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Wizard's Oak

Part 3

By Alder StraussPublished 3 years ago 15 min read
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Down in the hole, Laura placed the flashlight at an angle so that it would illuminate Linda, who lay there in a disoriented state. She was conscious, but barely. It appeared as though she had hit her head upon impact, but from the angle the light was shining, Laura couldn’t tell. She grabbed the flashlight and angled it to where it would illuminate the back of Linda’s head without her having to move it. But she couldn’t see a thing.

“Linda,” Laura whispered. “I need to tilt your head slightly forward to see where you’re bleeding from and how bad, okay?”

Linda moaned.

“I’m sorry, babe. But, you’ll just have to work with me on this one.”

Laura carefully pulled Linda’s head towards her. Linda moaned again, protesting the pain, but kept her head tilted forward. Laura grabbed the flashlight with her other hand and pointed it to the back of Linda’s head. She then carefully parted the bloody, matted hair and found where the skin had been split. In this careful examination Laura came to the conclusion that there was a cut that was deep enough to cause sufficient bleeding, but not enough to require stitches.

“Nothing major,” Laura said, soothingly. “I’m guessing it’s just a minor concussion that’s the worst of it. You’ll be able to shake it off in no time, I’m sure.”

Laura went into her backpack to retrieve fresh cloth and water to clean the wound. She also put aside another bottle for Linda to drink. As she was preparing to clean the blood from Linda’s hair, Linda spoke.

“My, my leg. Please, Linda. Please check it.” She pointed to her left one.

Laura put the wet cloth down on top of her backpack and picked up the flashlight. She looked at Linda.

“Careful when you check,” Linda warned. “It, it hurts real bad.”

Laura looked at her for a second.

“You got it,” she replied.

Laura reached down and grabbed Linda’s pant leg. Slowly, she inched it up her ankle. Linda groaned and winced in pain, her hands even clawed at the ground beside her.

“I’m sorry,” Laura replied.

“It’s, it’s okay. Just hurry up please, it’s unbearable,” Linda cried.

Laura resumed.

It wasn’t but about a quarter of the way up her leg that the skin’s pigmentation had changed to a black and purple discoloration; a sign of substantial bruising. It was quite possible that Linda’s leg was broken, and as Laura lifted her pant leg up a few inches more, her suspicions were verified. There, in the center of discolored flesh, was a mound, a lump of flesh that had no natural means of being there. And pushing it up, Laura could see the faintest sliver of bone threatening to push through.

“Is it,” Linda begged. “Is it… broken?”

Laura looked at Linda bleakly for a moment.

“I’m afraid so. It looks to be your tibia. I think it’s compound.”

Tears welled up in Linda’s eyes.

“Shit. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m so, so sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it. Accidents happen.” Laura stroked Linda’s hair to reassure her.

“The trip’s over, the mountain’s won. The boys are going to be pissed, aren’t they?”

She started to sob.

“No, no, no,” Laura said. “The mountain’s not important. All they care about is your safety.”

“Tell them I’ll make it up to them. Tell them I feel like shit,” Linda continued.

“You’ll tell them yourself in just a little while,” Laura replied. “Right after we get you out of here.”

“Okay, Laura. Okay,” Linda replied. “Thank you for everything. I don’t deserve it. Really.”

“That’s nonsense, you would do the same for me, I know,” Laura replied.

Linda nodded.

“Of course I would.”

“Now Linda, I have to leave you here for just a moment so that I can find a way to get you out of here, okay?”

Linda’s eyes grew wide with fright.

“No, no, no. Please, don’t leave me here all alone. Please, just stay here with me. It’ll give me a reason to stay strong. It even almost makes the pain go away.”

Laura tried to reassure her.

“Please, Laura, please,” Linda begged.

“Okay, okay. I’ll stay. Eric and Jonathan are right above us. I’ll see what they can do, okay?”

“Okay,” Linda replied.

Laura stood up and brushed herself off. She then grabbed the flashlight and waved it about the perimeters of the mouth of the hole. In her second wave she caught sight of Eric.

“Eric, Jonathan, can you hear me alright?”

“We can hear you,” Eric replied. “Is everything okay down there?”

“Well, Linda’s hurt real bad. She’s got a minor concussion and a compound fracture to her lower left leg. I don’t know any other way out down here so I need to stay and look while I make sure Linda gets through this okay.”

“Okay,” Jonathan replied. “So, what do you need us to do?”

“We need to make a splint,” Laura shouted back. “The boards down here are too small and brittle, so you’ll need to go out and scrounge up some wood that we can use to make one. Do you know what to look for? Do you know what to find?”

“Yeah, it’s pretty simple. Shouldn’t be a problem,” Eric shouted back.

“We’ll make it snappy.”

“Thank you guys,” Laura shouted. “You two are the best. Good luck.”

“We’ll be back before you know it,” Eric shouted back, and the two left Laura’s sight to go find supplies so Laura could make a splint for Linda.

Outside the house it had already started getting dark. As the day fleeted and dusk approached, the two brought out their flashlights and started their search for other houses that were spaciously scattered throughout this mysterious town. Finding nothing in their immediate surroundings, they hastened their search as shadows from the setting sun stretched and expanded, ushering in an eager night. And though the two had flashlights with light sufficient enough to conduct such a search, they were not competent enough to last the whole night through, nor were they bright enough or the diameter of the light wide enough to coerce the darkness around them to fully retreat. Still, they had to make due with what they had, so they carried on.

“Sure got dark quick. Damned strange, it is,” Jonathan stated.

“Yeah. Stay close and keep an eye on where we are. We don’t want to get lost in a place like this. Especially when Linda and Laura need us.”

“I hear you there,” Jonathan replied. “This goddamned place gives me the creeps.”

“Yea, me too.”

The two now traveled faster, almost running. Darkness now completely enveloped them. They examined structures at a glance. All of them were made of stone. All the wood around them were twisted gnarled tree branches; nothing flat, nothing sufficient for a splint. They were about to call searching around this part of the town quits when Jonathan saw a glimpse of something.

A wagon.

Still intact, it was almost certainly constructed of wood of all sorts and sizes that would be more than perfect for a splint.

“Look, Eric,” Jonathan pointed to the wagon.

“Perfect, let’s tear it apart and take the pieces we need back to the girls.”

The two ran up to it. Viciously, they grabbed wood and clawed and kicked at its joints. The wood gave way easily and, within a few minutes, the two had plenty of it to assist their friend.

“How much do we need,” Jonathan asked Eric.

“Only a few pieces. But let’s take as much as we can carry just to be sure.”

“Sounds good. Let’s get the hell out of here.”

The two ambled back towards the other two as best as one could with an armful of boards and a flashlight between their fingers. They were but minutes away when Eric noticed their footsteps sounded surprisingly lighter. He stopped and listened. No other footsteps reached his ears. Jonathan had stopped moving and Eric couldn’t see him. He had lost Jonathan! Eric placed the boards down and retraced his steps in an attempt to find him.

“Jonathan,” he called out. “Jonathan, where are you?”

He kept running, flashlight in hand. Shadows seemed to magnify and come to life, dancing and swaying in response to every bounce of his flashlight from the impact his feet made upon the ground.

“Jonathan. Answer me!”

But he heard nothing. Then he heard something worse.

Gggrrrrrrooooaaaaannnnn…

“What the hell was that,” Eric muttered to himself.

“Jonathan?”

We moved his flashlight around the trees. A few seconds later he heard it again.

Gggrrrrrrooooaaaaannnnn…

“Hello? Jonathan?”

Eric took a few steps forward but stopped when he brushed against something that lay at his feet. He shined the flashlight to see what it was. It was the boards that Jonathan had been carrying. There was something else, too. Something sprinkled across them. Something red, something wet… blood.

Eric’s eyes grew wide in terror and he called out once more, frantically.

“Jonathan!”

Eric looked down and followed the trails of blood with this flashlight, from the boards, across the mossy clearing and into the forest beyond the perimeter of trees.

Eric stopped and swallowed hard. His breathing slowed, though his heart raced. He clenched his fist and his grip on the flashlight and stepped forward. Within a few paces, he penetrated the perimeter and, once inside, looked for more blood to follow. But there was none. Then he heard something else. Another kind of groan. But unlike the ones before, this one sounded human. This one even sounded like…

“Jonathan!”

Eric cried out as his flashlight spotted the unimaginable horror standing before him. But that’s all Eric could do. He could not speak anymore. His voice had left him, along with his mind as he stood there and watched his friend disappear into this unfathomable thing; legs, arms, torso and head. All that was intact sunk beneath its surface. Jonathan reached out for life, for a second chance and for freedom. In a brief moment of spontaneous courage, Eric reached back and, intertwining his fingers with Jonathan’s, desperately tried to pull his friend out of its clutches. But the thing’s grip on Jonathan was too powerful and Eric soon lost his grip of his friend’s arm and flew back upon the earth. From there, all he could do was watch as eventually, it took with Jonathan the rest of his arm.

Eric fainted.

Laura had fallen asleep. When she woke up it was morning. The flashlight that lay beside her had been left on all night, but was, to her surprise, still working. And it was still pointing at Linda. Only, Linda wasn’t there. When Laura realized this, she cried out for her.

“Linda? Linda!?” But there was no answer.

Frantically, she looked around. Searching for a sign that maybe Linda had moved, had tried to get out on her own. Laura grabbed the flashlight and panned it around the room. Linda was nowhere in sight. Out of the corner of her eye she saw something. A sliver of light in the corner of the room that was distinctively apparent. She got up, walked over and shined the flashlight on it. It looked like one of the other walls that occupied the room. It was covered in root and dirt. Only, this one had the faintest remnants of a door handle. She pulled it towards her and, with considerable effort, it creaked open, granting entry.

“Linda?”

There was no answer. Laura went in and shined the flashlight around once more. She caught the glimpse of steps that seemed to lead upstairs somewhere.

“Maybe Linda went up there,” Laura murmured.

She went back and grabbed her and Linda’s backpacks. As she walked towards the door, her foot looped something that caused her to lose balance and stumble. She took the flashlight out and pointed to it. It was Linda’s camera. She picked it up. Upon close examination she saw that the lens was broken, but everything else was intact and seemingly operational. The sight of this greatly concerned Laura. It was unlike Linda to leave her camera behind. It was like a child to her. She had to be around here somewhere.

Laura walked through the second room and up the stairs. At the top there was a door. She tried its handle, but it wouldn’t budge. She then kicked at the handle and, with little effort, its worn timber construction gave in and the handle broke free, plummeting to her feet and bouncing down the stairs onto the dark floor below. Daylight shot through the hole Laura had made. With one push the door flung open and the rest rushed in, causing her to close her eyes and cover her face. When Laura opened her eyes, she found herself outside of the house and standing upon the mossy streets of the town.

“Linda! Linda!”

Laura continued to call out, but there was no answer.

“Linda! Linda!”

Still no answer.

Laura walked into the trees just beyond the perimeter. She continued calling, but still got nothing. Her eyes probed the area for any clues, any signs that Linda might be laying somewhere close. Not a minute after, she stopped. Her eyes had caught the glimpse of something in the distance.

“Eric!”

She ran up to him, or what was left of him. The man she once knew was now nothing more than a quivering mass of contorted fright. Eric lay in a fetal position, his teeth chattering and his tongue speaking nonsense. Tears stained his cheeks and his eyes were bloodshot. He stared out into space.

“Eric,” Laura said as she shook him. “Eric, what the hell happened to you?”

He didn’t respond. He didn’t even look at her.

“Eric, I need to know. Have you seen Linda?”

There was no response.

“Eric, goddammit. I can’t find Linda. She disappeared. I need you here, now. Eric!”

He glanced over at her. Then he blinked and squirted out a few more tears.

“Eric. Eric, where the hell is Jonathan,” Laura begged.

Eric shook his head. He slowly turned to her and spoke.

“Jonathan. Jonathan?”

“Yes, Eric. Jonathan. Where is he?”

“He’s gone,” He replied.

“Gone? What do you mean gone?”

“T-t-taken, or dead or, or something,” Eric replied.

“What are you talking about? Dead?” Laura’s voice started shaking. Eric was not making sense.

“Yes. I think so. I don’t know. But that’s w-what would explain the b-blood.”

“What blood,” Laura asked. “What blood?”

Eric paused for a moment.

“Y-you’re stepping in it.”

Laura looked down and found herself standing in a considerable ring of blood that stained her shoes and painted her ankles red.

“This is Jonathan’s,” she cried. “How the hell do you know that?”

“F-f-follow the trail. You’ll see,” Eric replied.

“What trail,” Laura barked.

Eric pointed.

Laura looked and saw a trail that disappeared beyond the perimeter of the trees and, in the distance, faintly reappear in the town. She got up and followed it. Eventually, it led her to the pile of boards and even to Jonathan’s backpack a few yards away. It too was stained with blood.

Now Laura was frightened. She ran to Eric.

“We’ve got to get out of here! C’mon Eric. We’ve got to get back.”

“I didn’t do it,” Eric whimpered meekly.

“Didn’t do what,” Laura asked.

“Kill him.”

Laura looked Eric in the eye.

“I know you didn’t. You and Jonathan are good friends. You don’t have it in you.”

Eric smiled.

Laura helped him up and put his arm over her shoulder.

“Help me carry these packs.”

“Sh-sure.”

As they descended down the trail that led them to that abandoned town, Eric looked back at it one last time.

“Hey, Laura,” he asked.

“What, what do we do about Jonathan and, and Linda?”

Laura was silent for a moment, then she spoke.

“I’m not sure, Eric. I’m not sure.”

A few hours or so later they had made it to their destination.

Eric and Laura. Both found themselves the following day sitting at the terminal waiting for their plane to depart. Laura had her and Jonathan’s backpacks, and Eric had his and Linda’s.

“Oh shit,” Laura said. “I almost forgot about this.” She held the mysterious fruit that she had eaten a few days earlier in that old, abandoned town on the mountain.

“Remember,” she said to Eric. “Remember that you agreed to eat it if I didn’t die from it up there on that mountain?”

Eric looked at it for a moment. It still glowed.

“Yeah, I remember,” he reluctantly agreed.

She looked at him, as if about to stare daggers into his eyes.

“Okay, okay. You twisted my arm. Give it here.”

She handed it to him and he looked at it.

“Is it even still good?”

“Just eat it,” she scolded.

“Fine.” He took a bite.

“And?” Laura’s eyes grew wide and hopeful in anticipation of his response.

“Hold on, I’m not finished with it,” Eric muffled out in between mouthfuls.

When he finally finished the last bite he turned to her and said,

“Pretty damn good.”

“Well there you go,” she replied. “You can’t be afraid to try something new every once in a while.”

“You’re right,” he said.

“I know I am,” Laura replied. “Really,” she continued. “Where’s the harm in it?”

The boarding announcement came and the two stood up and headed towards the plane.

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