Unclaimed

Chapter Ten- Diligence

Beau

I knew when I woke up this morning I'd regret it.

Standing over the valley in nothing but a t-shirt and sweats, my eyes almost tearing up at the sight of the mangled olive trees. Many saplings snapped in half, branches that reached up to the sky ended up on the ground. I pinch the bridge of my nose as I heard the green staff move in behind me. Dressed in green rain coats, while I let myself get soaked in the still oncoming rain. The winds weren't strong enough to topple anyone yet, but it was picking up speed. We don't have a lot of time.

"Oh my god." One of the staff members whisper as they approach the ledge.

All that hard work...literally down the drain.

"How are we going to recover from this?" Jason asks.

"Do you see that, even the adult trees are bent out of shape, this storm is out of control!" Another staff member shouts.

"What are we supposed to do about this?"

"Alright everyone calm down!" I turn fast. The rain soaking through my hair and streaming down my face. "We are going to grab the heavy duty straps from the barn and secure the other trees. It won't do much but it's a start."

"This could set us back for weeks! What about-" Jason starts but I raise my hand silencing him.

"Panicking won't do anything. We're here because these olive trees provide food and oil, we're here to protect and save what we can. This doesn't just impact you, it impacts everyone." I say and he falls silent giving me a subtle nod. "What are you still standing here for?"

The green staff members taking off downhill towards the barn. The only one to stay was Jason.

"What about the storm?" He asks.

"We can't control the weather Jason." I shake my head.

"It's going to get worse, we all know this is going to get worse!"

"What the fuck would you have me do!" I shout getting annoyed with him. "Talk to God, ask him to turn off the fucking rain?"

Jason's eyes lowering to the ground as I shout at him.

"We can only do so much from our position. To protect what we have and keep it pushing, if you can't do that Jason then you don't need to be here." I turn kicking off in a run towards the barn. Seeing the green staff members already loading the heavy straps into their arms, I grab some and haul it over my shoulder. The rain outside the barn picking up, a building chorus in an orchestra.

"Alright!" I shout getting everyone's attention. "We have fifteen minutes max if we're going to do this. Use your speed, and when everything is secured you go straight home. Ration the oil you already have, I don't know when this storm is going to end. How is the green house?"

"It's good but nothing is ready to be harvested yet." Jason appears, his arm looping through the straps holding them on his shoulder.

"Alright. We'll figure something out, for now let's get this done." I say walking out into the rain, the team following behind. "Use your speed! Let's go!"

We all take off in lightning speed. My feet almost barely touching the wet ground as we ran to the valley. With quickness we all go to work on securing everything. The heavy straps wrapped around trunks three or four times, creating clean pathways between the older trees. Nothing had been uprooted yet, thankfully.

Everyone zipping past each other was we used our enhanced speed, careful not to crash into each other.

In under ten minutes everything had been secured. All of us winded as we grouped together in the barn.