The Things We Lost, Part 2

With his somber visit to his former home over, Caleb was ready to start getting to the actual reason he came to this burned-down forest: remainer work. Chiefly, he was supposed to ensure that no more fire hazards existed while also checking up on the health of the local wildlife. It was a rather daunting task, which is why so many remainers were asked to partake in the job.

Since they were already in the area anyhow, Caleb and Hope began surveying the area around the large hill that used to be his home. Of course, the lush forests and woodlands had all been replaced by smoldering stumps and cinders, so there wasn't much that looked all that familiar to him. The air was empty and devoid of any animal sounds, and he doubted that would change any time soon.

“We aren't treading on covered ground, are we?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, are you sure other remainers haven't already surveyed this area? I'm pretty sure I saw a couple of remainers walking around here the other day.”

Caleb quickly pegged that she probably meant Tia and Aislinn. “Don't worry about that. Here, look at these.”

He took out a handful of wooden stakes and showed them to Hope. “There's a protocol to open survey jobs like these. Whenever a remainer puts a stake like this down, it means that the area 1 mile around it has already been covered. I haven't seen any stakes like this, so we can assume the place hasn't been checked yet.”

“I see,” Hope said as she curiously studied the stakes. “I didn't see any of these when we went searching for that butterfly.”

“Well, that job was a little different. After all, it's not like the butterfly couldn't have gone back to previously searched areas, right?”

“Right,” Hope sighed. “In any case, what should we be looking for? We need to look out for any fire hazards, but they also said we had to check on any animals in the area as well. I'd be surprised if any animals came back here when the fire was only put out a week ago.”

“Well, it's certainly too early for animals to start making their way back to the forest. However, there could have been some animals that burrowed underground or found other hiding places during the fires. It's unlikely, but if there are, we've got to at least check up on them.”

Hope hummed thoughtfully. “I see. Okay, let's go around the area and check things out then.”

The two began exploring the scorched forest, taking their time to pay attention to anything that might lead them to a wounded animal or start another fire. For the most part, it was slow going; anything that wasn't ashes was still pretty hard to find amongst the charred remains of the forest. Nevertheless, the two did their duty as best as they could, putting down stakes whenever they needed to.

It was a little past noon when the two decided to take a break. They walked around the hill to a part that was shaded and sat down for lunch. As they ate, Caleb wrote down some notes about the area, though there wasn't much to point out that wasn't glaringly obvious. The forest was scorched completely into ashes. The animals were gone, and little stuck around except for some burrowing insects that would have easily been able to avoid the flames.

“How long do you plan on staying here?” Hope asked as Caleb choked down a piece of particularly dry jerky. “So far, this job has been fairly dull.”

“Since when have you cared about entertainment value when it comes to jobs?” Caleb replied snarkily. “Any job would do. Isn't that what you said to me?”

“Can it. Answer my question already.”

Caleb chewed to give himself some time to think before responding. “Probably a few more days? It's a big forest, after all. It'll take a while for everyone to cover the whole thing.”

Hope groaned. “Then it's going to be a few more days of traipsing through ash, is it?”

“It's not so bad. Someone has to do it anyway, so why not us?”

“Fine. But isn't there anything else we can do aside from shift through cinders?”

Caleb thought to himself for a bit. “Well, why don't we move to a different area? This place was fairly empty, but we might find something more interesting elsewhere.”

“Interesting like what?” Hope sighed. “I don't want anything dangerous either.”

“You're just full of demands today, aren't you? Well, let's get going already.”

The two made their way north, leaving the hill that once contained Caleb's childhood home. They traveled a far distance without meeting any other remainers, though that wasn't strange considering how large the forest was. At some point, even what little landmarks remained were no longer even slightly familiar to Caleb, as they were in parts of the forest even he had never ventured through in his childhood.

By the time they made their way to a place that was far enough from any wooden stakes, the sun was starting to set. Hope was a little indignant, but the two decided to set up camp for the night and get to work in the morning. They turned in early, intent on starting work as soon as the sun came up the next day.

The area they were in was a rather flat and low valley, with hills surrounding it all around. Suprisingly, this area was not as damaged by the fire, possibly due to the flames taking too long to reach it. As a result, there were still a few trees here and there unburnt by the flames, and Caleb even hypothesized that there might have been some animals who took shelter there.

The last few hours of the day were spent scouting out a place to camp while also keeping an eye out on the condition of the local area. As they ate dinner, Caleb and Hope began discussing their plans for tomorrow.

“If there are any animals still in the forest, they probably took shelter around here,” Caleb observed as she sat by the fire eating a fish she caught from the nearby creek. “It makes sense. This is probably the best place to hide from a blazing fire, after all.”

“It's not like the fire burned down the whole forest, you know,” Hope argued. “Any animal that could run would have already escaped instead of hiding out here.”

“Sure, but it's not impossible for some animals to have taken shelter here,” Caleb remarked. “It's our job to explore even the smallest of possibilities.”

“But the fire ended days ago, right? Why wouldn't any animal sheltering here just leave the moment the coast was clear?”

“Maybe they didn't want to risk venturing into areas that have been burnt away,” Caleb supposed. “Animals don't all act the same way, you know.”

“Whatever,” Hope sighed. “Still, I'm surprised we let the wildfire burn this much before going out to stop it. I'd think Computer would be more on top of things, you know?”

“Nature can benefit from wildfires as much as they can be hurt by them, you know?” Caleb replied. “It's a vital part of restoring and re-fertilizing the land, so Computer tries not to go overboard in preventing them. Course, we also don't want it getting out of control, so we do have to step in at some point.”

“What a hassle,” Hope said with a sigh. “Think about the time we're wasting doing all this.”

“It's not like we've got a deadline,” Caleb smirked. “You'll probably experience a lot of different disaster situations like this in the future, so just treat this as a form of training.”

“Sure, sure,” Hope groaned. “Any time I complain, that's what you respond with. Don't think you can keep using that excuse in the future.”

Caleb chuckled. “It's true, though. Pretty much anything you do now will be a valuable experience for you to pull from later.”

“Whatever you say. Let's just go to bed already.”