The trip to the Exclusion Zone was blessedly uneventful. The hunters even managed to dart a couple of monkeys to cook later. Once upon a time eating monkeys would have bothered Bernard a great deal. Just before this whole experience in fact. Now? He had no qualms about eating the little demons. In fact, he was sure they would be delicious.

The first thing he did when they reached the spot, and the same weird sense that told him what direction to go also let him know when he was there, was ask in confusion, "Why here? There's nothing here." The area was pretty deep in the forest, and utterly devoid of any obvious reason for the positioning of the zone.

Initial Exclusion Zone placement was made via the correlation of a number of variables. These variables include the proximity of sapients to chosen locations, food supply, water supply, defensibility, construction materials, and local void energy density.

Bernard began to look around. Farming wasn't an option with the thick canopy and large trees unless he was willing to let people cut them down, and he wasn't. It struck him rather suddenly in that moment that he was just assuming he was in charge and would remain in charge for the foreseeable future. He was definitely in charge of his current group, since Henry was twelve and the natives thought he was a nature spirit of some sort and constantly deferred to him.

That didn't mean that he would also be in charge of any others that came to this place. He didn't doubt that there would be others, since 'proximity of sapients' and all the other variables Aegis mentioned should have put the zone directly on top of their existing village. The only logical reason to put it in the middle of the woods away from the village was if there was at least one other group the same, or at least a similar, distance from it.

One zone, multiple groups. Bernard figured it was probably more than two. Unless the energy density thing played a role, but he didn't have a way to gauge that one that he knew of. Regardless, there was no guarantee that he would remain in charge if-slash-when additional people arrived. Nor was he sure he wanted to be in charge. For now though, he intended to convince all these fine folk he was with that treehouses were the thing of the future.

The bizarre sense of loss he had while separated from the forest in the village wasn't something he wanted to experience full time, and if everyone lived in treehouses there would be a pretty strong incentive to make sure the trees were healthy and not cut down. Some would inevitably need to be cut down of course, since it was rather hard to build any sort of house without construction materials. Wood was the obvious choice for said materials, since it was literally everywhere in the forest and you don't typically build a treehouse out of brick.

"Let's find out how big this zone is. Everyone can feel it, right?" When he got a bunch of nods and positive answers he gestured at their surroundings. "Alright then, spread out until it… hang on." He moved back the way they came for a bit. When the feeling that he was inside the zone changed to one pointing him in the direction of it he nodded. "Spread out until you exit the zone and then step back in and mark the area somehow."

Henry stayed with Bernard while the natives scattered, eager to please the forest spirit. Bernard sighed. "So…" He started slowly. "What do you think about treehouses?"

Henry shrugged with a bit of a frown. "Are we really going to stay here? I thought we were trying to get back home."

Bernard sighed again. "I've been thinking about it for a bit now, and I think we should stay put for a while. Get strong enough to travel relatively safely, and unless there's something I don't know about, we don't have any immediate need to get home. I certainly don't have anything or anyone I need to get back to. This place is as good as any to settle down in. I also got a taste of what it will be like for me to leave the forest in that village and it wasn't great."

Henry was silent for a minute or two, and Bernard stayed quiet, giving him time to think it over. "I don't either." He eventually said quietly. "We were at the park when it started. A bunch of people just… turned into smoke and blew away. I ran to my mom, and right after I grabbed hold of her the world twisted and we were suddenly here. We didn't know where we were or what was going on, and then monsters started attacking us." He started crying. "My mom didn't deserve this! She worked so hard, and, and…"

Bernard wrapped an arm around the kid's shoulders consolingly. "I know, kid, I know. Nobody deserved this. Sometimes the world is unfair though. Sometimes bad things happen to good people. I wish I had some magic words that could take away that pain, but I don't. I won't tell you I'm sorry for your loss, or that she's in a better place, or anything like that. I am sorry that this happened, but I've been there, I know there's nothing anyone can say."

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

He squeezed Henry's shoulder before turning the kid to face him. "All I can say is that eventually that pain will get easier to deal with. It probably won't go away, but you'll learn to live again, even if little things occasionally remind you of her and you find yourself crying again years from now."

Henry sniffed and wiped at his eyes. "Sorry." He mumbled.

Bernard's expression hardened. "Hey." He waited a moment, making sure he had eye contact. "Don't apologize for being human. It's okay to be sad, it's okay to cry. It's okay to feel. You don't have to hide it. There may come times where you need to power through it, or deal with other things first, but never think you have to be embarrassed about emotions." he started out stern, only letting his tone soften towards the end. "If anyone gives you grief for crying after what you've been through you let me know and I'll set them straight."

"You gonna let them chew on you, too?" Henry asked with a halfhearted smirk.

Bernard swatted him upside the head. "Brat."

"Geezer."

*****

The Exclusion Zone ended up being a circle a kilometer across. Somewhere between two hundred and two hundred fifty acres. Roughly. Geometry wasn't his best subject. Geography wasn't either for that matter. That was a considerable amount of ground for a couple dozen natives and two displaced white folks. The size of it only confirmed Bernard's belief that it was intended for more than just the group he picked up. He wasn't sure how far the tribes in the area roamed to hunt and gather, but their living space had amounted to a couple of acres at most.

Since he was sure more people would show up sooner or later, he went to work convincing the natives to build treehouses and not do any clearcutting. Or at least that was his intention. He found it annoying when they just agreed without hesitation and went to work cutting down the trees with the most useful wood for buildings. Of course, the annoyance could have just been from the fact that he could feel the trees as they were cut down like an itch at the back of his mind.

A bigger problem soon arose, though. How does one build a house twenty to thirty feet up a tree without nails? Or screws, or any of the other myriad tools for construction that Bernard knew of. He was so far out of his depth when it came to building things it was laughable. None of the natives were any better either. Oh, they could throw a bunch of huts together in a flash, but those typically had dirt floors with the wooden frames just lashed together with vines or woven cord and ropes. Thatch roofs would be fine for the treehouses, so that wasn't a problem, but not a soul among them had the faintest idea of how to build a solid floor halfway up a tree.

Bernard was on the verge of resigning himself to clearing an area and putting up huts when the solution to his problems slapped him in the face. He stared at the tiny slip of a girl that somehow managed to approach him without him noticing with a dumbfounded expression. She was obviously not from around here, with her designer clothing, sneakers, and hiking backpack. "Make them stop!" She shouted, heedless of the fact that the assault on his face and dignity had resulted in more than a few weapons being aimed at her.

"They're killing those trees! Make them stop now! I saw you telling them to do it!" Her fists were on her hips, and Bernard shook himself from his surprise quickly, waving off the hunters. He couldn't believe she had managed to get to him completely unnoticed, but he wasn't about to let her be shot for it. "What on Earth are you even trying to do?"

She was nowhere near as intimidating as she seemed to think she was, and Bernard had to fight not to laugh. He was in the middle of an honest-to-goodness rainforest, surrounded by monsters and quick-to-violence natives, and against all odds was getting dressed down by a girl that couldn't weigh more than a hundred pounds soaking wet. "We're getting ready to build-"

"Rose!" A breathless black man that looked to be around Bernard's age burst from the treeline at a run, only to freeze when he found a bunch of arrows pointed his way. "Rose, you can't just run off and yell at strangers!" He sounded extremely worried and exasperated all at the same time. "We come in peace?" He offered apologetically.

Bernard couldn't help it. He laughed. It was almost a hysterical thing as the absurdity of everything just hit a kind of critical mass at that moment. When he finally calmed back down a bit he shook his head. "Kids, am I right?" He said to the man as he waved the hunters off again. He was getting tired of having to do that.

"Name's Leonard, but my friends call me Leo. I'm a Geomancer." Leo offered Bernard his hand to shake. "Don't be too upset with her, she picked Treesinger as a class and can feel the trees hurting."

Bernard winced. "Yeah, that part sucks, but we still need shelter. What does a treesinger do?"

"Don't ignore me! I'm not a kid, I can speak for myself, and I sing to the trees to get them to do what I want."

Bernard chose to not comment on the childish foot-stomp that accompanied her rant.