After several tense hours of chemical testing and microscopic analysis, the lead botanist walked over to the porch, pulling Clara, Leo, and Officer Trent aside to explain the terrifying biological reality. The ancient oak tree had suffered a rare, genetic mutation decades ago.
For over twenty years, the tree’s internal fruiting bodies had inexplicably grown inward rather than outward. Trapped beneath a massive, suffocating layer of mutated bark, thousands of generations of dense fruit had slowly crushed each other into a giant, hollow, pressurized chamber.
Over two decades in total darkness, the trapped pulp had undergone a violent, pure ethanol fermentation process, creating a natural alcohol so ridiculously potent that a single airborne droplet was enough to knock a wild animal out cold. The human-like whistling they had all been hearing was simply the volatile gas built up from the fermentation, slowly shrieking as it forced its way through microscopic pores in the wood.