Chapter 36 - Difficulties

The angry fly mob caused massive amounts of destruction with their caffeine induced energy. As the caffeine wore off their destruction became less and less until the completely crashed and ended up doing so little destruction that they were actually rebuilding a section of the city. This further angered the flies as they were very tired for rebuilding a city was hard work, making them more tired, which resulted in more rebuilding. This anger gave them renewed energy and thus allowing them ton continue their destruction. But destroying things made their anger fade and they once again became tired and constructive, which led them to become energized with rage once again. This cycle continued with a group of flies putting in a wall only have another knock it out and then switch places. Cobbler flew to the mob (Cobbler was late as he had waited for his coffee to cool off, being unusually temperature sensitive for a giant indestructible radioactive tsetse fly), unaware of this new development and once more tried to convince the mob to stop destroying the city. Cobbler gave an impassioned plea urging the mob to stop the destruction and help rebuild to make amends. To Cobbler’s great surprise the flies were very receptive to his plans as they were tired of this oscillations between destroying, rebuilding, un-building and non-destroying, and hoped this may work. The mob of flies went to work re-building the destroyed parts of the city, however as they were so tired, so little re-building of the city took place that the rest of it was leveled in a matter of minutes. The mob in high spirits that their plan worked flew away to the next city on their list leaving Cobbler behind, utterly bewildered as to what just occurred.

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Joe was equally confused but for an entirely different reason. Standing before him was a man pulling paper out of the recycling bin and vengefully throwing it into the garbage. The man cackled with glee at every scrap he threw in, becoming more and more delighted as the trashcan became full. Joe was sure the man would be trouble and he was even more sure that he certainly did not want to talk to him. “Greeting sir!” cried Joe, who did not squelch his inner hippy fast enough “May I inquire as to why you are un-recycling that paper? Don’t you want to save trees?” “Save trees? Save TREES? SAVE TREES!?” The man spun around with a wad of paper in his hands and a look of revenge in his eyes “Why would I save trees? My parents were killed by a rain forest, and now I will not rest until I have destroyed every last tree!” “That’s absurd, a tree isn’t capable of intentionally killing people. Your attempts at revenge are almost as absurd as your methods, the amount of paper you are not recycling adds up to maybe a tree or two at most.” “You may try and stop me with your silly reason and ridiculous logic but my masterfully created plan will not fail. Soon another tree will be cut down to supply paper, and with that tree being gone the hundreds of seeds it would have created over its life will also be gone. All those trees that will now never grow will remove even more potential trees from existing. With each generation the number of trees destroyed grows exponentially, soon the number of trees that no longer exist due to the destruction of that one tree will be so great that there will be no trees left in the entire world! This is by far the most efficient and effective way of ensuring that all trees will be destroyed.” Joe, certain this man would be best fled quickly from, prepared to quickly flee. “Look out!” he cried pointing behind the man “There is a tree coming right after you!” Joe turned and ran as fast a possible, not because of the man, who only warranted a quick skedaddle but because there actually was a tree coming straight for them. The man looked in horror at the oncoming tree, but then his expression changed to a grim determination. He grabbed the garbage can full of un-cycled paper and dumped it into the retroactive trash receptacle (for throwing away then the waste you have now). The oncoming tree shrieked in rage at seeing its brethren carelessly tossed from one pile of waste to another. It brought up its limbs ready to strike when all of a sudden the tree stopped and started to shake. The man’s plan had indeed worked, the tree continued to shake more and more violently until it ceased to exist, along with every other visible tree. “Thank you sir for that warning” Said the man to Joe, suddenly looking much calmer and more sane. “I have gotten my vengeance upon the trees and now they will never again cause any trouble. I am in your debt, please let me know if there is anything I can do to repay you” “Well I am trying to find the magic-8 ball of close-but-not-quite-correct-answers to ask it how to stop the giant radioactive tsetse flies that tickle people to death as I’m sure that that will somehow allow me to get back home to the correct side of the page.” “I know of this magic-8 ball of close-but-not-quite-correct-answers, it is located in the great forest, once inside the forest you just need to follow the green leaved trees and it will get you there straight away. The entrance to the forest is over there.” The man gestured towards what was now a great barren plain. “I wish you luck on your quest, I must be off to spread the good news of this great victory today, and remember follow the green leaved trees lest you be lost forever in the forest.” The man knocked over the nearest trash can and leaped upon it and rolled off into the distance leaving Joe to find his own way to the vast barren great ‘forest’.