Today is back to working, and we are trying to make the wall about three feet taller, and make it stronger and thicker. I roll large rocks over and Emma slices them into even rectangular shaped slabs. They are basically bricks. The wall has crumbled in many places, and it's like we are starting over. We read that crocodiles can climb trees, which means they should be able to climb our walls, but if they are high enough and maybe if we make it harder to climb, maybe they won't get in. Some of the stone is still soft, so if they step one foot of their 2000 pound body on it, it will make a print. We sent a large group to start cutting down non-fruit trees so we can have extra wood. Maybe we can throw together another boat, or at least some decent houses.
The botanists have started confiscating the bananas and oranges because they are such a limited supply. I don't really like that, because we are only allowed to pick our fruit from one tree, all the way on the other side of the island. Getting a banana bunch takes at least ten people, and there are around 40-50 bananas in a bunch. That's 4 or 5 per person. It takes 2 to make a smoothie,and nine out of ten, they are way under ripe, so that's up to a week of waiting, for two and a half smoothies! And that's only if you get more things to put in it! If you think that's hard, try being on cocoa duty.
You grab small pods off of trees each about the size of my hand, and break them open. Inside are some even smaller items. It is a cocoa bean, easily confused with dry raisins.
You open about 1000 of those and dump them onto a tray. Then you put them into a machine. It leaks creamy stuff called cocoa butter into a cup. You have to dump it back in every three and a half minutes. Then you add sugar. Now you get to stir by hand for an hour. After that, the machine dumps it onto another tray. You grab the tray, about 6 inches by 3 inches, and place it in a cooler full of other chocolate trays that people have done today. Go to sleep. Wake up. Go to the cooler. It has frozen into a bar, called a chocolate bar. It is NOT worth the effort. Especially since everyone gets a share in it, even if they didn't work at all for it. I love cocoa duty. WINK WINK WINK. It does taste good with bananas in a smoothie though.
Later that day, we had finished adding onto the wall, and were free to take a break for an hour.
"Who wants to pick bananas?" I yell out. Faith, and three people I don't know walk over. We go round up 4 more people, including Emma and Coral, and head off to the other side of the island on a trail that has already been beat down from us picking bananas. We get to the tree, but there aren't any bananas on it. Everyone starts leaving, moaning about there being none to eat. Most people love bananas, more than me even!
"Wait," Emma calls out to us, we all turn around simultaneously.
"I know where there are more bananas." she says.
Soon we are traipsing through the jungle, following a path of shells that we never would have seen before, but now seems obvious. Emma says these are all ripe, and some are even over-ripe, which is good news. I can not stand under-ripe bananas!
We get to a coast line on a different side of the island. How many 'sides' are there on this island? There is a really tall tree, maybe even 40 feet high! All the bunches are at the top and there are 6 large bunches on the tree, most of the bananas are ripe, or overripe. We automatically set up.
One person throws a rope over a branch sticking out of the tree horizontally. Then Emma ties one end of the rope to her stomach. She is handed a small hand saw, or maybe its a pocket knife? Either way, everyone but Coral pulls on the end of the rope not attached to Emma, she practically flies up. She looks like she's having fun, but I know from personal experience that it feels like someone's trying to squeeze you to death. She comes upon a bundle, and cuts away the lower portion. Coral catches it almost perfectly, with a swoop to not bruise it. Only one falls off and hits the ground, still, everyone winces. Now nobody will really want it. I don't really mind it though.
Emma does a motion with her hand that means 'lower me' and we take her to the ground slow enough to not hurt her, but fast enough so she can get a chance to breathe again, because when you go up, it's hard to breath at first, and as we go higher, the rope gets a little tighter.
"Why didn't you grab the entire bunch?" asked a rather confused Coral. We all murmured in agreement.
"Well, the Royals have created a serum that can make plants up to 10 times as tall, and grow more than 50 times as much food. This tree obviously doesn't have the newest serum, but it just might have a serum that we can build on. Then we will be able to survive for up to two weeks on one tree alone, but we haven't been able to extract it yet. The other botanists keep close eyes on these trees, and if they find that some bananas are missing, they will start pointing fingers. Only eleven people know where this tree is, including myself. I will get punished for showing you this if anyone finds out. I'm sorry, but I don't want this to end badly." she explains. Some people murmur in disagreement, but there were no more questions asked.
We divided up the bananas. Even with it being only half a bunch, we each got 3 bananas. I ate my extra on the spot. Then I left for cocoa duty, yay...
I made three chocolate bars. I kept one, hey, it's not like you never did anything wrong before! I broke it into chunks and ate it in silence. I keep three squares aside and I went to my cabin to sleep away the night.
YOU ARE READING
An Inch Of Infinity (Short Version)
ActionIn the near future the entire world is conquered by a group of people known as Royalties, or the Royals for short. They declared war on the planet. If you were not with them, you were against them. by the end of the 21st century the world was utter...
