“—the forest. Demolition is scheduled for a week tomorrow.”

“Thank god, this town has already lost enough. Have you spoken to the Ells boy since?”

“No, you?”

“Yeah… He’s doing as well as can be expected, I guess. You heard that he’s going to a Fleet orphanage, right?”

“Yeah, Sylvia heard it from one of the women at the bakery. Poor thing, to loose both parents so young, and then move away from all your friends and neighbors.”

“Mhm, but he would have been going in the next couple years anyway.”

“Really? Why?”

“He’s earth, didn’t you know?”

“What? No. I had no idea. Can they really start that young?”

“I guess so. He’d have been at least seventeen by the time he went. It’s a good thing now, though, because he’ll only have to spend a few years in the orphanage, and then he’ll have a definite place to go.”

“Don’t most Fleet orphans end up enlisting anyway?”

“Beats me.”

“Do you know when he leaves?”

“An officer’s coming to collect him in two days; we should make up a care package for him.”

“Oh definitely. I’m sure everyone will be willing to pitch a few things in.”

“Sylvia’s already cajoled the baker into making three loafs special, some cookies, fruit buns, fudge brownies… Poor boy’s going to need a separate room for it all.”

“Better hope none of them are baked with anything infected.”

“The notice instructed everyone to dump anything fresh from the forest, and to stay well away from it; I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

“Maybe, but they don’t even know where these damn things came from, do they? How much faith do you want to put in them?”

“They’re doing everything they can.”

“Hmph. If that were true the Ells wouldn’t have died; they would have destroyed this forest long ago.”

“How? It must have been recently infected; otherwise the whole town would be dead!”

“Maybe some of it’s slow acting. How do we know for sure?”

“We don’t. They’ll figure it out soon though, you’ll see.”

Previous: Scene 4-III

Scene 4-IV

Next: Scene 4-V