::03:11:08::

::: Forest For The Trees :::

He wasn’t sure just when it had started; he only knew he had to stop it, immediately. If he didn’t, it would surely drive him mad. But how? The pounding, always the pounding. He wasn’t even sure what caused it, at this point. There was no rhyme or reason to it whatsoever, and it came at the worst times, always startling him out of his seat. He had started to feel it, when it was around the corner, he could feel it in his very being. His pupils would dilate, his body would tremble beyond his control, and he wouldn’t notice the white-knuckle grip he had on the edge of his seat until it was too late.

Finally he’d found a good place, a nice spot for he and his family. It had taken him weeks, but it’d seemed like years to him. Then again, he never really had any perception of time, to begin with. And now these constant mysterious noises, coming from all angles, surrounding him from all sides until he felt like he wanted to scream. It wouldn’t do him any good to, though, so he never did. He was always out all day, but when he came home, he knew whatever it was had come. Usually more than once. He found his wife and children, sitting shaking in their dimly lit home, his youngest cowering in the corner. “Why”, they always asked, and it was a good question that he just didn’t have an answer for.

The noises were always there, but sometimes more distant than others. It wasn’t always pounding, either. Sometimes it was buzzing, whirring, like some mechanical giant was tromping through their habitat. Other times it was more insistent, as though it needed to be heard; loud shouts or thumps; foreign sounds to their trained ears. That day, while he was out, he wrapped his hands around his day’s harvest, feeling the smooth cool surface of the base of the acorn and running the pads of his fingers over its textured lid. He didn’t look up as he scampered back home. He never looked up.

Late that evening, the noises started again, like a living parasite that wanted to break and enter into their very souls. This was strange though, the sounds only came during the day. Something was not quite right, though they didn’t know what. He and his wife peered warily from the knot hole in their tree, studying the movement outside, and the silhouettes of the surroundings, almost afraid to absorb more. Then, in the distance, more noise could be heard. And it grew closer, fast.

“Bring it over here, Chuck, this is the one!” Shouted a large man, wearing a fleece jacket over a bright orange vest. The two of them stood watching, horrified as a large mechanical giant began lumbering towards them at a steady pace. They’d never seen anything of this caliber before; living in the middle of a forest, in the depths of a massive red wood, they didn’t see much of anything that wasn’t green or brown. This… thing, this bright yellow angry thing was after them for something, but now they couldn’t escape.

Again, they looked out, and then back at each other, the same hopeless dullness present in their nearly identical stares. They knew there was no way they could escape, now. The noises, all this time, they’d been building up to something, and here it was. They were going to be destroyed.

“Alright, I’m in line; just give me the go ahead!” The muffled voice of the grumbling yellow creature sounded very similar to the man on the ground. For a very brief moment, the man in the vest made eye contact with the two creatures in the tree. For that moment, he was sure they could be saved. Surely there was some compassion in these creatures. They were so similar to his kind. They had built up a life, here. They had a home, a family, he was happy. It was so quiet, so lovely and wonderful before they arrived… why would these beings choose to deliberately destroy that? If only he could see how alike they really were…

“There’s just a couple o’ squirrels in there. Cut‘er down! The shrill squeal of the irate machine whirred and the buzzing and thumping was the loudest it’d ever been. He screamed, or at least he thought he did, before everything was tipped upside-down and turned black. Dust surrounded him. He choked on his breaths. The two creatures laughed, pleased with their work, and shared a few more foreign words with each other. At last, their footsteps became more distant, and the pounding… oh, the pounding… had finally stopped.

Written by: ~ Lynsey Moon