The Haunted Forest Tour

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Mark finished with his backups and dropped the bundle of memory sticks into his pocket. The miracles of modern technology: four years’ worth of research and notes, more man-hours than he even wanted to think about, and all of it fit easily into his pocket. Well, the autopsied ogre didn’t, but all of the notes and pictures did.

He moved to the next door down the hallway just in time to see Hannah finishing up. She was in an office that did not, technically, belong to her, but they had to salvage everything they could. “Got it?” she asked.

Mark nodded. “Yeah. All of it.”

“Good.”

“What the hell happened? There’ve never been any problems in the past and all at once, everything that can go wrong does!”

Hannah shrugged her shoulders and looked out the window, though there was nothing new to see. “We’ve never gone this far into the forest, either. There’s a reason we’ve got all the safety features on the trams, Mark. You know that better than anybody.”

“I just have to believe that there’s something more going on than a really inconvenient systems failure. I mean, come on, Hannah, in four years not so much as a rabid squirrel has come out of that forest. Now we have ogres charging the building? It doesn’t make sense!”

“Preaching to the choir, Mark.”

“It’s just crazy.”

“Still preaching to the choir, Mark.”

Mark sighed. “We better get back to the control room before someone figures out what we’ve been doing.”

Hannah put a hand on his and chuckled. “I think we’ll be okay. We’re protecting H.F.E. assets.”

“Yeah, but I don’t want them suddenly deciding they have to do a security check when we leave.”

“Hey, we could always tell them we were making out…”

Mark laughed off her comment, which was much easier than it would have been under normal circumstances. But he’d just watched giant ogres murder a bunch of heavily armed soldiers, which had something of a cold shower effect on his libido.

“Either way, the sooner we talk to Steve, the sooner he’ll tell us to get the hell out of here,” he said. “I’m dedicated to my work, but I’m not going to be one of those researchers who drives into a tornado.”

Hannah nodded, and they headed back to the control room.

They got there at a quiet moment. No new insanity had ensued. Steve was already talking with Laurie Schaefer from the public relations arena and two men that Mark assumed were lawyers. Thick as thieves, he thought.

There were fewer people in the office than there had been earlier. Hopefully the others were someplace far from the forest by now, perhaps Rhode Island. Mark walked over to the east side of the control center and looked out at the parking lot. Mostly empty. In fact, there probably weren’t many people left behind that weren’t in this room. Good.

Hannah had stopped to talk with Steve and his cronies. She looked his way with an anxious expression on her face. He quickly moved over to where they were all standing. “So what’s the latest joyful news, guys?”

Steve looked at the two lawyers and then over at Laurie, who was looking as stressed as a crippled mouse in a mountain lion’s paws.

“Well, Mark, you saw what those ogres did. Gonna be hard to put a positive spin on that for the media, especially since they killed some members of the media. No news on the tourists that were in the forest. We have Mullins flying around the perimeter right now, to make sure that all of the critters are staying within the boundaries, because these two,” Steve waved his hand to indicate the lawyers, “tell me that we could be held liable if anything gets out of there and attacks someone else.”

“How can you be held liable? It’s not like you invited them in. Booth just owns the land.”

One of the lawyers, who looked like he sucked on extra-tart lemons every day, shook his head. “It isn’t that easy. As the owners of the land, H.F. Enterprises is responsible for whatever happens on the property. Kind of like the owners of a pit bull that gets loose.”

“But we don’t own the ogres. We own the land.”

“Sufficient safety precautions were not taken. Kind of like the owners of a supermarket where somebody slips and falls on a patch of mop water.”

“We took every reasonable safety precaution.”

“But they didn’t work. Kind of like—”

“Okay, okay, I’m not even involved in this part of the company. I just study the monsters. Do what you need to do.”

“I’m on your side,” Lemon Sucker reminded him. “We’ll find a way out of this, although right now we’re presuming that the tourists inside the forest are all alive and well. If they aren’t, that could cause, ah, additional concern.”

“Y’think?”

The lawyer gave Mark a cold smile. “We should talk soon. Obviously, the person responsible for studying the creatures would have been responsible for predicting their potentially deadly behavior, right?”

Mark wanted to punch him in the face, but elected not to. Great. He could end up spending the rest of his life in prison for negligence.

“At this point, H.F. Enterprises still has a chance,” said the lawyer. “Clearly, the security personnel were well aware of the possible danger, and the media placed themselves in harm’s way. If the tourists are fine, we may be fine. Assuming that the remaining forest inhabitants stay put. The town of Dover’s Point is only a few miles away, as you know.”

Mark turned to Steve. “So, has Mullins seen anything yet?”

Steve shook his head. “Thankfully, no. It looks like they’re still staying inside the perimeter of the forest for now.”

“So what are we doing to get the tourists out?”

Steve opened his mouth to answer and then stared past Mark, his mouth hanging wide and his eyes bugging. “What the hell?”

Mark and Hannah and the cronies all turned to look where Steve was staring. Mark felt his mouth drop open and stared, petrified by what he saw.

Twenty-five feet from the edge of the forest, a tree was rising from the ground. It thrust into the air, spilling arid topsoil as branches grew from the thickening trunk.

“No way.” Hannah’s voice shook. “Just… no way.”

“Oh, shit,” Mark said. This was so very bad. The Haunted Forest hadn’t had a single new tree pop up since it came into existence. Nothing grew to replace the trees they cleared out to make room for the tram path. The forest hadn’t expanded by a single inch in four years.

Now there was a brand-new tree. Within thirty seconds, it had grown to the same height as the others, as if it had stood there for centuries.

But this one wasn’t a pine tree. It had the shape of an oak, but it was black. Twisted.

Before anyone else could add their own “No way” or “Oh, shit” style of comments, the ground shook again. It was a slight tremor at best, but this time the vibrations were accompanied by another tree thrusting out of the ground.

And then another.

And then another.

Mark watched, his pulse pounding in his temples, as four more trees broke the ground and rose toward the heavens. No two were remotely alike and none of them were from a genus he knew.

Steve’s cell phone rang. Without taking his eyes off the new trees, Steve answered. “No. I know. It’s happening here, too. How far out do they go, so far?” Steve nodded his head and sighed. “Thanks, Mullins. Keep me posted.”

Steve killed off the call and moved himself to the closest available chair. He dropped into it as if all of his bones had suddenly turned to liquid.

Everybody stared at him expectantly. After about ten seconds, Steve spoke, calmly, almost resignedly. “Well, ladies and gentlemen, the forest is now growing in all directions. We’re all nicely fucked.”

Barbara’s eyes opened wide in the darkness.

I’ve gone blind!

No, no, you were asleep. Your eyes just need to adjust to the gloom.

Instead of letting her eyes adjust, she clicked the switch on the halogen flashlight in her hands. Then she really went blind as the searing white light assaulted her retinas.

“Ow!” Tina’s voice was shrill. “Careful with that damned thing.” Tina’s eyes were squinted nearly shut and her hand moved to block the beam that turned her pasty white. Barbara apologized under her breath as she moved the light away from Tina and into the room.

The light was still strong, for which she was thankful, despite the blue spots she was currently seeing.

Behind the blue spots, she could see Jean curled into a fetal position on the floor. Moving the light, she saw Brad holding Tommy in his hands, his mouth stretched to an impossible level as he prepared to bite the boy’s face off.

But as the light shone directly on him, Brad flinched and the deep black pools of his eyes narrowed in a field of pale gray mold that had covered his skin and his clothing alike. The mold even covered his tongue, but it had taken his teeth away. Where his incisors should have been, there were wavering pink protrusions that had reached out to flicker along Tommy’s face.

Tina cut loose with a scream loud enough to rattle the walls and promptly dropped the rifle Barbara had let her carry.

Barbara screamed too and almost dropped the flashlight. Considering the day’s events, waking up to the sight of something trying to eat Tommy was not altogether unexpected. Waking up to the sight of Brad trying to eat Tommy… now that was something she wasn’t quite ready for.

Tommy flailed around madly, his tiny face gone ghostly white and his eyes rolling in his head. He’d peed himself, and though his mouth was open for a scream, no sound came out of him.

Tina stepped toward the couple and shook her head, her eyes even wider than Tommy’s. “Brad? Is that you?”

“Tina, honey, I feel a lot better now. Right as rain.” Brad tried to smile, but the wiggling pink cilia that had replaced his teeth took a lot of the charm out of it.

The door flew open. Lee and Mindy burst inside the office.

Jean woke up and called for Tommy. She called a second time, a lot louder, when she saw where he was.

Mindy didn’t hesitate. She yanked a large framed picture of President Bush off the wall, rushed forward, and drove the edge of it into Brad’s head.

“Get the hell away from him!” Mindy’s voice was almost a roar.

Brad dropped Tommy immediately and turned his head to face Mindy. To Barbara’s knowledge, no one could turn their neck that far without doing themselves permanent injury, but Brad managed it just fine. She could see where the picture frame had creased his skull. Ol’ George Junior’s face was obscured by the darker gray, gelid crap that had exploded from the inside of Brad’s head, but the president’s smile was still in place as his photograph wobbled back and forth inside of the wound.

Mindy staggered back and tried to get away from Brad. She didn’t get far before his fuzzy gray hands grabbed her shoulders.

Tina picked up the rifle and started toward her husband. “Brad, you put her down! Put her down right now!” Her voice was too high; her eyes were too wide.

“Busy right now, Hon. Give me a minute.” Brad’s voice sounded phlegmy and the words were distorted. The wobbly picture kept on bobbing along as the shape of his head changed. The small tendrils that had replaced his teeth spread out and lashed onto Mindy’s head, catching in her hair and slapping against her face. Mindy screamed again.

Tina charged, swinging the rifle like a baseball bat. Either she realized that she would likely hurt Mindy if she fired, or she just didn’t think to point and shoot. Either way, it worked well enough for Barbara.

The rifle slammed into George W. Bush’s face and frame and shattered both before it broke open the back of Brad’s skull. More of the darker gray matter splattered away from the wound, moving with a consistency not unlike moldy chocolate pudding. She was almost certain she could see things slithering around inside the brackish goo.

Brad let out a grunt, but otherwise made no effort to stop his endeavors to eat Mindy’s face.

Tommy crawled away, grunting and whining as he scrambled for cover.

Tina looked at the gaping wound in her husband’s head and stepped back, horrified with what she’d done, even if she’d done it to a mold-covered, attempted-face-eating monster.

Mindy screamed once more, and that seemed to catalyze Tina a second time. She swung her makeshift club again, this time hitting Brad in his knee. His leg buckled and, despite his desire to stand still and keep on trying to feast, gravity got the better of him and he dropped to the ground. The tentacles that were wrapped around Mindy’s face pulled back as he collapsed and the older woman fell to the ground next to him, panting, shivering, her face covered with red welts where he’d touched her.

Jean charged in, swinging with one tennis-shoe-clad foot and kicking Brad in the groin. Just as with the back of his head, the area she kicked collapsed in on itself. More of the foul slop from inside him splattered across her leg and the lower half of her body.

It hadn’t been a mistake; there were definitely things moving in the black filth. Whatever they were, they perfectly matched the wriggling shapes that had filled his mouth, and as they landed on Jean, they immediately began burrowing under her skin.

Jean shrieked, not in fear, but in pain as the worm-things dug in deeper. She slapped frantically at them, but only managed to spread them across her hands where they once again began eating.

Brad tried to stand again, but Tina was on him, swinging the rifle up and down in a frenzy, driving the barrel into his soft gray skin and punching hole after hole through him.

Barbara kept the light on Brad, not because she was being brave but because she couldn’t make herself look away, couldn’t manage to move to help. She was too horrified. The writhing shapes that escaped from Brad’s ruined form turned away from the light, trying to hide, and Barbara caught on quickly. She moved in closer, aiming the light at the creatures that had probably lived in darkness for as long as they had existed. Maybe, she thought, they’ll burn if I hit them with the light.

The worms did not combust. They just tried to hide. Unfortunately, they tried to hide inside flesh and the closest available source was Tina. The newly widowed woman spun on one heel and then jumped up onto the desk to get away from them. It might have worked, too, but the things Barbara had originally thought were teeth seemed merely to be larger versions of the same creatures. They were thick and pink and wriggly and they could stretch, just like earthworms, but these were nowhere near as attractive. Earthworms at least had a certain symmetry, whereas these worms seemed almost more liquid, as if they were not yet completely formed.

Whatever they were, it was obvious that they liked to dine. Jean had stopped screaming and was now lying on the ground and shuddering violently. Barbara didn’t dare keep the light on her for too long, for fear that the worms might find new hosts.

Tina had retreated to the center of the desk and was stomping savagely on any of them that got too close to her. She moved her feet so fast and hard that it almost looked like she’d taken up tap-dancing lessons. Back on the floor, the slimy creatures curled into the edges of what was left of Brad, hiding in the moist, dark environment he provided.

Lee stomped a particularly juicy worm. “We have to get the hell out of here,” he said, realizing that it was a rather obvious announcement but not caring. “This place isn’t shelter anymore.”

Barbara nodded and started moving; she slipped past the desk with Tina on it and found Tommy trying to curl himself into a ball. There wasn’t time to be kind and nurturing, so she grabbed his arm and hauled him to his feet. He responded automatically and settled on his legs. Mindy was up and moving with Lee, careful to dodge around the remains of Brad on the ground. Tina jumped from the desk without actually managing to kill herself in the near darkness, and moved for the door.

Jean wasn’t coming with them. Whatever the worms were doing to her seemed to have paralyzed her body, and Barbara wasn’t feeling quite bold enough to drag her from the room.

Lee held the door for her and then slammed it shut as Barbara and Tommy vacated their temporary haven.

Lee led the way, carefully looking out for whatever might be on the walls, the floor or even the ceiling before they moved on. Inside of three minutes they were back outside of the reclamation center, huddled together on the small exterior stairwell and looking out at the Haunted Forest.

Barbara turned off the flashlight and shivered. No reason to waste the battery before the sun set. They might need it later, if there was, in fact, a later to come. A small sob escaped her mouth before she bit it off.

Not three feet away from her, Tina was on her knees, sobbing as quietly as she could for the loss of her husband.

Not only did she lose him, she had to kill him, Barbara thought. There was nothing left of Brad when Tina delivered the fatal blow, but still, Barbara wouldn’t want to be in Tina’s emotional space right now.

Tommy had now lost his aunt for good.

Mindy had lost her son.

Barbara felt guilty. The closest person she’d lost was a sleazy co-worker, and he was probably bringing help back at this very moment.

Or Eddie was dead. He could’ve died ten seconds after he and Tina parted ways.

Barbara would stick with the “probably bringing help back at this very moment” theory for now. She liked that one a lot better.

She’d thought they’d be safe for the night in their stone shelter. Turned out they hadn’t even made it to nightfall. And that meant the nocturnal creatures were only just getting ready to wake up.

She almost asked out loud how much worse it could get, but in the end she stopped herself. She didn’t want to know.

Let’s hear it for blissful ignorance.

But she figured they’d find out, whether they liked it or not.