“We CAN We WILL We MUST”
Major Ginnes had just finished updating the appliques on the wall when Captain Terok limped in. All eyes turned to face him as he swatted a few storm appliques to the floor, drew a piece of coral chalk from a pocket, drew an ‘X’ on the Sulfur Giants’ isle and a line RIGHT ACROSS THE EGG FIGHT that would be happening for another month. Gasps of ‘no’ and ‘impossible’ whispered through the room. Ginnes stood up from reflexively bending for an applique, saw the chalk work, and looked on in disbelief. Terok sat down heavily and gave a sarcastic half-salute with his stump of a right arm.
“I saw the everberry tree grove,” he said. I had six men left. Myself and the other survivor agree. Had we had a full crew starting through, we would now have enough to feed our entire population.
“But we can’t do that!” blurted out Ginnes.
Terok pounded a fist on the table and said—
*The blade became ‘bad wave appliques,’ the drumstick became the opposing shore and pieces of the lake, and the forearm became a hat, half a hat, a chair back, part of the non-drumstick isle, a chalk stub, an arm stub, and part of an arm shadow. I think that might be a record for me for most uses.
