Great Divide

Through the Trees Part II

Copyright © 2017

This story, "Great Divide", is copyrighted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. This includes all chapters, epilogues/prologues and associated content. Any unauthorized copying, broadcasting, manipulation, distribution or selling of this work constitutes an infringement of copyright. Any infringement of this copyright is punishable by law.

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Jessa

It had been 4 hours since I first stepped into the entrance of the forest. The first thought I had was how much green there still was here, I was in awe really. After the first War started between the Raze and Grims, earth couldn't seem to sustain its minerals. Crops began to die first, then livestock, then people began to starve.

I hadn't seen this much greenery since I was a child, it was as if this area was untouched by the genocide going on all across the globe.

After stopping twice to relieve myself and munch on some fruit, I hadn't felt as if I had made much progress. The trek so far had been uneventful. No signs of a crash, the area was still teeming with wildlife. I wish that I had thought to log out one of the few cameras that the UF still possessed, so that I could capture the creatures I had seen so far. A few sloths, a healthy looking orangutan and then finally, I managed to spot a green snake coiled amongst leaves, camouflaged to the untrained eye.

It was mesmerizing, seeing the trees, the greenery, the wildlife. The rainforest was teeming with it, the climate was strange to me. Everything had become so dry as of late. But this part of the world seemed as if it was protected and untouched by all the chaos.

I was enjoying it more than I thought I would. I knew I was headed into territory even the most seasoned UF soldiers hadn't traveled across and that in itself was a treasure for me. This was the only part of the enlistment that I enjoyed. The travel, the cultures that seemed to be dead, but once you delved deeper below the surface, you could find someone who still cooked Italian food. Someone who was still fluent in multiple languages. Not everything was so primal.

This was the UF's first time dispatching a female on a solo mission. And if I thought about it, this was probably the first time they had dispatched anyone on a solo mission. I knew that as of late, they were running huge marketing campaigns to promote female enlistment. They had been getting a lot of backlash, between the remaining feminists and the everlasting sexist. One screamed that we were too weak, we were fragile creatures who needed to stand behind a man to survive. The other screamed that we were just as good as the opposite sex, but they still wanted us to be treaty fairly.

I remained a neutral party, despite the fact that before I left for the mission, there were scribes hanging outside of the main base wanting to talk to me. Wanting my opinion, however, as a soldier of the UF, we were forbidden to talk to anyone who could label us as biased.

When I returned, if I did, they would set up a conference and allow several to come in, they would tell me the right things to say and punish me for the wrongs, it was a given.

For now, I was content with my motions, trekking through the green forest, taking mental screenshots.

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On the eve of my ninth hour in, I stopped to get re-hydrated and get my bearings. It had begun to get darker around an hour ago and if I wasn't going to find anything today, I need to at least get into some form of shelter. If there were animals here, there were predators, and I would need to rest with one eye open.