The tree, which had already sprouted to skyscraper height the first night that Elizabeth and her husband David bedded down in it, continued to grow. Apparently, that one heavy rain on that fateful night had set off what was, for this species of tree, normal growth. Though she knew nothing of plants ever growing so fast, Elizabeth seemed to vaguely recall hearing in a biology class of plants that stayed dormant until they received their first deluge of water and then sprouted into adult growth.
There was no telling when the growth might stop, though it had of course slowed since that first day. The only way down was to climb, but the trunk was too smooth to get a grip on, and driving stakes into it would be too time-consuming. It would take weeks to get down that way, and expenditures of time and energy that they needed just to survive. After fleeing Ollington Research Laboratory, where David had worked, the first sanctuary they'd found was this tree. Now, with no one else left on the planet, and no way of reaching anyone off-world, they were trapped there.
Their first concerns for the first few days were food and water. With no notion on how to attack either problem, however, they put their energies into other tasks. David had begun building their new log home, even having the foresight to build the foundations on hinges that yielded to the rapid growth of the branch they were built on instead of being split by it.
Elizabeth turned her head from watching David work on hearing a strange sound: a loud and inhuman trilling. "David?"
He looked up. "I hear it."
Her gaze darted about the tree branches. The leaves were thin and skeletal, allowing them sunlight through a vast but thin canopy; there were few places for the source of the sound to hide. "What is it?"
Though she wasn't looking at him, she imagined David's own gaze calmly perusing the area. "Could be just about anything imaginable. We never took the time to study the flora and fauna right around us at Ollington. It's a good bet that some of those creatures would find a nice, jungly tree a lot more comfortable than that dry, harsh land that they're used to. Insects can prowl the trees just as easily as the land; maybe they can do the same."
Elizabeth paled. "There are always predators, even in places like the Ollington area. Do you think -"
"I'm thinking exactly what you're thinking, hon."
The trilling came again, closer this time. It finally occurred to her that the creature could be using the branches as its cover.
She heard a loud skittering, almost immediately drowned out by David's scream. Elizabeth whirled around and saw a shining black creature closely regarding her and David, slightly bigger than a wolf and with a set of mouthparts that would do a lobster proud.
The creature lunged at David, who screamed again as he leapt out of the way. In his panic he scrambled to their equipment, grabbed the lazar pistol, and fired a shot. It made a dent in the armor lying over the creature's back.
The thing changed its mind and turned to Elizabeth. She stiffened, waited; there was nothing else she could do. Seeing her danger, David's fear seemed to vanish. With a shout of defiance, he fired another shot. It lanced through the creature's head.
Elizabeth clutched her breast and let out a sigh of relief. "That was -"
"Lucky," David agreed. "Very lucky. I've never even fired a pistol before."
That was true. Elizabeth was starting to wonder how they would manage to survive the next time an animal attacked when she noticed a large wet stain around David's crotch. "DavidÉI thought it missed you then, butÉ Are you bleeding?"
David followed her gaze and noticed the wet spot for the first time. He studied it for a moment, then turned red as he answered, "No. No, I'm not." He immediately began unzipping and unbuttoning his soiled pants. "Damn. I thought this only happened in stories. At least I brought along one fresh change of clothes."
She grimaced. "I'll wash those later this afternoon. There's still some water in those pools that collected in all the knots of the branches." Watching him yank his pants off, comically awkward in his haste, Elizabeth realized that her parents had been right: once the going became tough, David was sure to be found at the bottom of the pecking order. He'd been a simple computer tech all his adult life, totally unprepared for the challenge of their current situation.
"One good thing about this," David said as he began pulling on fresh clothes. "This tree doesn't seem to produce much of anything edible, and what we brought along won't last more than a week, so we may have found our food source."
The thought of eating a creature who had tried to eat them was strangely repulsive, but Elizabeth pushed aside her misgivings and helped David turn it over onto its back. This done, David began rubbing his chin. "Guess that we have to cut him up somehow. The Swiss army knife will have to do for the job."
Elizabeth remembered all her dissection classes well enough, so she told David where to make the incisions. He swallowed loudly as he began cutting and sticky fluid oozed out. The underside of the creature was far softer than its dorsal shell, to their good fortune, but it was still a tough job for a simple pocket knife.
Still gagging from the task of cutting the beast open, David gingerly reached out and pulled back the folds of its skin, revealing the hodgepodge mass of moist organs within, a few of which were still pulsing with the last vestiges of life. He recoiled from the creature and vomited over the side of the trunk.
With a sigh, Elizabeth picked up the knife from where he'd dropped it and set to work gathering the organs that were feasibly edible. She hoped that they could somehow find a way down soon; it was clear that David would not survive long in this environment.
This was not to say that Elizabeth was enjoying their stay, either. She longed for a shower and a cup of good coffee, to say nothing of a decent mattress to lie upon. But she was able to gather a fair amount of edibles from David's kill, and carefully cooked them on a slab of metal she'd torn from one of the now-useless pieces of electronics equipment that they'd had with them when they were marooned. (The one cooking pot they had was reserved for collecting rainwater.) David's accomplishments were less visible.
For one thing, he had failed to follow up on exploiting the animals which roamed the tree for food. Four days had passed, his lucky kill had been consumed, and still David merely persisted in his slow progress on the log house.
Elizabeth's thoughts were interrupted by a sweaty stink that she was beginning to recognize as her husband's own. "What took you so long?" she asked without looking up. "I thought you only went to get more wood."
"Liz," he said with excited pride. "I got another one."
She looked up. David was standing noticeably taller than usual, and his breathing was full and heavy. He wore a smile on his face that she could not recognize. Upon his shoulders he carried a thick, legless animal.
Elizabeth struggled to find the right thing to say, and failed. "I thought you were just getting wood," she repeated.
He nodded, still smiling. "I couldn't find any more good branches that I could break off at the joint, so without a good chainsaw there was no wood for the getting. Went far enough out that I found a way to get to one of the other main branches. They're too far apart along the trunk to climb from one to another, but go out on one limb far enough and sooner or later you'll get to another limb. Thought I'd do some hunting, and not come back empty handed."
"That'sÉgreat." She smiled back at him. "I was beginning to think you were too afraid to go hunting."
He cocked his head. "I was. But it's been coming to the point where I have no choice, if I want us to survive."
David wasn't always able to find anything on his hunts, but they were kept well-fed while he used his free time to work on the log house. They did run into one last major snag: rarely were the creatures as soft-bellied as his first kill. Skinning was often difficult, and at first impossible, since the Swiss army knife was hardly made for it. One of the creatures he slew, however, had a set of rather large and sharp claws, one of which David made into an effective knife.
One day Elizabeth noticed him whittling a secondary branch down with the Swiss army knife. "What are you going to use that branch for? It's almost as thin as a pole."
David shook his head, his eyes still focused on his work. "It's not for the house. I'm making myself a spear."
She looked at him a moment in bewilderment. "Why?"
"I don't like using the pistol for hunting. Wastes the batteries. I need some alternatives. The tree's wood is really hard - it's a pain in the butt to work with. But wood that hard should made a good working spear." He paused a moment to take off a particularly difficult slice of wood. "I've been thinking of setting some traps, too. There's that line in the emergency kit."
She looked at him with concern. "DavidÉdon't. Stick with the pistol."
"That's not an option. The batteries won't last more than six months if I use it that much. Probably more like three months."
"I'm not comfortable with the thought of you poking at those huge beasts with a stick. You'll be killed."
"I'll always have the pistol with me just in case. It's just a matter of getting the right point on this thing, going for a vital spot, putting your weight into it when you strikeÉand you should get a kill in one hit every time. It's simple physics."
"Yes, for a samurai warrior perhaps. You've never even used a spear before."
"Well, it looks like I'll have to use one now."
Elizabeth had a reply for that; several replies, in fact. David no longer listened, however. He quietly focused on his work, even as her words became louder and more abusive.
That evening, Elizabeth lay down alone, while David was out gathering more wood. Thinking back, she realized that she had known David wouldn't be convinced well before she had stopped arguing. She had really only been venting at their whole miserable, primitive situation.
It made her wonder why David hadn't vented back.
A month passed. David only improved in his hunting skills, and his traps became more varied and effective. The bodily fluids of a creature they called a fire caterpillar, which he found out the hard way to be painful to the skin, could be harnessed by mashing the fire caterpillars in a jar and spreading the juice where desired with a stick. His catches became larger, fiercer, and more pleasing to the palette.
The log house also progressed admirably. There was enough of a frame that, when the rain next fell, David was able to stretch the skin of a recent kill over it to form a temporary roof.
As they huddled together upon their mattress in the half-built home, watching the rain flush down in a torrent, Elizabeth smiled.
"We're doing pretty well, aren't we?"
David shared her smile. "I'll admit I had my doubts too." He put his arm around her. "It's still pretty rough now, but it's going to get easier. I'm sure of it. Before, I was just praying that we could hold out a while, and that by some miracle, a rescue would come. Now, thoughÉI'm thinking we could live here."
His attitude still surprised Elizabeth, after the difficulty he'd had when they first came here. More than that, it enthralled her. It felt as though nothing could stop her with David at her side. If this tree couldn't beat them, nothing could.
She turned her head and looked into David's eyes. "We could even raise a family here," she whispered.
David nodded, and kissed her. Afraid that the moment might disappear, she wrapped her arms around his neck.
He pulled back, but his eyes still looked at her with desire. "I better take a shower first," he said hoarsely.
Elizabeth nodded, and said with a little laugh, "Much appreciated." Then she watched with anticipation and mild amusement as he stripped off his clothing and drenched himself in the rain. He sang boldly into the roaring downpour, and the laughter they shared was no less liberating for being silent.
That night they made love for the first time since their arrival in the tree.
Elizabeth was amazed at how David had changed in response to the trials they faced. His early terror of the animals in the tree had been, in retrospect, merely a period of adaptation. He seemed to accept his earlier, comfortable lifestyle as merely an extended childhood, and took on the yoke of his adulthood without complaint. He took it as a matter of course that most of their tools and eating utensils had to be carved or built rather than purchased, that storytelling and the two precious books Elizabeth had brought along had to take the place of the radio and holovideos, that there simply was not water enough to spend on regular showering. It was a grungy, inconvenient, and physically demanding place to live, and at first Elizabeth had been unable to endure it. Everything else aside, the embarrassing lack of a toilet alone almost did her spirit in.
In time, however, the daily indignities became nothing more than routine, and Elizabeth found herself responding to the absence of luxuries by simply making do with less. Not that she wouldn't have jumped at the opportunity to return home, but she had accepted where she was as her life.
In fact, there were some distinct advantages. She was not at all displeased that David, who had been a scarecrow with an awkward gut since the day they'd met, had quickly worn his body into thick cords of muscle. Much as it had pained her to see his early struggles with all the work that needed doing, his newfound virility and passion for life was more than ample compensation.
She looked down upon little Leo, who had fallen asleep in her arms, and smiled. This, surely, was the greatest of those advantages. She would have had children even otherwise, yes, but she often suspected that she would not have fully appreciated them, in the same way that David had never before fully appreciated life. Their old life, while comfortable, had been rather distracting from the things that really mattered.
"How is he?" David asked, interrupting her reverie. She had heard his approach, but had paid little attention.
"Fine," she whispered back. "He's sleeping. Took him long enough, but..."
"I'm glad you're a patient woman." He kissed her cheek and put his arms around her, carefully so as not to wake the baby.
"How do you know I'm patient?" she demanded with a teasing smile.
"Well, if four years of being 'Jane' to this Tarzan didn't prove that, I doubt that anything could. You've done well, you know that?"
She nodded. "I'm more surprised with what you've done. The way you've thrown yourself into this life, I almost think you're enjoying it sometimes." She gently pinched one of his biceps. "I can't even remember the last time you've bothered to wear a shirt."
"There's no need," he said defensively. "You're the one who's crazy, dressing the same as if it wasn't an average of 90 degrees out every day."
"You're not fooling me. I know you just want your little wife to be more promiscuous."
"Now that you mention it..." He was starting to caress her when Elizabeth stopped him.
"David. Please, not now. For crying out loud, it's the middle of the day."
"What? All I was doing was-"
"It wasn't so much that as your tone of voice." She laughed. "Honestly, you're incorrigible. Don't you ever get tired?"
"Not of you. And I found some good news today."
"Yes?"
"The tree's slowed down to reasonable growth."
It took a moment for this to sink in. "What do you mean, 'reasonable'?"
"The two marks I put in the trunk for this week only separated by an inch. If that." A moment of silence passed. He went on, "Now I can finally go out there without it looking like a whole new jungle half the time. And no more need to worry about the house splitting- Liz, where are you going?"
"To pack." First she laid Leo down in his crib, then began looking for things to grab. She couldn't remember the last time her heart had felt so free. "Can we leave today, or should we wait until tomorrow?"
"Leave!?"
She came out of the house with a bundle of things. "This is our chance. Don't you see? The tree's a known quantity now. We can beat it."
"How?"
She set down her bundle and pulled their mothballed camping sack out of the cruiser. Then she turned back to David. "Do you still remember the trees on Earth? How long the branches are, compared to how high off the ground they are? If you fell a branch by cutting it near the trunk, in a downward direction..." She waited for David to finish her sentence. He showed no interest in doing so. Feeling rather squelched in spite of herself, she concluded, "...it will stay attached to the tree like before, but spanning the way to the ground. The problem is that the tree's growth would probably pull the trunk loose from the branch before we reached the bottom, letting it drop to the ground with us still in it. But if the tree's growth is as slow as you say it is, that shouldn't be a problem anymore." She smiled, hoping to capture David's enthusiasm.
David folded his arms and felt around his mouth with his tongue, as though preparing for an intense critical review. "So you're saying you want to partly sever this branch from the tree, so that it makes a bridge to the ground?"
"...Yes."
"Thereby destroying our home when the branch crashes down."
"We won't need it anymore, anyway."
"And how do you plan on cutting through the branch?"
"I think we can handle a controlled burn." They'd run out of matches years ago, of course, but they both had become adept at rubbing two sticks together.
David shook his head. "Honey, think a moment. This tree may not grow the same as trees on Earth. Even if it does, we went on one of the upper branches, which are shorter than the lower branches and farther from the ground. It won't reach."
She stared at him a moment. Then, with exasperated gesticulations she answered, "Honestly, David. You saw the tree when we flew up into it. It was growing just like an Earth tree. That's the optimal shape; why should it be any different on another planet? And this is one of the longest - not to mention oldest - branches on the tree. And what with the tree having grown, it may not even be one of the upper branches anymore. Chances are good that-"
"Chances are better that we'll destroy our home for nothing."
"Well, we don't have to use this branch. We can use one lower down..."
"It'd be too long and dangerous a trip to get to a branch much lower down, and all of the branches near us are shorter than ours. This would be our best chance."
"Well, let's try one branch, for goodness sake-"
"No. It'll put a huge hole in my hunting grounds. You have no idea how hard as it is-"
"David," she interrupted in frustration, "...do you want to be stuck here?"
He turned defensive. "I don't see what's terribly wrong with being stuck here."
She turned away, walking back to their cabin. "'Tarzan', you called yourself? Mowgli is more like it."
He giggled. "Now that's uncalled for." When she did not reply, he followed her into the cabin where she was watching Leo. "Look, do you really hate living here that much?"
"It's not me. You think too much of yourself, David. What about the children? Is this where you want them to grow up?"
"Well, why not?" he demanded. "They'll be the first generation of Farrens born in the Tree. They'll grow up in the jungle, like we couldn't. They'll-"
"-spend their lives without friends, education, vacations...without a second generation of Farrens born in the Tree, unless you care to thrust incest on them?"
David was silenced. "...Hadn't thought of it like that."
"You should. Lana's getting old enough to play with other children now." She turned to look at David. "I'm sorry, honey. But you have to give up this fantasy of living like Crusoes."
"...I guess."
He sounded even more dejected that she had expected him to be. But she didn't feel like babying him. She'd already had what little she could handle of that.
They were ready the next morning. In consideration of David's trepidation, Elizabeth started the fire herself, though David helped with the control. Lacking any stones, they poured leftover ashes around the spot to help contain it. As soon as it was burning vigorously, they stood back against the trunk of the tree.
From there, the wind being rather low, everything went smoothly. None of them could keep from wincing, however, as the branch cracked like an old support suddenly failing and fell down in a mighty crash, taking their former home with it. The children both started crying.
Their home, though now tilted sideways, remained standing firm. Though they hadn't expected this, it made perfect sense; after all, the foundations had not been touched. What came as a greater surprise, even to Elizabeth, was how modest a distance the branch had fallen; it was little more than a 30 degree angle from the horizon line. She had expected a much steeper climb down. David said aloud, "Very likely it's caught on another branch."
Elizabeth hadn't considered that possibility. She shrugged. "Well, we'll be a lot farther down than we were before, at the least. Maybe far enough that we can climb down the rest of the way."
After testing to see if the fallen branch was safe to walk on, they set off. David carried the heavy camping sack on his back, with his spear readily sleeved between the two and his lazer pistol in his pocket. Elizabeth bore Lana in a carrier she had weaved together from bark some years ago, while little Leo she carried in one arm.
The descent was steady, with only occasional moments of discomfort at the steepness. Though the branch was gradually narrowing, for the moment it was easy to walk around any of the secondary branches that grew along the path.
"Is it just me," Elizabeth remarked after a journey of ten minutes or so, "...or is it unusually quiet?"
"Anything that flies would have been frightened away by the branch coming down," David answered. "Just about everything else would have been shaken off."
"Oh. Of course." David's silence after this statement made her feel foolish, so she said at last, "Think of how surprised they'll be when we come back." She turned to smile at David.
Not noticing the smile, he said only, "I wonder if I'll still have my old job."
"I'm sure you will. It would take them so much time just to find a replacement, never mind ship him all the way out here."
"A lot can happen in four years."
"Yes." This, she realized, was the moment to talk to him, to confront his feelings about leaving.
But she said nothing. They continued for a long time in a silence that contained a perceptible distance, but also a certain domestic warmth, punctuated as it was by the periodic gurgles, hiccups, and coos of the babies.
A twig snapped. David froze, covered Elizabeth's mouth with a hand. He checked the "ground" with a glance. This appeared not to assuage him, and she could hear a loud rustling.
She began to sweat. Aside from man, it was rare that an animal was so clumsy as to step on a twig. It was especially odd now; the falling of the branch should have discarded any debris lying on it. Either the sound had come from a nearby branch rather than the one they were walking on, or an exceptionally bold animal was breaking off living twigs.
The answer, as it turned out, was both. David abruptly forced her down to her knees, and something rocketed into him, knocking him down.
Elizabeth looked up. It was a tremendous creature, slightly larger than she imagined a bear to be, for it towered over David as though he were a mere plaything to it. Its skin was leathery but not quite reptilian somehow, and its powerful build seemed feline, including the arched tail. The most curious feature, however, was the neck, which had so many wrinkles and folds that she wondered how the creature breathed.
She was more concerned, however, for her husband's breathing. He was pinned down by the creature's front paw. Its head reared up, stretching out the folds of its neck until it was like unto a brachiosaurus, allowing it to reach its prey for a bite.
David's spear was stuck beneath him, but the lazar pistol was a different story. He fired off a shot into the creature's head. It roared in pain, and its grip on him was all but released. Using all his strength, he was able to pull himself free...
...and roll off the branch.
"David!"
Hearing her cry, and having lost sight of its original target, the beast turned towards her and the children. She looked around desperately for a place to hide them, hoping that it would ignore them so long as it got her. She shuddered as it opened its mouth to display a set of exquisite ten inch teeth, still painted with the blood of a previous feast. Its roar of pain earlier had been frightening in its shattering volume, but the purr that now rippled over the countless folds of its neck aroused a far deeper terror.
"Liz!" David's voice. "Don't move, and don't make a sound! Its eyes are probably motion sensitive. Don't move!"
She felt foolish for not realizing what had happened. Though the tree's trunk was perfectly smooth, the branches had plenty of knots and secondary branches for climbing. David had rolled off deliberately, to lure the beast away. Unfortunately, she couldn't keep Lana and Leo quiet; the shouting and being yanked around had upset them beyond the point of being soothed.
David's deliberately loud yells and cries proved a more tantalizing target for the creature than the fairly mild moaning of the babies, however. It turned and began climbing along the side of the branch. David, having sidled down a prominent secondary branch, was waiting.
"Come on, you son of a monkey! Got some here for you! Come on!"
The beast crawled carefully out upon the branch. It could reach David by striking out with its long neck; there was no need to pounce again.
Instead, it found itself roaring in pain. David smiled. "Yeah, that's what happens when you walk in fire caterpillar juice! Was smart to bring a jar of the stuff along. Still want me!?"
It did. Too enraged to retreat, the creature rushed forward past where David had smeared the juice. David leaped away to another branch just as the first one cracked. He smiled again. "Thought you would fall for that."
The creature realized the trouble it was in, but too late to leap away before its weight made the secondary branch break. However, it proved as catlike in its landings as in its tail, landing neatly on a branch farther down.
David grunted in dissatisfaction. He scrambled back up toward the main branch, hoping to outpace the beast, which was already leaping its way up. Elizabeth was waiting for him at the top. She had laid Lana and Leo against a secondary branch and was covering them with leaves and twigs. A large hollow she had spotted would have been a more secure hiding place, but there was too much danger from whatever animal might still be using it; she could not again assume that things would be the same as on Earth while her babies were at stake.
"Hon?..."
"Is it gone?" she ventured.
David shook his head. His eye twitched as though he'd spotted something, and he dove down to avoid the incoming leap. As soon as the creature landed over him, however, he was on his feet, and had slipped off his burdensome pack and drawn his spear. It turned towards Elizabeth, interested in some easier prey. She darted her eyes about for a weapon, but then saw David puncture the side of the beast with the spear in order to draw its attention away. She hardly felt better when she saw that he had succeeded. This animal was larger and more powerful than any he had brought home before.
"David...? What do I do?"
"Be quiet so I can concentrate."
The leathery beast was more cautious now that it had taken some damage. It swiped a heavily clawed paw at David(Elizabeth felt her heart plunge), who dodged aside and stabbed the spot just beneath where the leg met the torso with the point of his spear. Thick blood ran out, bringing a stench like sewage laced with some acrid chemical. Infuriated, the creature lunged at him with its head.
Just as David had wanted. He hopped aside, parrying the thrust by slapping the side of the creature's neck with the spear. Ire further increased, the creature again used its long neck to try for a bite. This time David had attuned himself to the speed of this attack, and he drove the spear right through the head with a cry of power and ecstasy. He immediately let go of the weapon then, as the beast's death throes caused its neck to whip around wildly. He stepped back to avoid the violent swings.
The scene, with the inherent danger now passed, was one of glory and excitement. The beast's corpse lay before David like a mountain, yet he had plainly toppled it. It was scarcely believable. Elizabeth felt something in her spark to life at the realization that this incredible act had been accomplished through love of her and her offspring.
She forced it aside with an effort, however, as she took in a different realization. David was momentarily beaming, jubilant and maximized at his accomplishment. She understood, then, that this thrill of confrontation and survival was what made him want to stay in this tree. This setting of maximized Man versus Nature was not merely a fun romp for him, but true actualization. It was in being this man, not the meek computer tech, that he was fulfilled.
This was what she was taking from him.
There was no way around the fact that, if they left here, this part of David would be dead forever, buried under the blandness of his old life. He might well be happy, but he would not again be fully alive, his abilities being put to their best use.
It would be hard to see him lose this, but she had no choice. As much as she loved David, she loved her children far more. She could not keep them in this terrible place just to satisfy him.
As she drew the children out of their crude hiding place, David turned to her and asked, "Are you allright?"
She nodded. "It never came near us. You...did very well."
"That's what comes of lots of practice." He was gazing at her but, clearly sensing the distance between them, moved away to recover his spear and camping sack. She briefly wondered if she'd killed his ardor for good.
Well, she thought, one has to say goodbye to everything at one point or another.
In a few moments they had resumed their descent down the tree limb, out of that realm bordering on fantasy.
Robert Orme is a 23-year-old Cape Codder with an approximately 15-year-old dream of becoming a writer. Though he is on break at the moment to focus on writing, he hopes to one day find an engaging job as a mathematician that will pay his bills. His first published story, "Such Dreams," appeared in Amazing Journeys Magazine #12.
© Robert Orme
Ultraverse e-zine of science fiction and fantasy is Copyright 2003-2006 Parola Scritta and Chris Africa.
All stories, artwork and articles published in this e-zine are copyrighted by their creators, with limited publication rights given to Ultraverse. All other rights are reserved by the author or artist. Distribution without permission is a violation of copyright law.