The wind saunters through the bleak desolate landscape. Gone are the polychromatic flowers with their homely aroma; gone are the flowers and trees that would decorate the horizon; gone are the animals that gave the surroundings life. All are replaced with the cold, hard ground and the patent feeling of nothingness in the air. The ground, however is not flat but scarred with crevices and cracks that reaches down too far for the human eye. The sky no longer shone blue but a musty brown colour that accommodates no clouds-just specks of black dots scattered along in an uncaring fashion. The sun, formerly visible, henced to be seen, neither did the moon or the stars. Day and night ceased to exist- just a long, boundless periods that contained no accountability to time. Each hour the same, each minute no different.
It is barren, holding no evidence of its past. In some distant regions of the planet, wreckage still remains as they had been. The ruins had not yet disintegrated and molded into the earth. Floods and tsunamis had swept the earth clean, leaving nothing but dust and despair. The earth is a silent place, isolated and inhabitable. It went on for miles without end, an ugly sight to experience.
The wind blew stronger, pushing the dust around. Hurricanes and monsoons still ravage the land on a daily, showing no mercy. The ocean had dwindled in size and were now could have taken as lakes and rivers. Previous ponds and rivers had evaporated completely, leaving behind the damp soil which soon hardened to a solid rock.
The earth died the same day humans did. As the last being perished, the world went with it. Humans were greedy and selfish and couldn’t maintain the planet we were made for. Day by day, the earth continued to disintegrate. Poisoned by the gasses in its atmosphere, it could no longer protect humans, it had to protect itself. And on the 13th of August, decades ago, the world no longer held oxygen. Humans were avaricious, covetous and most of all thoughtless. They never thought about the “what ifs” and chose to turn the blind eye on a fact stood right in front of them. And where are they now? Extinct- with every other species and plant that had ever graced this planet. The supervolcanic eruption covered lands with rock and buried bodies and building with ash. The Yellowstone eruption devastated the earth.
It was rumored that there were humans still living, deep underground. That a scientist had predicted it all and had prepared his small village for the impending damage. It was called ‘down below’. To come up would be a suicide mission and a dangerous death sentence. And nobody was willing to gamble their life with the devil...until today.
A head pops over the ground. The wind sped up, excited by the sight of life. A young girl , with a mass of black curls and dark skin slowly crawls up from the ground. Her small, skinny frame looks weak against her harsh surroundings, her clothes straggly and ripped. Her foot shakes gently, in apprehension as she looks around curious- but scared. She isn’t struggling to breathe, she isn’t in pain. As her palm touches the dense the land, it softens and turns into a soft soil.
The world was meant to live on, for centuries and centuries to come. In a 100 years, you would expect you were dead. In a 100 yrs you wouldn’t expect the world you live in to be too. But human nature have the strange tendency to take things for granted. And they don’t realise they need it until it’s gone. The world was doomed- going extinct as the weeks passed. Yet for the first time in decades, earth had acquired something they hadn’t experienced in a while.
Hope.