May Peace Grace Us

Chapter 66: Arial Assults

Turns out that Liza’s concerns about the plants were not so simple now that Aila listened to the situation at hand. Liza had noted that there had been a lack of pollinators for the pollen to produce any flowers or seed to keep their stocks going. As much as they are doing artificial pollination, there are some plants that failed to produce the expected fruits and seeds.

Liza wanted to somehow introduce some insects that could help this problem. But as far as she is aware, the world has greatly changed for her and her people cannot directly use this method for obvious reasons, such as mutations and the level of danger it could bring them. If only there was a smart creature that is helpful to this endeavor that could somehow be in a symbiotic relationship, things would be sure to be resolved fast.

But that is only wishful thinking though. The two were aware that such a thing was so fantastic that the reality of it coming true is so close to null. They opt to use technology to solve the problem if they do not lack the required electricity to make it happen. Who made humanity so reliant on their creations? Creator or not of this world, Aila is sure she cannot imagine a solution that does not require her not needing electrical appliances or gadgets to make things happen.

Maybe unless magic exists.

But that is another story though.

This story is more of science fiction with some supernatural elements. The existence of magic would only throw everything to the flames so that Aila could feel a headache coming just by thinking about it.

Artificial pollination is a great start for them, but the whole process is too cumbersome as they have quite a number of plants to pollinate in such a short time. As time moves forward, the flowering period will get shorter and shorter. They cannot pull their whole man power to finish all that if the time limit for them to do will require them three days. Not to mention they had quite a variety of plants to pollinate that they cannot risk cross breeding then for now.

Every crop has different methods to use and every method is a strain on their otherwise small population. For now, their departments are so tiny that there is a severe lack of people to do things. Evident with Alexa needing to head elsewhere to keep the vanguard in certain areas, others cannot take over for now. So they cannot force their people to use mechanical hand pollination in the long run. At the moment this was the most convenient method available, but Liza was more worried about their future needs.

For advanced technology pollination they really lack the supply and knowledge over this. At most, they could only find something that could make them less burdened when the time came.

Aila mulls over the problem at hand and knows she should just pull over Bella to ask if she has ideas. Bella lived much longer than Aila anyway and she might know a thing or two more than Aila does with real life experiences to back up her suggestions. It was regrettable, but Aila really did not think about this problem when she was writing her story. This might be the reason why food was so scarce in the later parts of her novel; her characters have failed to solve this problem without resorting to Plant Supernaturalist laboring for them.

She also has the mind to ask the older people in their population, but when she thinks of most of their life experiences they are not much help either. As time changes, people's needs have changed and as generational servants, they also have to adapt to the changes. Focusing on management to help out with the Justine Family's needs for managers.

They haven’t experienced the hardness of farming as they were more or less educated as elite managers for the family. If they somehow had some experience of it, most of it might not be sufficient for professional needs. At most they would be like any other hobbyist gardeners do. Though there were some who really did specialize in the subject, their hands were already too full for Aila to add more. If she did add more to their workload, she was afraid Liza would be hunting her for hurting her precious manpower.

Her hopes of Bella were stumped when she finally found the girl. She said that she did not care about it back then and she was more or less insane to even think about it. They were reliant on Liza for most food needs and if they wanted meat they straightforwardly hunted a mutant animal to feast on. Though they more or less robbed or traded some things for spices and other necessities, making Aila speechless at how lawless they became without her.

With an unwilling face, she could only pass the problem to the research department. Harry and Jerome will probably give her a dead eye while they do the project deadpan. She should probably not show herself in front of them more than necessary for a few days afterwards.

Still, problems never really stop when you start opening the can that contains them. After the problems with the gardens were addressed, the expected electrical problems came earlier than intended. As for how, she did not know, but she did not care about Jerome’s tiredness when she threw him over there. If he has some complaints, Aila could easily say that they could all freeze if he does not fix it ASAP.

Begrudgingly, Jerome only worked and did not say much about the increase in workload. Though he did drag Eugene into the pit with him. If he is to suffer, he wants someone to get the same suffering as him, friends or not.

Otherwise, another concern of hers came much earlier than she thought.

The birds somehow came early in season.

Migratory birds are beings that come around in spring or somewhere in decent temperatures that will allow them to have a feast to eat. But maybe due to the sudden changes of the world’s climate, the birds were also confused and probably lost in the white lands of winter. Luckily, the birds were not so destructive as they could be in the future, though they did pose a threat to their lives more than anticipated.

As there is a lack of viable food nearby, most of the carnivorous birds prey on the other weaker birds. In that situation, there is no problem with them eating each other, but when those creatures have their eyes on them, a change of target has occurred and they have been bothering their base for quite an interval. And this has led them to postpone a few projects in favor of defending themselves against the visitors.

Rapidly aiming at the animals that appeared within their sights, Aila accurately hit the birds in the air. Making a counterattack on the mutants was hard as humanity has yet to truly adapt to the dark world the winter was. Really, Aila cannot wait for her and her population to develop enough evolutionary traits in their eyes to adapt in the rapidly changing world.

The changes were inevitable in each species in order to survive. It was evident with how some humans became supernaturalists and some became monsters that cannot recognize their former fellow men. Those who did not undergo this extreme evolution also had changes that seemed to be so subtle and subdued, but it allowed humanity to continue surviving despite how hard things are.

One of them was their sights.

Human eyes are really a wonder that come with a variety of colors depending on where they descended from. But one thing that is common at the end of the world was that they had so many functions that they previously could not perceive before. Almost like a bird, they could see from afar, like a bat, they could see in the dark and uniquely human colours that once existed in their eyes were enhanced enough to see more.

Honestly, Aila longs for these functions despite the fact that acquiring them is accompanied by dangers that were the cause of their changes. She missed the convenience of it all and how they don’t need to waste precious supplies just to get the job done. And these improvements in vision will let them get rid of wearing night vision goggles at night raids.

Supposedly, a supernaturalist has it better. They developed these things earlier from what she remembered. But she is not sure as she herself is not one.

“Pass me that damned dagger!” Aila could hear Bella shouting so impatiently as she threw away her gun. Turning her head, she could see Bella strapping her night vision goggles tightly as she practically let herself be in the open.

“She’s nuts!” Aila could hear someone saying that Bella fearlessly battled those that came her way. Once in a while, there were flashes of lightning courtesy to Bella lighting the sky as she engaged in her fights.

Taking advantage of the flashes to take care of their airborne enemies, whispers of Bella’s craziness fill the whole area. Apparently, Bella’s actions have excited the birds so much that they have grown aggressive in their dives.

“Throw the nets!” Aila shouted as some of the flock had gotten too near the traps they had installed for this purpose. Trap and be eaten the fate of those captured by them.

As she commanded, catapult-like nets were thrown in the air. They spread mid-air and upon contact with the flock, the weights on them entangled each other until they trapped the avians. Then they fall down they do in the ground, helpless and unable to fly in the air.

It took another half an hour before the flock finally left. Another day they survive against their base’s visitors and another day they have to make a clear inventory of the amount of bullets they had used during the period. If this episode is a frequent thing from the trend it shows for the last three days, then it will not take the end of winter for them to run out of ammunition.

“Seems that we have to make a new way of dealing with invaders.” Felix deeply felt the decreasing amount of bullets and other weapon supplies they had. “Your father’s stash will not last long and the one that Travis has managed to sneak out from the weapon shops we passed by will soon follow suit.”

“I also think so.” Aila was thinking about it before and was planning to raise the issue at least in summer, where the birds will be larger and more numerous. Her expectations of winter's enemies for them were those in the mountains, but she forgot the issues of animals turning confused at the sudden changes. So the targeted training they had been doing in the mountain forest edges turned out to be useless at that time. “But our current people are not yet ready for anything excessive. Their body is yet to be suitable for anything too taxing on their bodies.”

“But we have no choice.” Felix had to emphasize the point. He also felt helpless on the matter. “We could work on the supernaturalist first before anything else. We have more robust bodies than the rest. We could temporarily have ourselves taken care of in this manner.”

“But most of the supernatural are key figures in most ongoing projects we have.” Aila was stressed. “We can’t just pull them away for this task.”

“Me and the others will take care of that.” Felix assured her. “We just want you to provide just your support.”

“Do you really need to?” Aila was helpless as she started to ask when her friends had started to place importance on her opinions before their own wills? She could never imagine them being like this and never thought that it would be her whom they sought validity with.

Felix did not answer and only met her eyes straight on. Aila wavers on the will and trust she saw in them. It somehow hurts her to know how easy it is for her to condemn them to hell should she want them to. And the worst part is, her friends were willing to do so if she ever asked them to.