Tree of Life

Book II Chapter 11

TREE OF LIFE BOOK II

CHAPTER 11

“So where are we going?”

“I don’t know. Anywhere but here, I guess.”

Julian and Nicole had packed a few things and left. It was deep into the night. Without Willibald’s men to hold them back, the two of them had taken to the trees. They jumped from one branch to the next and made for better time this way. In between breaks in the canopy at points, the night sky and the moon peeked through and bathed them and the forest in light.

They were several miles now from the city of the Tree. Julian stopped at a spot where one particularly thick branch from one tree had grown into two branches from its neighbour and formed a platform of sorts, almost fifteen feet in length by eight, near the top of the canopy some eighty feet from the ground. He stood firm on this platform now and had a look around. Nicole jumped over to join him.

They were standing at a high point in the terrain. All around and below them, spread hills rolling down and away from where they were. Behind them and in the distance was the tallest peak in the area, the Yerupaja Mountain and the trail that led up to it.

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“What are all those lights in the distance?” Nicole frowned and squinted.

“Where?”

“There.” Nicole pointed to an edge of flickering light way out near the horizon.

“Oh.” He nodded. “That’s where they’re cutting down the forest.”

Nicole’s eyes widened. “Wow. But that’s a huge area!” She pointed with her finger and traced out the long arc of lights in the distance.

Smiling, Julian turned to face her fully. He took a half bow. “Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the latest efforts of Movartis, ‘the company that’s out to make your life wonderful’!” He brushed off the platform beneath him and sat down.

Nicole sat down beside him. She slipped the pack from her back. “Movartis? Isn’t that Brian’s company?”

He scoffed. “What do you think got him out here in the first place?”

“No, but he said he found that compound that cured cancer…”

“Of course! And he did! He found it here. But they weren’t looking for it at first. They were cutting away the forest and he found it by accident.” He leaned in closer and made eyes at her. “He didn’t tell you that part, did he?”

Nicole frowned and chewed on her lip.

Julian turned his head into the distance. He gazed up into the night sky. He sighed. “It just boggles my mind that anyone can knowingly, like while really knowing what they were doing, just come out here and start chopping away at everything on purpose anyway!”

Nicole turned and began fishing through her pack.

Julian was shaking his head. “Did you know, that between 1991 to the year 2000, the total area of forest lost in the Amazon rose from 160,000 to well over 220,000 square miles, with most of the lost forest becoming pasture for cattle.” He spun to face her. “Can you imagine that? For cattle! My God!” He turned his gaze outward again.

Nicole tugged on his sleeve. She edged in closer. She handed him a towel and he began cleaning off his hands.

“While the Amazon,” Julian was continuing right on, “is the most biodiverse spot…like…in the universe! No, really! It is even more biodiverse, and it houses more known species than even the wet forests of Africa or Asia. One in ten known species in the world lives in the Amazon rainforest. It is home to more than 1,000 species of frogs, alone. I mean, just the frogs! Never mind all the insects and the birds and the mammals and the reptiles or all the different species of plants. Now, they want to chop it all down and for what? To feed their cattle? Doesn’t that sound just a tad ridiculous to you?”