Snacks From the Butler's Pantry

Part 1
I was lost in a dense and ancient forest. The trees and plants all looked very realistic, but the way they were arranged was strangely alien. Redwoods dominated the landscape, but they were covered in twisted hanging vines. Tropical grasses and low bamboo formed a dense underbrush, but the air was cool, and the floor was spotted with clumps of thick damp moss. Overall, it was a strange combination of a redwood forest and a tropical jungle. It felt very alive.

I made my way to the center of the forest, and stumbled into a large open clearing. The trees and underbrush stopped in a wide ring, like a wall. The spongy moss continued out to cover the entire clearing like a carpet. Two giant redwood trees stood alone in the center of the clearing. The bases of their trunks were so close, they had begun to fuse together. It was an amazing sight to see these two majestic trees standing alone, but framed with the background of the dense forest. It wasn't until I started walking towards them that I realized their immense scale. I underestimated the size of the trees and the clearing, and had to run to reach the center.

By the time I got to the trees, they were changed. They did not look healthy. I could see gouges in their bark, and blackened diseased sections. I walked around the perimeter of their intertwined trunks, with my hand outstretched to run my fingers against the rough bark. The more I touched them, the more they seemed to be dying. Aggression and anger seeped out of the bark into my fingers, and I started to feel scared.

Before I had made one complete circuit, the fear overcame me, and I turned to leave. I don't remember visuals of what happened next. The scale of everything was too overwhelming to make sense. The trees started to attack me. I ran, and they somehow gave chase without uprooting themselves. It was like they grew in size as I fled. I could feel the vibrations of gigantic footsteps shaking the earth, and I could hear the cracking and groaning of breaking wood, but I could not see. I don't know if I was too scared to look back, or if there was nothing to see.

I fled as fast as I could, but I felt them coming closer. At the edge of the clearing, I saw a metal dumpster full of construction waste. I jumped into it to hide, like a bad action movie.

Part 2
I lived alone in a landfill. It stretched as far as I could see, and I was the caretaker. The landfill provided me with everything I needed. It was not garbage that surrounded me. It was everything I ever wanted. There were piles and piles of my favorite foods, mountains of designer clothes. One pile had every toy I had ever wanted as a child. I was thrilled. It was almost like a game. I would think of something I wanted, or something I wanted as a kid, and it would be right on top of the pile. It was awesome.

I was digging through a pile of packaged, unopened toys, and I uncovered a scaly patch of leather. I dug deeper to see what it was, flinging cardboard boxes and action figures away without even looking to see what they were. When I had exposed a large enough section, it started to move.

It was a giant mouth. It started eating mouthfuls of the junk, helping me clear away the boxes under which it was buried. Soon, the whole face came into view. It had no neck, head, or body, just a face. It was the size of a small car, and could easily swallow me whole. Its mouth took up most of its face, like a cross between a human and a frog. Its gray-blue skin was blistered and scaly.

It was a monster, but not a frightening one. I felt sorry for it, but I knew I had to destroy it. Fire was the only way to kill it, so I ran to find something that would burn. As I ran towards a pile of burning trash, I noticed more of these huge creatures eating their way out of the piles of junk. There were dozens of them that I could see. It was like they were hatching, or breaking their way out of cocoons.

I grabbed an armful of flaming garbage, and threw it at the face I had helped to free. It caught it in its mouth, and instantly went up in flames. It shrieked as it melted, and I felt bad at the human quality of its screams. I wondered if maybe it had the ability to talk.