HORNS (BoyXBoy)

Chapter 49

Chapter Forty Nine

The rest of the drive was completely silent after our conversation. Don't get me wrong, there was a lot I wanted to say, I just didn't know how to put any of it into words. I was so full of feeling that I felt ready to burst with it... but it had no outlet.

So, even though I couldn't find anymore words, I held my father's hand. For the entire ride, I kept my fingers locked firmly around his.

Then the landscape began to change and my focus went from inside my head to what lay outside the window. My eyes went wide and I let go of Jak's hand to lean forward, watching as the trees we were driving past grew larger and denser by the second. 

"Whoa," my father said, echoing my thoughts as he stared at the widening branches and foliage as we entered Wake Forest. "I've heard about the trees in this area, but I never would have guessed they were all around the same size as the oaks lining Sebastian's driveway."

"These trees have trunks that are about as thick as this camper," I scoffed, boggled as I peered up at the monstrous but absolutely gorgeous behemoths. "I've never seen a forest like this!"

"I have, several times," my old man hummed, "but they were much rarer back before the laws preventing the cutting of forests. It is good to see that these trees are thriving."

I couldn't really respond. 

I'd spent my whole life moving from place to backwoods place and playing in the woods since our pack had never really moved into cities or populated areas. Most of my childhood had been spent around trees... I found their presence oddly comforting, the same way one's bed felt. 

Trees, for me, were great places to nap and I always felt protected and comfortable around them, the same way I did whenever I crawled into a nice, warm bed with cold, soft blankets. I'd seen trees before. There was always a few lining the sides of the street, but it was constantly interrupted by manicured lawns and beautiful houses, or surrounded by chipped concrete.

I felt a sudden chill and turned my head, eyes honing in on a strange blue glow from somewhere beyond the living monarchs. I blinked, head swiveling to stare at the unnatural luminescence, but I figured it had something to do with nymphs or faeries. Creatures like that had a natural tendency to do weird stuff when they were by themselves and a forest this massive could easily hide their antics. It came as no surprise considering how old it was. 

I'd done my research with Kip and Erika years and years ago about it. The history of the land dated all the way back to 1834, when the Wake Forest Manual Labor Institute was founded right here in North Carolina. It was rechartered as a College in 1838, making it one of the oldest institutions of higher learning in the state. 

In 1946, the school accepted an invitation from the Smith Reynolds Foundation to move one hundred miles west to Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Construction began in 1952, and the new campus opened its doors in 1956, deep in the heart of this vast forest. The institution was designated Wake Forest University in 1967 and remained open right up until World War Three. 

In the early 2020's, after the cyber attack wiped the internet and erased everyone's digitally recorded lives off the face of the planet, it was one of the few colleges that remained open. The rapid modernization of human society in terms of holographic technology had greatly changed how most institutions and even America as a whole functioned on a regular basis.

Teachers had always been rather underpaid for the work they'd done, and eventually they'd been downright replaced with holographic instructors which pulled info best suited to help students of all ages, grades, and academic levels right off the net.  Most schools, from junior high to college, had adopted this method to cut costs... but a few institutions respected the old way.