“Relax. I don’t think the park rangers care.” Lawrence glanced over his shoulder and gave her a rebellious smile.
“Besides, didn’t you want to live outside the box?” Sam asked with a grin.
Eve sank into her seat. She gripped her seatbelt tight but then relaxed. The forest looked thicker and more expansive than her research led her to believe. What harm could there be in finding their own private camping spot?
It’s not like we’re going to tear anything down or build something. What harm is there? Eve thought of Robert Frost’s poem, and liked the idea of going somewhere less traveled. Just then, she spied the ideal place to go.
“Turn here,” Eve said.
Lawrence gave her a thumbs-up and turned off the dirt road. The vehicle bounced like a hydraulic roller coaster as it barreled through the forest. Lawrence and Sam cheered and laughed, but Eve couldn’t stand to look out the window. The rapid passing of trees upset her stomach. She ran her thumbs over her broken rosary. They passed over each decade, not out of faith but out of habit. Eve imagined her mother coming back with disappointment, knowing her daughter broke her rosary and wore it as an accessory rather than a conduit to God. And yet, it was an accessory that bound her to the memory of her mother. It was the only thing she had left of her.
Lawrence parked the car at the edge of a small clearing, having left a long trail of bent grass and broken branches behind them. Large, looming trees with thick branches and leaves surrounded the clearing, allowing little sunlight in. The four college friends got out of the car and looked around.
A small cypress stood in the center of the clearing with a large hole at the base of its trunk. Lawrence and Sam circled the small tree.
“This place looks great, but this is kind of standing in our way,” Lawrence said.
Something felt off about this place, and though Eva loved the idea of camping off the beaten path perhaps this spot was best left alone. “Maybe that’s why we shouldn’t camp here,” she suggested. “We could find another spot.”
“Don’t worry. I brought something that’ll solve our little problem.”
Lawrence smiled as he opened the trunk. He threw out tents, sleeping bags, and coolers. He reached farther in and pulled out a two-handed saw, giggling as if he’d just won a new toy.
“Give me a hand,” he said, holding up the saw.
“I don’t think so,” Eve shook her head and took an unsteady step away from the weapon.
“It’ll be fine.” Lawrence took Eve by the hand and led her to the other side of the tree. Eve grabbed the handle and watched Lawrence grip the other end.
“We are just going to rock back and forth, okay?” he said.
Eve gave a reluctant nod and pulled the saw toward herself. Lawrence pulled it back. She heard the blade tear through the bark of the tree as they sawed their way through its trunk. The bark creaked and groaned as if the trunk were crying. Pleading. Eve smiled as she watched their progress.
“All right, stand back,” said Lawrence as their weapon neared the opposite side of the trunk. He and Sam gave the tree a few swift kicks. It screamed as it crashed to the ground. The ground shook and bugs scattered. The surrounding trees waved as Lawrence lifted Eve’s arm in the air.
“See, that wasn’t so bad.”
Eve had thought she could barely operate a hammer let alone saw down a tree. She couldn’t help but feel as if she’d accomplished something grand. She bundled herself up and smiled. Sam handed her a beer from the cooler, and she toasted the start to a wonderful camping trip.
Lawrence and Sam wasted no time chopping apart the tree to clear room for their camp, gathering stones, rummaging for dry wood, and igniting a fire. Lawrence watched the flames with a cruel grin. He reached for a section of the chopped tree that had blocked their path and threw it on the pile, just to watch it burn.
Kathy helped Eve set up the tents and organize the site.
“I’m glad you decided to come along,” Kathy said. “Lawrence is glad too.”
“My mother said camping was where she discovered herself. I figure I’d give it a try.”
“Did you fit that into the eulogy?”
“I didn’t give it. Felt odd giving a eulogy to an empty casket.” Eve nailed a metal spike into the ground. Crimson liquid spewed from the dirt as if the spike had struck bloody oil. “Oh my God! Is there an animal under there?”
Kathy dipped her hand into the wet soil surrounding the buried spike, but she only found water. “Must be the light.”
Eve took a swig of bottled water and finished setting up the tent.
The doe’s dead eyes plagued Eve’s thoughts throughout the evening. Lawrence’s self-absorbed stories about polo victories were drowned by the rasping sound of the doe’s breathing. Sam and Kathy laughed at a joke Eve missed. Lawrence’s eyes gazed over Eve’s legs as she recalled the joyous sensation she felt sawing down the tree that gave its life.
The evening persisted with beer, food, and recollections of their junior year in college. The group laughed and shared their hopes for what they’d wish to accomplish after finishing one more year. Lawrence attempted a few advances toward Eve, which she quietly ignored. It was difficult to consider being with him when she thought of the deer and his indifference to its suffering. He escorted Eve to her tent later but she chose to sleep alone that night.
Eve wrapped herself tight in her sleeping bag. She fell into such a deep sleep that she hardly noticed the long, jagged legs of an oversized creature dragging across the top of her tent.
A shriek from within the woods snapped Eve from her slumber. She catapulted out of the tent as best she could without getting tangled.
The scattered morning rays glittered through the ceiling of branches and leaves, and thin trails of smoke rose from the deceased campfire. Kathy and Sam sprinted back and forth screaming Lawrence’s name.
“What’s going on?” Eve felt her heartbeat quicken.
“Lawrence’s tent is empty,” Sam said.
“Maybe he got lost going to the bathroom.”
“Lawrence!” Sam yelled, “We need to look for him.” Lawrence’s car was just as they’d left it, and nothing was missing from his tent. Sam grew more frantic as the sun passed over them at an unusual pace. He honked the horn over and over again. The sway of trees and an eerie breeze was the only response.
“Where would he have gone? Eve asked.
“I’m sure he’ll be back. He’s probably recovering from all the beer last night,” said Kathy as she pulled her jacket from her tent.
Sam, Kathy, and Eve waited. Eve glanced at her watch periodically. The second hand slowed down. She tapped the crystal. The second hand stopped.
“I’m going to look for him.” Sam examined the grass surrounding Lawrence’s tent. He paced, growing more upset with every step.
Kathy stopped him and rubbed his shoulders. “Calm down. We’ll find him.”
“I don’t get it.”
“Get what?”
“There are no tracks.” Sam knelt. His fingers surveyed the untouched grass and dirt. “There should be something: footprints, bent grass, something.”
A scream erupted through the trees. Sam sprinted into the woods. Kathy and Eve followed with reluctance.
The three friends passed tree after tree as they ran, crying Lawrence’s name. The scenery blended together and direction became lost. Sam led Kathy and Eve through the woods, slowing down only to carve an X into the trunks of trees.
“How far could he have gone?” Sam asked, struggling to get the words out in a coherent breath.
“Do you know where we are?” Eve asked, trying hard to make herself believe her own words.
The light dimmed as the sun sank in the west. Eve checked her watch again. Time remained frozen on her wrist.
Sam reached into his pocket for a compass. A look of fear and puzzlement plagued his face. “That can’t be right.”
He showed Kathy and Eve the compass needle spinning in a rapid c
ircle. Sam surveyed his surroundings and proceeded to follow the trail of X’s left on tree trunks.
Eve’s fingers rubbed against the beads of the rosary as if out of faith not habit.
The chill in the air stiffened Eve’s legs, making it tough for her to keep up with Sam’s pace. Her knees buckled and she toppled to the ground. Thick webbing decorated Eve’s entire hand. She pulled her fingers off the ground, discovering the web’s extreme length and thickness. Her eyes followed the web across the landscape.
“Sam, stop.”
“We’re almost there.”
“Stop!” Eve’s throat, dry as sandpaper, made it difficult for her voice to reach a reasonable distance.
Kathy came to a halt and lifted her foot. Thick, elastic silk stuck to the bottom of her boot. She raised the other and found more of the same.
Sam looked as if he had to use extra effort to lift his foot. The webbing grabbed the bottom of his boot as if it didn’t want him to move.
“It’s a spider web, so what?”
“It’s all over the ground,” Eve said with a vibrato of fear.
The webbing beneath them slowed their pace through the woods. Each step felt like trudging through a dense lake of quicksand made of silk webbing.
Sam collapsed against a tree. He dragged himself around the trunk and slammed his fist against it. “It should be here.” He circled the tree again. Tangles of webbing stuck to his back.
Kathy fell to his side. “Sam, what’s going on?”
“I don’t know where we are. This tree should have an X on it. The camp should be here.”
“Don’t move,” Kathy said. “We’ll get the car, drive out of here, and we’ll tell the rangers to look for Lawrence.”
Eve and Kathy walked away from Sam. They didn’t make it a few feet before a strong influx of wind pushed through them. A faint yelp followed the sudden gust.
“Where’s Sam?” Eve turned to the tree that had supported Sam’s exhausted body. The lonely tree made her spine chill. Eve looked up. The crowded skies revealed nothing but bloated leaves attached to gargantuan branches. Light bounced off a cloud of hanging webs above them.
“Where the hell did Sam go?” Kathy’s eyes were wide.
“I don’t like this.” Eve walked slowly backwards. “We should leave.”
The temperature suddenly dropped, and no coat in the world could have warmed Eve’s slender physique. Steamy breath escaped her chilled lips. The trees swayed in the wind. She grabbed Kathy by the arm and dragged her away from the trees. The trunks and branches screamed against the wind. Eve recognized the agonizing moaning of the forest. The screams erupting from the branches sounded like Sam and Lawrence.
“Sam!” Kathy called.
“It can’t be them.”
Eve dragged Kathy through the forest. Kathy struggled to keep up with Eve’s frantic pace. The trees pounded against each other. A large shadow passed over them with lightning speed. Webs grew thicker on the trunks of the trees. Eve looked up at the sky and felt as if she were running in a large circle. A loud thumping erupted behind them. Kathy and Eve ducked. Dense, prickly hairs grazed their heads. The two women kept their eyes closed, but they smelled rotting skin in the air. A massive surge of wind blew them to their knees. They got to their feet again and staggered forward.
An aged wooden house emerged in the distance. Eve and Kathy ran to the building and barged through the front door.
Exhausted, Kathy slid down the wall to a sitting position. She curled into a ball and sobbed.
Eve held her close. A subtle creak from a floorboard grabbed Eve’s attention.
“I’ll be right back,” Eve said, with a sense of dread growing in her stomach. She journeyed through the single-level house, growing more and more astonished as she found each room absent of furniture, pictures, or people.
“What the hell just happened?” Kathy asked.
“Your guess is as good as mine,” Eve yelled from the other room. She rubbed her fingers across the broken rosary her mother had given her. Her fingers slipped against one of the beads. She looked down, and her hand trembled. The beads were smeared with blood. She examined her body for any open wounds but found only more dense layers of webbing.
“Have you seen spiders anywhere?” Eve asked.
“What? No.”
“Where did this webbing come from?”
Darkness jetted through the house as if something colossal had stepped between them and the sun. A piercing screech dug across the house. Whatever stalked Eve and Kathy circled the building, increasing in speed. Rapid thumping climbed up the walls and landed on the roof. Glass shattered at the other end of the house.
“It’s gonna get inside,” Eve said, stepping backwards toward Kathy.
Kathy reached for the doorknob, which was also wrapped in webbing. She tried to yank the door open, but thick coats of gooey webbing kept the door shut. Strips of her skin ripped off her palms as she yanked her hands away from the knob.
Kathy screamed and the thumping persisted. The creature crawled along the house in a frantic pattern. Eve tore up a loose floorboard. The shadow passed over the house again. Eve ran through the halls with the floorboard held close.
Kathy cradled her bleeding hand and backed up against the wall.
What have I gotten myself into? Eve thought. Nothing in her studies could’ve hinted at something like this happening. Sam and Lawrence disappeared, and suddenly the laws of nature had gone haywire.
The passing shadow and thumping stopped. The wind calmed and an eerie silence engulfed the forest. Eve hurried over to Kathy, her footsteps echoing against the old floorboards. Eve froze and dropped her wooden weapon in terror. Strings of webbing stretched across Kathy’s mouth, silencing her screams.
A powerful force reached through the window and snatched Kathy. Eve leaped for her, managing only to grab her boots. Kathy’s body jettisoned out of her footwear and through the window. Whatever force took the young college student was too quick for Eve to get a solid look at it.
Eve ran out of the house and found herself staring into a gigantic tunnel of webbing. The screams of her friends echoed deep inside it.
Eve hesitated. The surrounding forest looked nothing like it did when she arrived. Thick webbing painted the trees and the sky. She climbed into the tunnel. The webbing made her feel as if she were climbing across rope ladders strung together. The sun’s light faded the farther she ventured into the web. She could hear Lawrence and Sam crying for help. The walls of the tunnel vibrated with their agony.
The light vanished. The grunts she made as she pulled herself through the tunnel bounced in odd directions, and the scent of rotting flesh burned her nostrils. The floor of the tunnel broke, and she fell into an abyss of darkness.
Instead of hitting the ground, she landed lightly and discovered she was standing upright. She stretched out her hands, and discovered spidery cocoons surrounded her. The darkness made it difficult for her to discern who inhabited the cocoons. She squeezed between the hanging coffins.
“Sam! Lawrence! Kathy!”
“They cannot hear you,” said a feminine voice in one of the silky cocoons.
“Where are they?”
“They are suffering,” said a male in a cocoon to her left.
“Soon,” every soul around her spoke in unison, “you will join them.”
“Why?” Eve screamed as her eyes fervently searched the darkness.
“Nature’s children don’t belong to you. A single tree houses life beyond your sight,” said a sea of voices.
Eve recalled the tree Lawrence and she had cut down. She remembered the pleasure and sense of accomplishment she took from seeing it fall.
“One tree?” she asked.
“ONE TREE!” all of the voices replied.
Eve fell to the ground at the power of everybody speaking at once. Slowly, light filled the space, but she couldn’t see where it came from. She scanned the area. The monochromatic eyes of the figures in the coc
oons glowed. Eve found herself kneeling before Kathy, Lawrence, and Sam. Their eyes were black and hollow, as if something had sucked the life out of them.
“Men walk as if they are entitled to the ground beneath them. They take nature’s gifts like spoiled children,” said a feminine voice.
Eve turned to run, but the body of an old woman wrapped in webbing knocked her to the ground. Her eyes glowed bright orange. She wore a dress aged in decay. Her skin matched the gray of the webbing holding her up. The silken coffin squeezed her body; the cracking of her frail bones echoed through the farm of hanging bodies. The light in her eyes shone brighter. Eve looked at the woman’s familiar features, and it took everything in her power not to scream.
“Mom?”
“My sweet child.” Her voice cracking, like the sound of old parchment crumpling.
“What happened to you?”
“I found myself; I found truth.”
“What truth?”
“We are all one, and punishment is swift for those who overstep their bounds.”
“I’m so sorry. It wasn’t my idea.”
“There is a price you must still pay.”
Eight monstrous legs, attached to an epically sized spider, loomed over Eve. Its fangs dripped with the flesh of ancient victims. The creature fell on her.
Months passed. The forest cleared and returned to what it once was, and the season for camping returned again. A car filled with a boisterous family journeyed through the woods and parked in a clearing. The father got out and stretched his legs. He leaned against a small cypress in the center of the clearing. His eyes wandered to the tree’s trunk.
“Hey kids, look at this,” he said.
Two kids and a beautiful woman emerged from the car and joined the father by the tree. The man ran his fingers across the tree’s bark. Its design looked like an old broken rosary had been wrapped around its trunk.
“Kind of a neat design, huh kids?”
The kids agreed.
“Who wants to help the old man chop this down?”
The children cheered as their father pulled an ax from the back of the car. The tree screamed with every swing.
Daniel Conyers was born on an Air Force base in New Mexico. Coming from a military family, he moved around a lot, but he found his home in Colorado. Daniel fell in love with storytelling after reading Greek mythology and comic books. He received his bachelors in general philosophy from Colorado State University, and he received his MFA from Full Sail University. Daniel has written in a wide range of media: film, fiction, web series, and comic books. His debut novel, Owen of Anthea: The Warlock’s Curse, will be released on eBook this year. When Daniel is not writing, he is reading, exercising, and playing video games.
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