Wicker

Wicker

By Donovan Santiago

 

Sacrifices must be made in the name of nature. The wooden heart at the core of this planet needs to be fed.  We feed the forest, we feed the trees, we feed ourselves. Wicker is always watching. Wicker shall guard us. We are Wicker. That is our way—the way of the Great Tree.

-Unknown, 1850

 

April 2025 

The middle of nowhere, USA. The dead of night. The light from a dark green jeep shines at the legs of three people. A gruff male voice. “Are you sure you two want to do this?”

A confident woman responds. “Yes, that’s what we’re paying you for. Do you want to get paid? Right?”

“I do. But… ” he pauses, sounding uncertain. I’m just making sure. No one has…” He pauses again. You have 48 hours in the zone. The door can only be opened from my side. I’ll wait.”

She cuts him off. “We get it. You’ll wait an hour and then leave. We heard you the first five times!”

He gulps. “Never mind.” The sound of a lever being pulled in the darkness is the only sound. The creaking of a large steel door opening makes more noise. “Stay safe.”

“Jesus Christ. We don’t care for these stupid urban legends. I’ll throw in an extra 200 for you to be quiet.” Silence. “Good, here’s your money.” The rustling of bills echoes in the night. The sweaty hands grabbed them.

 

Footsteps, followed by a car door opening and slamming. The engine starts, and the car can be heard in the distance. The woman speaks. “Finally.”

A higher-pitched male voice speaks in a nervous tone. His heart is almost beating through his chest. “I thought he wouldn’t let us in.” Sweat drops from his forehead hit the ground.

“I’m glad you stayed quiet. I don’t need you ruining another opportunity. Your silence is golden.”

The steel semicircle door closes behind them slowly. The two pull out flashlights and shine them on each other. “You know damn well I’m taking a risk doing this. I mean, bribing a soldier?” This is David Tannis. A 28-year-old man with blonde hair and green eyes wears hiking gear, has a large red backpack, a square photography camera hanging off his neck, a holstered flair gun, and a knife in his back pocket. “I just don’t want to get in trouble.” David has always been the cautious type. But he’s got a heart of gold.

He is with Marcia Stone. A 32-year-old woman with red hair and blue eyes, she also has hiking gear and the same equipment as David. “Get over your damn fears! I mean, do you want to make it as a photographer? You gotta take a risk! No one has photos of this place! Well, at least not anything recent!” Marcia tells it like it is. The truth hurts, but she’ll hurt you more. She means well, but she’s all about reaching the next goal.

David sighs. “Fine. No sense in arguing.”

She smiles. “Come on. Let’s get moving. We’ll have plenty of chatter time.”

David looks at her. “Really? Chatter?”

 

The two walk through a half-circular tunnel. Rusted chains with hooks at the end hang from the top. David speaks. “What’s with the chains?” The flash goes off as he snaps a photo.

The two push on. Marcia shines her light on a tree fused to the top of the wall. She takes a photo. “Odd place for a tree.”

The two keep moving as they notice more trees fused to the red brick walls. As they move forward, more chains hang. “Do you believe in the urban legends?”

She grins. Her heartbeat is calm. “Nah. It’s all a bunch of smoke and mirrors.”

He raises his eyebrows. “Why would they only have one tunnel in? Why have the large wall around this area?”

“It’s government land. They just want another reason to scare us. It’s probably just a nature preserve.”

He’s not buying it. “Really? So they built a larger wall around just regular government land?” He pauses. “So, why start those rumors of tall, lanky gray creatures? Or half man, half bee thing? What about those experiments with mixing tree DNA?”

She smirks at him. “Made up by bored teenagers.”

“Yeah, right. You don’t set up a wall and have one way in and one out for a nature preserve. Besides, how does this place help us?”

“It will prove that the government is locking away these sites for no reason. Showing how corrupt they are. There should be no reason to lock away nature.”

“Did you forget that the human race has destroyed 70 percent of this planet’s ecosystem?”

“Look, I have a gut feeling that something bigger is happening here. Just humor me, or you can go back.” David looks back at the closed door. She smiles at him. “Oh, wait! You’re stuck with me in the deep end. Let’s go.” 

 

The two keep on moving. The fused trees above them start to change. They almost resemble skeletons. David comments. “Odd shapes for trees.”

“They are like us. Taking up after old people. Shriveling up until they are nothing but dead husks.”

He looks confused. “I don’t think that’s how they work.”

“Do you know all about trees?” He doesn’t respond. “I thought so.” She takes a photo as the flash goes off. As they walk away, the tree-like skeleton slowly opens one of its eyes before shutting it. 

 

They keep taking photos. He looks at his digital watch. “The sun should be up soon.”

“Good. Clearer photos for us.”

They both keep on walking. Then, they shine the light at the end of the tunnel to see a figure standing still. He speaks in a low voice to her. “Is that a..”

She also replies in a low voice. “No. It can’t be.” Then she shouts. “Hello!”

He tenses up. “Are you kidding me!” 

She shushes him. “I’ve got this. Relax your damn brain.” His face has a stiff demeanor. She signals him to follow behind him. She turns slowly, whispering. “Follow my lead.” She pauses as they hike. “Hey. Are you ok?”

He taps her and whispers. “Why are they so stiff?”

She gets snarky. “Maybe because they sense your negative energy from a mile away.”

He stands up for himself. “You know what?” He rushes past her.

“What the hell are you doing?”

He walks fast. “Hey! Stop being such a goddamn stiff!” He reaches the figure and puts his hand on its shoulder. He stands like a stone. Unable to move.

She rushes up behind him. “Now you wanna take charge!”

He steps aside to reveal another skeleton-like tree. Its wooden back is starting to crack from old age. “What the hell is this?” 

She shines her light on the ground. It is fused to the ground. “Some sick bastard did this. It’s some type of art thing. It must be.”

He looks closer. “Really. It can’t be.” 

“I took a sculpture class in college. You can learn human anatomy and then apply it to art.”

“This is giving me the creeps.” He then looks forward to see a red lever next to a rusted door. “Finally.” He breathes a sigh of relief.

She takes a photo of the tree figure. “Very interesting.”

David pulls the rusted lever. The door opens slowly. “Did I ever tell you how much I hate tunnels?”

“Yup. Like fifty times this year.”

“Sorry for being a normal person who needs to vent occasionally.”

 

The door opens slowly as the golden sunshine starts to peer in from the ground. From a distance, something watches through a fence as the door opens. The two step out. The door then slams shut behind them. Creating a boom noise. David jumps in shock. A flock of crows flies away from the forest in front of them. David looks up behind him to see a sizable red-colored wall. “Is that? What do they call it?”

“Redcrete. Looks like it.”

“But the government banned it in the 1950’s.”

“Tell’s you how old this place is.” She takes a photo of the aging wall. Looking at the wall’s ground, the tree branches are fused to the bottom. “You see this?”

David takes a closer look. “It’s odd to see these plants trying to fuse with objects. I wonder if it is a survival thing?”

Marcia then looks at the soil below her. She takes a few photos. Then Marcia tries

to pick some up. But she can’t. The soil is hard. She looks at David. “Radiation fallout?”

“Could be. I mean, this place has twenty different rumors surrounding it.”

The two walk towards the old, rusted chain-link fence. Behind it is a forest. David can see a large tree that stands out from the others. He then looks at Marcia. “How do we get in?” He looks forward again to see the tree missing. “Wait a minute!”

“Woah, chill out, cowboy. What’s up?”

“The tree. It just moved!” He points.

She looks. All she can see is a forest. “Maybe the so-called radiation is getting to you.”

From a distance in the forest, heavy breathing is heard. David starts to get cold. “See! A cold chill! Someone is watching us!”

“I doubt it. This place is creepy. But it is abandoned.”

“I trust my gut on this one.”

“Well, we move forward. Keep taking photos and help me find a way in.”

She walks away, following the fence. David yells. “Come on, Marcia!” He puts his hands down by his side. “Whatever.” He then follows her.

 

Marcia discovers a small hole in the fence. Right next to a Do Not Enter sign written in red text. Marcia smiles at David. “Time to hit the lotto.”

David sighs, looking at the sign. “Lotto of death.” 

She points to the fence opening. “We’ve got this. Grow a pair.”

“Ugh. This is the last thing we do together.”

“Good, because we can both travel on other companies’ dime after this.”

He raises his eyebrow as she walks in. He speaks under his breath. “Unless we end up six feet under.” She is already on the other side.

 

The two walk silently for a few minutes, and the forest starts normally, but a few black and dark green trees appear. Then, as they walk some more, they smell something rotten. David reacts. “What is that?” It smells like a burnt corpse and wood.

He covers his nose, and Marcia does the same. “Alright, if it is radiation, we can turn back. I didn’t bring any gear.”

“Finally. You’re making sense for once.”

“Hey, watch it. I’m just a risk taker.”

“I know that.”

The two keep moving, and then they come upon a disgusting site. They stop, both rooted, as they try to figure out what they are looking at. “Is that a..a..” he stumbles.

“A body.” A human body is fused to a large tree trunk. The organs and bones are all exposed; now, they are all wood. The face is consumed by branches as if being absorbed into the tree.

Marcia starts to take photos. She looks at David. “Start snapping!”

David snaps out of it. He clicks away. “I don’t know what to make of this.” 

 

From a distance, more heavy breathing is heard. David starts to sweat again. He taps Marcia. “I’m telling you. Someone’s watching us.”

“I’m ready to leave, but we need more photos. We’ve got to go to the center. This is our only chance.”

“Marcia.” She is taking photos. “Marcia!” She finally stops and turns around. Giving him full attention. “We don’t need to die for these photos.” 

She nods.“I’m sorry. I’m doing this for us. To finally make a name for ourselves. I was always taught to put my best foot forward. To be confident. To tell the truth. Sometimes, the truth hurts. But I just want what’s best for us.”

 

David opens up his arms as the two embrace for a hug. Behind them, the tree skeleton’s eyes start to open. From the forest, snake-like branches begin to move towards the two. David notices this. His eyes gloss over at seeing the skeleton smiling. He then notices the tree branches. He whispers to Marcia. “I need you to trust me. Hold my hand and run with me. Don’t say anything.” She looks at him. Her eyes start to calm, but they enter a state of disarray. But she trusts him at this moment. They hold hands. “Now!”

The two run off as the tree branches come towards them. She looks back to see the skeleton with a grin as hundreds of branches slither towards them. “What the hell is going on!”

They keep on running. Then, a snake branch cuts them off. Marcia snaps a photo. The two turn left and head a different way. They keep on running as they both start to sweat. Then, the snake branches reappear and knock the two down a small hill. David lands on his camera, which breaks. David gets up and rushes to Marcia. “Are you OK?”

“Your camera!” 

“Fuck the camera! We are getting out of here.” The two get up to see many trees surrounding them with various skeletons fused to them. Some trees have new bodies, multiple skeletons, and just skulls. David and Marcia are both silent.

 

Then, the trees start to laugh, scream and shout. 

An old voice. “Thou shall no escape!”

A high-pitched voice. “All skulls, that skulls well!”

A low voice. “Wicker soon. Wicker now!”

A woman’s voice. “Next steps. Oh, pretty!”

A child’s voice. “A four-month stay.”

A wacky voice. “One with the great tree.”

They all laugh at the two. Then, they all repeat. “Soon! Wicker! Soon! Wicker!”

 

David has had it. He pulls out his flare gun. “Goodnight, abominations!” He fires into the trunk of a tree.

Marcia pulls out her flair gun and points at them. “Y’all want another one!”

A fire starts as David responds. “It’s either us or them.”

 

The flames start to spread. The trees begin to scream and shout as the flames consume them. David and Marcia run off. 

A low voice. “Wicker will get you!”

A wacky voice. “We can not be killed!”

A woman’s voice. “Angry you make us!”

An old voice. “September 17th, 1952.”

A high-pitched voice. “No escape.”

A gruff voice. “Darkness.”

 

The horrific screams follow the two as they rush off. The flames consume these abominations. Marcia and David rush into a large black crater. Marcia sits down. “I always preferred weight lifting over running,” she says with bated breaths.

David lifts his head to see it, overlooking them like a tower. The Great Tree. “My God.”

Marcia looks up to see a large, black, leafless tree. “That’s gotta be at least 30 stories.” She snaps a photo. 

David looks at the crater they are in. Under the dirt, he can see giant root indentations. “Could this be the source?”

Screams are heard behind them, coming from the forest. “We haven’t got much time. ” She gets her camera ready. Marcia rushes forward. 

David follows. “God damn it.” The two are walking. David looks at his watch. “It hasn’t even been 10 hours.” He looks around. Trees start to move around in the forest. “We need a place to hide.”

Marcia approaches the Great Tree. Snapping a few photos. At its base is a large black opening. She looks down and takes another photo. It looks cave-like. “That’s our hiding spot.”

“Marcia! We can’t do this anymore. I’ve said before. But this is it. We go back and shoot up a flare. That’s it!”

“We don’t have enough! I’m not going back with nothing. I’m tired of the struggle. Photos of this place will secure our futures! Ours!”

“No!” He pauses and stares at her. “I love how confident you are. It’s why I’ve stuck around so long. I didn’t have that for a long time. But after seeing the horrors in this forest, I’ve changed. I want to live. We need to live. You keep pushing forward like this and end up in darkness alone.” He extends his hand. “Let’s go.”

She turns around. Standing still. She says in a low voice. “Behind you.”

 

David turns around slowly. A ten-foot tree is a few feet away. Looking up at the crater’s base, it is now surrounded by skeleton tree hybrids. They all start to chant. “Wicker! Wicker! Wicker! Wicker! Wicker!”

 

The chants go on in the background. David and Marcia both pull out their flare guns and knives. Marcia turns to David. “We got this. Together till the end.”

He smiles back. “Together till the end.”

 

Wicker turns around to reveal a massive bulbous head composed of multiple skulls. Its whole body looks like burnt wood. It then steps forward to reveal nearly human legs. Then multiple branch snakes come out from its body, as do uneven human-like arms. Then, one large skull emerges from the center, pushing the smaller skulls back. This giant skull has a beard and pitch-black eyes. Wicker stares at them.

 

David looks at Marcia. “No time like the present.” David and Marcia fire the flare gun at Wicker. It is about to hit Wicker’s eye, but the face absorbs back into the tree. The flares hit a solid part of the tree. It falls on the ground.

“Yeah, we can go now. Nice try, though.”

 

The face of Wicker returns. Snake branches start to come out from the Great Tree entrance. They grab Marcia. “God damn it!”

“I got you!”

Wicker starts to move closer. David and Marcia use their knives to cut off the snake branches. “Get the hell off me!” She manages to get free. Wicker charges the two of them. They both fall into the entrance. But David managed to grab a branch a few feet down. Marcia is holding onto David’s foot.

David is sweating. “We’ve got this! Can you grab something else?”

“Hold on! Let me check.” She grabs a branch near his foot. “I got something.”

 

Wicker looks in from the opening and down at the two. The chanting has stopped. Wicker speaks in a low tone. “No escape. Hive mind, soon.”

 

Marcia looks up. “Screw your hive mind.”

David looks at her. Then, behind them, they hear a heartbeat. “Marcia, can you fire your flare gun into the darkness?” Wickers snake branches start to get closer. David pulls out his knife while holding on. 

Marcia fires the flare gun into the darkness. Then, a splash is heard. “Sounds like a long way down. We better move!” 

David slashes the branches as they get closer. The two start moving down. “We’ve got this!”

Then, the branches come from below and knock off Marcia. “Noo!” as she falls into the darkness.

“Marcia!” David looks panicked. Then, he is knocked down by the branches.

 

Marcia and David are separated, waking up in different parts of the darkness. David is the first to wake up—dark goo all around him, a shallow pool with the essence of evil in it. David awakes, gasping for air. Confused, he can barely move. His back is broken. He tries to speak, but it hurts too much. He tries to move again. He lets out a “God.” Then, the snake branches start to come out from all corners of the darkness.

David is in a state of panic, unable to do anything. This feels familiar. It reminds him of the womb, but the inverse of it—as if the devil was giving birth. The snake branches completely cover David, except for his eyes. Tears drain from his eyes as life is slowly taken away from him. Muffled crying can be heard through the branches. Then, his eyes are covered for the last time, embracing the cold darkness around him forever.

 

Marcia wakes up on the side of a small rock near a vast black pond. A golden light shines in from above. Waking her up. She is confused. She feels her body. No broken bones, only a few scratches and bruises. “What the hell.” She slowly gets up. “David! David!” Then she hears it. A beat. A heartbeat. From above’ her multiple Wickers now appear. They look very old and fused into the side of the walls. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

More holes from above open up, bringing more light to the chamber. In the middle of the black pond is a large wooden beating heart. Wooden blood vessels and arteries connect to the black pool and above. Marcia falls to her knees and cries. Then the Wicker who was chasing them appears from the pond, being pushed up by a stone bridge. “Do not cry.” A stone platform forms near the wooden heart. “Please. We explain.”

“Where the hell is David!”

“He is part of us now.”

“You bastards! All of you!”

With compassion. “Please. Our Queen is dying. The forest is black. Soon we will die. We need you.”

She stands up. A sense of wonder takes over. She looks down to see she still has her flare gun. She knows what has to be done. Looking at her reflection in the water, she wipes away her tears. “Ok. I’ll do it.” She pauses. “Do I power the heart?”

Wicker smiles. “Yes. You are power.”

 

Marcia walks across the stone bridge, approaching the heart. The wooden heart opens as she draws near, spitting out a decayed corpse in a Victorian-era outfit. The body still twitches on the floor. Wicker steps to the side and bows down. “Please step in, Our Queen.”

She looks down at the body. Its eyes are still blinking, taking breaths in. Left alive for who knows how long, tossed aside for someone shiny and new. This would be Marcia’s fate. Marcia will not play second fiddle to anyone. She’s got a lot done in her life with being headstrong. By telling the truth. With putting her foot down. Even if it put people off, she was her. David finally changed. He grew a pair. She will not let his change be for nothing. She also will not be a damsel in distress. Looking at the inside of the heart, she can see it is organic. Above is a tube that leads to the top of the tree.

 

Is it right to do this? Killing an entire species? Destroying the hive mind? Let more people be taken in? Marcia knows what she wants to do. She feels it. She takes off her bag and picks up her camera. She takes a photo of Wicker and smiles. “One for the photobook.” Wicker gives a half smile back. She is about to step inside the heart when quickly she pulls out the flare gun. “For David.” She fires it above into the tube. She then jumps back as the heart door closes.

 

Wicker screams. “No!”

Smoke and flames start to pour out. The Wickers on the wall begin to scream in pain. “Why!” 

“What have you done!”

“This is not right!”

“Help us!”

 

Wicker grabs its head and falls to its knees. “Why? Queen!”

 

The heart is fully ablaze like a phoenix. Marcia looks at Wicker. “I play second fiddle to no one.” The Wickers scream as the flames take over the tree. Marcia looks around but can see no way up. She walks over to the body that was spit out and sits down next to it. “Don’t worry. You can rest easy.” She then lays next to the body. “We can rest easy.”

 

From above, the Great Tree burns in the middle of the black crater. The trees all scream as their life fades away. Was this a good choice? Was it the right choice? None of that matters now because it was Marcia’s choice. Marcia enters a dream state. Seeing her family, David, and a field of white flowers for the last time.

 

The End

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