The Octopus Tree

“She takes care of me. She always takes care of me.”

That was the only way Blair could explain how he survived falling down the hill near his house. He never reached the river at the bottom, and even with it snowing, his parents found him, alive. He should have never survived that accident. That was years ago, and he’s dedicated his life to taking care of her, farming, and producing crops and lumber for years. It doesn’t matter how the season goes; she provides. Blair knows if he takes care of her, she will take care of him. Midday Blair is about to quit for the day. As he moves the tractor into the barn, he sees several cars speed by him. One right after another, each of them filled with people holding signs and screaming out the window. He walks to the end of the driveway; he overhears the train of cars yell, “Save the trees!”

“Save the trees?!” Blair thought to himself.

There are millions of trees, how are they going to protect them all. And it dawns on Blair. The Octopus Tree. The only one that would make people grab pitchforks and torches to save it, okay maybe not torches. This tree is enormous. Just as the name speaks for itself, its branches sprawl out and up, reaching for the skies above. Blair has been frequently but never thought they would endanger it. He jumps onto his bicycle and heads to where a crowd has gathered.

Once he arrives, Blair sees the massive machinery, the kind you’d expect to wipe out a forest. He sees VW busses, electric cars, and several bicycles gathered around. Blair weaves his way closer than swerves around a giant rig, looking like a portable lab. One the side a logo which he could only translate as a tree struck by lightning. As Blair rounds the corner, a door slams into his face, knocking him back. Before he lands, he hears a man talking on his phone with a low deep raspy voice, and he sees the lower half of the guy, at least one leg and an artificial limb.

The man says, “Yes, we are close to the goal, the conversion is in our reach, just need to get rid of these...”

The door silenced the rest. As Blair picks himself up, he hears another voice.

“Are you okay? The jerk didn’t even bother to check.”

Blair turns to see a petite red-haired miss, wearing overalls and a colorful flannel top. Blair isn’t usually shy with words, but seeing her made him lose all of them.

“Um, I’m fine, I guess, just caught me off guard,” he says.

“Don’t be modest, that was Dr. Cruickshank, he’s responsible for this, and he is a grade A, top-level as... well you know what I mean,” she responds.

Blair chuckles and asks, “What IS happening here?”

“Wait, you haven’t heard?” she responds.

Blair shakes his head.

“Well, these giant tree demolishing rigs and this piece of...” she says as she slaps the side of the lab, “are Dr. Cruickshank’s company, and they supposedly discovered that you could convert lumber into energy.”

“Wait. What?” Blair responds.

“Yup, that’s why I put together this little party, to prevent them from doing just that, kill our trees for energy.”

“You put this together?” Blair asked, looking at all the people gathered.

“Don’t look so shocked?” Moira says as she walks towards the Octopus Tree, “My name is Moira.”

Before Blair could respond, Moira is greeted by those with picket signs and yelling at the people in white lab coats.

She jumps up onto a makeshift stage and belts out in a mega-phone.

“We cannot let them take away one of our many life sources!” she exclaims, “Is this not known for its beautiful forests?! Is it not known for its timber? We even have a soccer team named after just that. Why would we want to give another reason for people to take our trees?!”

“She has a brilliant point,” thought Blair.

Just as he thought about turning around the same door that hit him before flies open, inches away from his face, Blair sees that artificial limb step down and hears a low, raspy groan. He then hears the man speak to someone else inside the trailer, “Can you please get your goons to go out there and remove her, she’s taking up precious time, and causing me quite the headache. Do whatever you need to, we need to conduct this experiment now.”

With that, the mystery man steps back into the trailer and slams the door shut. As that door closes, another one opens, on the other end of the container. At least five to six men, dressed in a combination of excellent suites and riot gear, come barging out and start making their way to the crowd. Blair sees one of the men lift a gun and fire into the group. A tear gas cartridge flies through the air and landing amongst the masses. With a loud pop, gas pours up and out. Screams immediately follow as the crowds begin dispersing. Chaos begins to show its ugly head as another tear gas cartridge, causing me more panic and confusion. Blair is knocked to the ground by people fleeing. As he lands, his hands hit the side of a metal cover running towards the old tree. An image flashed before his eyes, of chemicals and electric current running to the tree and the trees melting away into a powder. But what scares Blair is the feeling that came with that image; pain, fear, sadness, and even grief flood him. Tears well up in his eyes, as he wipes them away, he sees Moira covering her face and eyes, and off to the side is one of the men, with a mask, coming at her with a baton. Before Blair could even realize it, he had his shirt off and wrapped around his mouth and nose. He was sprinting towards Moira. The gas was getting thick, and hurting Blair’s eyes, more tears formed. A breeze came flowing through, creating a path for Blair. He lunges just as the man’s baton comes down and clips his shoulder. Blair manages to tackle Moira to the side.

“What the...?!” yells Moira.

She wipes her eyes and sees the security guard over both of them. His baton raised again, and the of them trapped between the guard and the tree. Blair was recouping from the tackle. Moira closed her eyes, expecting to get knocked on the side of her head. She raises her hands. Then she peeks. The guards are not there like he vanished. She sees the branch of the Octopus tree going back towards the sky. She doesn’t believe it.

She helps Blair up, “Did you see that?”

“What?” asks Blair.

“The tree...it...it...” but before she can finish, Blair grabbed her by the arm and was running to the other side of the tree, away from the crowd and gas. Moira was in a state of shock, thinking she must have hit her head.

“What about the tree?” Blair asks.

“Nevermind,” Moira responds.

“Hey, we’ve got to save her,” Blair states as begins looking around the ground near the base of the tree.

Moira gives him a concerning glance, “Save who?” she asks as she follows him.

Before he can answer, he uncovers piping and cables attached to the different parts of the giant trunk. Some are screwed in, and some nailed, some clipped. Blair begins to frantically pull at the different attached points. As they get one unhooked, two guards come sprinting around running towards them. A giant root pops up out of the ground and whips one of the guards, sending him flying back into the nearby brush. Moira’s jaw drops. Blair gets pushed, sending him crashing to the ground. The guard looks to reconnect what he was removed. That raspy unsettling voice is sent booming over a loudspeaker from the other side.

“Conducting test number 1859, in 10..9...8...7...6...”

Blair gets another image flash and rush of feelings as he did before.

“5...4...3...2...”

Blair jumps up, tackles the guard. He grabs the baton and begins frantically wailing away at the pipes and cables, and anything else metal.

“1...go!”

With that, the sound of a surge and rush of electricity come flying around and with a powerful flash and bang. Both Moira and Blair sent flying back into the brush. Moments later, Blair opens his eyes; he can see the limbs of the Octopus Tree, reaching high. Blair smiles. He remembers Moira and gets up and finds her a foot away.

“Moira?! Are you okay?! Talk to me!” he yells, running to her side.

“Dude! Chill. I’m fine, just a little bruised,” she responds.

Blair lets out a massive sigh of relief. Just then, he hears the voice again over the loudspeaker.

“What happened?! Can anyone tell me, please tell me why the tree is still standing there?!”

Several men and women in lab coats come walking around the tree. Blair and Moira stay put, still hidden by brush and plants. They walk around, writing down notes, looking at and feeling the tree. They come up to the side, seeing the damage started by Blair. All of them gather around looking, chatting, and writing down note after note. One of them pulls up a walkie talkie.

“Sir, it looks like either an animal got to the inserts, or they exploded do to the tree being too big.”

A short pause, before you hear an annoyed grunt in that raspy voice, “I find that hard to believe, but never mind, we have a strict time frame we need to meet and do not have time to set up everything again, just leave it and try at our next experimental point.”

The group of them shuffle back towards the trailer.

Blair and Moira wait a few moments before finding their way back to Blair’s bicycle.

“Whoa, that was close,” Blair said, “she almost got hurt; we need to stop that next experiment.”

Moira gives him a concerning look again, “You are interesting...” she says, pausing for Blair to fill in the blank.

Blair giggles, “Blair, and yea, sorry for tackling you earlier, I hope I didn’t hurt you.”

“Nothing I can’t handle, I grew up with brothers, but I have to say I witnessed some unusual and unexpected things today Blair, and I’m getting the sense you know what I’m talking about.”

Blair just smiles and gets on his bike, “I need to find out where they are planning on going to next”

Moira looks over at her VW bus, “If we take my car, we could get there quicker; besides, my phone is in there, and I know a few people that could help us figure it out.”

Blair looks down at his bike and back up her car, “Can we take my bike?”

Moira laughs, “Yea, we can take your bike.”