Unnatural

“200,000 acres of rainforest is burned down everyday and they say 20% of the Amazon has vanished...” The lumberjack read the facts off his phone out loud to his co-workers. “Huh, well would you look at that. All this hard labour and use of machinery day after day, for decades, and we’ve only scratched 20% of it from the earth.” He clapped his hands and rubbed them together. “I think we gotta pick up the pace boys!” All the lumberjacks cheered as they raised their cans of energy drinks into the air and guzzled them down before dropping all of the crumpled cans onto the jungle floor. Each worker dispersed into different directions, axes over their shoulders as they walked into the wilderness to find their designated trees for chopping.

One lumberjack switched his helmet light on as he entered a densely dark area of jungle. He looked up at the trees that were blocking out almost all of the sunlight. The only thing he could see above him were slight specks of the green & gold which were the only indication that he was walking underneath tree foliage.

He unclipped the walkie talkie from his utility belt and raised it towards his mouth to speak.

“I’m telling you man... it’s meant to be one of the most beautiful places on earth but it still gives me the creeps. This much nature… it kind of feels unnatural.”

“Hahaha, shut up! How can nature feel unnatural.” said the co-worker as his voice fuzzed through the radio static.

“Just compared to the rest of nature you see in the world, this is on a different level, it’s almost intimidating how tall these trees are… I swear some of these are even taller than most skyscrapers.”

“Nah man you just haven’t seen a city in a few years. You’ve forgotten how big buildings are. These trees are obviously much smaller”. Said his friend over the comms.

“Yeah I guess I gotta get back to civilization soon, been doing this for too long...OW!”.

The lumberjack flinched and dropped his radio, as something hard hit the top of his head.

The lumberjack turned around, half expecting to see a co-worker who had just smacked him on the head but no one was there... The Lumberjack shouted out an elongated: “Hellooo.”

The beam from his helmet swivelled back and forth penetrating the dense jungle shadows.

“Hello…” the voice came from the direction he was originally facing, before he jumped and turned around.

“Hello?” He turned his head back round.

“Hello. Bro.. bro talk to me… are you alright?” He realized it was his friend on the radio, his voice fuzzing through the comms static from the ground where he dropped it. He bent down to pick it up and saw a half squashed pear fruit next to the radio. He felt the top of his helmet and peeled off the remains of some pear fruit. Then picked up the radio, cleaning the mud & pear juice off it before speaking into it. “Yeah, I’m fine. A falling piece of fruit hit me on the head. Startled me a bit.” The lumberjack walked over to a nearby tree trunk as he awaited his friend’s response.

“Let me know if you’re gonna start spouting out some Isaac Newton theories.” Said his friend on the intercom. “Yeah I’ll let you know if that starts happening.” The lumberjack smiled to himself as he holstered his radio and removed the axe from the top of his shoulder where it had been resting.

He brought the axe back and swung hard, horizontally, embedding the blade into the tree’s wood. Upon striking it another pear fell down from the tree. The lumberjack dislodged his blade and chopped again and again, more pears rained down with each hit. On the fourth chop the tree collapsed. He went over to the next tree and began the same process. As he firmly swung the blade and embedded into the bark… he heard a distant howl. He turned around trying to figure out where the noise came from as it echoed through the trees. He let go of the axe which remained embedded in the tree trunk. He unclipped the radio from his waist and spoke into it with urgency.

“Barry, I just heard a scream. Did you hear it?”

“Yeah... I heard it”

“What was it?”

“Probably just a wild animal eating another wild animal.”

“Shouldn’t we be alarmed about that! This part of the forest was meant to be empty of any dangerous animals.”

“Bro it’s the jungle, it’s never guaranteed.”

“I didn’t sign up for aggressive animal encounters…” The radio was knocked out of his hand by another falling pear. He bent down and picked the radio up. “I’m going back. I’m not getting eaten out here by some wildcat or ape. I’ll meet you back at the cabin this evening.”

“Alright man suit yourself, it’s your choice not to get paid for a full day you wimp.”

“Yep. I’m not taking any risks out here. Never heard a growl like that.”

He re-holstered his radio and walked over to where he left his axe, where he remembered embedding it in the tree… except it was no longer there. He turned around looking at every nearby tree in case he was just tripping. Nowhere in sight. Not even any chopmarks to show where he left it. He stood up on the carcass of the tree he dismembered and did a three sixty degree take of his surroundings. He pulled out his radio again and changed the radio channel so that he wasn’t just talking to Barry but all of the lumberjacks. “Guys, are any of you messing with me? My axe which I left for one second stabbed into a tree has gone missing.”

“Nah not me” said Spencer.

“Not me.” Said Bill.

“No!” Said Warren.

“Nah man we all went our separate ways. We’re in our own regions on the map. We’ve even got our own tracking devices on us in case we get lost... in case you’re forgetting the recent upgrades.” Said Barry.

“Dammit Barry I know that, but someone could easily turn it off!”

“Are you sure you didn’t drop the axe and it just disappeared under some leaves?”

“That’s a good point, checking now.” The Lumberjack re-clipped his walkie talkie and jumped down from the decimated tree he was standing on. He scanned the floor, kicking up leaves circling every possible tree nearby to the chopped down one. His foot nudged something in the undergrowth and he bent down to pick it up.

Just as he ducked down the axe came spinning through the air and stabbed itself into the tree, right next to him, inches above his head. He stood up and banged his head against the length of the protruding handle. He pulled the axe out from the tree and held it up, shakily. The blade was missing from the end of the handle. He turned off his headlight and darted behind a tree to hide from whatever psycho that threw it at him.

Despite being in a place that produced a large amount of oxygen for the world, he felt very short of breath right now. He held the handle up in front of his face, how did the axe embed itself into the tree with no blade?

The handle suddenly rotated in his hands horizontally, out of his control, pinning him against the tree. He brought his hands underneath the handle to try and push it away, but the handle didn’t budge.

He screamed as the handle accelerated up the length of the tree, dragging him up with it. His grip tightened as he hung on for dear life. Barry’s voice came through the radio. He couldn’t move his hands to pick up and respond so he helplessly listened.

“Bro, did you find the axe? We can come bring you a new one, unless you still want to head back and call it a da...a.a...a...y?”. The radio fizzed as the electronics were crushed by an unseen force. There was silence after this that was eventually interrupted by the radio shattering against the ground far, far beneath him.

The handle continued to gradually raise him up, closer to the roof of the jungle foliage. The Lumberjack saw fragments of golden sunlight that sieved through the shadows of the thick green leaves more clearly, making things slightly more visible. In the trunk of a neighboring tree sunlight reflected off something metallic.

He squinted and forced his gaze to the side. It was the blade from the end of his axe that went missing. It was embedded into the wood, but what was it doing up here? He thought to himself.

He heard the slow eerie creak of wood as a branch extended outwards from the tree trunk, the blade attached at its very end. The branch swung in the same motion as the lumberjack had done with the axe blade many times before.

Only this time, the tree swung the blade back at the lumberjack.