A Deafening Silence In Heaven - Thomas E. Sniegoski Page 0,131
was all about.
“Don’t fight it,” he ordered, and they looked at him as if he was insane. “If you don’t fight, it won’t think that you’re a threat. Trust me on this.”
“Trust you?” Leila asked as a thick piece of vine wrapped tighter about her throat.
Remy silently allowed the vines to wrap around his legs, waist, and arms. Begrudgingly, the others stopped their struggles, and eventually, although they were completely immobilized, the Garden stopped its assault.
“Now what?” Leila asked.
“It shouldn’t be long now,” Remy said.
As if on cue, the ground in front of him started to churn, to boil, thick black dirt being pushed up from somewhere below by some unknown and growing force.
“Tell me you know what this is,” the Fossil said.
“Yeah,” Remy answered. “I do.”
It was like watching a tree grow in time-lapse photography. First the sprout, and then the shaft of what would eventually become the tree. As it grew, Remy watched it take on more aspects of a human form. In its face, he could see a combination of two other familiar faces.
“Jon . . . Izzy, is that you?” Remy asked, feeling the vines covering his body beginning to grow tighter.
The monolith of wood towered above them now, swaying on tree trunk legs.
“The cancer . . . ,” the tree creature croaked in a voice that sounded like two speaking as one. “It grows too strong!”
“It’s me,” Remy said, trying to capture the Gardener’s attention. “It’s Remy Chandler. Do you remember me?”
The Gardener swayed, looking about the jungle with panicked eyes. “I fight to contain it, but it has become too strong.”
“Jon! Izzy! Are you there?”
The tree creature finally seemed to notice him below its powerful mass.
“It’s Remy,” he said again. “I’m here to help.”
The Gardener’s face at first registered elation, then twisted in a sudden rage. “There can be no help. . . . God is dead . . . and soon I will be as well . . . and the cancer will go out into the world.”
And with those words, the Gardener raised its fist, preparing to strike. Remy struggled within the grasp of the vines, tearing himself free as the fist, thick as a redwood, came down where he’d been mere moments before.
The Gardener, realizing that it had missed, reached for Remy with its other hand. Remy took hold of the Gardener’s yearning fingers, amazed at how fragile they were, the wood crumbling as he twisted away in their grasp.
Samson’s children had managed to free themselves as well and rushed to help him. He watched as Leila charged the tree creature, throwing herself at the backs of its legs. There was a tremendous snap as she struck, and the Gardener bellowed in surprise and pain as it began to topple, one of its thick legs snapped nearly in two.
Samson’s children pounced upon the creature, pinning its thrashing body to the ground. Remy pushed past them to stand above it, looking down into its pained features.
“Jon . . . Izzy,” he said, bearing down upon the creature, forcing it to look at him. “It’s me . . . Remy. . . . We mean you no harm.”
The Gardener seemed to focus on him. “Remy?” it asked, and he saw a spark of recognition in the creature’s eyes.
“The sickness—they set it free . . . allowed it to grow, change. . . .”
“The Shaitan?” he asked. “Are you talking about the Shaitan?”
The tree creature’s eyes widened, awash with madness.
“The Shaitan change . . . they evolve. . . .”
“Evolve? What . . . ?”
“They evolve to better fit this horrible world.”
The Gardener then fell eerily silent, its body growing still. Remy looked to the others.
“What was it talking about?” Leila asked. “What are Shaitan?”
“Mistakes,” the Fossil stated. “Things that should never have existed.”
Again Remy was surprised by the amount of knowledge the old-timer seemed to have, and once again, he was distracted before he could pursue it.
Screams sounded from the dense jungle, and the vegetation shook as pale-skinned creatures, their bodies covered in black sigils, exploded from the jungle.
“Those are the Shaitan,” Remy announced, readying himself for attack. The children did as well, picking up rocks and tree limbs from the ground to defend themselves.
But the horrible things sprang into the air, skirting around them as they disappeared again into the jungle behind the group.
“What’s up with that?” Leila asked.
“I don’t know,” Remy said, suddenly having a very bad feeling.