I honestly cannot believe that we're having this conversation. There are a lot of surreal aspects to this place, not least of which that we're here to begin with, but this has got to be the most surreal of them all. I draw a hand over my face with a slow, heavy sigh.

"I appreciate that some of you have history with this sort of thing, but some of us also have history with nearly starving to death," I say as I look up, my voice weary, expression resigned. "I'm not waiting a few days to see if these things turn out to have some kind of curse on them. We need them right now. I cannot stress emphatically enough how much. If some of you are uncomfortable with using them, then don't use them. Those of us who are, can. As it is, we're losing valuable daylight while I've got a field to finish clearing."