Don't Open That Door - GoM 1

22

A foggy figure seemed to come out of the wooden cocoon. From outside the ring of fire, everybody saw it had the shape of a shaman and they stepped back, scared.

"The Guardian!" Claire said, pointing and him.

"Who? What?" asked Tom.

"The Guardian!" the girl smiled through her tears. "He's come to help Al! She's gonna make it!"

Tom turned to look to the mother tree again, assessing his chances of dodging Ollie and Jack without hurting them in order to reach Alex. And what he saw froze him where he stood.

The Guardian slid his hands over the cocoon. It turned to dust under his touch, layer after layer of hardened bark. A moment later they could hear Alex's voice from inside it. Soon The Guardian freed her head.

She opened her eyes to fix them on the mother tree, repeating the spell in English over and over. The Guardian leaned in to get rid of the lower part of the cocoon. When it was completely gone, he picked up the slim branch Alex had dropped. Still reciting, she met his seamless eyes. The Guardian held the branch in both hands and offered it to her. She grabbed it to touch the trunk once more. The foggy figure dissolved away, leaving Alex alone with the mother tree in the circle of fire.

A couple of minutes later the mother tree shook from root to crown and crumbled down, releasing a blast of energy like an expansive wave that blew off the fire and threw everybody down to the ground.

Tom and Claire were the first to get back on their feet, and they ran together to where the mother tree had stood. They found Alex on her knees by what little was left of the trunk.

"Al! You okay?"

"Fuel," she growled, panting and shivering.

Ollie and Jack were already there with fuel cans.

"We gotta burn the roots," Alex said, letting Tom help her to stand up.

"Maybe we can rescue the buried bodies first," said Claire.

"We can try," Ollie said.

"And then burn whatever's left of the son of a bitch," said Jack.

Tom helped Alex to the Hilux, and watched with her from there how Graham's men dug to recover the four bodies. Then they showered the holes in the ground with fuel and set them on fire. Alex rested against Tom's side when the flames blazed up the holes. Claire joined them, followed by Ollie and Graham.

"You okay, Al?" asked the sheriff.

"Been better, you?"

"I'm too old for this shit."

Jack waved at them from the barn across the yard. "They're waking up!" he shouted.

As an answer to his warning, they heard distant sirens wailing closer down the old track.

"I gotta go get Samuel," said Tom.

"You're right." Alex fished through her pockets and gave him the keys to her house. "I'll be back as soon as I can."

"I'll leave a light on."

They traded a look and a smile, and Tom headed for the Yukon. He'd just driven into the woods when the two ambulances from the hospital drove out of the track. Doctor Jackson was leading the medics, and Ollie took them to the barn.

The first snowflakes swayed lazily down to find the infected people still stunned and confused but awake, and what was more important: alive. Doctor Jackson and the medics checked on them and patched their bruises from being knocked down. Once Doctor Jackson cleared them, they got on any of the available trucks, and Graham's men, Ollie and the Corbans drove them back to town.

Alex and Claire came back from taking eight persons to their homes when they saw Graham where the mother tree had grown. The snow was getting drier, covering the yard without melting. It reflected the light from the vehicles, making it easy to move around without a flashlight. Alex recognized the man standing by Graham—Albert Malher. And two more persons crouched down at their feet.

"You should go lend Doctor Jackson a hand," Alex said to Claire. "I'll be right there."

She waited for Claire to walk away toward the ambulances outside the barn, then went to Graham. The two kneeling by the sheriff were Lou and Sarah Thompson. When the mother tree burned out, Rob's and Lila's bodies were left exposed, lying in each other's arms on the scorched ground.

Sarah couldn't stop crying, and Graham was trying to give them some kind of explanation when Alex joined them. He turned to her for help.

"What happened here, Alex?" asked Albert Malher. "How can my niece be here if she...?"

"It doesn't matter anymore, Albert," Alex said gently, and faced the Thompsons. "I'm so sorry for Rob."

"Tell us what happened!" Lou Thompson cried. "I need to know!"

Alex crouched down before him and pressed his shoulder with a sad grimace. "No, you don't, Lou. I can explain it to you to the last detail. But it won't bring Rob back. Whatever happened, there's no logic to his death and your loss. Believe me, I know."

Reminding them of her own loss a decade ago worked, and they didn't insist. They lingered in silence around the young broken bodies under the first snowfall of the winter.