Feeding Frenzy (Watty Award Winner)

Buried Alive: Chapter Forty-Five

Tonya and her friends trudged through grey ash speckled with embers. Making their way over and around fallen trees smudged their faces, and blackened Tonya's hands.

The ambulance attendants directed them to the cinder-covered mound where the Ash Tree once stood for three hundred years. Strangely, green shoots poked up through the cinders. Tonya swiped at them with her foot. Underneath, the grass grew unharmed, right where she had poured the most gasoline. Someone had cast a powerful ward here, protecting the Entity. Tonya had set fire to the forest for nothing.

From deeper in the woods, a pair of firefighters arrived with shovels and hatchets.

"Start digging," the Farmer told Tonya, "or else we start chopping." He swung an axe as his compatriots joined him in a ring around Tonya, Priya, and Ducky. An ambulance attendant stood with Lynette's limp body slung over his shoulder.

Tonya exchanged glances with Ducky as they started digging a pit. This was all her fault. She should have guessed her friends wouldn't abandon her and now they were trapped.

Digging a hole is a lot harder than it looks. Using her weight to stand on the shovel, Tonya wasn't moving much dirt, and featherweight Priya practically bounced off the hard clay. After fifteen minutes of minimal progress, the Farmer kicked Priya with his boot. "Dig faster. Next time I hit you, it'll be with the axe."

They chipped through clay to the softer dirt below. It hurt Tonya to watch Priya scan the blackened trees, fruitlessly searching for any sign of rescue. Ducky reassured Tonya that it wasn't her fault but his kindness stung more than curses.

The pit was finished much too fast. The Farmer called a halt. "Alright, everybody into the pool!" He laughed.

Nobody moved.

"Well, who's first? Chop, chop!" He waved his axe and the burly ambulance attendants and firefighters ringed closer around them.

When it looked like he was about to take a swipe at Lynette, Tonya climbed into the pit. Ducky came next. Priya tried to run but they caught and carried her, kicking and screaming. Lynette's unconscious body came last. Ducky caught it and held her upright beside him.

Ignoring their cries for help, Waldock's men started shovelling in the dirt. Tonya felt herself blacking out. Perhaps it was her burns sending her into shock, but it felt like the Entity.

A strange interior commotion drowned out her thoughts. Here was fear, grief, lust. Images of Pompeii welled up inside her, this time revealing their source in Professor Rudolph's memories. Were the thoughts of these firefighters and ambulance attendants crowding into her head too? They must be, all were part of the Entity. As the collective consciousness became an onslaught, attacking her mind like knights storming a castle, she feared Waldock would win. The minute they overwhelmed her, she too would become enslaved.

She reached out with her thoughts, frantically searching for a way to escape or expel the Entity. She sensed energy thrumming through the earth. It seemed the Three Century Ash was not the power source, but its conduit. Hurting from her burns and full of need, she drew strength through the untouched roots of the Ash. Along woody pathways, her mind followed a twisting circuit under the forest floor, reaching ever outward, gathering strength from the ancient forces of the ground. There was power here, and already she felt better for tapping into it.

Tonya's mind became tranquil and focused. Her red blistered face and the backs of her hands cooled. She put a hand to her cheek and it was smooth again!

After her burns healed, she continued channelling power in a kind of ecstasy. She could feel the tingle of living roots halfway across the forest, but along some pathways, fire had destroyed them. The roots of bushes, plants and trees were alive, moving and parting the soil at the stately pace of plants. With more energy, could they be made to speed up?

As she came out of shock, Tonya became aware of herself and her friends again, buried to their necks. Soon they would take their last breath as the firefighters heaped dirt above their heads. Physically, they were helpless.

She closed her eyes and activated roots to gather in a canopy below her feet. Tangled lattices of wood cleared away the dirt beneath it, like brooms. She channelled energy into living trees to reinforce the roof and walls of this underground cave. When it was strong enough, Tonya punched down through the earth with her legs and let herself drop into the cavity. Above her, three sets of legs poked through the arched ceiling of tangled roots. Priya was the shortest and would be buried first, but Lynette was most at risk.

Tonya pulled Lynette down into her arms and laid her to one side. She pulled down Priya next, her friend cursing and coughing as she expelled dirt from her mouth. Tonya held up a finger to shush her, lest the Farmer hear her exclamations from above.

Lastly, she grabbed Ducky by the legs. He landed in a fighter's pose and swung at her as if to clobber some underground monster. She stepped back, unable to suppress a grin. Waldock only thought it was over when he buried them alive.

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