The Darkwood

Chapter 14: Red Rock

Johnny was riding shotgun and Karen sat in the center seat in back. Andy started the engine. The three waved to a somber looking Teddy in the van to their right, and pulled out of the space in the parking lot of Sparta's hospital. They drove slowly across the lot to the exit, and turned on a road that they had only driven once before. When the fve of them were feeing, that road seemed like a golden highway of possibilities– of escape. They all had the same thought: years ago, the seed had been planted in the back of their minds– some day, they would return and fnish what they had started. Andy's car made slow progress down the road. He was not intentionally driving slow, he just couldn't seem to summon the willpower to press the pedal to the foor; so they hovered around forty-miles-per-hour. None of them spoke, nor was the radio on. They all listened to the sounds of the tires hitting cracks in the pavement. Johnny's eyebrows furrowed into a frown of confusion as the cracks got louder the further they went. That meant the road was getting worse. Not long after the road's condition worsened, they started noticing that none of the driveways had mailboxes on them anymore– they all seemed overgrown and abandoned. Then the frst sign of real trouble hit– literally. A pothole slammed them all down as the suspension of the car gave way to the depth of the hole in the road.

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"Holy shit! That was a deep one." Andy remarked as he leaned over his steering wheel to try and see more. Johnny did the same. Karen sat forward when she felt the car slowing to a crawl to look at the road. The three of them looked at the worst road they had ever seen– holes everywhere. There were more potholes than road. "Fuck it." Andy pressed the gas pedal down, and they began to slowly roll over thousands of holes in a road that got fainter as they went on. After about two miles, they started seeing grass growing up in the spaces where the road had completely crumbled. The wispy sound of grass sliding on the underside of the car flled the cabin.

"Someone should call the highway department." Johnny tried to joke– no one laughed.

One mile further, they started to climb the hill which would give way to a valley and give them a vantage point to look down on the town of Red Rock. The road had become so bad that all three of them were looking out the window and trying to help Andy navigate. The felds of grass and road were almost indiscernible. By the time they were almost to the crest of the hill, they realized they were basically off-roading. The car could get them no further so they stopped. Andy threw the car in park and shut off the engine. The

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three of them looked at each other. As if in an unsaid agreement to continue, they opened their doors at the same time and got out of the car. The smell of burning green grass surrounded the car, as the grass under the engine touched hot metal and wilted. All three shut their doors, trapping some grass in the cracks at their bases. Andy shook his head, "I guess were hoofng it from here." He began walking towards the crest of the hill. When all three had reached the top of the hill, they stood silent– looking at the valley below in disbelief. The Darkwood had grown to the edges of the valley– completely devouring the town of Red Rock. There were no discernible roads coming into the valley from any direction as far as they could see. The only evidence indicating that there was a town at one point, were the tips of churches and the corners of a few tall buildings poking out above the black trees.

The three started walking through the long grass– they decided not to take Andy's car, because the grass that came up to the top of hills was the "bad grass," the grass that looked like it had grown from flth. The biggest difference between the "bad grass" in the park when they were young, and the "bad grass" they were striding through then, was the height. The new "bad grass" was waist high, each stalk had thorns, and each leaf blade ripped at the fabric of their clothing. The blades even seemed to reach for