Solution

I asked the project leader what our team was doing to prevent the expansion of The Sick Land. He looked at me as if I was an idiot, and told me that our group monitors the expansion. There's another team that deals with solutions to the problem.

I asked him what the solutions entailed; I was hoping he'd put my mind at rest for the immediate future. He didn't. He told me the research done by the solutions team was too far beyond his area of expertise. I asked him for the simplified version. He said he wouldn't be able to do it justice. I pressed him for an outline of what the solutions team do. He held up his hands and admitted he didn't have any idea what the team did, or how they'd go about holding back The Sick Land. He didn't know about the technology they used, or about their theories. But he trusted that the team were doing the best they could, and that they'd find a solution soon.

I asked him where the team was based; he said he didn't know. I followed up by asking him who the researchers in the team were. He'd never met any of them. Finally, I requested that I be allowed to join the solutions team. He told me it was impossible, that I would need a much better grounding in the relevant material.

I hate this. I feel like everything I try to do is obstructed. I'll have to push down my feelings of helplessness, my fear of the expansion, and try to learn what I can.