A Stark Reality Of The Future

The scorching rays of the sun were becoming impossible to bear. The magnificent river, its width almost as long as the once Burj Khalifa, was now reduced to a thin trickle of black water. It was nearly the end of December and winter was nowhere in sight. It had been many decades since the earth had last embraced the soft and moist balls of snow. It had loathed its presence in the past but now, as a matter of fact, it yearned to have even a thousandth of a second with it. How had the humans become so selfish? How did they grow so cruel that they annihilated the earth, the nature, and the environment to such an extent that it was left incapable to do anything?

The human population was on the verge of extinction, only a few tens left here and there. In the endeavors of the so-called humans to establish their control over an unconquerable thing, they failed to realize that they were rapidly chasing their own death. The democracy which once existed and condemned dictatorship, was a hypocrite. Every president of every country or the king of a monarchy were the cruelest dictators. They dictated the nature. They dictated the earth. And without even realizing, they dictated themselves. How could they think that they would prosper, flourish, and rule if they completely misused and eradicated the means by which they would achieve their superficial goals? The glorious earth, in spite of having the humans remove a part of itself one by one, still refused to give up. It believed in the good of everything. It believed that whatever the humans were doing or planning to do, was for their own benefit.

However, sometimes when the earth was dug too deep or the outside pollution saturated its red blood with black soot, it was unable to control its disappointment. The earth, in its attempt to save the humans, expressed only a tiny fraction of its sadness. The minute cry, in the form of earthquakes, volcanoes, pandemics, tsunamis, hurricanes and many more would kill a few humans but in the long run, they would prove to be a simple nudge on the human race, the kind which no one even feels. The cruelty of the humans increased year after year, decade after decade and century after century.

The green lands were replaced by broken grounds. The thirst of the humans did not even leave the snow on the mountains and the poles of the north and the south. Even the water from the vast water bodies had sunk. Dried sticks were seen in place of lush, green trees and flora and fauna were nowhere in sight. The humans had eaten them too. They seemed to have mastered the art of torturing the earth. The disappointment had turned into anger and all was kept bottled up inside the earth. The few times in which the sorrow was expressed added to double the amount which again was stored within.

The earth was suffocating. It was becoming impossible to bear the yearly increased load. It felt crushed. It felt defeated. Most of the time, the earth would wonder,

“Was there anything left in my upbringing? I did my utmost. I sacrificed everything. I even happily parted away with parts of my body just to satisfy the insatiable hunger of the humans!”

The cry was unheard and so was the earth’s pleading to the humans to stop. The bottle of patience, love, kindness, appreciation, gratitude, harmony, peace and loyalty was now full of suppressed feelings of hatred, malice, greed, ignorance, intolerance and denunciation. The bottle was now cracking and even the earth’s desire and will power to keep it intact was faltering. The emotions were now leaking and terrifying humans. Over the years, the cracks grew bigger and bigger. Although the earth tried its best to control itself, the flow distress was unstoppable. It was bound to happen and nothing could stop it.

The billions of people burdening the earth were wiped out leaving only some. A huge weight lifted off of the entire earth and somehow it felt relieved. The weight of the remaining humans was just like the weight of cotton. Wanting to enjoy freedom, when the earth went to touch its free body, stretch out its arms, yawn, rolls its eyes and hydrate itself, it realized that the humans had done much more damage than it had felt. The high density of the population had overpowered the pain of the earth itself. The earth grasped that its body was full of scars that were not just marks but deep cracks, long enough to reach its heart. The sun, once its friend, was now also helpless to save it. The abundant water in the earth was all soaked up. The few drops which were left were polluted.

Despite being famished and parched, the earth let out its water in deep cries. However, now the tears of the earth which were visible as a thin stream was useless for the remaining humans. If they would be called humans. Humans devoid of humanity. The earth felt that had it not been selfless and given everything to the service of mankind, it would have survived. It could now not even sustain itself. It knew that it was dying and held itself responsible for not releasing its bottled-up anger and disappointment before.