Hundreds of
saplings are tossed into a mass grave when a small town cancels its Arbor Day
celebration in favor of an opening ceremony for a new car dealership. A voodoo conservationist living in the nearby
woods feels nature’s pain and makes her way to the grave site. She prays for the trees and casts a curse
over all those that stand in the way of nature.
She’s about to leave when she is shot by hunters who mistake her woodsy
outfit as an animal’s pelt. They toss
the body into the tree grave and flee.
That night,
the trees crawl out of their grave and spread out into the woods. The residents of the town find that trees
have sealed across all of the roads into and out of the city. Frustration turns to panic when blackened
zombie trees begin tearing up asphalt, wrecking cars, and eventually killing
those who try to break their limbs or saw them back. The trees close the circle, taking over more
and more of the town, until a last stand is made in a parking lot.
Concrete is
ripped up as a sapling grows even nearer to the last stand. The car dealer rips the baby tree out of the
ground and stomps on it, evoking a rage from the forest that then rips him
apart. Our hero, a high school botany
teacher and his band of survivors, picks up the sapling and replants it. Hesitantly the Macbeth-style tree army
retreats. Except their retreat is
actually an outpouring towards neighboring towns and power-plants and
refineries.
