War of the Woods

Ling hid down by the river. Waited. Listened. All she heard was the breeze whispering in the treetops.

She got up on her feet. She was the only one who had survived the attack, the shame ripped her soul. Her troop was gone. Her Sargent. Her mates. She didn’t know where she was, the map and the compass had been in the backpack.

The sun was going down. Southwest. She knew the base camp should be to the east.

Darkness invaded the forest, the bushes got denser as she walked. She heard the sounds of little animals jumping from tree to tree, birds flying in the leaves. They sounded unquiet, stressed. Tree-trunks were scraping together somewhere in the dark.

There had ben gunshots, but she hadn’t seen any enemies. The troop had been separated by the dense vegetation. Then the shooting had started.

Between some bushes she hid to sleep. The night was cold and dark, the moon could not be seen.

She hadn’t seen any enemy since the attack. Strange, she was deep into enemy territory. They should be swarming. She walked with caution.

Further ahead there was some kind of movement. She went closer. It could be enemies, or it could be her own. Maybe some large animal. She was starving.

She got down, crawled under the bushes. Got a view. There was a cluster of plants. Human bodies were hanging from the trees. Animals. The branches moved, but there was no wind. Roots unattached from the ground… (more)

Keep It Down

-Turn it down! The broomstick was banging hard on the ceiling downstairs.

Disco John turned up the volume. Music should be loud. If that grumpy old man didn’t understand, it wasn’t his problem. Lazy old chump, he never went out. John hadn’t even seen him, ever, the four years he had been living here. What did he know about disco?

John rocked around the floor, trying out his latest moves. Soon he’d be back out there, impressing the chicks.

-Turn it the fuck down!

John didn’t hear it anymore, he just felt the pounding in the floor. He kept dancing.

Between songs he heard a knock on the door. Probably the neighbor again. The door was locked, so it didn’t matter. His brand new Audio Research D-150 amplifier made his hair fly, his blood pump. The knocking got harder. He could hear it over the music now.

-Keep it down, will you? John mumbled, turning the music up to full volume. The bass made the floor shake, the walls, his mind and heart. He kept dancing.

There was something disturbing the rhythm. Something off balance, the room was shaking out of style. Disco John looked at the door. It was moving. Out of the entrance window he saw the neighbor standing on the veranda outside. Damn, was he ugly. No wonder he never went out. The slamming got harder, so hard the door was threatening to break.

-Hey! Be careful with the door!

The edges were bulging in. The neighbor was making some horrible sounds outside, screaming louder than his speakers. Damn, was he pissed. And strong. Too strong. John held on to the door.

It was giving in. Tentacles came in over it, around the edges. John put his weight on.

-OK, OK, I’ll turn it down! Relax, dude!

The door gave in. John fell back, holding the door to keep the neighbor away as he came pouring in through the opening like toothpaste out of the tube.

-Calm down, dude! John crawled backwards into the room. The neighbor came in, his tentacles holding on to the walls.

-Calm down! I’ll turn it down, OK? John couldn’t be heard over the music.

The neighbor looked around the room. His eyes locked on the stereo in the corner. John’s new Skyfi Audio system. A grin spread over his hideous face… (more)

Weeds

Weeding his garden, Gerald looked up at the sky. The sun was down, but there was a strange light, this bizarre shine. He did not know why.

Something was sitting in his bushes, a strange little creature. It looked like a butterfly. Or a bat or something. Something weird.

He walked closer. It looked at him, moved its head to the side. It laughed. It laughed a wicked laugh, as if the joke was on him. Even though he had done nothing.

It flew off.

Gerald followed it. Walked behind it, through the garden. It flew slow, too slow, like it was defying laws of nature with its strange, nasty movements. Every once in a while it turned its little head, grinning towards him. It gave him the creeps, but he kept walking.

It flew over the fence to the neighbour’s garden. Gerald followed, even though he hated the neighbour, and the neighbour hated him.

It flew across the highway. Gerald followed. Cars came speeding by, beeping their horns.

He followed it down to the rocky beach, where the waves went high and violent. The beach where you couldn’t swim.

At the end of the beach there was a rock wall. In the wall there was a hole. Into the hole the little bug flew and disappeared.

Gerald looked into the hole.

He could see a light. Fire. Shadows moving, little creatures dancing around.

His little friend turned towards him. Its eyes were sharp, like ice, burning with the fire. Gerald realised he was the one for whom they were waiting.

The beach disappeared. The huge waves coming on the rocks, the sound, the humidity. All was gone.

Little demons were dancing around him, jumping, flying. Little monsters laughing at his old self, what he was, who he had become.

-Coward!

-Worthless old man!

He knew they were right. The heat burned his skin. Their words pierced his soul. He felt strong.

He was back on the beach.

The waves had calmed down.

The strange colour in the sky was still there.

He knew now, what he had to do… (more)

Castaway

Please help me.

I’m stuck on this island, my boat is stranded. My shipmates are all dead. This will be the end of me if I can’t get away. Please, help me. Help me.

Ben Torkelson

He added the coordinates he had calculated from the stars.

His last bottle was thrown into the sea. The waves carried it away. On one side the ship was stuck to the rocks underneath, the rocks the storm had thrown it onto months ago. On the other side a deep abyss went into the darkness in the clear, transparent water.

He stood on the bridge, looking at the island in the falling darkness. The Rock. The silhouette made it feel threatening. A strange sound from somewhere in there. It couldn’t be a bird. There were no birds.

He walked down to his cabin, into the lower chambers. One staircase led further down to where the water came in. He had dived down there several times to get the cans and the bottles. The liquor helped the first days and weeks, but now it was just making things worse. There was hardly any left.

He looked out towards the sea, towards where he had come from. To where he had chosen to live. He turned towards the rock. It was black in the darkness of the night. Once again he heard the sound.

A rumble, like if it came from somewhere inside the rock, as if the rock itself was alive.

The next day he went in to the island with his little boat. There was no more food on the ship, and the island offered nothing, nothing at all, just rocky ground and stones. Even the fish seemed to flee the area, even the whales seemed to stay far away.

He climbed up on the highest point where he had build a pile of wood from the ship, looked out. There was something there, far out in the horizon. Sails. He rubbed his eyes, looked again. A ship was coming.

He lit the pile. The smoke was dark and thick. The fire was burning vividly. The sun was going down.

The ground shook.

The ship was turning his way.

The ground shook harder….(more)

No Laughing Matter

-Rolling down the road with the mates, just feeling the speed. There’s nothing better.

-Change the song, dude.

-How’s it going with that babe of yours, Rocket?

-She’s awesome, dude. She’s just sooo good in bed, man.

-Yeah, yeah… Don’t wanna hear about it.

-Tom never gets laid, Jimmy laughed. -Because he’s ugl….

-What the…?

Jimmy followed Tom’s eyes to the window. A clown was staring at him from outside. They were going hundred and twenty miles per hour.

-Aaaaaahhhh! Jimmy jumped away from the window, pulling the wheel with him. The car slid over the road, out on the grass on the other side. Jimmy got it up on the road again. The car wobbled over the lane.

-Look out!

A truck was coming at them.

He got the car back in the right lane. The truck mowed passed them. The noise from the horn sounded like laughter.

-What the hell? What was that? Tom’s eyes flickered from one window to the other.

-A clown! It was a fucking clown! Jimmy screamed.

The car slowed down. Someone was standing in the middle of the road. Big shoes. Giant gloves. A tiny little hat on his head and a big, wide, painted smile.

-Drive! Fucking drive!

Jimmy sped up, changed lane. The clown jumped in front of the car.

-Aaaaaaahhh!!!

Indistinctly Jimmy hit the brakes. Lost control of the car. Left the road. Landed on the roof…. (more)

Light In the Tunnel.

Through the streets they fled, jumping over walls, crawling under fences. People everywhere, nowhere to hide. Chaos ruled.

Mildred jumped the fence to the railway, ran down the tracks. The tunnel. He could hide in there, maybe he could be safe.

He ran down into the deep darkness. He stopped, catching his breath. What is happening?

-Hey! He heard from the dark. -Are you OK?

Mildred jumped.

-I.. I think so, but I I don’t know if I’m thinking straight. What’s going on? What the fuck is going on!?

-I don’t know, the man said. He could see him now. An old man in a military uniform. Stars on his shoulders. -I mean, I don’t know what the consequences will be. But I do know what happened.

Mildred looked at him in disbelief. The old man continued.

-We opened a gate. A gate to somewhere dark, a place we should never have seen. We were doing military research, working on a new weapon. I don’t know the details, I’m no scientist. All I know is that we found ourselves staring into an abyss. Then the abyss stared back…