Forest Shroomy's Arc

Chapter 1 of 6

Forest Shroomy crouched low behind a moss-covered stump and watched the man at the edge of the eastern grove. Luke the Lumberjack. She knew him by sight, but this time something was different. He carried a case she had never seen before, metal and angular, not the tools of his trade. She moved closer, staying beneath the twisted branches of the old tree with purple and pink leaves. The bark was rough against her shoulder as she pressed herself flat. From here she could see the machine he was assembling. Orange metal, tracked wheels, an arm that extended upward with blades at the end. It was built for cutting, but not like any saw she had seen before. Luke walked a slow circle around the grove's perimeter, stopping every few meters. He bent down at each spot and brushed aside the leaf litter. Forest Shroomy pulled the test tube from her pocket and held it up to the light. Inside, the soil sample she had collected three nights ago showed the pale threads of dead mycelium suspended in dirt. The places Luke was examining matched the locations where the stranger had inserted probes into the ground. She tucked the tube away and watched him return to the machine. He climbed into the seat and reached for the controls. The engine coughed once, then roared to life. Forest Shroomy understood now. The probes had been markers. The extraction had been preparation. And this machine was here to finish what someone had started. Her forest had six days before the network collapsed, and Luke had just reduced that timeline to hours.