The police arrived within ten minutes, two squad cars, each with three police officers and a man in a crisp black suit, pressed white shirt, and immaculate tie. Two of the officers circled the building while the other two came to speak with them. They asked Chuck and Daniel some questions for few minutes while the other two officers went inside the building to check Chris's room.

The man in the suit held what looked like a remote of some kind, and walked around slowly looking intently at his device. One of the officer's walkie-talkies went off, after the officer asked a couple questions into the walkie-talkies he turned to the Chuck and Daniel. "Did you see any trees outside of the house any time in last forty-eight hours?"

What an odd thing to ask. Daniel scratched his head. He looked to Chuck. After all, this was his apartment building.

"Might have been," Chuck said. "There was one awhile back, but the Home Committee was supposed to remove it."

There was no sawdust or trunk or anything to suggest that a tree had been there though. Daniel had a bad feeling about this, but he couldn't put his finger on why. "Why?" he asked.

"Right now that's classified." The man in the suit strode forward, his arms folded. "Why don't you guys head on home." He gestured with his head for the them to leave.

"C'mon, Chuck," Daniel said. "They're right. We should leave. How about joining my roommate and some of his friends? They're going on a walk through the woods right now. We could meet up with them."

"No!" one of the officers exclaimed.

Another cleared his throat. "I'm afraid we can't let you go there."

"Well, why not?" Daniel stopped and turned to face the officer. This was becoming stranger and stranger by the moment.

The first officer cleared his throat. "Right now, we can't let anyone else into the woods." The officer looked concerned as if something terrible had or was about to happen, his flat face and broad nose reddening.

The man in the suit eyed them all, his expression difficult to read. "How about we take you to our base of operations and explain the case a little more in depth? We would have to blindfold you of course." The man in suit gestured diplomatically with his hands.

Strange but perhaps this way they'd get some answers. Daniel wasn't sure if he would be able to relax at all with this mystery hanging over their heads. "I'd be up for that. What about you, Chuck?"

Chuck scratched the back of his head with a thoughtful expression. "I... I guess."

"Alright. Follow us." The officers and the man in the suit led them to one of the cars where they opened the door and gestured for them to enter. Daniel slid in first and then was followed by a hesitant Chuck. Once inside one of the officers sat in the back with them. He then pulled out two blindfolds. "Sorry about this, but you know precautions have to be taken. Normally we wouldn't do this but since you've got some friends in the woods right now, we think you have the right to know." The officer fastened the bandannas on Chuck and Daniel.

Chuck winced, but Daniel took it stoically. "Are they in some kind of danger?" Daniel was starting to get worried.

"To put it bluntly, yes." The man in the suit didn't sound too bothered at the prospect, and though Daniel asked more questions, he remained silent for the rest of the trip.

They drove on for about fifteen minutes. All was quiet and smooth. The blindfolds prevented them from seeing anything except for a big purple dot where the blood was rushing to their eyes. The officers led them out of the vehicle and walked the across what felt like a parking lot. They continued on through a door, it was brighter in here, indicating multiple lights. They continued on through some more doors and took some turns.

Daniel was trying to count the turns and how many doors they went through but he eventually lost count. At last they came to a halt when the sound of a hatch opening up broke the relative silence. "Watch your heads," one of the officers said. They crawled on down.

It was a lot darker down here, but still they kept moving.

At last, they stopped and the officer untied their blindfolds revealing a low lit room. It had lots of blinking lights and glowing dials, and there were also some computer monitors.

"Alright what's the scoop, why can't we go join our friends?" Daniel asked, crossing his arms across his chest.

"Right now we're running some checks but they are in a lot of danger." The man in the suit leaned against a file cabinet with his hands in his pockets. "We've been following some stories of disappearances in the surrounding area. They all have one thing in common... trees. People and sometimes whole towns have disappeared in the wake of trees. Now you might think this is a joke, but I assure you it isn't. We received a phone call of someone supposedly stalking a victim. They only came out after sunset, and she could only ever see the eyes which did not look human.

"Eventually she and a friend were walking out a long a street, they looked behind them and saw the tree... it was staring at them with these eyes which were described as being akin to spider eyes. So they picked up the pace and continued on and entered a store. There they bought some baseball bats and waited a couple hours. Finally the store had to close up so they left. They continued on until they came back to the same tree. After examining it from a distance, they were certain there wasn't anyone in the tree. So they wanted to make sure. Grabbing their bats, they walked under the tree and looked up. Inside they saw what looked like a net casting spider poised above them. Its body looked like it was made of leaves, but that was its cover. It dropped down and grabbed the girl's friend. Screaming the poor woman was pulled up in seconds, all the while the branches wove around her spinning a web. The thing plunged its fangs into her, drinking her blood. The girl dropped her bat and ran. We called it the case of 'Tree Creeper.'"

"More like 'Creeper Tree,'" Daniel muttered to himself.

The officer ignored Daniel and continued. "As of now we've been tracking through satellite imagery, this trees progress. It apparently migrates and it's not alone. There are others and right now they are in our woods. What happened to your fellow apartment dweller was just the beginning. Fortunately they can only take the appearance of deciduous trees."

"Fortunately," Daniel said incredulously.

"Yes. They show signs of intelligence and growth. In time, I fear they may learn to mimic coniferous trees as well. Regardless I'm afraid that all signs indicate that your friends are walking into a whole nest of them."