onto the opposite side of the volcano from the cave descent.

  “Keep going,” Jake shouted as they emerged into the dusk.

  Together, they ran down the slope of the volcano, across the meadow beyond.

  Another boom. Bigger this time.

  An underground explosion ripped through the fabric of the mountain, shaking the ground as if the cherubim awoke from their ancient sleep to wield fire against the trespassers of Eden.

  23

  The blast threw them off their feet. Morgan instinctively rolled to soften her landing. Jake took the force of the fall to protect Camara and landed hard against some rocks with a groan.

  A crevasse opened up behind them and a fiery pillar twisted into the sky as if reaching toward Heaven. It burned with the colors of the Garden, the bright carnelian and violet of its flowers with forest green at its heart, washed with the blood of those it devoured.

  Morgan scrambled over to Jake. “Are you alright?”

  He groaned and rolled onto his back. “Just about. But I don’t think I can carry the professor much further.”

  Camara lay prone next to him, her eyelids fluttering, still deep in a fever.

  Morgan stood up, testing her strength as she looked back at the chasm, a fresh scar on an ancient mountain. The monks had mined it well. Everything was gone, burned to ash. But something about that ancient tree made her think that perhaps something remained under it all, and life would rise again from the embers. Nature always found a way.

  “Hello! Mr Jake!”

  The voice came from lower down the mountain. Morgan turned to see Darius with his donkey and she sighed with relief. They would have much to explain but at least they had a way out of here and ARKANE’s budget would go a long way to making this whole situation just a natural occurrence in a faraway corner of the world.

  As they waited for Darius to reach them, Morgan took Camara’s hand. The professor had spent a lifetime searching for Eden, and it had almost killed her. Aurelia and the Brotherhood had perished at its heart. The Garden was no haven, and the expulsion from Eden, whether myth or history, was clearly for good reason.

  The silver pendant around her neck lay heavy on her skin, the Seed inside a potential threat to humanity. The Abbot had charged her with taking it to the Adana monastery, to give to the Brothers to keep safe from the world. But would it be better off in the vaults of ARKANE far away from religious fanatics? Or were even they enough to hold its terrifying potential in check?

  Morgan thought of the ecological groups who believed humanity to be a stain upon the Earth, that Nature would do better without their species. Those people would love to get their hands on the Seed. Some part of her even wanted to see what would happen if it was planted, whether it truly would take over the Earth in a new Eden, or find itself tamed in a far different environment than its former incarnations.

  There were many possible futures for the Seed, but she had one idea that seemed the safest. A way to preserve it far away from humanity’s worst intentions.

  Svalbard, Norway. One week later.

  The military plane touched down just after a storm had passed. The sky was washed clean, and the sun shone against the ice-blue fjord that flowed out into the Greenland Sea.

  Clouds whipped past high above in the grey sky and a biting wind chilled Morgan to the bone, even through her insulated jacket. She hurried over to the snowmobile, backpack securely in place, revved up the vehicle and crossed the snowy peninsula to her final destination.

  Svalbard was a remote archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, north of mainland Europe and halfway to the North Pole. It really was the edge of the world and difficult to get to, even in decent weather.

  Martin Klein had arranged Morgan’s trip, hiding her itinerary from the public record and even from Director Marietti and Jake. Something about her vision of the women in the cave made Morgan uneasy about anyone knowing of the potential of the Seed. Camara and Sebastian were recovering well — and seeing a lot of each other, apparently — and the Garden was gone, but she didn’t feel that the mission was over yet. This would hopefully be the last stop on her journey.

  There were nearly two thousand different seed banks around the world with teams that collected and preserved samples from every eco-system. The Svalbard Seed Bank was a backup of genetic material in one of the most remote places on Earth, in case natural or human-driven disaster destroyed any of the others. Some seed banks had already been lost in Iraq and Afghanistan and many considered this place to be one of the most secure due to its remoteness.

  A wedge-shaped metal structure emerged from the ice with a square array of mirrors at the top and stainless steel panels reflecting the turquoise sky. A narrow bridge led over the icy ground to the do
uble-paneled steel doors, a modest entrance to what many considered a Doomsday Vault, a place that may one day save humanity. A fitting home for the Seed.

  As Morgan pulled up on the snowmobile, one door opened and a huge man peered out. “Welcome, Dr Sierra. Come on in.”

  The head scientist, Kristofer Rubeck, was not quite what Morgan had expected. He towered over her, his frame dwarfing hers. With his thick ginger hair and bushy beard, Kristofer was the very image of a Norse explorer from ancient times. Yet his long fingers were slender and delicate, necessary for his precise work with fragile ecology.

  Morgan followed him inside and Kristofer closed the enormous steel door behind them, the clang echoing through the corridor that led into the heart of the ice mountain.

  “There are many millions of seeds here,” Kristofer explained. “From almost a million different varieties of food crops. Thirteen thousand years of agricultural history that perhaps, one day, will save the whole of humanity.” He gave a cheeky grin. “Or at least some of its eco-systems.”

  “What do you mean?” Morgan asked.

  Kristofer shrugged. “To be honest, an apocalyptic event will kill us all and no one is going to care about this seed bank at the end of the world. But localized catastrophes happen all the time, miniature Doomsdays that end natural environments — war, floods, fire, mining, even human choice over some strains rather than others. One of our goals is to protect genetic material from all areas of the world. You never know, one of these seeds may be the answer to a question we don’t even know how to ask yet.”

  As Kristofer led the way down the long metal tunnel, one hundred and fifty meters into the mountain, Morgan reflected on his words. Did the Seed from the Tree of Life contain genetic data that could help people right now? Was she doing the right thing by hiding it here? Perhaps she should take it to a lab and have it tested for anything that might be useful to humanity?