Ellis Hardy used to be a proud man. He was proud of his looks, tall and handsome with thick chestnut brown hair. He was proud of his lineage, third generation American with ancestors that settled the land with Oglethorpe. He was proud of his family’s legacy, owners and operators of the country’s highest producing pecan orchard from 1780-1861. He was proud of his achievements. A star pupil, an excellent pianist, and a gifted equestrian. Compelled to serve, he was first in his class at The Citadel. A born leader, he made captain in the United States Army before he turned twenty-five. But, that was before the war. Before everything went to shit. Now he is not proud. He is consumed with shame and despair. Completely and utterly exhausted he sits alone on a short stool in an all but empty barn. Broken, defeated, and contemplating murder suicide.

What a thing life is to bring a man to this. Up on Hardy Hill, in Hardy House, his oldest son lays in intense agony inches from death. The unlucky recipient of a kick to the chest from a mule that is now the lone meat in the family’s soup pot. A devastating blow to the farms already inadequate productivity. But after what it did, that mule had to die. At least in death, it can provide desperately needed nourishment. Ellis’s family has been living off of squirrels and nuts for months. The pantry is bare, the fruit cellar is empty, and there is no money to do anything about it.

Back taxes on the massive estate decimated his savings and will consume his army pension for the foreseeable future. To make matters worse.. or maybe it will make things easier.. his wife spent the last of their money on laudanum today. In part it’s for the boy, but it is for her too. She’s been using it to cope with the rigors of life since she was beaten and gang raped by Sherman’s raiders two years ago while her hometown of Atlanta burned down around her. Their youngest son, now four, hasn’t spoken or left her side since watching it happen. A two year-old baby girl, the product of that terrible night, is his only child that hasn’t suffered terrible pain. But Ellis knows it’s coming, and he can’t bare the thought of watching her wither, instead of bloom. He will only be able to watch because he sure won’t be able to hear it. Four hard years of war behind a cannon battery made sure of that, his auditory faculties failing a little more every day.

A cool late October breeze blows down Hardy Hill and into the barn, rustling the amber leaves of the one hundred foot tall pecan trees in the orchard, and Ellis’s long scraggly beard and dirty matted shoulder length hair. Haircuts and shaves are for people with time and money. Two things he doesn’t have any of. His life has been nothing but hard labor every since he got home. Horrific nightmares of the battlefield wake him nightly, hours before dawn. Unable to rest, he endeavors to work his way out of the pit he finds himself in. He works, and works, and works some more. He grinds as hard as one man can and its not good enough. He is failing. Pecans, his cash crop, cover the ground of the orchard outside. And there is a field full of pumpkins that need to be on tomorrow’s 10 AM train to Macon, but he’ll never be able to get them there alone. You see, the Hardy Hill Plantation occupied three hundred workers at it’s peak. Yes, the majority were slaves. But, there were a lot of employees too. Not anymore. Its just Ellis now. The freed slaves lit out for the big cities of the North and the war killed most of the employees, one way or another.

Maybe if his father, two sisters, and three older brothers were here, Hardy Hill might have a chance. But they’re all long gone. The elder Hardy was hung from a large oak tree that stands in front of Hardy House for supporting the Confederacy. They didn’t much care that his son was a colonel in the Union army or that Hardy Hill was one of the first stops on the underground railroad. He had to be made an example of to bring his fellow southern food producers to heel. Lucky for his sisters, dad saw the war coming and he spirited them off to Europe, and they’ve had the good sense not to come back. His big brothers are six feet under a battlefield in Gettysburg, thanks to Pickett’s charge into Ellis’s own Union artillery battery. Despite what they write in the northern papers now, Ellis knows they didn’t charge those guns for slavery. They were fighting for their state’s right to decide for itself and against unlawful taxation of people that actually produce things, like their great grandfather did. The knowledge of that fact contributing a powerful dark spirit of guilt to his miasma of destructive emotions. Not that any of that matters now.

Elder Hardy was a progressive. After Ma Hardy died in childbirth, he was finally free to love his childhood sweetheart. The daughter of his lifelong attendant, a slave girl that had been his childhood playmate, teenage confidant, and adult true love. And as a result, Hardy Hill moved away from slavery and into sharecropping. Soon discovering that laborers are more productive when they have dignity and they benefit from the fruits of their labor.

Ellis’s head hangs low. Sweat from his brow mixes with heavy tears making streams that wash away the dirt on his face, leaving vertical stripes underneath his eyes. Many battles has he fought and never has he been this scared. Adding to his deep sorrow, phantom pain from toes lost to frostbite throbs hard inside his leather boot making it feel as if it’s going to split at the seems.

Having reached his wits end, he stands and pulls his army issued Colt revolver from its holster on his hip. It feels heavier than it ever has in his hand. “Death would be a welcome reprieve.” he whispers to himself. “It’s too much. ..there is too much. I ought just save them from their pain.” Thinking of how best to kill his beautiful loving traumatized wife and wonderful starving children brings another torrent of tears. Crying he stands and puts the revolver to his temple, pulls back the hammer, and looks to the sky as he screams, “FUUUCCKKK!!! GOD! WHY?!” His lamenting provoking a response from his war horse, Fuse, standing nearby. The gray stallion whinnies and snorts and stands on his hind legs and kicks the air as a shot rings out.

“Ellis, you alright? Ellis!” A young, attractive, and muscular black man crouches over Ellis laying on the dirt floor. Ellis opens his eyes unsure if he is alive or dead. “What you doing down there? Did you faint? I’m going to get you some water.” Ellis can’t believe it. It’s Henry. His twenty-two year old half-brother. Still lying on his back he has to force the words out of his dry mouth, “Henry?” Henry returns with a ladle full of water from the trough. He puts one hand behind Ellis’s head to lift it and pours the water into his mouth. “Yep! It’s me alright! I’m back home at Hardy Hill! Yes sir!!”, he exclaims. He looks around the barn before saying, “Where is everybody?”

Ellis sits up and looks at Henry, “Why?” Henry pulls the stool in front of Ellis and sits down so he can look him in the face. His eyes shine and he smiles as he talks. The picture of happiness. “Chicago ain’t all it’s cracked up to be. Yeah sure, a black man can walk around free, but the white folks still treat you like shit. And a lot of the time, the black people do too! And you may not be a slave, but you still work for somebody that’s trying to pay you the least they can. And, you’ve got to pay for your clothes, lodging and all your food! So you still a slave! You just got a new master called The Rent! “

Ellis restates his query, “But why did you come back here?” Henry looking confused and a little hurt by the question answers, “Because this is my home. And working in a smelly noisy factory don’t hold a candle to working outside.. under the sun, with the birds and the trees here on Hardy Hill!  With my family! No sir. Not by a long shot!” Henry looks down at Ellis’s pistol laying next to him in the dirt. Then, he looks at the section of his hair on top of his head that’s singed black. “Where is everybody Ellis? It’s harvest time. You down here doing all this work by yourself? No wonder you fainted!”

He reaches out his hand offering to help Ellis up out of the dirt. Ellis accepts it and pulls himself up to one knee and holds having to take a second to let his equilibrium adjust. Henry notices and wraps his other arm around him and helps him stand. Then, he helps him over to the wagon and leans him against it. “Let me get your hat.” he says as he goes and picks up Ellis’s cowboy hat off the ground. As he does he notices that there is a jagged hole in the brim and a chunk of the crown has been torn out. He returns it to Ellis and says, “You okay Ellis?”. Ellis stands against the wagon wiping his face with a blue bandanna. “I’m just tired is all.” He replies as he turns away from Henry and takes a couple of steps towards Fuse. “I’ve got pumpkins to harvest in the South field. I’ll see you later. Take care now.”

Henry lets out a little chuckle and then follows close on Ellis’s heels. The familiar scene sparks a recollection of a happier time fifteen or so years ago when Henry, eager to please his big brother, assisted him with every chore. “I’m going to take care alright. Take care of you! Let’s go get those pumpkins.” Ellis turns and faces Henry. His face filled with grief, “Why would you want to do that! You’re free! This was a slave plantation! My grandfather bought your grandfather and forced him to spend his life in servitude!” Ellis places his hands on Henry shoulders, tears welling up in his eyes. “My father owned your mother for Christ’s sake. Hardy Hill was her prison!” Tears well up in Henry’s eyes too as he wraps Ellis in his arms “Oh Ellis. That war has got you thinking all topsy-turvy. My momma loved Hardy Hill. She loved our daddy. He didn’t make her stay here. It was her choice. And it was my choice to come back. I’m here to help you brother.” The two men hold the embrace and cry on each other shoulders for short time. Then, Henry pats Ellis on the back and says, “Now let’s go get those pumpkins. It’s getting late.”

Fuse stands chewing grass hitched to a wagon as the sun sets on a field full of pumpkins. Henry talks as he walks towards the almost full wagon with a pumpkin under each of his massive arms, “I was real sorry to hear about Luke, Pete, and Jack passing. They were good men.” Henry doesn’t know it, but Ellis can’t hear him. He doesn’t know how bad Ellis’s hearing was damaged during the war or that his ears are still ringing from almost shooting himself in the head just two hours ago. Oblivious Ellis chops pumpkins stems with a large knife at the edge of the field near the treeline as Henry loads.

Henry drops the pumpkins in the wagon and turns and heads back towards Ellis. “I’ve given it a lot of thought… and I understand why they had to fight for the Confederacy. Having lived with them, I know it didn’t have nothing to do with slavery. And, I know why you stayed and fought for the Union! It was about belief, or lack thereof, in the moral authority of the government.  And loyalty to your compatriots!” Henry pulls a red bandanna from his back pocket and uses it to wipe sweat from the back of his neck. “Wagons almost full Ellis. I reckon we got room for ten more.” He says as he grabs two more pumpkins and heads back to the wagon.

Ellis clears the leaves around the last pumpkin on the very edge of the field near the stream. He raises his knife to cut it but stops, noticing that there is something different about this one. It’s not orange like the others. It’s a strange purple color. Semi translucent and wet. His tired mind figures it must be a trick of the fading light, so he swings and chops the stem. As his knife cleaves it, the strange gourd bursts open and projects a slimy tendril with a spider like hand on the end of it at his face! It hits him so hard he drops his knife and his hat flies of his head!

As he stumbles back seeing stars, the fingers at the end of the now tentacle like tendril wrap around his head and pull the palm of the spider hand over his nose and mouth, cutting off his air supply. Suddenly desperate to breathe, a cold panic washes over him. The expanded whites of his eyes fill the space between the malevolent manacles that ensnare him. As he watches a strange glowing egg-shaped bulge travels up through the center of the savage stem towards his mouth. He raises his hands and grasps at the appendages of the spider hand desperately attempting to free himself. But it’s too late. The darkness is closing in around him. His knees buckle and he starts to fall. In his last glimpse of the world, just before it fades to black, he sees a flash of light reflect off of Henry’s slashing blade.

Splash! Henry douses Ellis with the contents of the water bucket. “Ellis! Ellis! You alive?” Face full of fear and concern he kneels over Ellis on the ground. “Wake up brother. Come on. Wake up!” Henry says as he grabs Ellis’s wrists and lifts his torso so that he is sitting up on the ground. The change in elevation causes a reaction. Ellis coughs, then gags, then wretches between his legs. A feeling of relief washes over Henry, “Sweet Jesus! I thought you were dead!”  Ellis looks up appreciatively at his savior and has no trouble hearing him this time because he is yelling in his ear. “Me too.” he says. Henry leaves Ellis’s side and stands over the face hugging hand of the bizarre trap plant a few feet away and says, “I’ve never seen anything like that before.” Ellis now on one knee, stutters when he speaks, “M..M..Me either.” Henry happy to hear Ellis talking again replies, “Once I cut the cord the grabber end lost it strength. It just fell off.”

Ellis finally starting to come back to his senses, crawls slowly on hands and knees to retrieve his knife. All the while keeping his eyes on the strange plantlike tentacle now laying limp on the ground. The glowing purple oval-shaped bulge still inside, but very close to Henry’s cut. “Another second and whatever that is would have been in my mouth” he says. Henry approaches Ellis and wraps his arms around him helping him stand for the second time today. “What is it?”, Henry whispers in his ear as if he thinks someone may be listening. Ellis whispers back, “I don’t know, but I think we better find out. Don’t you?” Knives out and at the ready the two men stalk towards the end of the severed attack tendril and the glowing purple mass it contains with extreme caution. When they reach the end, Ellis steps on it just behind the bulge. “Get ready.” he says still using a hushed tone. Then he begins to slowly use his boot to move the object out of the fleshy tube. As the purple glow reaches the end, and the light from the mysterious thing illuminates their faces, both men immediately and simultaneously intuit that whatever it is, it is not of this world.

“It’s looks like a seed.” Henry observes as he kneels over the glowing purple alien object. And indeed it does. It’s the size and shape of an apricot seed. Rounded on one end, pointed on the other. Rough and pitted. Translucent purple and covered with tiny green hairs. “And it stinks!” he adds. Ellis kneels on the other side holding his knife above it. “Let’s make sure it doesn’t grow anything here.”, he says and then he plunges the tip of the blade of his harvesting knife into its center. When he does, all of the green hairs transform into sharp needle like spikes and stab out six inches in every direction causing Henry to jump back. “Holy Shit!” he shouts.

The spikes narrowly miss Ellis’s hand still gripping the end of the long knife. Reflexively he brings it down, slicing the odd violent thing in half. The hairs, now more like tentacles, flail in every direction. Viscous glowing purple liquid oozes out of the cleaved halves onto the dirt and the tentacles go limp. All of a sudden the silence of the field is broken with a low eerie wailing that seems to come up from the ground and grow louder in the distance. A murder of crows takes flight from the field’s shade tree. Henry and Ellis startled put their backs together and spin and turn, looking in every direction expecting an attack. Ellis, even being hard of hearing, has no trouble feeling the strange sound as it vibrates up from the earth beneath him. It goes on for a long and nerve-racking half minute. When it ends, Henry wraps his arm around Ellis to help him walk and makes his thoughts known in his movement towards the wagon and with a whisper. “Its time to go.” he says. “Yeah.” Ellis replies.

The men drive the wagon straight back to Hardy House as fast as Fuse can pull it and park it right out on the overgrown front lawn. They hurry up the front steps of the once grand plantation house now standing at a fraction of it’s former glory. It to traumatized and damaged from four long years of war. All the windows are dark save one. The only light coming from a candle in Ellis’s oldest son’s bedroom. Ellis and Henry head up the stairs, down the hall, and into the room. Beaumont lays unconscious propped up on pillows. Bandages wrapped around a severely bruised chest. Ellis’s wife Rose stands over him holding a wet rag to his head. She turns to them, eyes full of tears as they enter the room and says, “Ellis! Thank god your here! I can’t get his fever down. He’s burning up!” Ellis consumed by emotions brought on by the traumatic events of the day, takes her in his arms and kisses her deeply. Rose, surprised by the forward display recoils at first, but then consents and returns the loving gesture. Henry stands at the foot of the bed holding his hat and appreciates the tender moment in the candlelight.

When it is over, Rose turns to Henry and says, “Henry?! Is that you!” “Yes Miss Rose. It’s me.”, he replies. She moves to him and wraps him in a hug. She buries her head in his massive chest and begins to weep. He feels her tears on his skin as they soak through his shirt. “I’m so glad you’re here.” she whimpers between sobs. “We need you so much.” Henry looks over at Ellis still standing next to Beaumont. Ellis gives him a nod and a small smile affirming Roses statement. “I’m here Miss Rose. We’re together again. Everything is going to be alright.” But the sweet comforting statement from an old friend doesn’t stop her tears, it brings them on stronger. It’s as if it has given the recipient the strength to fully realize their pain and release it! Rose cries hard into Henry’s chest for another moment. Then, she releases the embrace and looks him in the face, her cheeks still covered in tears and says, “Do you have any willow bark?”

Henry didn’t have any willow bark, but he knew where to get some. Back behind the drying house in his grand mammy’s old herb garden. It has a willow tree and a patch of meadowsweet. He runs out and fetches some and soon returns with it to the house. He gives it to Rose and she uses it to make a tea for Beaumont. As she serves it to him, Ellis and Henry move into the hall. Ellis’s face now showing signs of the hit he took from the sinister pumpkin an hour ago and ears still ringing from his attempted suicide looks at Henry and says, “Take Pete’s old room. The others are in pretty bad shape.” Henry looking concerned replies, “You okay Ellis?” Ellis flashes a sarcastic grin as he looks his little brother in the eyes and says, “I’m just tired little brother.” Then he starts off down the hall. Before entering his room he turns to Henry, “Hey.. I’m real glad you’re home.” he says. Then he walks into his bedroom and closes the door.

The fall morning is cool, gray and quiet. A crisp north wind blows through the trees bringing crimson and orange Autumn leaves down around the wagon as it traverses the sandy brown dirt road. Ellis and Henry take the hour long ride to enjoy the silence together. As they enter town and turn on the street that leads to the produce broker’s warehouse, Henry breaks the silence. “Hey, I think I see Sassy Douglas over yonder. I’m going to jump off and go say hello to my old friend.” he says. Then he hops off the wagon, before Ellis has time to stop it, and trots over to her. Sassy is standing in the town square at the edge of the water well looking in. As he approaches Henry crouches slightly and spreads his arms wide in anticipation of a loving reunion. Expecting a friendly squeeze he says, “Sassy! My clementine! Give your old friend Henry a hug!” But just as he gets close enough to Sassy to look into her eyes, he can see that something is wrong. She doesn’t acknowledge him at all. She just stares ahead at the well, eyes fixed and mouth sealed tight. “Hey Sassy what’s wrong with you girl? It’s me Henry!” Henry exclaims as he grabs her shoulders and gives her a little shake in an attempt to rouse his old friend out of her trance. It doesn’t work.

Ellis pulls the now empty wagon up to the horse post in front of the general store. He ties up Fuse’s reins and heads up the stairs past three men chatting on the store’s front porch. “..a big BANG! Ya’ll didn’t hear it? Shook the whole house! And now there is hole as wide as my barn and twice as deep in the middle of my north cornfield!” He hears one of the men say as he passes them on his way inside. The store clerk watches him approach the counter with a look of disdain. “We’ll if it isn’t the turncoat from Hardy Hill.” he says right as Ellis opens his mouth to speak. “…listen Arthur.. You know I was already in the Army before the war. Did you expect me to abandon my commission? Abandon my men?” Arthur, now looking angry, bangs his open hand on the counter as he says, ” Cousin! I expected you to protect this land! I expected you to protect your family! To which Ellis retorts, “Well I’m here aren’t I? That’s what I’m trying to do now!” Arthur still angry, but satisfied with the answer replies, “If you weren’t blood, I wouldn’t allow you through those doors. You pay cash on the barrel head. Ellis Hardy has no credit here!”

Two women pass Ellis on the street as he loads a bag of flour on a wagon now holding flour, potatoes, corn meal, and other supplies. “Charles didn’t come home last night. Then I walk out this morning and find him pale as a ghost staring down into the well! Now he’s gone again!” the blonde one states as they pass. Henry runs up to the wagon looking shaken, “Something ain’t right Ellis. Sassy didn’t know me from Adam. And she didn’t talk like she normally do.” he says. Ellis turns and faces Henry and moves in close as he talks. “Tom said that I’m the only one that has brought in a load for the train today.” he replies. “And Darla Abilene just passed expressing concerns for her husband. He was staring at the well and now he’s disappeared.” Ellis’s news makes Henry’s look of concern deepen. He runs his fingers through his hair nervously and says, “Like Sassy!”

Ellis continues. “I overheard Teddy Langmore say something crashed in his north field too.” Henry and Ellis look into each others eyes as they think the same thing. Henry blurts it out. “Langmore’s North field is on the other side of our south field!” Henry’s eyes widen as he speaks. “It’s that bad seed! Maybe we ain’t the only ones who found one!”, he says. “And maybe the others that found one weren’t as fortunate as I was to have someone as quick on his feet as you nearby when they did.” Ellis says as he squeezes Henry shoulder’s affectionately. Henry looks into his eyes and responds, “Sweet Jesus!. Satan’s in the pumpkin patch!”

Henry paces back and forth in front of Ellis as he talk. “We gotta do something! It’s seemed like a plant but it was alive like and animal. That tendril with the grabber shot out of that decoy pumpkin and held on to your face until I cut the cord that connected it to the ground!” His arms make circle motions as he drives his train of thought, ” Then after the seed spasmed and died there was that wailing! Sounded like something was in pain. So maybe it was connected. Connected to something that controls it!” Ellis adds his two cents. “It seemed to me it was coming from the direction of Langmore’s north field. You remember what else is in that direction don’t ya?” Henry turns and faces Ellis again and says, “Logan’s hole!” Ellis turns away from Henry towards the horse post. He unties Fuse’s reins and hops aboard the wagon and says, “Yeah.”

Ellis and Henry stand ankle deep in a clear stream in front of a barrel sized hole in the bank. One of the entrances to Logan’s Hole, a limestone cave system they both played in as children. Henry carries an ax in one hand and torch-stick in the other. Ellis’s Colt is drawn as he pulls a pack of matches from his jacket and strikes one. “We need to stay close in there.”, he says as he lights the torch. Henry chuckling says, “When have I ever left you alone! Don’t worry! I ain’t gonna start now.” Ellis can’t help but laugh as he picks up another torch-stick of the ground. As Henry lights it with his he says, “I think we should cover our mouths too.” Ellis nods and sticks his now burning torch in the soft creek bed. Then he pulls a blue bandanna from his back pocket, snaps it in the air to flatten it out, folds it, and ties it around his face above the nose and over the ears. Henry does the same.

As they move out of the small tunnel that leads to the entrance and into the large open cavern section of the cave, the presence of something alien is obvious “It smells like the seed!” Henry says. “Look at that.” Ellis whispers as he points his pistol at the ground a few feet in front of them. The floor of the cave and its walls are covered with translucent glowing purple lines that resemble the root system of a large tree. Ellis turns to Henry and moves in close as he says, “If something came through the ground into this cave where would it be?” Henry replies without a moments hesitation, “It be up on the shelf.” “Yeah.” Ellis grunts as he turns and walks towards a tunnel on the far side of the cavern.

The shelf. A section of the cave close to the surface with a hole in the ceiling where light comes in. An old ladder leads up and out exiting in the middle of a circle of boulders. Long used by the Hardy clan in their underground endeavors, it is protected from sight, easy to defend, and has multiple exits. As Ellis and Henry start their slow creep up the smooth rock ramp that leads to the shelf, strange purple and green lights start to dance on the ceiling. Ellis drops his now unnecessary torch down into the stream and motions for Henry to do the same. He does. Then, just as the warm yellow light goes out, a melody of tones like nothing they have ever heard fills the cave. Soothing and unnerving at the same time. it synchronizes with the eerie lights from above. The light dimming and then growing brighter as the sounds soften and then grow louder transforming their climb into a hypnotic dream.

Henry suddenly can’t remember why they are heading up towards the shelf and he doesn’t care. His only thought comes out of his mouth as soon as he thinks it, “Move to the light.” Ellis walking just a few feet ahead of him doesn’t hear him say it. The lights are making his head pound and the vibrations echoing of the cave walls is causing the ringing in his ears to grow to an almost unbearable level. In this case a blessing. His impairment protecting him from the alien thing’s siren call. Broken, beaten, exhausted, and knowing full well something terrible waits at the top of the ramp, he pushes on.

Ellis stops near the top, a few feet back from the floor of the shelf. He turns and signals Henry to hold, but his little brother pays him no mind, instead walking right past him towards the source of the strange lights. A gigantic slimy translucent purple mass with a large pulsating green organ in the center, suspended by tendrils hanging from the stalactites and bracing off the stalagmites that surround it. Akin to a vine in the way that it’s runners have spread to take over the cave, but not plantlike at all in it’s aura. It’s presence is more like that of a predatory animal. The invader resembling a luminous otherworldly tumor, malignant under Hardy Hill. Ellis reaches out and manages to grab Henry’s shoulder as he passes, but Henry is too strong for him to stop. He drags them both out into the open section of the shelf just in front of the plant beast. As he does, four bulbous nodes on its body explode, launching spider-hand tentacle tendrils at them! Ellis is ready. Six Shots from his Colt ring out. The sharp sounds and flashes of yellow light a welcome change to the spooky ambiance of the cave.

His volley takes three of the attacking tendrils down midair and the other three land true in the green organ like section in the center of the beast. The soothing hypnotic tones cease abruptly, and are replaced with the same tormented wail they heard in the field. The runners attached to the cave walls come free and begin to thrash wildly in every direction. Ellis dodges one and dives for cover behind a nearby stalagmite. He sits up with his back against the friendly feel of the earthly rock and reloads his hot pistol. Then he stands and unloads it straight into the evil green heart of the ugly monster.

The pieces of hot lead penetrate the slimy skin of the creature and punctures its lone organ. It’s glowing translucent skin making it easy to see the green liquid it contains poor out and flood into its body. It’s death throes is like the seed’s, its tentacles transform to spikes and stab out in every direction. Then, the noise stops and the light from the creature dims as it shrinks slightly and falls still. Sunlight shines through the now exposed small hole leading out of the top the shelf and illuminates a small section of the cave floor. There in the tiny circle of light lays Henry with the grabber end of one of the tentacle tendrils around his face. Ellis hurries out from behind his cover and runs towards his brother, pulling his bandanna mask down and screaming as he goes, “Henry!”

“No, no, no. Henry! ” Ellis’s voice cracks as he removes the spider hand from Henry’s face. The purple glow of the bad seed illuminating Henry’s throat just behind his Adam’s apple. As he examines it, it seems to be trying to inch further into it’s host, but is being slowed by the bandanna Henry had tied around his mouth. It’s red ends that had been tied behind his head sticking out of his mouth now, but moving further inside it by the moment. Ellis holds his unconscious brother’s head in his left hand and grabs the ends of the bandanna with his other. “Hold on Henry.” He says as pulls with all his might. But the invading seed doesn’t budge. He pleads with this brother, “Come on! Come on Henry! You gotta help me now.” He urges. “Spit it up! Spit it up little brother!” Ellis tugs again, straining as he screams, “God damn it! Spit it up!”

The eerie light in the cave grows brighter and the resistance pulling the opposite way on the bandanna gets stronger. The ends slip out of Ellis’s grip slightly and the bad seed moves further into Henry’s throat. Ellis looks up at the daylight streaming through the hole above him. “Please God! Help him! Please!” he cries. Then he grits his teeth and bares down again, muscles straining as he pulls. “Fight Henry! Spit it up!”, he cries. Then, “Please. I need you Henry. Don’t leave me.” he pleads. In the background behind him, the alien tumor monster starts to come back to life. Its green organ repairing itself as it slowly expands and grows; its tendrils creeping back to the edges of the cave.

Ellis looks up at the daylight above him again, knowing it may be the last time. He has decided that he will not leave his last brother for dead on the battlefield. Not this time. Instead, he will die along side him fighting until his last. The finality of the resolution frees up space in his mind for sudden inspiration! He takes his hand from the back of Henry’s head and uses it to punch him hard in the stomach. Moving quickly, he throws one leg over Henry’s waist straddling the larger man as he grabs one end of the bandanna in each hand. Then he stands using his legs and arms to pull as he screams, “Spit it up! Spit it out! Spit it out now!”

His last ditch effort is so strong it lifts Henry to a sitting position. Ellis strains as he cries and screams. “AAAHHHHH!” And with one last mighty heave he evicts the bad seed from Henry’s body! Ellis stumbles back and falls to the ground as it flies through the air and lands on the floor of the cave with a splat. Its green needle like hairs sticking through the bandanna. No doubt the reason it was so hard to get out. Henry stares terrified towards the freaky alien tumor monster in the center of the room seeing it clearly for the first time. It’s glowing tendrils grown and spreading further across the floor and walls in front of him. Ellis scampers across the floor and embraces him. Henry spits and says, “Sweet Jesus!”

Ellis puts his arms around Henry and helps him stand. “We’ve got to go!” The two men move quickly to the old ladder that leads to the ceiling exit and scamper up like they are being chased, which they are. The glowing tentacle tendrils growing up behind them as they ascend. They make it to the surface and into the light in the nick of time. The tendrils move up to grab their ankles, but recoils from the mid-afternoon light. Henry helps pull Ellis up the final few feet and says, “Holy shit! That was close.” Ellis stands over the hole watching alien plant monster spread and grow in the hole below. “Looks like it don’t like the daylight!”, Henry says. “Look like all we did is piss it off. What are we going to do now Ellis?” Ellis turns and faces him smiling wider than he has in years, ecstatic to still have his brother in his life and says, “We’re going to show it what happens when you mess with the Hardy brothers.”

The sun is setting and the moon is rising over the Hardy Hill Plantation’s south field still full of pumpkins. A cold October wind blows over Ellis’s shoulders and through his long hair as he watches Henry sprint towards him “It’s lit!”, he says as he approaches. Smoke from flaming oil soaked hay bails tossed down into the cavern bellows from the Logan’s Hole shelf entrance and floats up into the sky in front of them. “That should smoke it out.” Ellis replies. A minute later the alien’s familiar wail fills the air and the ground beneath them starts to vibrate. Suddenly two large tendrils reach up and out of the hole! They wrap around the two giant boulders on either side of the entrance and hoist the grotesque body of the creature up into the night sky above the rocks. Ellis smiles as he extends his hand to Henry. In his grip is a rope lanyard that runs to the fuse of a large cannon sitting nearby. “Alright!”, Henry says as he chuckles and takes it. Ellis moves close to Henry and lovingly places his hands over his brother’s ears as they stare down their common enemy. Henry smiles as he looks down the cannon at the monster and says, “Your turn to choke.” and pulls.

Boooom! The cannonball explodes dead center of the green heart inside the sinister alien plant invader, sending pieces of it flying in every direction. The fragments glow for an instant in the sky and then fade as they fall to the ground. “Take that you no good carpetbagging son of a bitch!” Henry yells. “Ha Ha Ha Ha!” Ellis laughs.

Written by Will Kilpatrick