Environment Bug's Arc

Chapter 2 of 7

The trucks arrived three days later. Environment Bug met them at the contamination site and watched the crew unload testing equipment. The lead technician ran new probes at wider intervals than Bug had marked. Each one came back positive. The contamination spread twice as far as his original tests showed. By noon, the crew had stopped drilling. They stood in a loose circle around the mobile command unit, speaking in low voices. Environment Bug walked over and waited. The lead technician finally turned to him, holding a printout. The contamination ran thirty feet deep in some areas. Remediation would require excavation equipment they didn't have on site. They'd need to bring in specialists and resurvey the entire hillside before any cleanup could start. Environment Bug looked at the rows of hazmat suits laid out beside the command unit, ready but unused. He thought about the temporary shelter he'd built, now barely covering a fraction of the actual contamination zone. His containment had worked for what he could see. But the real problem had been spreading underground for months, maybe years. He pulled out his map and marked the new boundaries the technician showed him. The dead strip of grass was just a symptom. The source went deeper than any surface test could reach. The crew packed up their testing gear and loaded the barrels they'd used as depth markers back onto the trucks. They'd return in two weeks with a full remediation team. Environment Bug stayed behind and expanded his warning perimeter, placing flags at the new boundaries. The site was contained again, but differently now. He wasn't waiting for cleanup to begin. He was waiting for someone to figure out how deep the damage actually went.