The Scorpish g**g

Chapter 9

The next morning Peter is in a hurry. He needs to have breakfast early and get out of home as soon as possible. His granny wants him to stay a bit more and help her having her medicine. So he has to delay a bit. Then his mom told her to buy a packet of tea from the nearest store. Peter, in an annoyed mind, does all the jobs one by one. Then he takes leave from his grandmother and gets out of the house. His father called him from the balcony at first floor.

Peter's dad says, "Where are you going?"

Peter says, "Going to meet Elliott and others at block D."

Peter's dad says, "Don't you have school today?"

Peter says, "No, dad! The school is closed for four days for some renovations. Tomorrow is the last day of it."

Peter's dad says, "At least that school is gonna get some new items. From it's birth, everything is same to same. Now broken windows, desks, doors are very common. I hope you’ll get those right now."

Peter knows better how well the things are going. The school's authority is so much indifferent to these things. Hence, he says, "I also hope so." just to shorten the conversation.

Peter's dad says, "Okay, be back soon. Your granny needs your company for these days alright?"

Peter says, "I'll be back soon, dad. Goodbye for now."

Peter's dad says, "Tata!"

Now Peter accelerates his steps and reaches the Oak Office fast. At first he thought that there is no one inside. But then he sneaks through that hole and finds Jonas inside. He has a hammer in his right hand and some nails on his left hand. He is repairing the bench. Peter hurrily hops in their office. Jonas gets surprised and scared for a sudden entrance.

Jonas says, "Dude! You scared the s**t out of me!"

Peter says, "Oops sorry bud. I didn’t mean to do that. What happened to the bench now?"

Jonas says, "Well, nothing much. They are old enough you know. So I'm fixing them to make them fit to sit again."

Peter says, "That's good. Where's Elliott and Ross? They are late already."

Jonas says, "No, they'd come here even before me. Then Ross said that he was hungry again and they went to the shop to buy some snacks and stuffs."

Peter says, "Oh, no! Not Again. Ross is gonna get your form very soon i guess."

Jonas says, "He better get it. Then he'll realise how easy it is."

Peter says, "Looks like they're here!"

And as soon as Peter uttered it both of them jump in the spot and they are quite happy to see Peter. Elliott directly goes near the bench and says, "Let's begin with this. Jonas broke it yesterday."

Peter says, "What!!! Jonas just said that he's fixing this just because of this was old. How did ya' break it!"

Elliott says, "After the extreme and hilarious day we came here. When we were leaving Ross started to be his own shitty class and teased Jonas. He was joking with him and then went to touch his chest and Jonas moved back, directly on that bench. And mister bench got munched."

Peter says, "That's nasty Ross!! And he should be fixing the bench, why Jonas?"

Elliott says, "Ross offered him a pizza if he does the work. Here it is."

Peter sees a pizza box in Elliott's hand. Ross is holding two packs of chips and a coke. It's like they are going to have a party or something.

Peter says, "Dude! I doubt what you did yesterday. Did you even go to the forest?"

Ross says, "Obviously!! We experienced some damn things we'd never seen before."

Peter says, "And what's that?"

Elliott says, "Okay, we'll tell you one by one. Let's help Jonas first. Then we'll sit comfortably and discuss all other things."

Peter says, "That's better."

They all together fix the bench. Then they open the pizza and chips and start talking while eating. Elliott is describing the whole scene. Ross and Jonas are helping him out whenever he is stopping and correcting the mistakes. Here is a summary of what they say to Peter.

They came at this place and made some plans for the incidents that may happen. They decided to stay away from the spot where that boy would be found. If they were burning the leaves that day also, they would not go near to the fire to scare the boy again like the previous day. Then Ross remembered that they would need a camera to take photos and show it to Peter the next day. As it was necessary,

Elliott went to Peter's and brought the camera. With the camera they started for the forest. In the forest workers' number was much lower than the previous day. They were doing the same thing, burning the extra branches and leaves. There were those kids too. Among them one of them was Paul Ericson.

Paul was working and continuously looking here and there. The boys could understand that he was looking for them, if they had come here that day too. The plan to stay away and observe only worked out pretty nicely. Peter's zoom lens helped a lot to get photos of the works. They had in their mind that they would follow this boy after the work had finished.

Mr. Chris said before that they only work at morning hours. So he would be done very soon.

At one point another boy came to this place rushing. He was running all the way through the forest. He looked pretty exhausted and could not stand properly. His dresses were telling that he was one of them, just a bit older than them. He was screaming, "Eric got under the saw" or anything like that. He couldn’t hear them properly. But hearing the boy all other workers stopped working and gathered around him.

Paul Ericson was one of them in the gathering and it seemed to them that the older boy was mainly narrating something to Paul. They moved near to the gathering to see more precisely what was going on actually. Paul was standing like he was in a deep trauma, with a bizarre face. He told everyone something and all the crowd started walking. The boys followed them all way long. They had no idea where they were going and why they were going there. But they had time and opportunity, besides it was easier to follow a crowd.

Everyone thought that everyone is a part of the crowd. After walking for a long while they came to an open field where lots of logs are lying on the ground. Most of them were covered with plastic covers. The boys were showing photos to Peter of everything while describing the incident. So it was easier for him to understand whatever had happened.

The crowd did not wait at the field and moved on to a huge tin made shade, which was looking more like a factory. They started to shout, make chaos in front of it. The authority was not letting them enter into the factory. They started to hit on the tin and express aggression.

At one point a suited man came out of the factory. Everyone took a step back. He stood up on a cut tree base nearby and started talking. He was saying that he was very sorry of the incident happened early. He also said that the company will take the responsibilities for the accident and assured that further no accident will happen.

One of the worker among the gathering was talking on behalf of them. He argued with that man that every time such an accident happened the company assured that no one else would get hurt but the scenery remains the same; but that time a death had occurred and they won’t tolerate these further. Then the suited man replied that this time they will also take responsibility of the family.

The worker said that the dead man had only one boy, raising Paul’s hand. Paul’s eyes were wet this whole time. That man took Paul’s hand in his hand and told him not to worry. He took Paul inside in spite of the worker’s interruption. The worker then took some more men and saying that they would go to the hospital with police. The boys stayed some more minutes there. When the workers started to come back, they also came to the oak office and talked about the topic yesterday. Peter is silently listening to their description and having his eyes over the photos. It is pretty clear to him now that this is the one dead man that he saw at the hospital. And the workers are the one of the hospital.

Peter says, “Do you know that this incident has come up to the news channel?”

Jonas says, “I know. I saw the news yesterday afternoon. Look they didn’t even mention the name of the company. They just avoided it!”

Peter says, “And it is the great Unique Group of Industries again. Don’t know where the hell it has come from all of a sudden. Everything happening here is related to them.”

Elliott says, “Indeed. Do you feel like you wanna go there again today?”

Peter says, “We can go to the factory you were talkin’ about. I haven’t seen it yet.”

Ross says, “Let’s go to forest and then to the factory. The workers didn’t follow the main road, they were taking shortcuts through forests, buildings.”

Peter says, “We can do that too. So we must move, shall we?”

Jonas says, “I don’t think I’ll be able to join you.”

Ross says, “What, is the way too heavy for you?”

Jonas says, “Not at all i***t! My family is going out and mama told me to be back soon. So I have to go guys.”

Peter says, “What can I say on this! We’ll tell you tomorrow what might happen. Bye.”

Jonas says, “Goodbye fellas.”

Jonas takes leave. Others Move their feet fast to the forest now. They still don’t know why they are going to the forest or the factory. They feel nothing but genuine teen interest in these incidents going on around them. The visit to the forest does not have anything special for them.

The workers did not return here for work. The ashes are well spread everywhere around the fire place. A lot of leaves and branches are yet to be burnt but they don’t think they will get any further movements by the workers. They don’t notice anything exceptional or worthy to be mentioned at the forest. The only relief they get from there is the torturers will not be back and the plants will get to rise again, flowers will get to bloom again and many animals are free to find their new residences.

On the way to the factory they get a lot of new things to be noticed on. Firstly the works are still going on in the factory. Sounds of cutting timbers are coming out. People inside are working in their own motion. No extra crowd or gathering anywhere around. The factory is situated alongside a huge open field.

On the field a lot of timbers are seen to put in various stacks. No security or any guards nearby. It looks like many people don’t know the way to come from the back. So all security and other stuffs are in front of the factory.

They have a round tour around the place like. They expected police men for enquiries or the factory might be sealed for some days. But there is not a single effect of a huge accident that happened the other day. They notice that some timbers are covered and some are not. The oak timbers seem newly cut and they are open under the sky. The covered ones, they thought them to be specially processed oak.

When they uncover a small corner of a stack they figure out that this is not oak. This totally different kind of wood. And surprisingly they are kept in between oak timbers. When people will look at them from the side, they will just find oak. But having a deep look at the cross section, it is clearly seen that the timbers which are in between are from different classification. They do not understand why it is like this, but later on it will turn out to be a good discovery for them.