Huff puff…
Prior to this moment… what came to mind when I thought of apples…
Well, they are a fruit… check…
They grow on a tree… check…
huff puff
The juice they make is fantastic… true, yes.
Fermented… even better…
Huff puff
The pies they bake are aromatic delights… mmhmm. Keep going… really dig.
huff puff… huff puff
The sauce they become is the best supplement for softer brownies or tasty snacks to bi-pass a tummy ache when you feel completely empty… Also a fact.
Huff puff… none of that explained… this… I couldn’t find any logical explanation…
dig deep.
let’s see…
Yup. Until this moment I’ve never harbored anything but love for the delectable diversity of the fruits and never in all my time had I heard of a carniverous variety of the fruit trees.
Not once… huff puff
I looked over my shoulder like an idiot. But I had to check again. Be sure the receding day wasn’t getting the best of me…
Double Yup… huff puff
I flung myself forward with renewed force.
huff puff
Nope… There was nothing eatable about the angry mob of Candy Apple Reds bearing their multilayered fangs and hissing like a band of angry cats. They might only be bouncing, but they can really move when they start to build momentum. Not to mention they cheat, rolling and bumping down hills like they’re nothin.
huff puff
Then again, I did have the advantage on the going up side since I had legs.
huff puff
If I’d run into myself from a month ago and tried o explain what was happening at the moment, I couldn’t…
puff puff huuuuuuuffffffffff
“uuuuh!”
I threw myself into the oncoming slope, grateful for an uphill for the first time in my life.
huff puff
I didn’t have time to think about how crazy this whole thing was. There was a sharp pain slicing through my side.
There was no way I would ever get this image out of my head, even if it was a dream… and if it was a dream I wouldn’t think to think it was a dream. Or would I? Would this be, one of those ones I forgot almost instantly after waking up?
Reeeeeeeeee!
The tiny monsters screamed and piped unnaturally. Some seemed to want to get at me to the degree they spouted little… bat wings?
Disgusting…
huff puff
It’s worse than I thought… Worse than I could have even imagined. I mean really, who could have pictured rapid vampire fruit with a taste for its takers…
I cracked my toes on a ripple in the hill I was scaling. they stubbed mercilessly into the abrasive surface. I stumbled and barely kept on my feet.
I had just enough time to look behind me and see others growing long slender roots that came together into clusters like muscle fibers I’d seen in an anatomy class recently. The laugh of a lunatic flew from my cracked lips.
I’ve lost my mind… it’s run away from me…
I’m dreaming…
The ideas flung themselves in over heaving breaths. I grabbed another glance over my shoulder. Taking a risk and a chance at finding some weakness, some factor to make sense of what I was seeing…
My gut contorted into an ugly knot as I watched the writhing tendrils twisting together beneath the hop-skipping abominations…
No… you’ve got to be kidding me.
Wings were bad enough… but their fat little bodies made flying clumsy and awkward with the disproportionate wings they had to flap forcefully to make any kind of real progress.
Huff puff. A sense of relief poured through.
Maybe it was stupid and nearsighted, but I wasn’t worried about them yet.
These new ones… were forming twisted leg-like structures that propelled them with a force to match the vengeance screaming from their obscured mouths.
“Oh dear Lord!” I managed to screech as I tumbled and spun to face as far away from the growing squads sweeping over the silhouette of swaying grass in the dying dust. The hybrids moved so fluidly they never seemed to leave the ground or bounce with their steps.
I muffled a screech. The hell is happening?!
I was so caught up in the idea that none of this could be happening I lost my footing again as I rushed over the final stretch of open grass.
I wouldn’t have guessed this outcome for myself… never in a game of clue would I have chosen this natural uprising as the murder weapon…
Emmy hadn’t been full of it after all… If I don’t die… I will apologize…
Carnivorous Rabid Pink Ladies in hot pursuit over the rooty limbs that seemed to be growing out of nothing, Honeycrisp Hell Hornets… I think reality hiccuped… cause… there was nothing normal about… vampirishous Red Delicious’… and sickly sweet Fuji zombies full of rotting pieces… I mean… I could only imagine what the other 6,400 some varieties might have morphed into… And I hadn’t encountered peaches, or pears, or grapes… Only these mad swarms of bad apples.
I lept for the cobblestone in a last-ditch effort. In that last step over to solid ground, the pins and needles in my sides assured me I wasn’t going another step until I caught my breath.
Huff puff.
I’m fully aware that’s the kind of behavior that gets idiots killed in the stories I’ve heard. But I’d run out of fuel… With a final prick in the side, my gears seized up. I stopped, crumpled to the cold stones, and braced myself for impact.
I’d squeezed my eyes closed as every muscle tensed in my body, I suddenly relaxed a little. My heart thunked against its cage, rattling my chest with every rapid breath I sucked.
It seemed to be just as confused as the rest of me. Its demands to be let in on what was happening settled slightly after a few solid hits of oxygen it had been deprived of… poor little guy… If only he knew the irony of what we were about to be murdered by.
Tick tock… I don’t know how much time passed before I realized I wasn’t writhing in pain as little razor teeth bit into me.
I forced an eye open into the deafening noise gathering in around me.
Swarms of withered Empires cackled. They lept up and down on their little wooden legs. Not one passed from the meadow grass… It was like… a dog, that had come to the end of its leash.
Ha!
I leapt up.
Ha ha!
Sticking my face unnecessarily close to the edge above the dividing line. I tested my luck. Sticking my tongue out in a taunt including both hands and bouncing knees.
“What’s wrong you little abominations?!” Shut up… it was the first thing that came to mind… alright?
“Can’t… can’t touch this!” I danced in a slow circle. The noise escalated into a chaotic symphony… music to my ears considering I thought I’d be half eaten by now.
Now it was their turn to screech and wail and shriek over the infinite divide between them and me… apparently… Accidentally I’d found their weakness.
After another little victory dance complete with a few spins or whatever. I looked down at a heavy tug at my shoulders.
The little creeps with wings were grabbing at the edge of my jacket, trying to yank me from the edge of rocks I’d landed on…
No way… bitches… I touched home base… I kept my cool as I swiped out a hand and knocked them away… suddenly they seemed pathetic… given my safe zone was basically anywhere I wanted in the city…
I splashed water from the puddle closest to me in their stupid little faces and the reaction I received only deepened the sonata building. I swayed my fingers back and forth, in little graceful circles imagining I was conducting the entire thing.
In the middle of all this blissful nonsense a picture slapped itself over my gloating mind.
Shit…
They’d evolved once already…
I straightened slowly and backed away… careful not to make any sudden movements.
Each seemed to be fighting against some invisible barrier standing between they and me… Taunting is unnecessary… it will only fuel their desire to consume you little dumb dumb… my intuition sang along with the jeering, leering, squealing fruit beasts.
I backed into the wall and felt with a hand along it. My feet followed in its wake, walking along it while never taking my eyes from the swarm of unruly fruit.
In the fading twilight, they looked like a giant swarm of mosquitoes, or locus.. or something nasty like that… I let my hands fall from their braced upright position.
eh… whatever was keeping them back seemed to be a hard and fast outside their control… I settled into the idea, dusting my pant legs stepping over what was apparently my new home base… First things first… find a way to blend, and reach their leader… whoever it may be…
I slipped my hood over my head and tightened the drawstrings enough to make the cover stick.
Monster fruit… what the shit else was out there getting twisted… and WHY did they seem to have a focus, on us?
To be continued… (maybe)
Apocalyptical Orchard Series