>>11427026As I round the tree I finally get my first good look at the strange glowing object hanging from the root. It's not just hanging from it, it's growing from the tree. It looks like a string of strange glowing pearls, or berries, I'm not sure. Whatever the little orbs are, they glow with the most dazzling light.
I can't look away.
I just want to stare at it forever.
The more I look at them the more brilliant they look
as if I'm falling into their light into a galaxy of stars.
The Geiger's sudden clacking snaps me back to reality. The radiation levels have jumped again. HOLY FUCK! 845.8 roentgens! Gotta go. Now! I look at the glowing wonder, which can only be an artifact, and I hesitate. What would happen if I just grabbed it? Instant death? Slow and painful radiation poisoning? IMMORTALITY?!?
I make my decision. I grab it, and give it a good yank. For a moment, it doesn't budge. It's warm to the touch, and I can swear i can feel it pulsing, squirming in my hand. Is it alive? Too late to worry about it now. I give it one last good hard yank and it snaps free. The moment it breaks free of the tree, I hear a deep, painful sounding moaning, and groaning. It sounds like it's coming from the tree.
To my amazement, I witness the color, the light, the very life ebb from the tree. The leaves shrivel, and fall. The fruits rot and turn to black raisins. The branches droop, the bark turn grey. The roots seem to writhe in agony. Within moments, what was once the most beautiful tree that ever existed, had turned to a withered, dead, pitiful thing.
But the artifact still glowed in my hands, I could still feel its warmth, its power.
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