Page 38 - HEF Pen & Ink 2020

REMEMBER THE EARTH
Carousel Sackman
a well-trimmed beard clinging to the perpetual scowl that stayed firmly painted on his face. Chocolate brown eyes sat heavily under bushy eyebrows, glaring at anything and everything they could see.
It started off simple, it seemed like every other average year. Then famers started yielding less in their harvests, and forests started to dwindle. By the time we realized something was wrong it was too late. The Earth itself was dying.
Maybe that was why he was sent to collect the diminishing plant samples: his colleagues wanted a reprieve from his severe face and biting tone.
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Marcel Speight didn’t want to be where he
Well if that’s what they want, Marcel thought darkly, scowl deepening and brown eyes narrowing farther, if that was possible. He had specifically asked Tyler Rogerson, the head scientist in charge of their research facility, if he could go out a little farther than usual to look for samples. The younger man had bare- ly bothered to restrain his relief at the idea and Mar- cel was rather proud of himself for keeping a mostly straight face. Afterwards, he had gathered some basic equipment and camping gear, setting off without a word to anyone else in the building.
was, on a dying patch of land miles away from civili- zation. But he was a scientist and everyone was either working their brains to bits or panicking because the planet was dying beneath their feet. Marcel was just one of the unlucky sods that was commissioned to find a way to save this blasted planet. The only prob- lem was that they could find absolutely no reason for the earth to be as sick as it was.
GLACIER THEMED WOOD- BURNED CLOCK
Allison McJannet
Now he was marching through the wither- ing plant life almost a full day’s brisk walk from the research facility he’d spent the last six-and-a-half months living in and he honestly felt a little calmer for it. Marcel glanced up, checking the position of the sun. It would start getting dark soon, he noted, start- ing to look for a suitable place to set up camp and—
So, it was reasonable for Marcel to be even more cranky than usual. Coupled with the fact that he was a 34-year-old man who looked like he was
in his late forties, well, he wasn’t a happy camper. Marcel was a tall person, standing at about 6’4”, he kept his graying auburn hair cut fairly short, and left
Marcel froze, eyes blown wide, and stared. In front of him, not ten feet away, was green grass. He blinked, brought his hands up and rubbed his eyes
in an uncharacteristic show of disbelief. The grass was still green, vibrant, living, green grass. After staring for a good minute or two, Marcel carefully
set down the pack he’d been carrying, opened it and sifted through until he pulled out a couple of objects. The first one looked like a small remote, a miniature screen was set near the end of the device, as well as
a few buttons. The second appeared to be a glass jar of some sort, but the small control panel on one side said otherwise.
———
It took Marcel an embarrassing amount of
time to pull himself together, and when he did, he set to work on the subject of his recent breakdown. The remote-like scanner was used to gather a basic read- ing on the grass, just to confirm what he saw and felt beneath his fingers. The container came next. Mar- cel carefully dug up a small section of grass, silently marveling on how the soil underneath didn’t crumble like sand when he lifted the clump of sod. He care- fully placed the grass in the jar, setting the controls to mimic the earth’s atmosphere and keep the plant fresh until he could return to the research facility.
Now for the hard part: figuring out why this particular area was doing so well when the entire planet was dying. And because Marcel didn’t current-