Plantopia

Lush, bright, light and dark greens fill my retinas as I scan over the area before me, the place once known as the Sahara Desert. What was once sand, now an endless field of green consumed by millions of cacti bar one small section in the centre. Twenty square miles of unchanged desert. The only area on earth where humans still thrive.

It’s hard to believe it has been six years since the great plant uprising where nature took back the Earth. And yet, humans still have not learnt their lesson! The plants revolted against us after all, not the animals, the fish, the humans. Finally getting revenge on humanity for raping their precious planet for thousands of years.

Between our ever-growing landfills destroying the earth. Pollution of the once beautiful oceans and constant overuse of fossil fuels poisoning the air, there wasn’t much of a planet left and if we’d been allowed to continue, soon there would have been nothing left to save.

Most of us humans were swallowed by the mass of stalks, trunks and vines that grew exponentially as we slept. Those on the other side of the earth, ‘the lucky ones’ as they came to be known, lucky enough to be awake during the initial attack had the chance to run, hide and survive.

My cousin Jaz and I were two of ‘the lucky ones’. We weren’t on the safe side of the earth, we just happened to be awake that night. Jaz dragged me out of my bed at 1am that fateful night and we snuck up to the hills to watch the meteor shower, I always loved anything astrology.

My mom would never have allowed me to be out that late had she known. We fought earlier that night about it, the last thing I said to her was I was sick of her treating me like a child and that I wanted to move out and live with Jaz and aunty K. She never responded and I had stormed of to my room devastated about missing the meteor shower and for hurting my mother. I like to believe she would be glad that I hadn’t listened to her on that occasion and had gone anyway.

We went back home of course, Jaz and I. We searched for a year for survivors, praying everyday to find our loved ones hidden somewhere safe and sound. It was impossible of course, almost no one on this side of the earth had survived and the growth was so thick, there was no way of finding anyone or anything beneath it.

That’s what they wanted, the plants, they wanted to take everything from us, just like we took everything we possibly could from the earth. Stripping it of everything that was good and precious and replacing it with our waste and toxic emissions. We did this to ourselves.

I wiped a tear as it trickled from my cheek and wrapped my wrist around the half heart shaped locket around my neck. The last thing my mother ever gave me. She gave Jaz the other half and made us both promise to never take them off. We laughed at the time, she was so serious about a little piece of jewellery. It took us 4 years to figure out why it was so important. Not just to us but to the survival of the Earth.

“Hey Z, you ready?” Jaz asked, pulling me back into the present.

“Of course. Are you?” I asked, still staring down at the field of cacti to the one patch of impenetrable sand, completely impervious to the greenery surrounding it.

“You ask that as if we have a choice. Are you forgetting, we are the chosen remember” Jaz replied sarcastically, a half smile half grimace on her lips.

“That we are” I replied raising my half of the locket to hear and shaking my head, trying to smile through the dread of what we are about to do.

Jaz sighed and sat down beside me. “They’re not gonna just let us walk in there and fix everything you know, not without one hell of a fight anyway. They love the power of being the only people on Earth that are safe. Choosing who lives and who dies” she cringed at the thought.

I nodded, she wasn’t wrong, but we had to try, it’s what my mother wanted us to do. She knew this was coming. Back when we were looking for survivors in our hometown after…well you know, we came across dozens of journals my mother had kept with over a decade of research and data in them. All of it pointing to one day. The day nature would revolt and reclaim the Earth.

Her journals were filled with correspondence she had sent to anyone in power desperately warning them about the upcoming apocalypse. Not one of them ever replied, she even sent them her data to try and prove to them this was inevitable. Some continued to ignore her, some even went as far as to get restraining orders out against her. Bet they’re feeling pretty stupid now. If they were one of ‘the lucky ones’ that is.

No matter how many people ignored her, told her she was crazy or tried to silence her, she never gave up. Not until she found a cure, a solution that could heal the world, whatever that means. Unfortunately, those sections were a little scarce with the details.

We know the how, the locket. We know the where, dweller central in the middle of the Sahara, we just don’t know the what. We have no idea what this cure will actually do, assuming it will even work at all. But anything’s got to be better than this right?

“Hey JZ!” a strong voice sounded from behind the rocks, making Jaz stand up and spin on them. Landen, a former barista we picked up on our travels stepped out from behind the rocks and walked over to Jaz’s side.

“How many times have I told you, quit calling us that” Jaz scowled, thumping Landen’s arm in an attempt to drive the sentence home.

“Ok, ok. Jaz and Zara then” he corrected himself, taking a step back from Jaz and her fists of steel. He’d learnt by now not to push her when she’s pissed, it doesn’t end well.

“So listen. I kind of went down to the outskirts of the dwellers territory” Landen started to say. Jaz opened her mouth to interrupt but Landen held his hands up defensively to stop her.

“I know what you’re going to say but just hear me out ok” he continued. Reluctantly, Jaz nodded for him to continue. Her furrowed brow staying put as she listened intently.

“Ok so you know how the dwellers keep the area clear of any plants by dumping gallons of their special plant killer all around the edges of their city right?” he went on. This wasn’t news to us. When the plant revolution began some of the leaders my mother had contacted, who clearly believed her enough to be scared, had fled to the centre of the Sahara, the last place to be taken over.

They had clearly been gathering supplies for the upcoming apocalypse and made plans to keep themselves safe without letting the rest of the world know what was going to happen.

Most of what we know comes from the stories we have picked up on our travels over the years. There is always one story though, that never changes no matter where you go. The dwellers had been dumping plant killer, a chemical they had designed to prevent any and all natural growth in a 20 mile radius of the centre of the Sahara for years and no one noticed.

They had, had an underground storage centre made to store gallons and gallons of this stuff. Along with food, water and enough supplies to last an army at least a decade.

The day before the plants attacked, they fled with selected family and friends to their little utopia, leaving the rest of us to perish at the roots of plantkind. The only detail missing from the traveller’s story, is that the dwellers didn’t just choose the Sahara because they knew it would be the last place to be taken over. They chose it specifically because of a precious stone that stands directly in the centre. The power core of the Earth.

“They have plant killer, what’s your point?” I chimed in wanting to get this over with. We all knew what we had to do and standing around chatting about things we already knew was not going to help us heal the Earth.

“Ok sarcy, but what we didn’t know was when or how” Landen continued despite my aggravation.

“You actually got close enough to see them spreading that shit?” Jaz asked, an impressed expression briefly crossing her face before she furrowed her brow and went back to staring him down disapprovingly again.

“Better, I got so close, I took some of it! We can use it to get through the cacti safely. Or at least camp without the constant fear of a root around your neck in your sleep” Landen held out a clear glass jar full of thick greeny black liquid.

“What the hell were you thinking!” Jaz shouted, tearing the jar from Landen’s hands and placing it gently on the ground behind her.

“What I thought it would help. When was the last night you actually slept huh? We are all exhausted and we are about to go into battle with god knows how many people with god knows what weapons. Excuse me for wanting to even the playing field a little!” Landen snapped at Jaz. Big mistake.

“Listen little boy. We are here for one reason and one reason only” She started towards him, making him edge back towards the boulder he’d come from. “We are only here right now because the plants know we are trying to help restore the Earth, that is the only reason they allow us to walk through without killing us on sight. I don’t know how you got back through without them tearing you apart just for carrying that shit!” Jaz sneered angrily.

Landen had stepped so far backwards his back was now pressed firmly against the boulder. “Jaz come one he obviously didn’t thi…” she cut me off before I could finish.

“No Zara he could have gotten us all killed, then what? Who is going to reunite the stones then huh? It would be the literal end of the world. I for one do not want to have come this far just to fail when we are this close” she snapped at me, sorrow filling her eyes as she motioned over to the dwellers camp.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t think of it like that ok. I won’t use it” Landen spoke quickly, trying not to poke the bear any further.

Jaz stepped back, her expression calming. I watched her take several deep breaths, a technique our guidance councillor taught her whenever she would get angry at school. Jaz had always had a temper but she controlled it pretty well. And sometimes, like when Landen’s being a total jack ass, it comes in handy.

No one spoke for a moment. I watched as Jaz and Landen smiled at each other. No matter what happens we had formed a friendship that could not be broken. 5 years in a post-apocalyptic world together bonds you for life.

“Now, who’s ready to save the world” Jaz smirked, raising an eyebrow at us both. Landen stepped in placing his hand in the middle of us all. I placed mine on top before Jaz added hers.

“Let’s do this!” I smiled, looking down on the dwellers. We’re coming for you, I thought and we are taking this Earth back!

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