If Trees Could Talk!

The Masterplan

Fortunately for the trees or unfortunately for Gooky, Jarod and his fellow lumberjacks had left their equipment in the haunted forest. On telling this to Gooky, he just asked them to improvise and get a way of retaining their tools.

Gooky also suggested that they would use the tools which the self proclaimed residents of the island had. Jarod could not accept this because the tools were so poor. They would make the process longer and harder.

Therefore, Jarod asked for some guns and gathered his group. He then led them on the way to the forest so as to get back what was rightfully there’s. He insisted on returning to the forest because he had some hope of finding Kyle though he had not told Gooky anything about him. Since Gooky did not trust these people to the fullest, he sent some two of his men to escort them. He feared they would change their minds.

The distance not being too long, they arrived at the forest by following back the same route. They then all entered the forest with Jarod leading the group.

“Please, be careful. I think you all know about this forest. The day we came, we spent an entire night in this forest and nothing bad happened. The mysterious things started happening once we got into action of cutting the trees.

This means that as long as we are vigilant, enter the forest and pick what we want, none of us will get hurt. Do not touch any tree. We are picking our tents, bags and all the equipment,” said Jarod.

They then entered the forest and moved soberly behind Jarod’s back. Luckily, everything moved according to plan. They found everything they had left in the exact spot where it was expect Kyle who was nowhere to be seen in the forest.

On noticing this, Jarod quickly commanded Peter and the others to pick up the stuff. Like last time, they heard murmurings while in the forest. For this reason, they did everything they wanted to do very fast. Just as Jarod’s speculation was, the trees did nothing and they all managed to leave the forest safe and sound.

They then carried their things and made their way back to their base. Everything moved on as expected and no scary situation arose. On getting back to their home, they prepared their equipment and decided to start their work the next day.

“Now that we have the equipment, where exactly are we going to start from? I hope it is not the haunted forest,” wondered Jarod.

“Do not worry about that. Tomorrow morning I will show you which trees to start with. Just eat well and rest enough because tomorrow will be a very busy day,” replied Gooky.

“Before that, maybe you can tell me about how you are going to deal with the trees. For starters, we shall start with about twenty trees. I do not know whether you will cut them into poles or burn them into charcoal but what I know is that you will have to go back to the city tomorrow and sell what you got,” Gooky added.

Peter replied, “If we are going tomorrow, therefore we shall take poles and firewood because charcoal takes a lot time. That incomplete combustion of the wood is not so easy to do.”

“Therefore, not all of us will have to go to city. Like two of us will go and sell the firewood and poles as the other two burn and prepare the charcoal. As we return, they will also go and sell the charcoal.

We will then put the money together and pay the sixty percent to you. After that, we will return and cut down the other batch of trees. We shall not involve any other third parties because that will increase expenditure,” supplemented Jarod.

Gooky then replied, “Therefore, the entire cycle will take about one week. We shall only cut down trees once a week. That is a very good plan. I wish you the best of luck.”

Gooky and the others all went into their huts. Jarod and his group also entered into their hut, this time not as prisoners, but as business partners. They were just counting the minutes to the red-letter day.

Before they slept, Jarod assigned each of them and made clear what they would do. About the pairs, Jarod was to work with Peter on the firewood, timber and poles while Sheya and Jack were to deal with the charcoal.

“Does this mean we have given up on finding Kyle?” asked Jack.

“Since we did not find him in the forest, it means he either left the island or he died. These are the only people on the island. I do not think he managed to survive from elsewhere. As per now, let us all concentrate on the work. Good night,” replied Jarod.