In front of the vehicle stood a small group of bushnus, trudging around in the mud. Gerald Berdali could make out at least six of them, but there is usually a couple more hiding among the rocks or around the water. A few of the beasts started noticing the idled vehicle, one of them were already showing signs of aggression. Even though Gerald was a bit frightened, he did his best to not let it show to hopefully improve the morale of the obviously frightened lemur who was driving the vehicle. Gerald grinned as he patted the back of the lemur.
“Ready whenever you are,” Gerald said to the driver. The young lemur slowly shook his head in understanding while putting his hand over the horn. He quietly counted to himself, and then when he reached one he quickly pushed the horn, giving off three long beeps. The driver then quickly pushed onto the gas pedal to get the vehicle out of harm’s way.
“Come on, come on!” Gerald quietly said under his breath, looking back to see if the bushnus were following. Sure enough the group of beasts began their chase, annoyed that their quiet day was ruined. One or two of the beasts slowly pulled away from the group thinking it was not worth the run, but Gerald knew they could come back for those bushnus later. At the moment he had other things to worry about with a bunch of bushnus slowly gaining on his vehicle.
“Faster! Just a little faster!” he said to the driver. The lemur responded by pressing a little harder on the pedal. They didn’t want to go too fast, but just fast enough to let the bushnus think that they can catch up. After a few minutes of quick turns and frightening drifts they came upon a pole, acting as a signal that they were far enough away from the camp.
“Alright we’re in the clear! Let’s get out of here pronto!” The lemur wasn’t going to argue with that as he pushed the vehicle to its possible speed. Seeing that there was no way to catch up, the bushnus quit their chase and settled by a muddy area near the water. Even though he wasn’t able to get all of the beasts out, Gerald was glad that the risk of bushnus attacks on the camp were decreased in a way.
“That’s the best we can do for today, how about I get you some of the good stuff back at camp for your work. We’ll drink to the bushnus, haha!”
[hr]
“We were successful in moving a good amount of the bushnus upstream; hopefully they don’t come back down. There was report of one attack on the water retrieval team leading to two workers badly hurt and a dead bushnus.” Madeline Odalis slowly rubbed the sides of her head as the report of the day was given to her by one of the supervisors. The laptop in front of her was showing the recent email sent by the Shangoese Government. The extra security that she requested hasn’t even arrived yet, but now they were to expect even more bushnus than before. Thankfully their head of security found a way to move a good amount of the creatures away from the camp, but that might not be enough.
Nearby a group of workers were heading back to the bunks after a long day of work, many were talking in their native language. Even though she didn’t speak their language, Madeline knew they were talking about the bushnus. Morale has been dropping with every bushnus sighting which leads to lower productivity. Thankfully there has been no signs of resentment from the workers, just slow movements and worried looks.
“Is there any way to raise the mood of the workers?” She asked hesitantly.
“Well we could give them a small break; maybe even lengthen their lunch periods,” the supervisor replied, “but unless we do something about the bushnus, the workers are still going to be down, especially those who see it as a bad omen.”
“Not only that, but also all that noise being made over at the Genaldo camp isn’t helping,” another supervisor added in, “every time they began blowing stuff up, the workers seem to slow down like their expecting an Urthquake or something. The point is that we’re just going to have slower productivity unless we do something.”
“If only we hit gold,” Madeline said to herself. Recently the only things that they were able to find was a small amount of iron and lead, but besides that it was just dirt. The workers seemed to be a little happier when they were told about those finds, but like Madeline and the Fletcher brothers, they wanted gold. She was hoping to be able to try to dig up the mica, but the Shangoese Government restricted them, so that was off the charts. The only choice they have is to just keep digging.
“Well thank you for the report. Tell Gerald to just keep up the work on the removal of the bushnus. How about ordering a bit of alcohol for the workers, hmm? Maybe that will help them.” Madeline then closed her laptop ending another day at Site 5.
