Sporesong
- 13 minutes read - 2708 words“I wish your mother had survived to see these grow like this, she would have loved them.”
Kasey looked over at her father, standing next to a spore tree that had grown out of a car, its roots piercing through the old windows and entombing the rusted wreck. They hadn’t talked about her mother in a long time.
“Did she really die saving me?”
Her father nodded. “Yeah, from the chaos that erupted after the spores. Far more died from the aftermath.”
“Why?”
“Well, we lost everything, all our infrastructure…”
“No,” she interrupted him, “why would Mom have loved these?”
“She was a biologist, she studied things like this for a living.”
“Plants and stuff?”
Her father smiled. “Yeah. I mean,” he stammered, shaking his head, “There was a lot more to it than that, but, yes.”
“How?”
“Well, she would design things, biologically. Alter them, make them stronger, capable of surviving where people didn’t have a lot of food. She helped to feed the hungry, the world.”
“So, she was a hero?”
Her father nodded. “Definitely my hero, that’s for sure.”
“Heroes shouldn’t die.”
“No, they shouldn’t. But, many have. Come here, take a closer look.”
Kasey took a few steps forward.
“It’s not going to hurt you.”
The tree itself was dark, except for the roots, which peeled pristine white strands. Her father had used the fibers to braid together straps for their packs, and even a decent length of rope. The fibers spread out into the metal, seemingly sucking the strength from it, as it collapsed into flakes of rust.
Looking up at the trunk extending into the sky, the leaves blotted the blue a dark viridian. “They’re getting bigger,” she said.
Her father patted the tree. “They can only grow so large.”
“How do you know?” she asked, placing her hand next to her father’s. The bark was smooth, not coarse like the trees surrounding their cabin.
“One of the first vacations your mother and I took was to see the Redwoods out in California, the most massive trees on Earth. She told me that limitations existed based on how high the trees could pump the water.”
“These are different, they’re not from here.”
“No. But, they were made for here. They use the same Sun, the same water, are subject to the same gravity. They may be a little stronger than most trees, but not all. And, look,” he stepped away, walking toward another car,” while they seem to reach out toward one another, to connect, they’re not invasive to other biological species, they do not kill other trees, or plants. They even bear edible fruit.”
“They don’t belong,” Kasey said, stepping away, following to where they grew into one another. “Why are we here?”
“Have some place better to be?”
Kasey looked out across the gravel parking lot, framed by a stone wall. A small path led away from the far end, up along a cliff. There were five spore trees here, each one having embedded itself through the hood of a parked car. She had been young, but she recalled the screeching assault of the spores, as they ran from the highway.
“No,” she answered. “We just don’t usually wander too far from home.”
“Today is special, you’ll see,” her father replied, grabbing her hand and playfully tugging her toward the path.
The path itself was along a river. The parking lot they were coming from was once a scenic overlook, where people would stop to take in the view of the river running below and the trees stretching out for miles along the other side. After a mile or so, the path turned away from the river, delving into the forest and uphill.
“How long has it been now?” she asked.
“Since the spores?”
“Yeah.”
“Seven years.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“I’ve kept track, it was exactly a month after your fifth birthday.”
The farther they walked, the more Kasey thought about home. She recalled her old home, back in the city, where everything moved. Here, very little moved, often nothing. Their cabin, away from most others, was tucked neatly into the forest, with a stream nearby, their small farm and orchard surrounding. Her father had told her it had been her mother’s sanctuary, where they ran when they needed to get away. She remembered the long walk from the highway to get there, it had taken days.
They had remained hidden, as best they could, from anyone else. Her parents had told her that everyone was confused, and they couldn’t trust anyone, so she had to remain quiet. A game had been made out of it, one where she won by looking straight at her mother, ignoring everything else, including sounds. The first year had been rough, they didn’t have a lot, her father scavenged and hunted to get them by, while her mother expanded the garden and orchard.
Her father had hauled heavy things to the house, including solar panels and batteries, to provide a little electricity. Occasionally, he would bring her toys or books. They listened to the radio, before it went quiet, but her father still talked to others on the ham, getting and sharing what news there was. They had been attacked, she understood that much.
“So, it’s been exactly seven years since the attack?”
Her father nodded without turning around. “Yeah, almost. Not sure I’d call it an attack, though.”
“Why not? I mean, people on the radio said the entire planet had been attacked. People are still scared of an invasion.”
“I’m not.”
“Why not?”
“The spores were designed for here, just like your mother used to design things. They did attack certain things, power plants and cars, they did destroy our infrastructure, topple our way of life. But, they were also meant to help us through things afterwards. Your mother and I both ate their fruit, for quite some time. We were cautious, never giving it to you, but we didn’t have a lot of food early on, and you needed it to grow.”
“Ew, you ate that?”
Her father laughed, “It’s actually quite good, one day you’ll find out.”
“Not sure about that.”
“We can’t stay here forever,” her father replied.
“Why not?”
“At some point, we have to begin rebuilding. When it is safe, we need to join others in that endeavor. We have another chance.”
“Another chance at what?”
“To start over, to remake the world.”
“Can we come back here?”
“Of course, whenever you want.”
“Then I’m okay with that.”
“Good, it may be another couple of years, but we’ll figure it out.”
“Did you know they were coming?” she asked her father.
He stopped abruptly, turning around. “What makes you think I knew?”
The day had been like any other, that morning. She remembered being dropped off at kindergarten. But, before lunch, her parents had shown up. They jumped into the car and drove. Her mother had fed them lunch in the car. Kasey had asked where they were going, but all they told her was away from the city. After a couple of hours, she had fallen asleep. The alarm had woken her, just as her father pulled off the highway into the grass, jostling whatever sleep remained.
“Your watch, the alarm went off, right before the spores.”
“I can’t believe you remember that.”
Her mother had grabbed her and ran, her father following with several bags. Above them, the sky was on fire, meteors streaking through the air. Into the woods they ran as the sky screamed, the meteors crashing down into the highway, striking cars even as they drove. The shrieking of the meteors drowned everything else, as she closed her eyes and covered her ears. When they stopped running, they were surrounded by trees.
“The sound was horrible.”
“I recall,” her father noted. “To answer your question, yes, we did know they were coming.”
“How?”
Cocking his head to the left, he began walking again. “Well, back then, I worked for the government, I designed communications systems for satellites and spacecraft. Friends who worked on other systems, telescopes and such, brought me in to go over a signal received from space. Not sure if you recall, but the evening before we came and got you, I didn’t come home. We had been deciphering the signal all night.”
“What was it?”
“A warning, that the spores were coming.”
“They told you they were attacking?”
“They informed us that we had reached a turning point, that our planet, a small speck of dust floating in the vast galaxy, was too valuable to allow humanity to continue down the path we had. We had ignored the signs for too long, the warnings given by our own scientists. As such, they intervened, sending the spores to put us on another path.”
“Mom wouldn’t have died if the spores didn’t come.”
“You never know, but you’re right, we would not have been in that situation.”
Kasey stopped along the path, staring out over the rolling hills of trees. “What happened? I mean,” she stopped, taking a deep breath, “Why did they attack us?”
Her father looked down at the ground and then back up at her. “Well, after the spores came and began growing, bearing fruit within months even, people were scared. The government was able to spread the word internally about the message, about the trees that would be growing, but getting that information out was problematic. Even so, many didn’t believe what the message said, and were unsure how to proceed. I’m sure some testing was done to ensure they were safe to eat, but we didn’t hear one way or another till after we had tried the fruit ourselves.”
“Yeah, but that was a couple of years before Mom died.”
He nodded. “Yeah, it was. Things fell apart, people starved, chaos ensued. There was not enough for everyone, even if people had eaten the fruit from the spore trees. Instead, people fought for what little there was, many died. After a year, roving bands appeared, traveling throughout the countryside cutting and burning down the spore trees. Some of these bands even killed people they found eating the fruit, or at least used it as an excuse to kill and take what little others had.”
“That is why they killed Mom?”
“I don’t know. All I know is they found the two of you. She had you run and hide near the cabin, and she lured them away from you. By the time I had found her, she was already dead.”
Kasey hugged her father.
“I thought I had lost you, too. I was not sure if you were alive, if they had taken you, or what. So, when I found you later that evening at the house hiding, I was relieved that we had not lost everything. We held each other for days.”
She nodded in his arms. “I miss, Mom.”
“I do, too,” her father replied, rubbing her arm. “Come on, we’re almost there.”
After hiking another mile through the forest, Kasey spotted the orange-pink fruit of spore trees peeking through the brush. A breeze grew stronger as they approached and walked through a semicircle of spore trees, emerging on top of a cliff looking down over the river weaving through rolling, forested hills. Out away from the other spore trees were two more, planted in the middle, still a ways away from the edge of the cliff.
“There are no cars here,” Kasey said, looking around. “There were never cars here.”
“No,” her father replied, shaking his head.
“How did these get here?”
“I planted them.”
Her father was looking out over the cliff at the sun, which was daring to touch the horizon. There were seven trees at the edge of the forest, all equidistant from the two in the middle. A subtle sunken ring of earth surrounded the two in the middle, with occasional stones peering out.
“Why?”
“One day, I knew you would want to visit your mother. This is where I laid her to rest.”
“Where?”
“Beneath the tree in the middle.”
Kasey turned around and took a step, peering at the ground beneath the trees. “But, there are two.”
Her father breathed in deeply, biting his upper lip. “The second tree is for your brother.”
“My brother?”
Her father finally turned around. “Your mother was pregnant, about seven months, I would guess, maybe a little more. I tried to save your brother, but it was too late. So, I buried them together, planting a spore fruit with each of them.”
Kasey looked at the two trees, growing out from the same base, weaving their branches around one another, seeming in an embrace. “What about the other seven trees?”
“Those are the people that attacked your mother, they guard her now.”
“You killed them?”
Her father bowed his head. “This world became brutal overnight. It’s both amazing and horrific what people can do to one another. Still, we can choose to harm others only when it is necessary, and for no other reason than it being necessary. You have to understand, though, others choose differently.”
“I know.”
“A lesson I wish you never had to learn,” her father said, sitting down and leaning back against the tree.
Kasey joined him, cuddling up alongside. “Thank you for bringing me here.”
“You can come back whenever you want. The spore trees cannot be seen from below and, as far as I can tell, no one else has been here since I buried your mother. I’ll show you, but nearby I have even hidden emergency supplies, in case we need a place to run to.”
“Always be prepared.”
He smiled. “So, you have been paying attention?”
She nodded. “There’s not much else to do!”
That made him laugh. “One day, kiddo. One day, we’ll be able trust others, again. One day, you’ll be able to relax, to play, without fear. It could be a rough road, but we’ll get there. It’s all I want for you.”
She closed her eyes and rested for a few minutes, simply enjoying the peace. The breeze was constant, a nice thing to have as the hot day wound down. She started to nod off, but caught herself. “Do we need to get back,” she asked. “It’ll be dark soon.”
“We have to wait.”
“Why’s that?”
“See for yourself.”
When she opened her eyes, her father was pointing to the sky.
Lines were beginning to slowly etch themselves in orbit overhead. Kasey stood up and walked out toward the edge of the cliff for a better view. A soft whistle began to hum from the sky as smaller streaks fanned out and away from the lines.
As her father stepped up next to her, she asked, “Another attack?”
“We believe this is more of a gift.”
“Why?”
“Well, the spores first targeted many things. Essentially, anything technological that polluted our air or water. Cars were the most visible, given everyone had one. But, ships, planes, buildings constructed of various materials, factories and more were all taken out by the spores. They targeted a great deal, but also left a lot alone. The understood the chaos that would follow, but told us that help was on the way. I believe this is that help.”
“What are they?”
“I don’t know. I brought us here, just to be safe, just in case they targeted things like our batteries at home. But, I don’t think they will. Many of those I worked with believe it will be information, possibly locked into the same sort of biological construct, a tree or another plant.”
“What do you think they are?”
“I don’t know.”
Kasey nudged him, mimicking how he would try and teach her things, “A guess?”
“I hope they are something, another type of tree or plant, that uses photosynthesis to generate electricity.”
“That’s pretty cool.”
“Yeah, it would be,” he said, pulling a piece of fruit apart and handing her half. “From your mother’s tree.”
The song cascaded through the sky as Kasey tasted fruit not from Earth. The sun set in song, as she felt hope for the first time in a long time—hope in the unknown.