Earthly Justice

Earthly Justice

The Ant was blown high into the air as a gust pillaged the grass around him. For him the distance he flew was astronomical and the sudden change of scenery was infecting his sense of direction. That was the third time today. Getting back on his feet he continued on his mission of foraging for food. He had been walking for a little while when he found a small clearing with a mushroom in it. It was a tiny mushroom by human standards and even to the ant it seemed small. The grass was thee times as tall as the mushroom stood. Hoping for a better view despite the mushrooms lack of height, the ant climbed up on top of the mushroom. As he did the whole earth got dark and silent. Looking up at the sky he saw it was no longer blue, but angry brown and it was getting closer fast. To the ant this was the apocalypse. With the sound of a Hydrogen bomb the tree crushed everything the ant would ever know.



The tree had just been felled. The chainsaws were still coughing from the bits of tree-flesh stuck in their teeth. Suddenly a laugh echoed through the forest. All the lumber men stopped and looked around. The laugh rang again. This time one of the lumber men signaled to stop the chainsaws so everyone did. The laugh returned and this time the sound was unchallenged by the chainsaws in the air. It now rang through the forest, unnaturally amplified by the trees. When it stopped this time, the silence that followed was eerie. The hair stood up on the back of the lumbermen’s necks. Some shouted “Who’s there?” or “Stop playing” So the voice answered, “OW! That hurt! AH! Hahahaheheheheck!” even louder then before. They felt the vibrations in their bodies and bones. Now they were somewhat afraid. “Whoever you are come out. The jokes over. You got us.” Again the laugh rang, “Hahahaheheheheck! Well if you insist for me to come out … Here I am.” he said stepping out from a tree right behind one of the head lumbermen. The lumbermen all jumped at first but then started laughing. Some of the laughter was due to their being so jumpy and the rest was directed at the figure before them. He stood half as tall as the tallest man there and gangly and scrawny as his body would allow. He looked like a teen with an adult head. His hands were behind his back and he had an irregularly large smile on his face. “What’s your name little fella? And what ya doin’ out here in the woods?” asked the head lumberman. The figure twisted its head to an odd angle and had a look of confusion on his face. “My name?” he quizzically said. “Why my name is Coe.” When he said Coe his voice changed and was amplified by the trees again. Only it was almost inaudible as the sound seemed to come from the ground itself. The lumbermen’s looks changed from smiles back to non understanding fear. “As for what I’m doing here, it’s mostly business, but I promise there will be pleasure with it.” Coe said, and his smile grew a little larger if possible. A few seconds past with all the lumbermen just looking at Coe and he at them. Then Coe brought his hands out from behind his back and in each was a long one sided knife. Moving faster then the lumbermen could comprehend in that moment; he scissor style decapitated the head lumber man and brought his knives to his side without moving his body any. He just stood there smiling and staring at the lumber men as what had just happened sunk into their minds. Just as the body of the head lumber man hit the ground and blood sprayed out from the neck onto Coe, they all shouted and a few started to run. Coe had already counted them in his head and wouldn’t let a single one escape. He crouched and jumped high into the air and came down right on the chest of one of the lumber men who had started shouting. Both blades were imbedded in his chest. The air escaping from his lungs swiftly killed his shouting and replaced it with a gurgling. Coe and the body just seemed to hang there for a second before he ripped out the blades out and jumped off the body’s chest with a back flip. Upon landing more shouts from other lumbermen filled the air and two had chainsaws in their hands and were trying to get them started. Coe laughed and it rang through the forest again, “Hahahaheheheheck!” as he ran up to one of the lumbermen with chainsaws and hacked off both his arms. The man screamed and flailed around throwing blood all over Coe and the other lumberman. With a pull of a string the chainsaw blared to life and the lumberman charged at Coe shouting. As he swung the chainsaw at Coe, he tucked and rolled behind the lumber man. Standing up he gave the man an upward slash that cut deeply all along his back. The man screamed and fell forward decapitating himself on his own chainsaw. This caused a shower of blood to rain in the vicinity. Coe laughed again and started running at inhuman speeds into the woods, but first over the body of the armless man, and slit his throat without a movement.
It wasn’t too hard to find them, as they were making plenty of noise while running. He came up behind the first and while running silently, brought the blade around his head and sliced his throat without him even knowing he was there. His increased heart rate from running made him choke and slam into the earth with blood flying from his cleanly cut throat. It was like watching a car wreck. He hit the dirt face first and rolled length wise, snapping his neck and tearing the wound on his neck even more. Without stopping Coe continued with the smile on his mouth a tiny bit wider.
The lumber jack had been running for a little while now, and his breathing was somewhat labored. He kept feeling like he was being watched. He looked to his right for a second and saw something moving at fast speeds. “Shit! It’s him!” he said as he tried going faster. He looked to his right again and saw nothing. “Where the heck did he go?” he said just as a whooshing noise came from overhead. He looked up and saw the figure of doom. Coe swung from a branch right in front of the lumber man. The man managed to stop dead in his tracks. He froze with fear at the sight of Coe blood drenched and smiling manically. “Why are you doing this?” the man asked in a desperate voice and backing away slowly. No answer came from Coe as he started to walk towards the man, who suddenly tripped over a root and stumbled back up only to Coe directly in front of him and a tree to his back preventing escape. “WHY!?” he asked again.
“I’ll cut you down!” Coe said as he sliced one blade at the man’s legs and the other blade across his torso. “Just like you cut the trees down!” The man fell to the ground and kicked at the ground trying to get away but his legs only half worked and the tree still had him pinned. His face, sprinkled with blood from the cut on his torso, was as white as bed sheets. Coe ran him threw on the ground piercing all the way into the soil. Then again with a flash he was gone, speeding to the other victims.
The next ones had stuck together and one had a chainsaw. The one with the chainsaw tired of running told the other to stop. “Why we running from such a scrawny little guy anyway?” he said to the other. “We can take him. All we need is this here chainsaw.” and he started yanking the string to get it started. “I guess your right, but still there is something creepy about that guy.” said the other. At the end of the sentence the chain saw came to life. At the same time Coe stepped out from behind a tree just like he had before. “Why thank you for the compliment.” he said and the two men jumped. “Alright freak boy, time to die!” said the one with the chainsaw. Coe made a motion and one of the knives he was holding was now in the chainsaw holding man’s chest right where his heart would be. “Time for you maybe.” said Coe. The man stumbled a few steps then fell down dead. The other man shouted and started running again, but Coe was already ahead of him. Swinging above the man Coe grabbed him by the back of his shirt and flung him into a sharp tree branch. The man was impaled with a cracking sound through the abdomen. He hung about 6 feet off the ground dripping blood like an icicle. Coe laughed and ran through like a kid runs through a sprinkler. “Only one more left he said.”
The man had run for what seemed like forever and finally gotten to his destination. The car lot and general office lay right ahead of him. He ran to his car and opened it in a frantic hurry. Fumbling around he found his cell phone and keys. He quickly dialed 911 and stuck the keys into the ignition. As the car started and the operator picked up he closed and locked all the doors. “911 what is your emergency?” a lady asked over the phone. “Help! We’re being attacked by a teenage lunatic! He’s chasing me now!” he said frantically. “Okay calm down sir. Where are you now?” she asked back. “I’m at the office of…” as he started the sentence there was a loud thump on the roof of the now slowly pulling out car. He looked up at the roof and a moment passed of silence. Then with the sound of metal denting the blade came down through the roof of the car into the mans face. It punctured half way down his nose and went through his mouth cutting his tongue off and continued through his jaw. This was followed by a moment of silence except for the woman repeatedly asking “Sir are you okay?” and then Coe pulled the knife back up with the man still stuck to it. The severed piece of tongue was flung on to the dashboard where it left a bloody trail as the man was forced upward toward the ceiling. When he collided with it his eyes were stabbed by the metal protruding from the cut in the roof and dropped the phone. Screaming in the seat, Coe now broke the passenger window and swung inside. He made sure the car stopped and retrieved the phone. “Hahahaheheheheck! I’ll be waiting.” he said into the phone. He heard the lady say something but he was to busy holding it in place on the mans’ head. Then he stabbed his blade through the phone and into the mans head. Coe then wiped off his blade laughing. He wasn’t planning on having this much fun in one day!

+<I>+ Hour Later the Cops Arrive +<I>+

In that hour Coe had retrieved the other knife from the body in the forest and checked his victims’ bodies for any signs of life. One man was still alive but dying so he had sat directly in front of him and watched him die occasionally chuckling. Then he made sure that the police could track the trail of bodies through the woods to the place where the whole ballet had started. That’s what he was calling it in his head, a ballet of slaughter.
When the cops arrived he watched them from a distance as they slowly followed the trail. He watched their faces of disgust and disbelief and horror. He heard them talking to each other about who could have done these acts of terror. He couldn’t help but feel a sense of accomplishment over all this. Finally the cops made it to where he wanted them, and he called out like he had before. Every tree gave echo and it radioed through the forest. “Welcome to my domain. Now that you have come and observed my acts, none of you can leave this place.” The cops flinched at the first sound and then unable to find a source looked around in all directions trying to not show any fear. The chief of police was the only one able to answer after the noise stopped. “Alright whoever you are, come out with your hands up. You’re under arrest for murder!” Coe answered back in a mocking voice,
“So here are the bringers of human justice! And tell me; is murder not when you end someone’s life that is not yours?”
“Yes it is, and that’s what you’ve done!” the cop answered back as if he might bring Coe to his senses from killing so many people. But the response was so loud it shook their very eardrums and even the trees it seemed. “True it is! And the bringers of human justice are here to take me away. But where is the bringer of justice for every tree and plant you destroy DAILY!?! Murder happens everyday right here in this forest. Every hour and it has gone unpunished UNTIL NOW! Every single person has done it. MURDER of the earth. There’s the concrete of the cities and roads. Every inch of it is MURDER. Then there’s the people who mow their lawn and make it look fake by using chemicals to burn and bleach out the freedom of the rightful owners. TYRANTS AND MURDERERS! And then there are farmers. The worst of them all. They rip at the earth, tear and grind it up and away. Then they plant the crops in the most unnatural way, spraying chemicals the entire time. Then when the plant has forcefully surrendered its fruits of ITS labor, they take the crop and KILL AND DESTROY the entire field. You all act like you OWN the earth you walk on. You sell it to each other through banks and such. Fancy papers saying what you own and where. But I am curious where they got their authority to sell it? Mother never signed any papers giving you the earth. She was never paid. You ALL simply TOOK it. THIEFS AND MURDERERS! I ask you again, WHERE ARE THE BRINGERS OF EARTHLY JUSTICE?! I tell you now, I AM HERE!” And with that Coe swung down out of a tree and decapitated an officer where he stood. Coe crouched from the force of the jump as the head hit the ground with a thud. A pile of lumber kept him out of the line of fire from the other officers who had their guns ready. One officer started shouting into his radio, “Officer down! Officer down!” And another officer started forward slowly toward the pile of lumber, gun drawn and ready. Just as the officer made it around the corner, there was a sound from the officer with the radio. And as the officer figured out no one was behind the pile anymore Coe laughed in his menacing and echoing way, “Hahahaheheheheck!” The officers looked in time to see Coe with one blade stabbed through the radio and into the mans shoulder and the other diagonally upward into his other side. He pulled the man with him behind a tree. The other officers started toward the tree but as they did Coe threw the body of the man like a toy and hit one of the other officers pinning him down. Another officer stopped to help him as the other two continued toward the tree which Coe had ducked behind. As the officer helped the other up from the ground, the others shouted that Coe wasn’t there. Looking around quickly they suddenly saw Coe in front of them. It was as if he had sprouted from the very ground and stabbed the two officers together. His left blade went through their necks and his right went through their abdomens. The other two officers were startled for a second at how he had gotten over there so fast but quickly started for him. They didn’t have a clear shot since he was behind the bodies of the other officers squeezing them together tighter. He kept squeezing until the sounds of bones and blood were mixing in the air. He drew out his blades in time to meet the first of the other two officers. Using both hands and blades in one strike Coe cleaved the man from his left hip to his right shoulder. As the body fell apart and blood sprayed, Coe turned around to face the other officer. The last officer pulled the trigger. The shot was point blank to his heart, but Coe didn’t even look like he felt it. Still smiling he stabbed into the mans neck diagonally, squirting blood upward. Leaving the blade in the victim, he watched him fall to the ground dead. Just standing there smiling his now empty right hand felt his blood drenched chest. No look of pain was on his face but you could still tell he was dying. He fell to his knees stabbing his blade into the earth as a support. Staring at the ground he said, “I may be but human, however I have a better, loving mother. I go to her now in harmony.” And with that vines and plants all moved as if alive and overtook his body and the blade. Swirling and moving and changing until the form was gone. Then the vines went back to where they had all crawled from and in place of the body a sapling grew. Only it grew fast. It grew to a huge tree in a minute. It kept growing until it was taller then all those around it and the trunk was as thick as a house. It never ages or dies. The legend is that anyone who tries to cut the tree down will die within a week. And they say you can still here that laugh on the wind in those woods, “Hahahaheheheheck!”