Vines

“What is it?” Dean asked
“Some kind of creeper”, Tom said.
“They’re everywhere”
The two boys stood with their hands on their knees watching the thick green vine curling itself around the pine tree. Something strange had begun to grow in the town of Ardley.

The wood surrounding the town were being choked by a green vine, almost as thick as the trees themselves. The boys watched It move, an inch at a time, and all around them the other vines did the same.
“What’s that” Dean asked, pointing to one of the trees.
Looking up, Tom saw something grey and furry. Pinned to the tree and dotted with blood was a squirrel. Several smaller vines had wrapped around the tree, crushing the squirrel against the bark.

Something heavy thumped against the forest floor near where the boys stood. A huge thick vine had fallen from the tree like a limp arm. The boys took a cautious step back as the fallen vine began to throw itself about, as if groping for something to hold. It moved with greater strength and speed than the vines still twisting and curling in the tress around them.
“Whoa!” Tom let out a nervous laugh.
“Lets go Tom” Dean said, tugging Tom’s arm.

The boys hurried back to their bikes, which they left lying on the path through the forest. The peaceful silence of the wood was being broken by the sound of soft thuds and falling branches as new vines fell away from the trees to slither on the ground. The boys propped up their bikes Something crashed onto the path behind them. They turned to see one of the vines pulling itself further out of the earth onto the path.

“Is it following us?” Tom asked.
“Come on” Dean pleaded.
Tom watched fascinated for a moment but quickly forgot his curiosity as more vines had began edging their way on to the path. They left the woods behind them.
Safely back on their bikes, pedaling towards town, the boys began to laugh and talk excitedly about what they saw. They agreed to call each other when they got home. Tom was anxious to tell his parents what he saw.

The town of Ardley was a small, quiet town of roughly 1200 people. It’s quiet most days even on a Wednesday. That was market day. There’s always a crowd that day. Today was a Saturday and a crowd had gathered in Ardley Square to watch something.

The boys got off their bikes and ran to join the crowd. But they saw the vines before reaching the crowd., Ardley Square Park was in the centre of the square. It was a place to sit and relax or somewhere for parents to bring their kids while they sat on the benches. What lay beyond the park railings now was an impenetrable jungle. Every plant and tree in the park was covered by the vine making it impossible to enter. Those watching could stand gripping the bars of the railings to peer into the tangled, twisting vines inside.

“Strangest thing I’ve ever seen. Just growing overnight like this” said a man in the crowd
“It’s everywhere. It was all over my back garden this morning. I’m right by the woods. That’s where it was coming from” another replied
“But what’s it doing here. We’re about two miles from the woods here.”
“Maybe it’s growing underground. ”
“ Nothing grows that long.”
“Noting I know grows this quick either. I’ve never seen this before”
“Did somebody plant it here?” A woman asks.
Nobody had an answer to the question. And an uncomfortable silence grew but was soon replaced by an alarmed shout

“There’s somebody in there” A young man shouted
“Where” an older man asked
The young man crouched and pointed at two feet visible among the vines.
“Hey! Is somebody in there?. Can you hear me?. Are you stuck?”
The older man removed his coat and hung it on the rail surrounding the park.
“Is there anything we can use to get rid of these vines”
“I might have a tire iron in the boot” said a burly looking guy with rolled up sleeves. He hurried across the road where his car was parked. On retrieving the iron he stopped suddenly, staring upwards, high into the sky. The crowd were too close to see what he saw. Several vines were rising from the centre of the park, reaching towards the sky. Unlike the vines choking the park, these rose high into the sky and terminated in red flowers.. They moved fluidly, not like plants, but like something alive, like angry cobras.

One of the red flowers seemed to notice the burly man, its brothers and sisters continued to sway back and forth with their heads tilted to the sky. The watching crowd grew anxious.The man was taken slow, cautious steps towards his car .There was not enough time to open the car door when it swooped down on him, shooting trough the air like a spear towards the man. Dozens of sharp tendrils pierced his body. Then the red petals enveloped him like a cocoon, lifting him up into the sky.

Shadows had appeared over the crowd who looked up and saw several huge petaled heads peering down at them. Panic ensued. People ran in all directions away from the park. Tom and Dean ran and hid underneath a parked car nearby. There were screams all around them.They saw feet being lifted off the ground, pulled up into the sky. The car they were hiding under shook as its owner climbed in. Quickly, the boys got out from underneath and banged on the windows with their fists. But new vines had made their way out of the park to slither along the ground and catch food for its mouth. They thrashed back and forth along the ground, sometimes catching the people that tried to jump over them, crushing and forcing there bodies through the railings.
One of the vines had got a hold of the vehicle where the boys now stood. In panic they turned and ran. They headed towards the open library across the street. That was a mistake. They were in the open now but it was too late.

Tom could only imagine one of those red flowers watching him run, tilting its head to strike. He didn’t look back until he passed the threshold of the library doors. Dean followed behind him.
"Shut the door" called a man standing on the stairs inside.Dean shut the door behind him, still catching his breath.

The man led the boys upstairs. Most of the crowd had escaped and were now lining the windows of the library’s upper floor. But they were no longer looking at the monsters in the park, but to the surrounding forest in the distance, where they saw for the first time the swaying shapes rising from the trees.