Cameron woke first, in time to look up and see Jocelyn lift her head from the ground. The day had gone, replaced by night. A large fire crackling at the center of the clearing illuminated them in flickering white-orange.
They crawled toward each other, unconcerned with their own pain as they pushed along the ground. They touched hands, desperate to be closer, only to be halted by a sharp tug. They looked back sharply and realized something was wrapped around their ankles.
Cameron despaired; Jocelyn reached back and grabbed the thick rope preventing her from moving any further. Only it wasn't a rope. It was a vine, soft and pliant. It pulsed in her grip, and she winced as it tightened around her ankle. She followed its length along the ground and saw that it emerged from the earth.
"That doesn't make sense," she muttered. "It's impossible!"
"It is the will of the trees!" a man announced.
Jocelyn and Cameron looked ahead and discovered their captors. There were a dozen of them, and maybe more hiding in the dark beyond the reach of the fire's light. Men, women, and children, all naked, their bodies covered in mud and grass. Among them, they could see Ranger James and the service station owner.
Standing before the group was a man, tall and muscled, his long beard filled with twigs, eyes covered in pitch, and wearing a crown of brambles on his head. Drawn in blood on his mud-stained torso was the symbol they had seen before, a circle and three not-quite vertical lines.
His expression was stern and fierce. The rest of the group, though, looked contented, even delighted, as if this was a normal gathering.
"Who are you?" Jocelyn shouted.
"My name is Rowan," he said, his voice inhumanly deep. "This is my family. My brothers and sisters, who are my sons and daughters. And I am their priest. We who are the servants of the living forest are called the Community."
Cameron whimpered as she looked around her. "The forest, it's alive?"
"It gives us everything," Rowan said. "It nourishes us and protects us from harm, and in return, only asks of us our unquestioning devotion." He clapped his hands, creating a loud pop. "Come, Demetri!"
A dog barked. Cameron gasped, and Jocelyn looked behind them as the black Labrador raced around the fire and between them and trotted to Rowan's side. It sat and received a loving scratch behind its ear.
"But his name is Sancho," Cameron muttered. "It's not Demetri."
"Follower of Demeter!" Rowan announced.
And the community raised their hands behind him and moaned as one in a harmonious low pitch, their faces a portrait of rapture.
"What do you want with us?" Jocelyn screamed.
Rowan answered, "Your essence."
He raised his hands, and Jocelyn and Cameron were willed to stand and face each other. They could not move, could not speak. The fear growing in them as they silently looked to each other, half in light and half in dark, was not for their own lives, but for the other's life.
"You chose your roles, guided, though you were, by a greater destiny! It was you who ate from the forest soil," he said, pointing at Cameron. His digit then swung to Jocelyn. "And it was you who drank of its lake." The Community began to moan in a deeper tone. "The dionomy is realized! And now, under the new moon, you will give back to the forest what you have taken from her! You will give back to her tenfold!"
Their moaning deepened even more, creating a vibration that traveled through the air, the ground, and into Cameron and Jocelyn, seizing them.
"We give praise to the Three Oaks," Rowan howled. "Wisdom! Prosperity! Security! With these things you have given us, our lives are without want. And in return, we give you these bodies, to serve as a vessel for your renewal!"
Suddenly, Cameron belched. And with a horrified expression, she belched again, over and over, unable to control herself and stopping only when she began to spew black-brown putrescence onto the ground. It steamed and bubbled before her, already forming a sizable mound.
The Community's moans intensified.
At the same moment, Jocelyn groaned as the contents of her stomach shifted, and she heaved violently, thrusting her face downward, toward the gathering sludge. Her throat swelled as it ascended. And with an eruption of milky slime, it pushed into her mouth, an object so large it made her jaw crack and stretched her lips as it slowly and finally disgorged, followed by a torrent of the thick slime.
She gazed down and through her tears, saw that she had expelled a round stone, about the size of a softball, so bright blue it almost glowed in the dark. Cameron vomited more dark sludge, allowed to stop only after the stone was completely covered. She panted, quaking in place after.
The collective moaning ended, and the Community cheered as one.
Both Jocelyn and Cameron trembled amid the reverie, and once released from Rowan's grip, fell to their knees before the mound of waste.
A crack of thunder made them gasp and whimper. The leaves around the clearing rustled, and from the vacant black sky, the first drops of warm rain struck them. Looking at each other, they saw what the other could not, the dark beads streaking red down their faces.
It was raining blood.
The Community howled and wailed, raising their arms to the sky and rejoicing in the downpour. The blood cascaded over their dirty bodies as they stomped in the red mud, dancing in place as they yelped and chanted alien words.
"The arrival is complete!" Rowan cheered. "The rain is upon us! Sing to her! For mankind will soon be devoured and its cities razed, and the earth shall be reclaimed!"
Jocelyn looked away from The Community, to the mound before her. Already, a bright green sprout was pushing through the muck, thirsty for the rain. She and Cameron understood it was the beginning of a new life form, though what sort, neither could imagine.
She looked beyond it then, to Cameron, lying on the ground and curled inward, and noticed the vine was gone from her ankle. Jocelyn glanced behind herself. The vine that had been holding her had become dark green mush and dissolved into the grass and black-red mud.
She grinned, vibrated with excitement. And became angry.
Carefully and quietly, she inched closer to Cameron and helped her onto her knees. They held each other, weak and shivering, but together.
"Run with me!" she whispered.
Cameron nodded. They scrambled to their feet, summoning all of their strength, and took off around the fire.
Rowan heard the splashing of their fleeing steps against the wet earth and turned. Fury swept across his face.
"No!" he bellowed. "Stop them! We need their blood! Without it, the age of the Three Oaks can never be realized! Our mother must feed!"
*~*~*
Jocelyn and Cameron raced through the forest, their hearts pounding and their bodies wracked with pain. They slid and slipped on the muddy earth, helping each other to stand, knowing they could not stop, and could not let each other go.
The ground quaked and the forest roared around them the entire way. Branches swatted at their faces and roots burst from the ground as they ran, the tall trees slowly inching toward them.
They dodged each assault but were slowed, and through the cracking trees and raining blood, they could hear the black dog barking, hunting them, with the rest of the Community following after it still chanting and singing to the Three Oaks.
"We don't even know where we are!" Cameron sobbed. "We could be anywhere. What did they do to us, Joey? What's happening?"
Jocelyn didn't say anything, refusing to think about the clearing, any of it. She just kept going, powering across the uneven terrain and between the shifting trees while pulling Cameron with her.
Then they gasped and came to an abrupt halt, nearly running into Cameron's van. The vehicle was as awash as they were in crimson.
"Those idiots!" Jocelyn exclaimed. "We did it, Cammy! Quick, get in!"
Cameron hesitated, her gaze distant, and then, without a word, she took off, heading for the cabin.
"What are you doing?" Jocelyn shouted.
"I have to get our stuff!" she called back.
"What? Just leave it!"
"They'll find us!" Cameron shouted. "They'll get our names and our address, and they will come after us if I don't get our stuff, Joey!"
She reached into her pocket, took out her keys, and threw them to Jocelyn. Jocelyn dropped them and had to collect them from the grass and sticky red mud. When she looked up, Cameron had disappeared into the shadows ahead.
Jocelyn reached to her shoulders then but stopped as an icy chill surged down her spine. It only occurred to her now that she wasn't wearing her pack. The Community had taken their things while they were asleep, and she wasn't sure if they had written their names on anything they'd packed inside.
She didn't know what to say, or if there was anything to say after this night, and chose to ignore it, to put it behind her with everything else, where it was silenced, if only for now. She ran around the front of the van, jumped inside, and jammed the key into the ignition.
"Hurry up, babe."
Cameron shivered, afraid as she felt her way through the dark, until finally she touched the cabin. It was only this morning, she realized, that they were having a wonderful breakfast together, the day full of sunshine and hope. And Sancho was there.
She threw open the door. Inside, it was as black as a void. She entered cautiously, assured, at least, that there would not be any furniture in her way.
And with her first step, she heard a crunch.
The room erupted with chattering and clicking, and Cameron shrank. The cabin was full of insects! She swallowed, stifling her terror, and made her way to the table one step at a time. She soon found the bag, standing where they had left it, and started toward the door when, suddenly, the entire dwelling shifted. She fell to the floor. The beetles swarmed over her, and she screamed, quickly scrambled to her feet and ran from the cabin, crying and swatting at the giant insects.
Bright lights shined against her face, and she stopped and squinted through her tears.
Jocelyn revved the engine. Cameron glanced back. The earth rippled under the cabin, bringing it closer to the reaching trees.
"Get in already!" Jocelyn shouted.
Cameron jolted and got into the passenger seat. Jocelyn turned the van, ready to drive off, when a massive branch slammed against the ground, with a boom like an explosion, splashing the pools of blood.
They screamed, and Jocelyn drove around it.
As they sped down the forest path, sliding and wavering in the mud, the trees slithered toward them, closing in on the vehicle like a wall, scraping at its sides with a deafening shriek.
And then, they burst onto the desolate county road, straightening out on the smooth pavement, returning to the quiet and calm of the real world.
The van thrummed as Jocelyn drove, gripping the wheel. After a while, their shaking ended and they slouched and slumped in their seats, too exhausted to stay upright or feel anything more.
They traded places when they stopped to refuel an hour later, under the bright suburban lights. Cameron cleaned the blood from her face with a shirt from their bag and put on another. The shadows and the night hid the rest.
For the rest of the drive, they did not say another word to each other.