Chase stood at the base of the huge Oak tree looking up at the lowest branches. The lowest branch seemed
to be miles up, because of this he couldn't even stand to imagine how far up the highest ones were. Carrie walked
tiredly over beside him and slung her arm over his shoulders. "It's not that big," she said as she gazed up the tall
trunk. Chase laughed through his nose. Marcus soon joined them in looking at the massive tree. Amanda trailed
behind him. 
	"So," Marcus said as he sat down. He never took his eyes off of the tree. "This is it?" Chase nodded his
head slowly. Then, he too sat down. He slung his backpack off of his shoulders and unzipped it. He carefully pulled
a rolled up piece of paper from the top. He unrolled it gently, examined it for a few moments and then spoke to them
again.
	"I think this is it anyway," he said. He turned the paper around so that the others could see. What was on
the other side appeared to be a map that showed what seemed to be the field that they were in. Chase pointed to the
bottom left corner of the page. "It says it right there 'The Oak will grow the largest, it will grow centuries in a year,
alone it will stand, awaiting those who seek to unlock it's gift, awaiting those who wish to save their existence.' I
basically figured that since this is the tallest Oak tree in pretty much the whole country, it had to be this one." He
passed the scroll around to Marcus who briefly looked it over and passed it on.
	"That's interesting and all," Marcus said, sounding tired. "But why did we come all the way out here? I
mean did we come here to look at a big tree, or is there some other purpose."
	"And where did you find this?" Carrie asked, as she had the scroll in her hands.
	"You guys probably wouldn't believe me if I told you."  
	"Try us," Amanda said as she handed the scroll back to him. " I mean, we followed you all the way out
here because it was obviously important to you. We never really asked for any explanation. And now, you show this
scroll to us that's been around since god knows when with some prophecy or something on it. I kinda think that you
owe us an explanation of something at least."
	"I guess I do owe you something," Chase said as Carrie sat down on one of the huge roots. "I think, maybe,
I've been denying it myself. But, if you really want to hear it, I guess I'll end up telling you sooner or later."
	"That's right," Amanda said with a smile as she too sat down.
	"This is gonna take a long time, isn't it?" Marcus asked.
	"I don't think it'll take too long," Chase said.
	"Well, then, hurry up and tell your story," Carrie said. Her smile became serious, yet somehow comforting.
At that moment he knew that it wouldn't matter what he told her, she would believe him. He looked around at the
other two and saw it in their faces as well. All eyes were fixated on him
	All of them were sitting now, and chase took a deep breath in. "Well, it started with a dream," he said as he
began to relax. His story was unfolding now, and he wouldn't stop until he was done. "It was last Wednesday, nine
days ago. The night that we all went to the movies.  When I came home, I felt fine. Then, after a few seconds I
began to feel dizzy. I went to grab a pop from the fridge. But, when I opened the door, the little light seemed to be
replaced with a spotlight. I had to shield my eyes.
	"When I re-opened them, I was in a huge field. It looked kind of like the one that we're in now. Everything
seemed to go on forever. The sun was extremely bright, somehow it seemed to be closer than normal. The parts of
the sky which weren't filled with sun, were an amazing blue. There were thousands of black birds which were
flying. Except, they weren't flying. They seemed to be frozen. It's like someone put them on pause. In a way, they
kinda reminded me of stars. On the ground were billions of flowers that were bent in the wind, except there was no
wind. They were frozen too. There were thousands of different kinds, all of them just blanketing the earth as far as
the eye could see. All except for a dirt path.
	"This path stood out more than anything else. It was the only part that I could see that wasn't covered with
beautiful flowers. Instead, serving as a border for the path, were huge black weeds. These weeds had tons of long
sharp thorns screaming out of every vine. Everything was still frozen.
	"I began to move don the path. I wasn't walking, really. I was floating just a few inches off of the ground. I
floated toward the path. I didn't want to go down the path. But, it felt like I was being summoned. Even if I was
going to turn around, I knew I wouldn't be able to. I started moving faster, it felt as though some great force was
pulling me. I was going fast. Real fast.
	"As I moved I could see that I was approaching something." Every one was staring at Chase now,
completely engulfed ion his story. "As I got closer, I could see that it was a group of people. All of them were
dressed in black robes, and they all had their hoods covering their faces. There were at least twenty of them. They
stood in a large circle that was without flowers. This circle was surrounded with weeds too. I started moving by my
own will now. As I approached the nearest one, I noticed something that I hadn't previously. All the flowers that had
been on the ground, were replaced with tall, black weeds. the only spot that wasn't covered with these weeds was
where we were now. I looked behind me, the path was gone. It didn't overly surprise me. 
	"Just as I moved closer again, everything came to life. The birds started cackling deafening laughs high in
the sky. There were so many more than I realized. At times they blocked out the sun and created huge misshapen
shadows. I could feel the wind that as pushing the flowers. It was one of the kinds that you'd feel in early spring. It
was warm, yet had a biting cold to it. The people were talking, no, chanting. It was all in some strange language,
sounded different from any kind on Earth. One of them on the other side of the circle tossed some orb or something
into the middle of the circle. When it hit the ground, a red light filled the sky. It flashed really bright, but I still kept
my eyes open. The chanting began again. Soon the light flashed again. It almost seemed to be angry. Then it flashed
once more. When it flashed that time, I was knocked to the ground by some force. 
	"I guess I wasn't the only one who felt it either. Birds came raining down from the sky, plummeting into the
vicious weeds. Everyone who was standing in the circle, was no on the ground. The one who threw the orb into the
middle stood up. He threw his hood back and it revealed his face. I was shocked to see that he was old, at least fifty.
He pulled what I think is our scroll out of his sleeve, except the scroll he had was longer. He started to chant what
he was reading. This time it rang out with such clarity and volume. I could hear every piece of articulation that he
used. 'Houmarou Harshattar Vondre Mi,' that's what he said. I've never heard it before in my life, but somehow it
seems to hold a great meaning to me. 
	"The light pulsed again, once more knocking me over. When I got up, almost everything was gone. The
weeds, the sky were all replaced with an empty white. All that was left was the circle of dirt, the guy and a small
sapling that stood gnarled in the middle.  I moved over to the guy. His face was bleeding and his eyes had been
plucked from their sockets. But, he looked at me. He looked with the bloody, empty sockets. Beside him, I saw that
the scroll was burning. Instinctively, I blew the fire out. I think I was worried of it burning away the rest of the
world. The man stood up and handed the half destroyed scroll to me. He still stared at me. I felt dizzy. He spoke to
me, I could hear the blood gathering in his throat. 'Take this. Destroy him. You're one short right now. Soon you
will be united. Then, come here. Solve the puzzle with hands covered in life. Enter the light. It will take you there.'
	"Then, he just kinda disappeared. and the white overtook everything other than the sapling. that's when I
woke up. When I opened my eyes, the scroll was on my dresser. Somehow I had gotten up to my room." Chase
paused for a moment, recollecting his memory. He was satisfied that he told all he could. "That's it."
	Everyone sat quietly for a moment, still mesmerized by the tale they were just told. The light then came
back into Marcus's eyes. "So, we're the people this dude was talking about, right?"
	"I'm thinking so. Well, I'm hoping so. Because if we aren't, I dragged you guys out here for nothing."
Amanda and Carrie came out of the trance and now paid full attention to the conversation.
	"So we're supposed to go someplace and kill something. That seems to be the jest of what you're saying."
Chase nodded. Sometimes Marcus's simplistic way of saying things were nicer than life. 
	"I guess that's pretty much it," he said as he stood up. His legs were already stiff and it hurt to unbend
them. 
	"I'm sorry to say this. Dude," Marcus said as he hopped to his feet. "But you have really screwed up
dreams."
	"So," Carrie began as she stood up too. Amanda joined her. "What do we do now?"
	"And who's this other person?" Amanda chimed in.
	"I'm sorry guys," Chase said. "But I don't have any of the answers. I know you'd like me to. But I'm not
even entirely sure if all this is for real. I think that for now, maybe we should just set up camp and wait." He walked
around the trunk of the huge tree. "If there's something that we're suppose to do, I think that we'll know when it
happens. Until then, let's get ready." The others agreed with this. After clearing a spot of twigs and thistles, Carrie
pulled a compacted tent from her back pack.
	"This girls prepared for anything," Marcus said as he saw her pull the tent out. "Maybe she should have
been a boy scout."
	"Just shut up and help me with this thing," she said as she tossed one end of the tent over to him. The sun
was already beginning to set. She assumed that it was going to be dark in less than an hour. Not that the light
bothered her. The way she was now, she could sleep through an apocalypse.
	Chase walked over to the nearest trees and yelled back to the others, "I'm getting some firewood." Then he
walked past the first few trees. As he did this, he noticed that the trees were surrounding the large Oak. They almost
seemed like the weeds from his dream. ‘These are the weeds. We're in the circle now,' he thought to himself. ‘No
turning back.' This thought made his hands sweat. 
	"I'll come too!" Amanda said as she ran to catch up. They walked into the woods, and temporarily out of
site.
	Marcus looked up after them. "They're alone too much," he thought out loud to himself. Realizing what he
had just said, he jerked his head up to see her response.
	She looked at him with a little smile on her lips. "A little jealous are we?" She looked almost evil to him
now.
	"Me?"He continued pounding the stake into the ground. "Of course not. Never have I heard a more absurd
question." He looked up at her. She had an amused smile on. "Well, maybe just a little."
	"I guess I can't blame you," she said as she popped the tent into it's dome shape. "Mandy is pretty." She
tossed her pony tail off of her shoulder and stood back to look at her tent. "If I tell you something, would you
promise not to tell anybody?"
	He looked up at her, now he had the smile on his face. "I guess so." He thought that he already knew what
she was going to say.
	"I'm jealous too."
	"Oh, really?" It was his turn to smile evilly now. 
	"If you tell him," she said as she moved closer. "I will grab you by the groin-"
	"Ooh, kinky," he said with a playful smile.
	"And I will squeeze until something bursts."
	"Not so kinky." Marcus's face turned to one of pain as he envisioned the experience. They heard a rustle
from the trees and turned. It was Chase and Amanda returning with arms full of wood. As the two were still on their
way, Carrie crawled into her tent and lay down.
	"What's with her?" Chase nodded his head to the tent. He dropped the wood at what he figured to be a
good distance away from the tent.
	"I think she's tired," Marcus replied. "I can't really blame her either. I mean we walked for at least seven
hours." He sat down and pulled a slice of pizza out of his backpack as Amanda sat on the other side of the fire
wood. 
	"I think I'll go to bed soon too," Amanda said. She pulled a sleeping bag out of her backpack. She looked at
the sun setting on the horizon. It filled the sky with a beautiful orange. "Maybe I'll sleep outside tonight." Chase
stood up and pulled a book of matches out of his back pocket. He grabbed a few rocks and set them in a circle.
Then, he arranged the pieces of wood to look like a ti-pi. He spread a little bit of grass around and tossed a lit match
onto it all.
	By the time Chase got the fire to stay lit steadily, the sun was almost completely set. The first stars of the
evening were just beginning to sparkle. "Maybe I'll stay out here too," Marcus said. He looked over at Amanda to
see if there was any objection. There was none, she only nodded. She seemed very disconnected. She felt as though
she would never see any of this ever again. She watched the light of the fire send shadows dancing over Chase's
face. She could tell that he was thinking the same thing. Then she looked over to Marcus. His head was craned up to
the sky. He was staring at the stars. For a brief moment she thought that she saw the reflection of a twinkle in his
eye. This brought her back to time when she thought she liked him. She felt the same way now as she did then.
	After sitting silently for awhile, Chase decided that it was time for him to go to sleep. Since the outside
seemed to be taken, he had to sleep in the tent. When he crawled in he saw Carrie sprawled out on the blanket that
was being used as a mattress. Carrie may not have been very big, but when she was spread out she could take up a
lot of room. He gently pushed her arm and leg over so that there was enough room for him to lay down. He pulled a
little bit of the blanket and covered himself. The sudden movement woke Carrie. She turned over and looked at
Chase. For a moment she was filled with many forms of excitement. It passed and gave way to sleepiness. She
smiled at him, he smiled back. She mouthed a silent 'goodnight' to him and rolled back over. Her smile was still on
her face.
	Outside, Marcus was talking to Amanda about music. She just nodded every now and then, she wasn't
much of a music expert. Then while Marcus was going on and on about Blue Vomit, she burst out. "Did you know
that I used to like you?" She said this just as if they were still talking about music.
	"Uh," Marcus stuttered. "No, I, uh, guess I didn't." He was still thrown off by this sudden change in topic.
"Why?"
	"Carrie said that you knew. I wasn't sure though." She paused, then looked at him with sincere eyes. "I just
kinda thought I should tell you. Just in case I can't later."
	"What do you mean?" The sudden seriousness caught him off guard, but he disliked the pecimistic tone in
her voice now. 
	"I don't know. It just feels like all of this is the end of it. After this, I don't really expect another day."
Marcus nodded. He knew what she was feeling. It had been haunting him ever since Chase had told them his dream,
if that's what it was. 
	"I've grown kinda fond of you too," he said as he tried to use his best comforting smile. "And, don't worry.
Everything's gonna be fine."
	"Maybe," she said as she slid into her sleeping bag. Marcus decided to let her try to sleep. he pulled a
blanket out of his backpack. He folded it width-wise in half and lay between the two parts.
	"Goodnight," he said in a yawn. Amanda nodded and closed her eyes.
	None of them really fell asleep until five minutes after Marcus closed his eyes. All four of them fell out of
the world of consciousness at the exact same time. 
	They all slept deep and dreamlessly . . . Until midnight.