The Silent Extinction

It is an inconsequential day when the lonely Sun considers His worth. Within this self-reflection, He comes to understand that He was born a powerful force of nature, but still He has remained stagnant, stuck in an inhibited state while those around him have been chasing one another in an eternal game of tag, while his untapped potential has been building up. 

The Sun realizes that He does not need to hold back from utilizing this power, from finding an escape from His forlorn seclusion. He decides to embrace His strength, recognizing now that He doesn't deserve to feel so isolated. 

The Sun swells with all His might, shining brighter than He ever has before, reaching His rays down toward the planets circling around Him. It is finally His turn to play.

The heat of the Sun has become unbearably great. The change was subtle at first, the occasional increase of temperature warranting no more than a comment or two. But it began slowly, insidiously, building up until it has become too much, with no comprehension of how it got to that point.

When the animals start dying, it goes unnoticed to those creatures unaffected. Only when enough time has passed, only when the collapse of the food chain becomes too obvious to ignore, do those left on the Earth begin to realize that populations are dwindling, soon to be extinguished in waves. 

The animals who thrive strictly in the cold are already gone, having had nowhere to turn to, no way to escape the torment of the heat. 

Wild animals used to warmer climates have survived up until this point, but now they are suffering, too. Unavoidable targets are placed on all of their backs as the Sun's presence indiscriminately continues to expand. Now with helpless witnesses observing their futile attempts, the remaining feral creatures can only try to run and dig and hide until they, too, are forced to succumb to the inevitable, destructive heat.

Man sees, but is apathetic in their inability to help. They remain inside, hoarding technology and inventions that make this shift in climate manageable. They hold onto their domesticated animals, who hold the same privilege of confinement, and they turn a blind eye to those they deem irrelevant to their busy schedules that must still be maintained.

Man views this mass loss of life as yet another fact of Life. Death is natural - it always is, until it isn't. 

Many attempts have been made, but there is no man-made creation that can stop the incessant assault of the Sun completely. With every passing measurement of time, the heat gets more and more intense, burning deeper and deeper into the very crust of the Earth, incinerating the bushes and flowers and trees left unprotected.

Man is the sole survivor, too unprepared and incompetent to care for the last of their pets long-term. Forsaken, they still do what they can to survive, their remaining small sliver of hope unkillable. It's enough to carry them through Life long enough for them to welcome the following day, fanning their desire for freedom and prolonging their suffering. 

Man takes their last breath. Now all that's left are the handful of trees in man made greenhouses, left untended to long ago, standing tall but ashamed to be alone.

Fruit - just budding to fully ripe to unpicked and spoiling - falls to the earth with dull, quiet thuds, like an imaginary drum off beat, struck by spontaneous spasms of an invisible hand. Pear trees shed pears, apple trees shed apples, mango trees shed mangoes, peach trees shed peaches, lemon trees shed lemons.

The corpses of these fruits are followed by a shower of leaves - having lost their green vibrancy to morph into a sickening shade of brown-tinted black - and dry bark, crisp with lack of nutrients. This ubiquitous concoction rests on undisturbed dirt terrain as the Sun beats down on it, His rays intensifying with every passing rotation of the Earth.

The bark withers and hardens until it cracks, becoming a magnet for the Sun's rays through the protective glass shield overhead. Fire breathes into existence, spreading and burning any bare tree it can lick.

The charred remains of the trees that do not diminish to charcoal and ash completely continue standing stubbornly, holding on until they can no longer. Their roots eventually give up, recognizing that there is no point in supporting something so damaged.

Weakened by loneliness, the last trunk of the last tree finally unfastens itself from its wooden chains underground and topples down, crushing the sticky, putrid, unrecognizable remnants of the pears it bore a lifetime ago, with a soundless creak.

For Man is no longer here to listen, to hear the devastating falling of the last tree. There are no more creatures - no mammals, no birds, no reptiles or fish, no insects - to witness the silent extinction of Life.