Chapter 3: Genesis

"Uh David what do we do?"

"I have no idea; I haven't come across anything like this before".

We both looked up the towering tree….house that stretches up over our heads amazed by the sight. Somehow or other these vines have encompassed all the buildings so they don't fall apart and have maintained their shape regardless of the size. We could see everything from a small 2-bedroom house all the way up to a sprawling multi-level apartment building.

"Do you think this has something to do with the meteors we saw earlier?" Sarah asked.

"I mean I think that's the only explanation really, this cant really be explained by any scientific terms."

"You've read heaps of stuff though, surely you have come across something similar…. surely?"

"I don't know what to tell you, any growth to this level takes dozens of years to even come close to this".

Moving around we saw all of my neighbours just marvel at the spectacle before us, the vines have all merged under their respective houses and now resemble tree trunks more than a mass of vines. Walking up to one of the trunks I can feel a heat radiating off it, and upon a closer inspection it seems to be pulsing in a similar way that you would expect a heart to beat. I could see a small amount of upwards movement as well, nothing like the initial emergence but probably similar to the vine I saw on my back door frame, just a little bit slower.

"I don't think it's done yet Sarah"

"What do you mean?" coming closer to the trunk Sarah was mesmerized by the show the trunk was putting on. "Hey is it going to get even taller? When's it going to stop?",

"I'm not sure, there's certainly something unnatural about this whole thing."

After uttering those words, the ground jolted beneath us causing us to lose our footing which then turned into some strong shaking that made everyone fall on the ground a praying for it to stop. 'What the hell we don't get earthquakes in Perth, I mean there was one down south but nothing to this degree in decades.' The shaking continued unabated and left us worried about any of the treehouses falling down on us.

"David what's going on? This isn't normal, are we going to die, will we get crushed, oh god oh god oh god I don't want to die, save me please someone save me"

"Sarah SARAH calm down, its going to be ok." Just trying to reassure her.

Managing to sit up I wriggled my way over to her and puller Sarah in for a hug, nearly getting the life squeezed out of me in return. "Can't breathe, Sarah, I can't breathe"

Finally, being able to get a breath back we held each other for comfort while the earth shook around us. Hearing an enormous grinding, tearing noise coming from an easterly direction we turned our head to witness an even more spectacular and terrifying sight of the 25-30 metre hills rising into the sky, climbing higher and higher until they towered over everything. 'What is happening right now', the world is going through some kind of change almost like a form of genesis. The only good thing is that with the end of the hills… now mountains growing is that the earthquake has now stopped.

"Sarah come on; we need to try to get somewhere safe". Pulling her by the hand we make our way down the street to try to find some kind of shelter that isn't 30 metres in the air.

"What are we going to do? I don't know how we are going to contact any of my family or...oh god Daniel, we need to find Daniel, both of our families are out of town and he is gonna be all by himself",

"What do you mean, isn't he at uni right now?"

"Um well he was going to tell you tonight but he.... dropped out"

"WHAT!!! But everything was going so well for him, he had it all sorted"

"Yeah but he said that you had the right idea of working instead of studying..."

"Hey my situation was completely different, I had to pull out due to the stuff with my parents and would have.... he got you, didn't he? Made it seem like he had it all planned out and knew exactly what he was doing?"

"I mean I thought he was extremely stupid to do it as well, but he just made it seem like such a good idea I mean when he explained it, 'Sarah it's just a waste of time, my parents want me to continue the family business and I want to do my own thing not what they want me to do, I'll have time to pursue my own hobbies and have a better work/life balance'... ah damn it DANIEL!!!"

"Hahahahaha I can't believe he got you again"

"Shut up David, argh I can't believe him he just knows what to say and it sounds so logical and well thought out. Alright let's go find that little shit, I need to give him a piece of my mind."

Trying to navigate through what was our town had become a bit hard especially as it was now just a forest not letting a huge amount of light through the dense canopy. Thankfully as we had lived here for years, we kind of knew where we were going, just instead of street signs it was counting the number of streets. After about an hour of searching we finally came across his street.

Making our way up the street we eventually came to where his house would have been and looked around to try and spot him. Not seeing him anywhere on the ground around us we moved through the trees to see if he had moved away when we finally heard him.

"DAVID, SARAH UP HERE"

Looking up we couldn't help but burst out laughing seeing our friend stuck 5 metres up the trunk, "Hahahaha how on earth did you get all the way up there Daniel" I called out.

"Hehehe yeah, we know your fit but do you think it was a great idea to climb up a 30-metre-tall tree",

"I got caught jumping from my window"

"Sorry, what was that?" hearing Daniel mumbling to himself

"I said get me down from here, my shirt is caught on an offshoot of this stupid plant".

"Alright enough fun Sarah, let's look around for something we can use to reach him", I spotted an old ladder behind a Ute just down the road, 'I hope no one minds me using this' bringing it over I leant it against the tree and climbed up so I could reach his legs and lift him up. Using one hand to unhook himself as the other grabbed onto the branch he managed to get himself off, after I moved down the ladder, he dropped down onto it and made his way down to the ground.

"Good to see you're okay buddy"

"Yeah thanks for that, I don't know what I would have done without you guys"

"I'm glad to see that your ok, but WHAT THE HELL DANIEL!!" giving him a smack on the arm, "How dare you trick me; you know I would support you but your decision to pull out of uni was extremely stupid and you got me involved into the whole thing."

Giving me the stink eye, he rubbed his head "sorry for that, I just didn't want another person giving me the whole song and dance about throwing my life away not making anything of myself"

"How could you think I would say something like that to you, don't you think that I would support you not matter what? I'm in the same situation with my family so I know what it is like, you could have just told me the truth and I would have been behind you 100%"

"Ah jeez hey I'm sorry alright, I won't do it again I promise"

"You better not otherwise I won't be smacking just your arm".

Looking on as my friend did their whole performance just like the many times before when Daniel messed up and Sarah unleashed her holy retribution on him….. ah it was a thing of perfection.

"You guys probably saw what happened out east earlier, what on earth was that horrible noise", Daniel Asked.

"Ummm well it might be better to show you then tell you" Moving down the road we came to the east-west running street and turned so Daniel could see what had happened,

"I mean what am I looking at? Its just dark and looks like a weird texture".

Smiling to myself I turn to him "look up",

"What do you mea...….."

Seeing his gaze slowly pan upwards, as his jaw got lower, he just stood there with an awestruck look trying to take in what his eyes are telling him is real while his brain doesn't agree with them,

"How did that hell did that happen? On another note how did these trees end up here?"

"You know I don't really know, both Sarah and I think it had something to do with the meteors but we just can't know for certain."

"Sorry wait, what meteors are you talking about?"

Sarah looked at him in shock, "what are you talking about? The giant flaming rocks that shot through the sky a few hours ago, those meteors".

"Sorry to say guys but I think I slept through the whole thing; I only woke up when my house started shaking".

Looking at him in disbelief Sarah and I looked at each other and shook out heads, "God you're such a deep sleeper, every thing went absolutely crazy and we all thought we were going to die. To think you missed all that is just amazing."

"What can I say, I enjoy my sleep".

"Well we need to figure out what's happened, we have just far too many questions and no answers." I mentioned.

"I mean I did hear that the other people that were in this area were heading to the police station to try to get some information, we could try that?"

"Omg yes lets do that, there are too many things changing and it just doesn't feel safe out here without anything to protect ourselves with. Don't get me wrong you guys are some comfort but we aren't really the best people to protect anything, no offence."

"Ah none taken, I think I could hold my own though I'm sorry David but I don't have a huge amount of confidence in your physical abilities."

"WHAT!!!! I could totally protect myself if something attacked me, I mean I've watched heaps of stuff on self defence and fighting and….and….. ah who am I kidding you guys are right."

"It's alright mate we've got your back, or I mean I do, Sarah your noodle arms aren't going to do anything Hahahaha", with that he ran off with a screaming Sarah fast on his heels.

"DANIEL!!!!! You get back here".

As I stood there watching the both of them running around it just seemed right having all three of us together. We have always clicked and it just goes to show that in this changed world that won't change.

I don't know what it was, one moment everything seemed fine and the next I had a shiver travel up my spine. Something changed, somethings different, it vaguely resembled my house before the vines emerged, that feeling yet different somehow. More…. Dangerous or lethal or ominous, not sure but something worse.

The sun had risen more at this stage but the dense coverage of leaves still provided many shadows in the morning sun. Looking around trying to spot what had happened I started to notice some of the shadows shifting, pulsing contrary to the surrounding trees.

It wasn't all of them just some, though they were gradually drawing closer to us as I watch,

"Ummm Daniel, Sarah, hey guys can you come over here?"

Making their way over I could see the moment that they started to get the same feeling.

"What's up David…. Hey can you guys feel that?" Sarah asked, seeing her eyes dart around in a mild panic

"Yeah, what's up with that, something feels wrong"

"I don't know, it happened at my house before the vines took over, but this feels more sinister, and then there's those shadows over there, they are doing weird movements"

Daniel was the first one to notice them, "well then I'm not the brightest but I don't think shadows are suppose to do that, especial…HEY that one moved!!", pointing at one spot to our right.

"Yeah I know it moved, I've been watching them for a bit and they are getting closer."

"No I mean I saw something move between the shadows, THERE! It did it again."

"Umm guys I don't like this, can we get out of here?"

"Yeah I think Sarah's right, it doesn't feel like the safest place at the moment, there's way too many shadows around us lets go."

"Yeah yeah I'm right behind you guys, I want to keep an eye on these things." Daniel said back tracking.

Moving down the street further away from the area we just couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't right, I mean it didn't get any worse but it never went away. Checking in with Daniel showed that the shadows didn't go way either, they maintained the same distance and he kept on getting the odd glimpses but never anything solid. It continued on for the next fifteen to twenty minutes as we made our way towards the police station, until I froze I had the feeling that if I took another step further something bad would happen. Daniel bumped into my back and turned around,

"Hey what's the hold up? Why have we stopped?" he turned back around to keep an eye out and we heard "OH SHIT!!!!!".

Being tackled to the ground by Daniel I look up to see a dark mass go shooting over our heads to disappear into a shadow on the other side on our group.

"What the hell was that?" Sarah shrieked,

All I saw was a shape and we turned to Daniel who had a look or horror on his face,

"It was a cat, a giant freaking cat made out of shadows...OH MY GOD!!",

Looking up we noticed 5, 10, 15 heads poking out of the shadows with golden feline eyes staring right at us unblinkingly.

"RUN!!!!", I don't know who yelled it first but it sent all three of us running in one direction that seemed like it had a gap, as soon as we started running, we heard them, the yowls and growls haunting us as blurs of shadows were bearing down on us. We dodged most of them but every other one managed to inflict some minor cuts and scratches on our bodies, mostly targeting our legs and we could feel ourselves slowing as the injuries accumulated.

'Come on come on there has to be something, some way to get away from these things', keeping an eye out for anything I started to notice a pattern emerging. They would never attack us from the front, always the back and sides trying to wear us down. They never touched the sunny parts of the ground and kept to the shadows; thinking about their earlier actions. If they don't like the sun then maybe we need to get into a clearing or open space where there aren't any shadows,

"Daniel, Sarah they don't like the sun. They only stick to the shadows and stay away from the lit-up areas. We need to find an open space".

Looking around we spotted a park off to our left that had a large car park with no overhanging trees and we shifted our target. Trying to put on a final burst of speed we were about a 10 metres away and we could hear the cats behind us getting angrier if that was even possible, when I felt a sharp searing pain on my left calf, which had me falling to the ground and sliding and rolling the next four to five metres. I was so close and I could see Daniel and Sarah make it to the open space, to then turn around and look with horror at me sprawled on the ground bleeding from my leg.

"DAVID!!!", they yelled out Daniel sprinted back towards me, I was so close I had nearly made it, turning around I could see the rough shape of a shadowy ever shifting cat stalking up to me. Feeling the hot breath on my face and seeing a pink tongue licking its lips I closed my eyes waiting for my demise.

I felt a gust of wind blow past and an angry, pained yowl come from the cat. I opened my eyes to see Daniel standing over me with a raised foot, bending down he grabbed me under the arms and dragged me the last few metres to the open area. Sarah ran over to help get me up properly and we made our way over to the nearest bench to sit down and take care of the numerous cuts and scratches inflicted on us by the creatures.