Chapter Forty-Six

To Be or Not to Be

“Geth!” Winter yelled, clinging to one of his roots and not knowing if he could even understand her. “Geth!”

The wind blowing across the prairie was so forceful that Winter knew she couldn’t hold on much longer. The sky rolled backwards again and the sound of some eerie music filled the air. The music stopped, the sun turned green, and the wind blew even harder.

“Lilly?”     

There was no answer.

“Geth!”

Geth reached down with two of his limbs and pulled Winter up into his branches. The wind was tearing off his leaves and screeching through his limbs. Winter stood on one of the high branches and wrapped her arms around the trunk of the tree.

The wind stopped.

“Please, Geth,” Winter pleaded.

A fantastic sucking sound rumbled across the Oklahoma prairie. Winter looked to the north and watched as the ground about a mile away began to buckle and rise. She thought at first it was just an avaland, but the soil was too dark, and the mound rose hundreds of feet into the air.

Winter had never seen the Dearth in all his dark glory. She had seen him as a kindly old man, but something was different about him now. It very well could have been the fact that he was taller than a twenty-story building, as thick as a mountain, and bubbling like black tar. Winter could see his round head and watched as he opened his mouth and blew out enough dirt to fill the Grand Canyon.

“He’s coming this way!” Winter yelled.

Dark roots shot out of the dirt and up toward Winter. She looked down from Geth and could see dozens of those dark roots popping up from the soil and wrapping themselves around Geth.

Geth shot his own roots downward, mixing with the roots of the oldest tree. The two trees stiffened and clung, each trying to pull the other under.

“What are you doing?” Winter screamed. “The Dearth.”

The Dearth rose even higher, pushing across the prairie like a filthy flood. His bulk absorbed everything in his path. He threw his face down into the soil and took a massive bite out of the ground.

He spat and for a number of minutes it was raining dirt.

Winter clung to Geth, crying as the Dearth moved closer. She felt like a sacrifice waiting to be devoured.

“Leven!” she yelled. “Where are you?”

The wind began again, and the ground felt like it dropped ten feet as Geth wrestled with the roots of the oldest tree.

“Leven!”

The Dearth moved ever closer as the sun and the moon appeared to bump up against each other and then roll backwards.

Winter closed her eyes and froze the Dearth. The black beast stood still for almost a full second and then dropped back down into the soil, leaving its icy shell to shatter and fall.

Instantly the Dearth was back up just like before, except now he was bothered. He shot thousands of dark strings up out of the soil and into the branches, reaching for Winter. Winter moved through the branches like a cat, freezing the strands and breaking them as she pushed upward.

The Dearth roared and took another bite out of the ground.

“Please, Geth,” Winter pleaded, frightened by the desperation in her own voice.

More dark roots shot up and coiled around Geth’s trunk. Winter could feel the entire tree being pulled down into the dirt. She climbed madly to the highest branches.

It was no use. The Dearth loomed larger than a mountain up above, and she and Geth were being dragged down below, where Winter knew the Dearth had even greater power.

The tree dropped ten more feet. It was being sucked into the soil.

“Come on, Geth,” Winter begged as she held tightly to the tallest point of his trunk. “Come on!” Geth was pulled in further.

The Dearth shot out more thousands of tiny black strings that wrapped around Geth’s branches and pinned Winter to the tree. She froze them and then busted out of their grasp, sending shards of ice into the surrounding dirt.

The tree dropped again. Winter’s legs were now under the soil.

“Anyone!” she cried.

Again Geth sank; he was now completely buried under the earth. The Dearth thundered and shot upward like a dirty gusher. He then slammed down against the ground, chasing after Geth.

ii

Clover had no idea what to do. He looked around him as mountains pushed up from the soil and then leveled out. The air was as thick and sticky as maple syrup and it took three breaths to equal just one gulp of air.

His tiny body shivered as he tried to pull Leven away from the tree. It was a lesson in futility. The oldest tree had drastically changed his mood. It was as if self-preservation had kicked in. He was clacking and hollering and pounding the ground with his branches. His roots were whirling and slithering through the soil so heatedly that the ground looked like it was boiling.

A thick branch shot out and wrapped around Leven’s ankles. The tree then picked the unconscious Leven up and pounded him against the ground a few times. As he was about to toss him, the tree seemed to slip and sink into the soil a few inches. He dropped Leven and moaned, pulling himself back up.

“Leven,” Clover pleaded. “Get up.”

Leven’s eyes flashed open and then shut.

“Get up,” Clover begged.

“No,” Leven whispered. “The tree doesn’t wanna go.”

“You have to,” Clover yelled.

“I can’t.”

“I wish I were Geth so I could beat some sense into you.”

“Geth’s probably dead,” Leven moaned. “I’ve failed.”

Three volcanoes shot off in succession in the background. The sound rocked the ground as massive waves of ash blew toward them.

“I think Geth’s alive,” Clover tried. “I think those are his roots tugging on the tree.”

“I can’t do it,” Leven pleaded, his body still lying motionless on the ground. “I’ve hit that thing dozens of times. He’s not going down.”

“Actually you’ve hit him ten times,” Clover said. “The next one will be eleven.”

Leven’s eyes flashed open and stayed open. “Between ten and eleven,” he mumbled. He screamed and ripped his body from the dirt to sit up. He looked toward the oldest tree and watched as the tree struggled with the roots beneath him. The tree would lift up and then be dragged under a couple of inches, only to lift up again later.

“Where’s the axe?” Leven asked, wiping blood from his lips.

“He threw it that way,” Clover pointed.

Leven coughed and turned onto his hands and knees. Then, like an elderly dog, he lifted his front hand. As if by magic, the axe returned.

Unfortunately, the oldest tree noticed.

The tree slammed a branch down against Leven’s back. Leven collapsed against the ground and the axe flew from his grip. The tree reached for the axe while desperately trying to fight off Geth’s root beneath him. Clover leapt from the ground and landed on the branch. With one swift move he sliced the branch off.

The tree screamed and Leven reached for the axe.

iii

Winter could barely breathe. Geth used his roots to pull at the roots of the oldest tree to keep creating small pockets of air. Winter could feel that the Dearth had now joined the fight. Blackness swept over her heart like a smothering plastic. She couldn’t breathe, but, more depressingly, she no longer hoped. She let go of the part of Geth she was holding onto and just let herself be tossed around in the wriggling roots. She knew she needed air, but she didn’t care. Her leg got caught between two fighting roots and snapped. The pain was horrible, but it didn’t compare to the misery in her chest.

Winter believed all was lost.

The Dearth began to bunch up into the roots, pulling himself from all over the soil to smother the one thing that could stop him now. He was so huge that he no longer had any personality or thought, just a mission statement to destroy everything. Like a massive underground aquifer the Dearth flooded the tree roots, pushing Geth and the oldest tree apart.

Winter froze the black mass, but it simply shook off the ice and continued to smother. She kept thinking about what Leven had said and wondering where she had gone wrong. She could get no more air and her lungs were collapsing.

The Dearth pushed up out of the soil in Reality. He was larger than a mountain and covered in dirt.

He screamed and the whole world heard it.

The Dearth then arched his back and threw his head down to the earth. He pushed his entire mass into the soil, wedging the long roots of the two trees apart and pushing Winter up against Geth’s roots. Her hair caught and she could feel her neck bending backwards. There was no clear thought in her head. All she could think about through the pain was stopping the Dearth from diving on them again.

Winter was ready to fade.

She pictured the surface of the earth being nothing but solid ice and then passed out.

iv

The Dearth screamed beneath the soil, fighting to keep Geth from pulling the oldest tree down. The ice Winter had placed over the soil of Reality scratched at him like a fatal sweat. His tarlike being bubbled and gasped for more air. The Dearth pried at the roots, wedging his mass between the two trees. He stretched downward and broke out into the air of Foo.

A horrific blast shook the ground.

The Dearth wrapped part of himself around the oldest tree, pushing the trunk away from Geth’s roots.

Leven could see the black ooze rising up from the soil. He watched it wrap tightly around the trunk of the tree. He stood up and ran toward the tree with the axe above his head.

The tree grabbed Leven around the waist with one of his longest branches. He then heaved Leven heavenward with all his power.

Leven ripped straight up through the air like a missile. His cheeks and face jiggled and blew back as the force of the throw worked him over. His body twitched like a jumping bean.

Clover materialized, holding onto his neck.

“Don’t let go of that axe!” Clover hollered, his own small body shaking from the force of the wind.

Leven tightened his grip on the axe but continued to shoot upward. The wind tore at his clothes, ripping his shirt. His brain rattled and his body went limp as he passed out again.

Clover grabbed the axe just as it was slipping away. He held onto Leven’s shirt collar with one hand and the axe with the other. Leven’s body slowed until it momentarily stopped. Then gravity took over and Leven began to race back down toward the ground.

“Wake up!” Clover screamed. “You’re going to die!”

Clover whacked Leven with the axe handle.

“You. Are. Going. To. Die!”

Leven’s eyes popped open and then shut.

“Please,” Clover begged.

Then, as if politeness were the key, Leven’s eyes popped open and stayed open. His eyeballs rolled back into his head and then jiggled back into place. There was blood on his mouth and he looked like a person who would have preferred death to what he was now doing.

“You’re falling!” Clover screamed, slapping the axe into Leven’s hand.

Leven was falling with his back toward the ground. He kicked, and his body whipped around so that he was facing the fast-approaching tree.

He wanted desperately to scream, but the effort seemed far too great. Leven saw the ground bubbling with roots. He could see some darkness climbing up the trunk of the tree. And he could see the tallest branches racing toward him.

His left shoulder hit the highest branch, and then his left leg snagged the next one and snapped at the knee. Leven reached out with his left hand, grasping to stop the fall, but his left arm got caught and twisted in a way that no left arm should ever be twisted.

Leven screamed as his back slammed into the low branches and he was spit out and deposited on the ground. Both the oldest tree and the Dearth seemed genuinely surprised to see him there. A loud hissing filled the air as Leven stood up on his right leg. Clover swiped at the tree branches as they tried to stop Leven, but they were too slow. Leven twisted his entire body and spun like a top, driving the axe through the Dearth and deep into the tree. Sparks flew, and the rich, oily darkness of the Dearth ignited and blew like a billion bombs.

Leven could see light and feel pain. The agony was so deep he moaned for death as he and the tree both fell forward to the ground.