Mavis's POV

I stare round at the trees and houses. Why do I get the feeling I've stepped right into a cartoon? I look up at the sky. The clouds seem like they've been painted or something. Funky…

Okay, according to Dad, we all lived here in 1999, so that means I am at least four in this time. My eyes widen a little with fright, hearing of all the problems of running into your past self in various sci-fi mediums. Yeah…I should probably try and steer clear of making any contact with my kid self.

A man walks past me. I put on a smile and give a wave but he just looks me up and down and leaves. I realise I must look a bit weird with my clothes from the future, but it can't be helped at the moment. I venture out of the cover of the trees and walk down the road. There are surprisingly few people about, but this is likely because it's the middle of the working day.

At this point, I have two choices: I can either start the stakeout of the factory or I can go find out more about this town known as Thneedville. One of my objectives is to, if possible, find out why LOVEMUFFIN would choose here as a starting point for causing a worldwide crisis. So I start heading off to find a library or better, the town hall. As I get further into Thneedville, I realise that this town is seriously weird. There are weird buildings, weird vehicles, and weird trees that are apparently battery operated.

Yeah, you heard that right! Trees here are battery operated. In fact…I glance around once I get to the steps of the library. I've found no sign of anything that isn't artificial since I got here. On a whim, I go to the green spot on the sides of the building and rub it, seeing if I could pick up any dirt. I get nothing, so there's not even a speck of DIRT here. Inside I find a man who leads me to where town records are kept. He seems on edge, which I thought was due to my clothes, but just before he leaves me to he's actually just surprised because apparently not a lot of people go poking through town records every often. Despite there being no one in the room, I take a seat at a microfiche and begin scrolling through.

Hmm, so apparently this town was originally named Greenville (1) although there wasn't much that seemed remarkable enough for LOVEMUFFIN to want to use for world domination. The only thing that may, MAY come close to it were these incredibly peculiar trees called Truffula trees. But from 1969-1974, they were all chopped down to make this bizarre yet versatile invention called the Thneed. Apparently, it was so popular the town changed its name and its creator, this guy called The Once-ler became its local celebrity.

Something about this whole thing just feels…off. Off, and very familiar. Somehow. In late September 1974, the last tree was felled and no more Thneeds were made. All wild animals seemed to vanish and as for the Once-ler, he disappeared that October; walked right out of town and hasn't been seen since. After that, there are all these things about someone named Aloysius O'Hare who's now the mayor and the CEO of O'Hare Air. As for Elise Hilliard, her part of the soft-drink world started in early 1921, when the plant was first opened here in Green-Thneedville. It's changed hands a few times, but as far as I can tell, nothing really out of the ordinary has occurred there. Yet, I think.

I finish with my research and am more baffled than ever. Other than the trees, there's nothing really here that LOVEMUFFIN can really utilise. As I exit the library and prepare for the journey across town, I suddenly realise that this area of town is covered by a large white wall but from what I know of Elise's home, it doesn't have such a thing (2).

Well, that's another notch up on the weird scale, I think as I head off in search of a bus stop, wondering what everyone else is doing and how they're going to react to this information.

I manage to find one that goes across town to where Elise and her plant are, and thank goodness there's an empty seat up front because I really don't want to have to walk past passengers in my futurist clothes. As we travel out of this part of town, I begin to notice the wall gets smaller and smaller until it just opens out-keeping the devastation effectively hidden. Not only that, the whole area seems to have transformed: There's trees! There's animals! There's not a single battery operated tree in sight! The only downside of this is that the sky looks gloomy, most likely due to the smog. Eventually, we reach our destination. Thneedville seems like the leader in progress, but the rickety bus ride gives me the message that no matter how 'new' a town looks, there are still things that need updating. I actually fall down a little as I exit it!

I begin to walk towards the direction of Elise's place and I reach there, I notice that not only does she live in a huge mansion that is also Barbie pink worthy; she also has what looks like a farm on her mansion's immediate left. Let's see, I need a place to hide out and still be able to see everything. I look around and notice there's some woods right across from us. Taking a chance, I head in there and see there's no one there.

This is no ordinary mission so I didn't prepare like it was just any other mission. I've been given an automatic tent set-up, enough rations, and a communication system that resembles the one in E.T. Only, this thing can't get me visual; the time distance has put a strain on that. Thankfully, it manages to boot up and I get Kane on the line. It takes quite a while to explain everything I've learned about town so far.

"I'm serious, Kane, there's nothing here for LOVEMUFFIN to want. The only thing I can possibly conceive of them wanting would be the Truffula trees and those are all gone."

"It just doesn't make any sense: LOVEUFFIN choosing a place with no real resources as a touchstone for world domination. Are you sure there's nothing else here that's well-known?"

Believe it or not, there is. There are two K-12 schools on this edge of town that are not only private, they're also famous for being two of the only remaining gender-segregated schools in the country. But as I tell Kane, I highly doubt LOVEMUFFIN would risk getting exposed due to using a school.

"I bet they're using this place for the factory buildings," he says, "and they don't care what there is that's already occupying the building."

"I doubt the CEO of O'Hare Air would let something like this slip. Selling air…" I roll my eyes at this thought for the umpteen time.

"And I take it's NOT the kind of air you get when you're capturing a scent?"

"Nope. It's actual breathing air you can get for free from a tree." I yawn, which makes me realise how tired I am. "I should sign off now. I'll submit more in the coming week." I lean a little closer. "Give my love to Dad and Monty, okay?"

"Will do. Good night, Mavis." Kane says, before I sign off. I lay inside my tent for a bit, replaying recent events in my head: My brother and several others have been hit by something in a soft-drink, this guy Farren says it means future world domination, and the apparent only way to stop is going back in time.

I think about my family. My dad-as well as other parents-must secretly be frantic with worry. Hang in there, bro, I think, I'll find out what LOVEMUFFIN's up to. Just hold on for now…

…

(1): If you look really hard in The Once-ler's flashbacks and on the deleted scene for how the Thneed becomes popular, you can see a street sign that says Greenville. We can assume the town changed its name before all the trees disappeared, and I guess they didn't bother changing it back.

(2): The part of town Mavis is heading towards can be thought of as the part of town the boy from the original 1972 cartoon came from: Gloomy, but NOT walled off, as the town from the 2012 movie. This area is less artificial and has trees, but still has effects from the smog.