Wonderer's Wish World 2: Evolutionary Rebirth

The Trees Speak for Themselves

Day 2

Location: Millory Main Office, Bottleneck City

Time: 11:03 PM

The only sounds in the room were Greg snoring, the shuffling of paper and the occasional yawn from Ai or Darius. After the email, all Ai and Darius had found were various papers with numbers and tree names and coordinates on them that neither Darius nor Ai could make heads or tails of, so they didn't bother trying to even read it out loud. They were probably important, and probably incriminating, but Darius was too tired to try and puzzle them out, so they set though sheets of paper aside. At first, they put them in a neat pile. Then, after about a dozen of them, started scattering them around half-hazardly.

Finally, Ai let out a gasp.

"Oh," she said. She held up a piece of paper to Darius, smiling, though it was sagging a little from her exhaustion. "Here: a letter."

"Oh," Darius replied, taking the paper. Then, his mind finally caught up to the realization and his eyes widened. "Oh! This is great. Thanks, Ai!"

Ai nodded, and then, because of a mutual argument much earlier in the evening, started sorting through the rest of the papers as Darius looked at the letter closely. It took a second for his tired brain to make sense of the scribbles... or, no, wait, they just really were that messy and hard to read.

Great.

Darius blinked the tiredness from his eyes away as he finally began reading.

"Gilligian," he started.

"Look, I know I forgot that you 'very specifically' (I'm quoting you) asked me to write, but it was only because I forgot! Happens all the time! You forget stuff, too, like our anniversary! And don't give me that 'we're not even married' garbage, because if we're in love, WE DON'T HAVE TO BE MARRIED!

"Anyway, you remember the equipment I asked you for? Well, first off, thanks for sending them, at least now I know you actually read these, but, well, they aren't actually working. See, we have six more people dead. My deforesting team has been cut in half, so send more.

"Also, at your request, my love, I have sent you a couple vials of the gas in this forest. Do with them what you want, but make sure you're thinking of me ;). HA!

"Anyway, hope you're well. Hope your-Ew, gross-is well, and don't worry, baby, I'll be back soon to-I'm not reading that."

Darius leaned back against the chair he was in, feeling exhausted. Hopefully, there wouldn't be too many of these.

"Here's another one," Ai said, offering a new paper to him. When Darius groaned, she took it back, looking confused. "Is it... What's wrong?"

"Nothing, nothing," Darius muttered, giving his friend a tight smile. "It's okay. I'll read it."

Ai gave him worried look, but she handed over the document anyway.

"Gilligian," Darius read.

"I am SOLVED THE PROBLEM. Yes, thank you very much for all your equipment and money, but it just goes to show, it takes a man to solve problems like these! HA! Anyway, I was just walking through the forest in my gas mask, when it suddenly broke. Just up and fell off my face! Just like that! I really hope these were high quality, Gilligian, and you didn't try to send us bad gas masks! Nah, you wouldn't, you love me too much. But in any case, I was dying, really quickly, when I saw this flower, and tried to eat it! I don't even know why! But no women would ever thing of that, huh? No, that was an all man's idea! MY idea! And it was clearly brilliant, because as soon as the flower was over my mouth, it wrapped around my head and filtered out the gas. Amazing, isn't it? Nature's gasmask, better than any 'storebought' garbage.