Enchanted Forests (13 page)

identify." She noticed the professor beside her. "Did I leave any-

thing out, Dr. Stoker?"

"No, that's fine. It's late enough now, you can all relax for a

while, start your dinners. Some of you enterprising sorts might

like to get a jump on identifying a few plants...."

86                  Julia anJ BrooU Weat

When she got back to the tent, Kelton had lit the little back-

pack stove. Water steamed in the pan over the flame. The valley

was quiet—just the murmur of wind through the branches,

hushed voices, and the distant splash of the creek. Still no birds

or squirrels scolding trespassers; perhaps we scared them off

with our noise. So why did she feel watched?

"What's that?" Someone called out, away in the forest—a

girl's voice, startled but not frightened. Angie listened, but heard

nothing else. Still, unease shivered down her back.

"I'm going to check on the students," she told Kelton. They'd

set up their tent away from the others for privacy.

The straggle of tents was a beehive of quiet activity as people

prepared dinner. One girl—Colleen—stood looking into the for-

est, a dripping cooking spoon forgotten in one hand. Helen sat in

her tent doorway putting on socks and boots.

"Everything okay?" asked Angie.

"Laurie went between those trees, said she'd only be a min-

ute," said Colleen. "I fixed our dinner, and she's still not back.

We were just going to look for her."

"I thought I heard someone out there," said Angie. "Let's call

her."

"Lau-rie," they chorused.

No answer.

Other students gathered around. "Maybe she slipped and fell,"

someone suggested.

"Let's go look." Eleven students scattered into the trees.

"What's all the noise?" Dr. Stoker poked his head out of his

tent, then crawled out completely when he saw Angie was alone.

"One of the girls took a walk, and hasn't come back. Every-

body went to look for her."

"While they're doing that, let me show you the database I'm

setting up for the valley." He took her arm.

"Urn, well, Kelton's almost got dinner done, and you know

how quickly food cools at this altitude," She pulled away and

hurried back to their tent.

"What's going on?" asked Kelton.

"Laurie's missing. Cover the stew and we'll help look."

"What about Stoker?"

"He's busy with his database. But he's made me responsible

for the students."

"Okay. Grab a flashlight, it'll be dark soon."

They started at the end of camp closest to the waterfall and

followed the stream up the valley. All around mem among the

WEEDS                87

wide-spaced trees people talked or called, their feet swished

through the grass, and a breeze whispered through the leaves.

But every time Angie felt someone behind her and turned, she

saw nothing.

"Angie?" It was Colleen, Laurie's friend- "Can you come

here?"

Angle and Kelton—and most of the other students—followed

Colleen's voice, found her staring at the base of an aspen. A lit-

tle pile of clothing lay there, torn and dirty."

"My God" said Kelton.

"They're Laurie's." Colleen's voice broke, and she started

sobbing.

Angie pulled Colleen against her shoulder, let her sob until she

was calmer. The other students talked in shocked whispers.

Kelton knelt to look at the clothing. "Anj—there's no blood."

He pulled at the shredded jeans, found them trapped beneath the

dirt. "Anybody got a trowel?"

George handed him one; Kelton dug around the tree's base.

'There's nothing there—just roots, and I can't dig through

them."

"So she's not... ?"

"Nothing buried here but clothing."

Angie looked around. Only nine students. "Let's get people

together." She straightened, took a deep breath, and yelled, "Ev-

erybody back here." When no one came, Angie called again—

and again.

"So, that's three people missing?" said Helen.

Angle's head ached. My responsibility. "Let's go back to camp

and discuss this intelligently," she said. "Stay together." Every-

one nodded and set off slowly through the trees. As Angie turned

to follow them, helping Colleen along, she seemed to feel eyes

on her back.

They settled on the logs, and Kelton built a fire pit, then lit a

fire. He'd gathered dry wood while searching. My well-organized

executive, thought Angie.

The headache eased when she realized she didn't have to ac-

cept full responsibility for this—it was Dr. Stoker's class, his

field trip. "I'll get Dr. Stoker; then we'll decide what to do,"

"Unless it's him that did it," said Helen, her voice dry.

"Ah, c'mon. He's never done anything but touch...."

"That we know of."

* * *

88                  Julia and Brook West

Dr. Stoker sat cross-legged in his tent, entering data into his

laptop computer by lantern light.

"We're missing three students," said Angie without preamble.

"Laurie, Cory, and Steve."

"Damn," he said. "How'd that happen?"

"There's more- We found Laurie's clothing, all torn up and

half buried under a tree. But no Laurie." She watched his face

carefully, Helen's words ringing in her mind.

It was hard to tell, in the harsh light of the lantern, but she

thought he paled. "This can't happen to me. It could ruin my ca-

reer. You've got to find those kids." He turned off the computer,

zipped it carefully into its case, then followed her to the camp-

fire.

Colleen and Helen huddled together, as close to the fire as

they could get. Behind them, George brandished a stick like a

sword. Ed and Flora had brought their dinners into the circle of

firelight, but the plates were still full. Malcolm, the football

player, sat pounding one fist into the other palm.

"There wasn't any blood—I looked, too," said Brad, "But

man, it looked like some maniac tore her clothes up, men buried

them; tried to hide them?"

"Didn't do a very good job," said David.

Dr. Stoker brushed off one end of a log and sat down. "I don't

want you panicking each other with this talk. There must be

some explanation of all this."

"They're gone. and we haven't heard screams or anything,"

said Helen, "You think they ripped off their clothes to run

around naked for a joke?"

"I didn't say that."

"We need to get back out there and find them now," insisted

George.

"And lose more people?" asked Dr. Stoker.

"I'd suggest that most of us stay here, by the fire, and send out

parties of, say, four people at a time to search," said Angie. "We

can rotate until we find the lost students."

"You'd better have ideas. You're as much responsible for

these students as I am."

Angie stiffened, and Ketton, beside her, stepped forward. She

grabbed him and said, "No, don't cause trouble," so softly that

only he could hear. His hand tightened painfully on hers, but he

stayed where he was.

"I'll take the first party out," she said. "Urn, George and

Helen, come with us?"

WEEDS                89

**Let me know if you find anything," said Dr. Stoker, and went

back to his tent.

"I'm never taking another class from him," said David.

"You're cool, Angie, but he's an uncaring old bastard."

The group headed into the twilight between ghostly white as-

pen trunks. Voices whispered among the leaves as a breeze

picked up, and the tiniest noises made Angie jump.

"What do you think happened to them?" she asked Kelton, af-

ter flinching from nothing for the fifth or sixth time.

"I don't have any ideas yet All we ever heard was a surprised

exclamation—no screams. We found clothes, but no blood, no

bodies...."

His flashlight beam illuminated a red fannypack resting

against the base of an aspen. A few tatters of torn shorts and un-

derwear rested beneath it. Pieces of shredded T-shin hung from

the branches.

"That's Cory's," said Helen.

Angie tried to pick up the fannypack; it was buckled around

the tree's trunk. She popped the buckle with trembling hands and

turned it over; CORY MITCHELL.

"Kel, this is just too weird. What the hell is going on?"

He shook his head, face a pale blur in the darkness. "All I can

think of is some maniac out here in the woods." He bent to tug

at the shorts, but they were half buried under the tree. "I don't

like this at all."

Angle's group returned to the campfire, and she sent out other

search parties, but she and Kelton couldn't sleep. They huddled

together on a log, sipping tepid chocolate and throwing branches

into the fire, staring over the flames into me forest. Toward

dawn, when David, Ed, Flora and Colleen returned with news of

finding Steve's clothing half-buried at the base of a tree, Angie

made a decision.

"Start packing; we're leaving," she told the returning search

party.

"Hey, we still want to go out and look," said Malcolm, from

across the fire. "I can't just turn tail and run, and leave those

guys out there somewhere."

"I think we ought to let the cops deal with this," said Angie.

"There must be a maniac out there. We can't deal with some-

thing like that."

"Why don't we search—it's starting to get light—while every-

90                  Julia am! Broofc West

body else packs? If we don't find anything, we'll leave with

you."

"Okay, but be careful." Angie swiried the chocolate dregs in

her cup, made a face at it, and set the cup down. "I'll wake Dr.

Stoker."

The professor answered her call immediately, but kept her

waiting until he crawled out of the tent dressed in clean clothes,

blond hair neatly combed.

"What news?"

"They found Steve's clothing, same as the others. I've told ev-

erybody to pack; we've got to leave, let the cops deal with mis."

"God, I hate that—it makes me look incompetent. I'd rather

we'd search again, in daylight"

"I sent out another party just now, but when they come back

in, we're leaving."

"Isn't it a little high-handed of .you to make that decision?" he

asked, grabbing her shoulders.

"You made me responsible, last night. / stayed up all night to

search. I think I have the right to make this decision."

A man's voice called, panic scaling it to falsetto, "My God,

Angie, Brad's gone!"

Angie pulled away from Dr. Stoker. "Come on, Kel." They ran

into the trees, found Matcom and David standing back to back,

pale and trembling-

"What happened?" said Kelton,

"He was over there," said Malcolm. "He said, 'What's that?'

and I went over to look—but he wasn't there."

She turned to look where Malcolm pointed. Three slender as-

pens grew close together, and she bent to examine the base of the

farthest one. The grass had been pushed up from below, with dirt

clods and small rocks littering the ground beneath the tree's

roots. A gopher? She was a botanist, not a zoologist. "Malcolm,

come look at mis." She heard an oddly pleasant buzz and a gasp.

A breeze rustled aspen leaves behind her, but Malcolm didn't an-

swer. "Malcolm?"

Hair raised on her neck and arms; she turned to look. Malcolm

wasn't there. Kelton, face pale, stared at an aspen. "Kel, where'd

Malcolm and David go?"

Kelton shuddered and shook his head. "I ... I don't know.

They were here ... and then .. .'*

"Kel?" She looked a question at him, but he shook his head.

"Not now. Let's get out of this valley."

« * *

WEEDS               91

When they got back to camp, they found Dr. Stoker had sent

out another search party.

"You're crazy!" yelled Kelton. "Something out there is snatch-

ing your students, and you send them into its jaws—or what-

ever?"

Angie took her husband's arm and said, "Kel," in a quiet

warning voice.

He shook off her hand. "Three more missing. We can't fight

this; let somebody else find out what's going on. Let's leave

while we can!"

"Mr. Lindstrom," said Dr. Stoker in a frigid voice. "You are

only here to accompany my TA; you have no authority. I made

this decision...."

"Then can Angie and I leave? You want authority; you can

take full responsibility for your students disappearing, and we'll

go for help."

Helen stumbled into camp, face pale as aspen bark. "They're

turning into trees' I saw it."

Dr. Stoker turned on her. "What kind of nonsense is that?"

"1 was talking to Ed. He looked past my shoulder—and got

this puzzled look." She closed her eyes, look a deep, wavery

breath. "I asked him what was going on and he ... changed. He

stretched up, tall and skinny, and his arms lengthened and

branches came out of them, and leaves, and his legs grew roots.

It all happened so fast. Flora saw it, too, but she was standing by

Ed looking at me. And ... and her eyes got big and then ... she

changed too. I didn't dare look around. It was aw-wful!" She

started sobbing.

Dr. Stoker slapped her. "Helen, you're hysterical. Too much