PRELUDE, book 4, building

‘DEAD,’ Megan called against the storm and rose to her feet.
Anthony nodded as another gust of wind unbalanced him, and he noticed that more people came running towards them. 
Megan saw them, too. ‘STAY AWAY! YOU FOOLS!’ she shouted furiously. ‘THE STORM IS TOO STRONG. MORE TREES COULD FALL. GET BACK! TO JELLYBRIDGE! EVERYONE IN THE HALL. ASAP! SETH, give us a hand with the tree. THE REST OF YOU GO! RUN!’
They did, six or seven people, fighting against the storm to get out of the forest and back to Jellybridge House.
Megan shook her head, turning towards the fallen tree again. ‘ON THREE! ONE, TWO, THREE.’ 
Struggling to keep their balance, Megan, Anthony and Seth lifted the tree from the corpse and shifted it to the side.
With anger in her eyes, Megan gently picked up the dead body. Anthony and Seth helped her rise and as she steadied herself, Anthony called: ‘TELL US WHEN YOU’RE READY.’
‘I AM! PUSH! WE NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE!’
Anthony and Seth pushed Megan forward, careful to react to the changing intensity of the storm, always one arm ready to get hold of the corpse should Megan lose her grip. 
There was a moment’s relief when they left the Young Forest, both in their minds and in the storm. But they hurried on. 
At Jellybridge House, Jordi and Zaida from Security held the heavy entrance door open. The three entered and walked past the shocked crowd of project team members and Jellybridge staff. 
Gregory, the estate’s gamekeeper, had cleared one of the twenty project desks and was ready with a blanket when Megan lowered the corpse onto the desk.
Her eyes still on the covered corpse and her bloodied arms, Megan gave herself a moment. She was struggling to keep her anger at bay. But the team needed to understand. The team needed to understand or more would die. Neither blind anger nor sentimentality would do any good now.
With determination in her eyes, Megan turned, climbed on the desk next to the body and looked into the pales faces around her. ‘For everyone who doesn’t know me, I am Megan Rhys, head of the Agriculture Team. It seems that I am one of the few people who grew up on a farm, and who actually knows something about coexisting with nature. Did you enjoy fantasising about building a beautiful green world where everything is all right?’ Megan shook her head. ‘I should have had this talk with you months ago. Nature isn’t something that cares about you or your wishes. It just is. And when nature decides to lash the land with gusts of wind that knock you to the ground, you stay out of nature’s way, out of nature’s forces. We humans have become so bleeding superior that we think nothing can harm us. We have lost every sense of how fragile we are, and that yes, bad things happen to us, not just to others. Building, creating with nature in mind also means to know who is the stronger. It means to listen to the wind, to the creaking of the trees. It means to grasp what is happening and where to find cover. Because unlike in our fantasies, we are terribly vulnerable, and nature doesn’t spare us.’ Megan paused and looked at the covered corpse. ‘He did not have to die!’
At the back of the crowd, Noel whispered to Daria: ‘Who was he?’
‘One of Leo’s people. Only arrived this morning. Leaves a wife and a big family. Jonas.’

© Charlie Alice Raya, book 4, building, 2025