Short Story Segment #2

Do trees have hearts?

People certainly do. Soft, squishy organs that are a powerful physical representation of life.

But, what about trees? Do they have such a tangible thing as a heart? Or, is it just metaphysical? The heart of a tree.

What if I told you they exist? And, not only do they exist, but certain people have monopolized such knowledge for decades.

Why would they monopolize such knowledge? What's so important about tree hearts anyways? What use could they possibly have?

Don't worry, I'll explain.

For me, it all started when I was heading back to the police station after settling a case from out of town. Everything was calm and peaceful, I mean, relatively peaceful. Christmas was a couple of weeks away so, yeah, people could get a bit chaotic around this time.

But, as I said, for now, everything was hunky dory. Maybe things were a little eerie with the fading light and the massive freight truck in front of me blocking my sight of the landscape ahead. But, yeah, everything was copacetic. No Problems.

I might have been right too. If not for a sudden disturbance, my life would have continued down it's boring, but happy track.

Alas, as I was driving, I happened to notice a bright light coming from somewhere in front of the freight truck, slightly to the left. Squinting my eyes, I struggled to make out what was emitting such a bright light. As I drove further, the light appeared to be covering the silhouette of a person.

And then, just when I saw the truth, the freight truck in front of me swerved, leaned over to its right side dangerously and moments later, collapsed heavily onto the ground. Sparks and screeches of metal abounded. I, too stunned by the sudden fall of the freight truck, slammed into the collapsed vehicle with my cop car going 60 miles per hour.

It's a good thing there was nobody else on this long straightaway. That's what I found myself thinking as I lay there, bleeding and dying amidst the wreckage of two vehicles.

Oh, and how could I forget what caused this accident. It's something I'll never forget, a person standing on the side of the road, just standing there, smiling, with the glow of a thousand suns emitting from their mouth. The driver of the freight truck must have seen it too and was so startled that they caused their vehicle to tip over.

And poor unlucky me, caught up in this mess. As I struggled to look around myself at the last sights I would likely ever see, I noticed something strange spilling out of the busted open freight truck.

What are they? I remember asking myself.

But, who could blame me? What spilled out of that freight truck was something I had never seen before. Light brown discs that looked like they were thin slices of a tree, rings and all, poured out of that freight truck. But, the strange thing about them, was that all of them, despite falling down and rolling here and there, were floating an inch off the ground. They also seemed to bounce off of each other, never touching, as if they all had an extra one-inch invisible layer made of ... something.

Maybe I was loosing my mind.

While questioning my sanity, I heard the sound of metal rending before being tossed heavily to the ground in a loud clang.

Did the driver of the freight truck survive? Maybe they can get me some help.

Yes. They found me. They helped me. They healed me. They ...

Apparently, trees have hearts. Those floaty disc-like slices of tree I mentioned before? That's them. Turns out, Logging Tech found out that after a tree is cut down, leaving only a stump behind, if you dig into the stump you can find the heart of that tree. However, you have to act quick, because the heart only exists for one hour before vanishing. Oh, and it doesn't appear until the tree is chopped down either.

And, get this, these tree hearts can be implanted into people, living people. Causing them to mutate into tree people. You know. Bark like skin, leafy green hair.

Now? I work for Logging Tech. Can't really disobey them. They have some Master tree heart that they can use to control the rest of us 'tree hearts'. It's like I'm connected to some sort of hive mind, or maybe root mind is more accurate.

Anyway, it lets us communicate with each other telepathically. Staves off our boredom for a bit. It also lets us plot our escape.

Oh, and it lets me talk to you too.

So, welcome to the family.