Nov 3, 2025
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The Killing Trees
It’s been so many years since someone crossed the forest that nature has overtaken all of the roads. I asked my grandma once if she knew anyone who had visited from another town, but she couldn’t remember it ever happening. And my grandma is nearly a hundred years old.
It’s not surprising, really. I mean, who would volunteer to walk through a forest that was practically guaranteed to eat you? Twice, if you planned on coming back home.
I stand on the porch, listening to the wind rip through the trees. The setting sun bounces off the leaves and it would have been pretty, if I could forget that stepping foot past the tree line would end in death. I can hear my parents in the kitchen, arguing over our dwindling stash of flour. I tune them out. My parents have been “discussing” – their words, not mine – how we’re going to survive the winter for going on three months now. Ever since the locusts ate the already failing harvest, everyone in town has been having the same discussion. Some more successfully than others.
There are whispers, of course. People who have seen how bad things are getting and want to do something about it. But the town elders are adamant that this has happened before. “Our town survived the great drought of ’92 and we’ll survive this!”
The ridiculous thing is that they might be right, but the town ‘surviving’ may involve a lot of people dying along the way.
Some days I hate that I was born here.
A crash echoes off the walls and I know my mom has thrown another dish at my dad and it shattered against the wall. I use the distraction to slip away, off the side of the porch and around the house. They’re going to be arguing for hours and there’s no use in staying and listening to it.
A few minutes down the road, I find Callie leaning against her mailbox, a jug of moonshine dangling from her fingers. I don’t ask if she’s having a bad night; they’re the only kind of night we know anymore.
“Rose’s cough has gotten worse,” Callie says as I approach. “She’s coughing up blood now. I’m surprised she hasn’t brought up a lung yet.”
I don’t answer as I walk past her. Their house is dark, but the sound of Rose’s coughing is a beacon, drawing me towards her. She’s barely conscious by the time I sit on the edge of her bed, trying not to disturb her. I hold her hand and kiss her fingertips. They’re as cold as the northern wind.
“What’s the doc say?”
“Nothing new. He ran out of meds and he doesn’t want to get more. His last assistant never came back.”
Roses coughs again, this time causing blood to dribble down her chin. I don’t blame the doctor for not wanting to get more. If he travels into the forest and doesn’t come back, we’re all screwed. But that doesn’t lessen the sting of knowing Rose will die without medicine. I lie down on the bed next to her, cradling her head in the crook of my arm. I wipe away the blood
We stay like that for a long time, until the sound of Rose’s breathing sounds more like a gurgling drain than human lungs. I motion to Callie and we walk out, then trek up the hill. Callie offers me the jug of moonshine she’s still carrying and I take a long pull.
At the top of the hill, we sit on the lone bench overlooking the forest, and pass the moonshine between us. From this height, the forest doesn’t look intimidating and there are tendrils of smoke rising from the next ridge over. If the wind shifts just right, we can almost smell what they’re cooking.
I take another swig of moonshine. I can feel it burning all the way down and I imagine burning the whole forest down too. We stare out over the trees for a long time in silence. I think of Rose dying in bed, my parents fighting over food, and all of the unknown horrors awaiting us this winter. The trees wave in the breeze, looking almost peaceful, and it makes me wonder how dangerous the forest really is.
It’s madness, of course. We’re all going to die out here. Everyone who was born in this town over the last hundred years has died here. But now it’s not old age that we’re fighting. Now, it’s a race between dying of starvation, exposure, or just plain old isolation.
I watch the smoke from the far away town waft through the air, gently curling in the dying light. Rage surges through me at the thought of whoever must be stoking that fire, all calm and fed, with a cabinet full of medicine.
“That’s it.” I set the moonshine down hard enough that Callie snatches it back, checking to make sure I didn’t crack the glass. It’s the last of our alcohol stash. “We’re going into the forest.”
Callie examines the jug. “You haven’t had that much to drink. What’s gotten into you?”
I gesture around us. “Do you really want to just sit here and wait to see how we’re going to die? Your sister, my girlfriend, is going to die of infection. Everyone is running out of food. Who knows what the winter is going to bring. At least if we go into the forest, we’ll be dying while fighting to survive instead of sitting here and waiting for death to find us.”
There’s a long moment when Callie stares into the forest in front of us. The longer we sit here, the harder I can feel the blood pumping through my veins. I don’t want to sit here and watch the sun set any longer. I want to get up and move and pack and make a plan.
“You said we.”
“What?” I ask.
“You said ‘we’re’ going into the forest. Not ‘I’m’ going into the forest.”
I grab the moonshine back and take another long drag. “Yes I did. Like hell I’m going in there by myself. Besides, there’s no way I can carry everything back by myself.”
Callie’s eyes narrow, but she doesn’t protest. “We’ll have to get approval from the–”
“Nope. Not happening. We’re leaving first thing in the morning. I’m not going to wait long enough for someone to tell us no.”
She nods and we sit there, staring out over the forest until the only light in the sky comes from the stars.
--
Half the town is waiting for us as we approach the forest the next day. Callie must have let it slip to her parents that we were planning on going. They townspeople are lined up in two rows, from the beginning of Main Street to the edge of the forest. If they had roses in their hands, I’d feel like a queen. Instead, this feels like a funeral procession.
At the end of the line, several men stand with weapons in hand. “We’re going with you. You need protection.”
They’re going to make too much noise. Make us targets by carrying weapons to bring down the trees around us. But I don’t want to argue with large men carrying double-sided axes. So I gesture for them to go ahead of us.
Callie and I wait as the men enter the forest, until they’re too far past the tree line to see anymore. It takes less than thirty seconds for the screaming to start. There’s the rustling and cracking of branches, and then there’s silence.
I remember Rose, curled in bed earlier this morning, her breathing so shallow I had to lay my ear upon her chest to reassure myself she was still alive. We have to enter the forest. The only other option is giving up and waiting for death to stroll through the front door.
Callie and I join hands and take a step forward, before the townspeople can stop us. We each place a hand on a nearby tree trunk, each making a silent plea for safe passage. There’s a slight rustling of branches and a few leaves fall at our feet.
We walk into the forest together, hoping our prayer was enough to keep us safe.
"Die within the trees."
I've teamed up with Malou IJpelaar for the band artwork. She's done the cover art and Bandcamp banner. I can say she was a pleasure to work with and I will be discussing future projects with her. Please visit her Deviant Art page at: http://lady-voldything.deviantart.com/
https://plus.google.com/102937834029317918073/posts/WCJy3kz57rs
"Just the wolves and the trees. Killed and eaten, bones left to freeze."
Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to reveal the vehicle under which my ASOIAF related songs will be released. The one man band will be named Carnivorous Forest and within a month, the five song demo will be up for free on Bandcamp. The track listing will be: 01) Hell Hound, 2) Impaled on Flesh, Impaled on Steel, 3) Prince of Worms, 4) Kingslayer, and 5) White Wolves. The songs will all be slightly tweaked and will be available in a number of mp3 qualities and FLACs. Since Takhisis will be in the shop this weekend, I am going to fix up some sound issues and rerecord a few vocal lines. ...I am looking at you, Prince of Worms. Once she's back in my hands next week, White Wolves and Hell Hound will be recorded. White Wolves is done, just needs to be put on "tape" while Hell Hound needs a bit more work. Odd since it was the first ASOIAF song started. The bandcamp page is sparse now, but I will keep you up to date when there are things there. Prepare to be torn apart by the wolves.
http://carnivorousforest.bandcamp.com/