John watched in horror as Conrad’s body quickly sank beneath the swarm of vines. For one brief second he caught a glimpse of the man’s terrified eyes before vines buried them. His body had started thrashing as the plants enveloped him, but it quickly became rigid as they took hold.
Avarlon, the strange plant-like woman, had a hand extended towards Conrad. John intuitively understood that the woman was directing the vines to secure him. Her other hand was planted firmly over the hole in her chest as it oozed the sap or whatever liquid her body used as blood. The wound looked painful, but it didn’t seem to hinder her too much.
“No man has dared harm me in over 700 hundred years,” she seethed, “I will not tolerate your primitive ways!”
Conrad’s screaming grew louder as the vines slowly tightened on his body. John thought he could hear the crackling of bone, but he wasn’t sure.
“Please stop.”
The woman cast a glance in his direction and he felt his heart stop under her fierce gaze.
“He was frightened.”
“That is no excuse, he must be punished.”
“Please you must understand,” John shouted to be heard over the screaming, “we have no idea where we are or why we’re here. In the last hour or so we’ve seen a dozen people die in brutal and violent ways.”
She turned to face him, her hand continuing to remain extended.
“What do you mean? What’s happened?”
“I don’t know,” said John shaking his head, “I woke up in this place and it’s been a nightmare ever since. Things keep changing in the rooms, a mad doctor tried to kill me, mannequins have been-.”
“Mannequins,” she said, her eyes widening in alarm, “are you sure?”
John frowned.
“He was attacked by one and killed another.”
Avarlon’s gaze drifted to the floor deep in thought, John saw that the vines had stopped moving and Conrad was no longer screaming.
“What did they look like?”
“One was a woman with long-.”
“No, I mean once they were killed, what did they look like?”
“White body, no face. Their blood was brown, like oil.”
“And their fake skin melted away once they died?”
“Yes.”
Avarlon lowered her hand and the vines began writhing again, slithering away from Conrad’s body. She stared at the floor in thought before meeting John’s gaze again.
“Tell me what’s going on.”
“I have no idea.”
“What do you mean-,” her gaze suddenly drifted to his body and John became uncomfortably aware of how exposed he was.
“Have you been touched by an anomaly?”
“What?”
She frowned, her mossy eyebrows coming together.
“Are you a test subject or a volunteer?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“You haven’t received your initiation then. That means your brand new.”
The last of the vines wandered back into the nearby bushes and Conrad sat upright coughing. He seemed alright, frightened and a little mad, but healthy. Conrad looked over at the woman and his features hardened, John saw one of his hands grasping something in the leaves.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” warned the woman, her hand rising slightly, “your friend pointed out you might be a little frightened and paranoid. Given the circumstances I can understand, but I will not tolerate further violence from you.”
Conrad held her gaze a moment before glancing over at John. John wasn’t sure what he saw, but the man’s gaze softened a bit and he raised his hand out of the leaves, revealing the firearm resting on the floor.
“That’s better,” the woman said with relief.
She suddenly grimaced and sank to her knees on the ground. John marveled that she was still nearly as tall as he was and he wasn’t short by any means.
Avarlon pulled her hand away from the wound and glanced at the wound Conrad had created. Looking around she gently grabbed one of the vines hanging from a nearby tree and found the end. Taking a deep breath she guided it into the hole in her chest, her eyes closing.
The vine starting wriggling and she hissed in pain. John was entirely lost until the vine withdrew with the end wrapped around a small shiny object.
Letting the vine and the bullet fall to the floor she stood up putting a hand to her chest that was now seeping lifeblood. Eyes opening she looked at John, her eyes weary.
“I need to attend to this wound. Come with me and we shall discuss what you and your companion have seen.”
“Only if you agree to something.”
John and Avarlon both turned to Conrad.
“And what might that be?”
Conrad recoiled a bit under the disgust in the woman’s voice. Taking a moment he met her gaze.
“Once we tell you what’s happened, you tell us what you know about this place.”
She studied him for a moment before glancing at John. John thought Conrad was foolish for demanding anything of the woman considering the circumstances, her power, and how little they knew about what she was. But he too wanted answers.
Something of this must have shown in his eyes because her gaze softened.
“I can only imagine at the questions that must be running through your minds.”
She nodded to herself.
“Very well, I’ll share what I know. Though I must warn you it is rather limited. I have lived in this space for many years now and have little interest in the outside world, if it does not relate to plants or nature in some fashion I don’t give it much of my attention.”
“Whatever you can tell us,” said John.
“But first I must heal myself, come with me and as we walk you’ll answer my questions.”
The woman turned and started walking deeper into the garden. John had the fleeting thought to use that moment to escape. But he knew it’d be foolish considering her power and if he was being honest being around a third person with that kind of power was a comforting thought.
Looking over at Conrad he could see the man was on the brink of a breakdown again. His face was pale and his eyes were darting slightly as he watched her go, as if he was having trouble believing what he was seeing.
John looked down at the gun and when he looked back up Conrad was watching him.
“You coming?”
Conrad was silent for a long while before closing his eyes and nodding.
“Yeah, let’s get some answers from Treebeard.”
#
The woman walked with a grace John did not expect given her size. Her left hand was planted firmly on her chest and she would hiss every now and then as if the wound pained her when she walked. Her other hand would drift out occasionally and gently caress the plants they passed. A few times she would whisper something under her breath. It was in a language John didn’t recognize.
For a moment John though she might have forgotten about them, but then she glanced over at John.
“How many mannequins attacked you?”
“Conrad was attacked by one when it died. He managed to kill a second one. So two…so far.”
“How did the first one die?”
John looked back at Conrad and the woman followed his gaze.
“He was dragged into the ceiling.”
The woman frowned so Conrad clarified.
“The squad of guards I was with were passing through a hallway when the lights cut out. When they came back on they were gone and the ceiling was soaked with blood. The mannequin posing as a guard tried to reach me in the hallway before he made noise and the lights went out again. This time the mannequin body was lying on the ground and the oil or blood or whatever was in its body was on the ceiling.”
“I have never heard of this,” said Avarlon slowly, “though it is obviously an anomaly.”
“An anomaly?”
“If I understand correctly this…” she frowned in thought as her voice trailed off, “faction…for lack of a better word, devotes itself to finding and understanding anomalies.”
“What are anomalies?”
“Things of great power,” she tilted her head, “sort of. From what I understand they are capable of anything and often times their power remains a mystery.”
“So…you would be an anomaly?”
“Not exactly,” she said slowly as if considering her words carefully, “I was touched by an anomaly. Many years ago I was a human girl, but then I came into contact with… something and it left me this way.”
John blinked. Looking back at Conrad he could see the man was struggling to process this news as well.
“To be honest I don’t remember much about it. When I was discovered by the people of my village they thought I was a dryad.”
“What’s that?”
She looked back at Conrad.
“A forest spirit.”
He nodded, though John could tell he still had questions.
“At first I thought they were right and that I had been touched by the spirits of nature to become this being of power. It wasn’t until I came here that I learned the truth of what happened, that I had come into contact with an anomaly. An item…or perhaps location of power that left me changed.”
She met John’s gaze again.
“This organization collects anomalies or things that have come into contact with anomalies and brings them here. When I was first brought here I was studied at length so they could understand my powers. At some point they felt they had learned enough or felt it was unethical to continue their experiments. I was given this garden as a home and promised a life of peace so long as I promised not to leave or cause any trouble.”
Seeing John was about to ask something she held up a hand.
“Have you come into contact with any of the researchers?”
“Maybe,” said John darkly, “I nearly had my throat slit by a doctor who’d gone insane.”
“Do you know his name?”
John took a moment to think back on it, shivering as the memories flooded back.
“Dr. Ramira…I think.”
Avarlon looked off into the trees in thought.
“No I’m not familiar with that person. The two mannequins you encountered, whose appearance did they take on?”
“The one in the hallway looked like a guard named Silvo Martinez, but he wore a nametag identifying him as Lance.”
“How about the other mannequin?”
“A woman,” said John slowly, trying to remember her name, “Amy…Flanders-.”
“Sanders,” corrected Conrad.
“Right, Amy Sanders. She said she worked in archives or something like that.”
Avarlon shook her head slowly.
“I do not recognize any of these individuals. Though it’s hardly surprising. Those who studied me have long since died of old age and I never leave this garden. A few come and visit me, but no one you’ve mentioned.”
Her hand traced a large rose blossom. John couldn’t be certain but he thought he saw the flower turn to her as her hand left it, as if wanting a longer interaction.
“Normally there’s at least one person here that I interact with or wanders quietly amongst that plants. An alarm went off some time ago and the few that were in here left in a panic, though no one would tell me what was going on. When the alarms turned off I assumed whatever was causing the alarm had been taken care of.”
“You didn’t go look?”
She shook her head.
“I’ve been asked not to leave this room and I saw little reason to.”
“An alarm went off,” came Conrad’s reply.
“It’s certainly not the first alarm to go off since I’ve been here and humans today are much more jittery than in my time. I merely assumed it was one of those moments and was content to wait.”
“Well I’m thinking it probably isn’t one of those times.”
“No I think you’re right about that,” she said nodding to Conrad.
She suddenly came to a stop and bent over. Her long arms reached down and gently stroked a cluster of moss resting on a large tree. Whispering something she closed her eyes and gently tugged a patch of it free. John thought he could see sap-like tears in her eyes.
Whispering to the moss resting in her hand she gently guided it to the hole in her chest and packed it in. Reaching up she whispered again and gently tugged a small leaf free from the nearby tree. This time John was sure that she was crying as she stooped again to grab a handful of mud from beneath the tree.
She plastered the mud against the moss and around the wound and gently glued the leaf in place. She held it there for a moment as tears streamed down her face.
“Are you alright?”
“I’m fine,” she said tersely.
When she pulled away her hand John could see that the leaf had adhered to her bark-like skin. Sighing with relief she continued walking.
“It’ll take my body some time to heal, but this will speed up the process significantly. I’ll need nourishment to aid the process.”
When she mentioned nourishment John’s stomach growled loudly. The woman gave a knowing glance, a smile on her gray lips.
“I suppose you’ll need nourishment as well.”
“I wouldn’t mind something to eat.”
Avarlon gave Conrad a stony stare. The men met her gaze with a cold stare of his own before his eyes drifted to the makeshift bandage on her chest. His eyes softened and he looked at the ground.
“I would greatly appreciate it, but I would understand if you don’t feel like it.”
Avarlon continued to stare at him before sighing.
“I’ll feed the both of you at my home.”
She suddenly stopped and John nearly bumped into the back of her. Her strides were so long he had to powerwalk to keep up with her and wasn’t expecting her to stop.
Coming alongside he saw that she was slowly scanning the garden, her eyes mere slits. Looking around he couldn’t understand her concern.
“What is it?”
Without looking she responded in a whisper.
“Something is here.”
“What do you mean?”
“The trees tell me something is here.”
John was about to ask her what she meant when there was a rustling in the trees further up the path and off to the left. He suddenly became aware of the fact that he no longer had the utility knife and he felt very vulnerable, the breeze rustling the back of his hospital gown definitely didn’t help.
“Here.”
Looking at Conrad he saw the man holding out the utility knife he’d dropped when they were attacked by the vines. Conrad was holding the firearm and had it pointed to the ground, his eyes on where the sound was coming from.
Taking the utility knife he flicked the blade open and gripped it tightly in his right hand. Once again he noted how ineffective it had been at protecting him from the horrors they’d faced so far, but it still had the uncanny effect of making him feel safer. Or more accurately it took the edge of his terror without removing it.
The three of them waited as the trees continued rustling up ahead. It seemed that something was gradually making its way towards them and using the trees as cover. It came within thirty feet or so and stopped abruptly as if noticing them for the first time.
“Show yourself,” said Avarlon in a steady tone.
There was a brief pause before an older gentleman stepped out of the trees. He wore a tattered suit coat and a pair of glasses that was missing the right lens. He adjusted them out of habit and ran a hand across the top of his balding head.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to frighten you.”
A small smile came across Avarlon’s face.
“Mr. Clemont, it’s good to see you again.”
The man blinked a few times before chuckling.
“Yes, it’s been a while hasn’t it. Feels like a lifetime with everything going on.”
“You know him,” whispered Conrad.
Avarlon ignored him, her eyes on the man.
“I rather enjoyed our last conversation about the Sophora Toromiro bush.”
“Yes,” nodded the man with a smile, “I found your knowledge rather insightful on the matter.”
The smile remained on Avarlon’s face, but John could sense something had changed with it.
Mr. Clemont must have noticed the change to because a smile spread across his own face.
“It’s not a bush is it?”
“No, it isn’t.”
The two stared silently at each other, the tension thick in the air as John waited for someone to do something. Then everything turned to chaos as three things happened simultaneously. The man dropped to the ground, Avarlon swept her hand to the side, and Conrad fired his weapon.
The bullet went over him, but Avarlon’s attack was successful. A cluster of branches from the tree the man had been standing by suddenly plummeted to the ground and impaled him to the ground. He writhed against them like a worm on a hook.
John expected him to start screaming or for the fake skin to slough off revealing he was a mannequin, but instead he began laughing.
“Oh my, I was not expecting that!”
Looking up his eyes flashed silver as if a stream of mercury had passed across them.
“I was prepared for the fool to fire his gun or maybe an accomplice to ambush me from the side. I never would have imagined the trees to attack me.”
Grinning he looked up at Avarlon. There was a thin branch jutting from his right eye though the wound lacked any gore and the eye appeared to have merely accommodated the branch rather than be damaged by it.
“You’ll have to teach me how to do that.”
In one quick motion he jerked himself upright, tearing his body open with the branches. John watched in horror as the man’s body was torn to ribbons and slumped away from the tree. The pile of torn flesh quivered and the man slowly stood up as his legs repaired themselves followed by the torso and then the head until he was whole again.
“This should be fun.”
Avarlon swept her hand again and more branches sprang from the trees on either side. The man quickly darted forward, tearing his legs open as branches pinned them and the flesh ripped open to accommodate before reforming.
Conrad took up position next to Avarlon and fired a round. The bullet struck the man in the chest and passed through his body to hit one of the trees. The man’s body quickly reformed the hole as he kept running.
Growling Avarlon put both of her hands in front of her palms up and lifted them rapidly. Roots emerged from the ground and skewered the man like a kebab. He chuckled as he flailed around to tear his body free.
“Just full of surprises!”
Avarlon smirked.
“I have one more.”
She dropped her hands. The man had a brief second for his one intact eye to widen before he was dragged into the ground by the roots. In a flash he was entirely consumed by the earth as the roots dragged his entire body underground.
Once he was fully under Avarlon made two fists and slowly dragged them apart from each other. John saw the dirt rustling, but couldn’t see what was occurring. Though the movement of her hands suggested she was directed the roots to tear him into pieces and separate them from each other.
She held the fists for several seconds, her eyes slits as she studied the ground where he disappeared. After a moment she sighed and dropped her hands.
“The roots will keep him apart for now. I’ll decide what to do with him later.”
And with that she walked down the path. As she walked over the disturbed dirt John expected the man to suddenly reach out and grab her with a reformed hand, but nothing happened.
Glancing at Conrad he could see the man was becoming unhinged again and worried that he was armed again. To derail any harmful thoughts the man might be having John nudged him with an elbow.
“I don’t know about you but I feel pretty safe with her right now.”
Conrad turned to meet his gaze with a blank stare as if he wasn’t comprehending what John had just said. Before John could start to worry about him the man suddenly smiled.
“Couldn’t agree more,” he holstered his weapon and stepped past John patting him on the shoulder as he went, “let’s get some food and relax a little.”
John smiled watching him go, but the smile faded as he turned to look at the disturbed dirt and wondered whether the thing they had just encountered was really contained or a ticking time bomb.
#
“Here it is.”
John frowned, they were stepping into a small clearing with a large tree in the center. The upper branches brushed the top of the two story ceiling and spread out to cover nearly twenty feet in either direction forming a large covering.
Though he hadn’t been entirely sure what to expect Avarlon to be living in he still imagined it would be some form of structure. Considering they were already in a building he realized that was probably a little redundant.
There was a soft boom of thunder and both John and Conrad glanced skyward blinking in confusion.
“It’s a simulated environment, twice a day it will rain.”
Sure enough the room darkened somewhat as the lights above dimmed and water began spraying from fixtures in the ceiling. Within seconds it was a downpour and John found himself grateful to be under the large tree.
“Make your selves comfortable and I shall acquire some food.”
John looked around and failed to see anything resembling furniture. Looking at Conrad the man shrugged and sat down on the floor with his legs out. When John failed to join him he looked up curiously.
“You have pants.”
Conrad roared with laughter causing Avarlon to look back curiously as she ducked behind the trunk of the large tree.
“I keep forgetting, I’ve grown accustomed to those fuzzy cheeks of yours.”
John gritted his teeth as he looked around. Spotting a tree with large leaves he approached it and gently felt one of the broad leaves.
“Think that’s a good idea?”
“Go ahead.”
John turned back to see Avarlon approaching them with a small sack made of plant fibers.
“It doesn’t mind.”
Looking back at the tree John was uncomfortable with the idea that the tree acknowledged his discomfort and was ok with him taking a leaf. The idea that it had an opinion was enough to drive him mad. Before he talked himself out of it he gently tugged one of the leaves free and walked back to where Conrad was sprawled out on the grass.
“I’m not one for traditional food. I derive my energy from the sun and water, but now and then I find myself craving the taste of something sweeter.”
She rolled back the sides of the sack to reveal an assortment of fruits and vegetables. John only recognized half of them so he gingerly fished out what he was confident was a potato. Conrad removed a plum of some kind and bit into it eagerly.
“Careful, the juices will stain your clothing.”
Conrad scoffed and bit deeper into the plum, the purple juices dripping down his chin.
John bit into the potato and was surprised to find that it was sweet. He held it up curiously.
“I’m not sure what you would call it, but it’s a tuber. According to Dr. Swetnick they’re good for his morning bowel movements.”
The maybe potato was suddenly less appetizing, but John forced himself to keep eating. He wondered when he’d have to cross that road and was grateful the urge hadn’t struck him yet. Looking at the fruit he wondered if it would be a good idea to eat any of them.
“So how long have you been here,” asked John biting into the tuber again.
Avarlon frowned in thought.
“I’m not entirely sure to be honest, mankind has changed the method for tracking time a number of times since my day. I was here shortly after the building was constructed if that helps.”
“Ballpark, how many years?”
She gave Conrad a steely glare before sighing.
“I’d say a decade or so in this place. But I was on the organization’s radar long before that. They would visit me in what is now called the Galloway Forest.”
“What do you know about Darkshield?”
She shook her head, settling onto the grass near them. Her wooden knees creaked a little as she stretched.
“Not much as I mentioned. It is an organization obsessed with science I can say that much. To my understanding it’s old, very old.”
“In the real world,” John frowned when he realized how odd that statement was, but decided not to correct himself, “Darkshield is considered a technology company.”
“I do not know entirely what that means, in my day a company was a group of soldiers.”
“Given what we seen that’s probably more accurate.”
Avarlon looked at Conrad.
“Given the horrors you’ve witnessed I can understand your jaded perspective of the company. But I can assure you this is not how things are here.”
“Then how is it?”
“When I was first contacted by representatives of Darkshield I was on the brink of death. Their scientists managed to nurture me and bring me back to health. They offered me asylum, but I didn’t take them up on it immediately.’
She sighed and by the look in her eyes John could tell she was recalling something tragic.
“But after it became apparent I could not keep myself secret from the world I took them up on the offer. I was brought here to this garden. For a year or so they conducted a variety of experiments on me. Told me I was a yellow anomaly.”
“A yellow anomaly?”
“Some classification they used,” she shrugged her shoulders, the sound producing a creak, “if I remember correctly it meant I was dangerous but could be trusted.”
Conrad coughed loudly and Avarlon glared at him. He coughed again into his hand and pointed to the plum that he’d nearly finished.
“As I was saying,” Avarlon said with some annoyance, “after they studied me for nearly a year I was allowed to live in this garden and do as I pleased. Over the years I’d receive visitors and occasionally one of the scientist would ask me questions about my nature, powers, or my past.”
“Do you know what else goes on here?”
“I don’t know much. Based on my own experiences I think there are a number of anomalies or those touched by anomalies in this building they study and experiment on.”
A dark cloud suddenly passed over her face and the tree rattled above her as if sharing her mood. Conrad coughed again, his eyes on the branches above him.
“I imagine that creature we encountered earlier is another anomaly. One who took on Mr. Clement’s appearance.”
“Who was Mr. Clement?”
“A kind man who visited me often. I do not know what his role was here, but he would question me at length about what I was growing and my techniques. I suspected the man was deeply invested in horticulture.”
Conrad coughed again, his eyes watering.
“Are you alright,” John asked.
“Last bite was a little bitter that’s all.”
“Bitter,” Avarlon sniffed, “I think not.”
“It’s no big deal,” he said clearing his throat, “just the last bite tasted funny. The rest of it was really good.”
“These do not become bitter,” she said tapping the sticky pit in his hand, “depending on their maturity they are either sweet or tangy, but never bitter.”
“Well this one was. The last bite was like biting into a coffee ground.”
Avarlon searched his gaze for a moment with her eyes in slits. When Conrad coughed again, they suddenly widened.
“Was the last bite warm?”
“Room temperature I guess.”
In a flash Avarlon lunged across the grass on top of Conrad pinning him to the ground. John dropped the last bite of his tuber in surprise and Conrad cried out in shock.
“Hey, what the hell?”
“Open his shirt.”
John frowned at Avarlon.
“I said open his shirt!”
The panic in her voice was deeply unsettling and he quickly hurried over. Even Conrad seemed unnerved by her sudden change in mood and stopped struggling.
John ripped the bullet proof vest loose and quickly tugged it off of Conrad’s body.
“Open the buttons, quickly!”
A quick glance showed the woman was studying Conrad’s face carefully. John glanced at the man and saw that beads of sweat were building on his forehead. He no longer seemed to be coughing though.
John was busy pulling open a button when he felt something move under his fingertips. Jerking his hand back his eyes darted over the area.
“What happened?”
“I don’t know…”
John resumed removing the buttons, moving a little faster now, his eyes on the man’s chest. In a matter of moments he had the final button unfastened and pulled back both sides of the shirt, exposing the man’s somewhat hairy torso.
When the area was fully exposed John jerked back into an upright position. Avarlon’s face became grim and Conrad’s eyes widened in horror as he uttered a string of curses before asking what was on John’s mind.
“What is that?”
On Conrad’s hairy stomach a small form was moving underneath the skin. It was about two inches long and an inch thick and it slowly wriggled underneath the man’s flesh like a worm burrowing in the dirt. In fact, the more John looked at the moving figure the more confident he felt in classifying it as a worm.
“It seems you shouldn’t have taken that last bite.”
Author’s Note:
I hope you’re enjoying Darkshield: John’s Arc 1. A new chapter comes out free every week and next week’s chapter will be available on September 21st 2020.
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