The
shrubs standing in the way of progress shook and ruffled as if readying
themselves for a fight. Thorny branches swatted at Jessica and Wanda as the
spray crinkled the healthy plants to a dead, ugly brown. Jessica dropped the
hose and held her hands on her ears.
“What’s wrong?” Wanda
yelled. This wasn’t a one-person job.
“They’re – they’re
screaming at me to stop!” Jessica’s eyes squeezed shut and she hunched over in
a ball.
“What?” Wanda couldn’t
believe what Jessica had just admitted to. She could hear them? Wanda couldn’t
hear anything except the sizzle of the leaves as the chemicals fried the
greenery.
“Jessica – come
on – there’s too many of them! I can’t do this by myself!”
Wanda backed away from
the approaching shrubs to pump the canister again. “Come on, Jess – I
need you!” Wanda surprised herself at how desperate she sounded. Desperation
wasn’t normally her style. For some unknown reason, this group of shrubs seemed
more resilient.
Wanda continued trying to
hold the shrubs back as Jessica fought to regain her composure. Her hands
pressed against her ears as she continued to scream. The will to live bashed
Wanda in the head and she screamed at the shrubs, “Stop it! Leave her alone – you
bastards!”
The stream of chemicals
flowing out of the canister seemed to be lessening. Wanda’s chemical supply was
low. She ran back to the Jeep. They’d tossed in two more canisters from Jane’s
Hummer before they left. Wanda raced back and stood next to Jessica with a
fresh supply. “Come on, Jess. Kill the suckers!” Wanda yelled hoping to refocus
Jessica’s brain.
Jessica shook off the mental
attack and picked up the hose again. When she pointed her canister hose toward
the shrubs, they shrank back before withering and dying in the middle of the
street. The trees seemed to be less intimidated by the spray. Jessica stood up
straight and began pumping her own canister again.
One of the tree’s thin
green branches twirled through the air and swirled its way around Wanda’s
middle, causing her canister to fall out of her hands. A scream ripped out of
her and echoed off the nearby hills. As Wanda struggled trying to fight against
the thin green rope-branch twining its way around her, Jessica pumped her
canister with fierce commitment.
“Come on, Jess – you
can do it!”
Wanda choked out
encouragement. The branch lifted Wanda off her feet and travelled toward the
middle of the tree where Wanda was destined to be an afternoon snack. Panic set
into her bones as she fought against the tightening grasp. Like any apex
predator, once its prey was caught, the creature simply tightened its hold
until the prey gave up.
I don’t want to die. The thought assaulted Wanda out of nowhere. As
sour as she could be, down deep she wanted to live a little longer. Jessica
flashed a purposeful look at her before she commanded.
“Let her go!” She sprayed
the trunk of the trees and their roots, causing them to cower away. Blood
seeped from underneath Wanda’s arms where the bendy green branch dug into the
flesh. Jessica sprayed the trunk of the tree gripping Wanda, but its grip
loosened only slightly.
“They’re dying – just
a little more should do it.” Jessica attempted to reassure her.
“Can’t breathe,” Wanda
whispered. Her head swam with the lack of oxygen to her brain and her
consciousness drifted.
Spraying the contents of
the canister for another minute stopped the tree, and Wanda tumbled to the
ground like a rag-doll. Adrenaline pounded through Jessica’s body. She grabbed
Wanda’s arms and dragged her back to the side of the Jeep. Lungs fighting for
air, Wanda heaved in and out. Trying to breathe normally again. They had to get
into town ASAP. Wanda wasn’t in any shape to drive at this point. She could
have broken ribs or something.
Jessica wasn’t sure if
she was strong enough to lift Wanda into the Jeep, but she had to try. She
needed help.
“Wanda.” Jessica patted
Wanda’s cheek a little less than a slap. “Hey, wake up. Get in the jeep. We’ve
gotta head to town.”
Wanda’s red curls stuck
to her face from the intensity of the recent battle. “Can you stand? I can’t
get you in here by myself, come on.”
Jessica heard a rustle
behind her. Two trees lumbered their way toward her, threatening another
onslaught. Jessica yanked Wanda under her arms and lifted as far as she could.
Wanda yelped at the pain from several broken ribs and found her feet again.
“Kill ’em, Jess! We can’t
leave any of them alive!”
Wanda’s hoarse words
stung through Jessica as she pumped the canister. Her arms dangled off her
shoulders like wet noodles, and tears streamed down her face. She wondered if
she’d have the strength to finish off these predators. Jessica sprayed the last
two trees until the threat ceased.
When Jessica stopped
spraying, the women shared a silent glance and Jess helped Wanda into the jeep.
Wanda hissed through her teeth when she raised her leg and used the OH SHIT! handle to pull her weight onto
the bucket seat, but said nothing else. Jessica would drive now. Once inside
and back on the road, Jessica spoke.
“They told me they’d kill
you for me.” Jessica said, staring straight ahead, her voice shaky.
“You want me dead?” Wanda
smirked.
“After you sliced me
up…yeah. I considered it.”
For several minutes, the
only sounds in the jeep were the engine and the tires rolling over the road.
“They said you were evil and you just wanted me dead.”
Instead of reacting in
defence of her personality flaws, Wanda’s scientific curiosity rose at the new
circumstance. “You mean you’ve some kind of mental connection with them? That
doesn’t make sense. We bled all of the plant material out of you.” Keeping her
body straight and stiff against the seat, Wanda turned her head toward Jessica
while Jessica drove.
“It was a part of my
body. They were a part of me. I was…one of them.” Jessica said, shuddering.
“But…”
She white-knuckled the
steering wheel and squirmed around in her seat, uncomfortable about being so
open and honest with Wanda.
“But?” Wanda led her to
the finish.
“When you sorta came to
my rescue…it changed my mind. For a split-second you were like a…”
“Spit it out, kid.”
“Like a sister!” Jessica
spat the words at Wanda and then and turned her eyes back toward the road. “I
thought maybe there might still be some good in you after all. That’s why I
picked up the canister and killed the plants.”
“I’m not sure I’m sister
material.” Wanda said, staring at the road. Silence settled between them as
Jessica drove toward town.
Coming down the hill to
the first red light, they saw a car was sitting at an awkward angle in the
road. The open car door turned Jessica’s stomach, and she slowed the Jeep –
approaching with caution. Wanda turned her head a little and scanned out the
window while Jessica kept the Jeep on the road. Jessica steered more in the
middle, to manoeuvre around the awkward car.
A wide shiny spot in the
road registered as a large puddle of blood once the Jeep rolled closer to the
scene. Shivers overwhelmed Jessica’s body when she realised the Jeep’s tires
would have to roll through the blood to move past the abandoned car.
Looking past two more
cars whose drivers had shared the same fate, they saw the street pulsated with
groups of people screaming and running. A tree picked up a man trying to fight
back with a shotgun. The tree lowered the man into the top of its trunk and bit
him in half, throwing the bloody stump of his torso and legs to the ground.
Jessica slammed on her
brakes taking in the scene. She’d never seen anything like it, except in a
horror movie. All that stuff was fake. This was real.
Another three men came at
the tree with chainsaws and began slicing the branches away, but the tree’s
other branches could be used as well. The odds stood overwhelmingly against
them. The tree took bites of each of the men as if tasting three different
flavours of ice cream and trying to decide which flavour to eat first.
The crowd screamed. The
brave men were soon consumed by the tree, leaving chainsaws lying on the
ground, with their motors spinning, abandoned on the pavement of Main Street
Jessica stared at the
scene and threw the Jeep into park. She knew between them they only had a
canister-and-a-half of weedkiller left. Would it be enough?
“What are we gonna do?”
Jessica asked Wanda.
