Alone in the Universe

            Theodosia had been watching the world fall apart for as long as she could remember. She remembered researching climate change for a forensics competition in high school. Her generation had been adamant that climate change needed to be fixed sooner rather than later. However, no matter what they did they were unable to convince the adults of the dire situation. Finally her generation came to power, but by then it was too late.

         All the evidence from that forensics tournament showed that unless dramatic changes were made by 2020 the world was not going to heal. Now, at the age of 35 Theodosia was finally seeing the end of the world. It was completely different than she had predicted, but at the same time everything was there.

         The first sign that the end was near was the animals. Theodosia had chosen to live in a remote cottage deep in a forest due to a fascination with nature and animals. Many of the creatures living in the forest had learned that Theodosia held nothing against them and had actually started befriending her. She had met many different forest creatures, but her favorite three she saw so often she named them. She had come to expect to see Farrah the fox, Dorthy the doe, and Reggie the rabbit everyday.

         However, this day was different. Theodosia heard a frantic scratching at the door and when she opened it she could not believe what she saw. At her door was a Mexican wolf, and in his mouth was what looked like a sick Reggie rabbit. She followed the wolf out the door, as he led the way to the waterhole. He dropped Reggie once they arrived, and she could tell that he was not going to make it.

         There Theodosia was astonished to see the normally crystal clear water was a strange murky grey color. She looked closer and saw Reggie’s fur had been stained grey around his muzzle, right where he would have taken a drink. She looked around and saw a collection of dead bodies littering the clearing. They all had the same grey stains on their mouths, a few of them even had the stains on their paws.

         It suddenly became clear to Theodosia that the end of the world was coming. The water was the first natural resource to go. She wondered if it was only the pond in her forest, or if water all over the planet had become this grey poison. She looked to the Mexican wolf that had brought her here, and said “Thank you friend. I am sorry that I do not know how to help you.”

         She turned and ran, hoping to find a way to the ocean. Farrah the fox started running alongside her, clearly wishing to help discover what had happened to her friend. Theodosia headed toward her house hoping to make it to the coast as soon as possible. She arrived at her car, and opened the back door for Farrah. “Let’s go girl.” She said as they took off.

         They made it to the coast within the hour, and Theodosia was devastated to see that even the ocean water was grey. It was obvious that there was no coming back from this. She wondered what would happen next. For now the only thing she could do was keep her animal friends close, and hope that the events of the apocalypse were not detrimental to their health.

         Theodosia and Farrah turned around, and started heading back toward the forest. They traveled at a much more reasonable pace this time around, and were astounded by what was happening around them. Along the forest paths leading to Theodosia’s house the trees were dying.

         The normally lush green leaves were turning grey and shriveling up, and effect traveled all the way down the trunks of the trees, to where in some parts it looked like the trees had never even been there. Theodosia had no clue what could be causing all of these effects, and made the executive decision that she had to find out. She did not particularly care for her own safety, but she was worried about the safety of the animals that had become a family to her, and their home.

         She managed to call and book a flight across Antarctica, hoping to see what was happening with the polar ice caps. The flight would not be today, but she would leave tomorrow for her journey.

         She left her house in the forests of Arizona and headed to California where her first flight would leave. She had a long series of flights in front of her. First leaving the country and flying for California to Australia. From there she would catch her sight-seeing plane to hopefully fly over Antarctica.

         She barely made her first flight, but once she was safely on board Theodosia settled herself down for a long, boring trip. It was nowhere even near her first international flight, and the novelty had long worn off. Theodosia was ready for this trip to end, so that she could find out what was happening with her world.

         The plane finally lands in Australia, and Theodosia headed to her hotel room for the night before her next flight. The jetlag was terrible, but she knew that nothing was more important than the world’s health.

         Finally, the next morning came and Theodosia headed out to her “sight-seeing” flight over Antarctica. As the plane takes off Theodosia grows more and more worried about what could be laying ahead of her. It does not help her nerves at all that the plane seems to be heating up to an unsafe level. She decides to take a glance outside and she has no idea what to make of the sight in front of her. Antarctica is gone.

Like that, an entire continent disappeared. She looks up and notices a strange hole in the sky. It seems as though the ozone layer had finally broken. If she looked closely enough Theodosia could barely see a thin trickle of grey space matter falling from the hole all the way into what appeared to be the center of the earth.

         None of this made any sense, and Theodosia was understandable confused. Between the jetlag, and the events that could not possibly be possible, she decided to wait till she was home to deal with anything. Luckily she had scheduled return flights on the assumption that her Antarctica trip would be quick.

         After about a week of being home, Theodosia finally puts together everything she had seen. Climate change had finally caused enough of a detrimental harm to the environment that the ozone layer had broken. As the heat kept increasing all of the ice caps had melted. Due to constant pressure the ice caps had melted all the way into the underground water supply. Some sort of space debris was falling through the ozone layer creating the grey water. It was affecting not only the oceans’ water but also the water in every river, lake, or pond across the world. There was nothing that could be done, she had been right all along, climate change had finally reached irreversible effects.

         After coming to this conclusion Theodosia decided there was nothing left to do. She might as well die on her own terms, and surrounded by the ones she loved. She headed to the drinking pond. All of her animal friends were still there, a few of them had managed to find safe drinking water but they were running low.

         “Let’s all drink,” She told them, “let’s just all drink the bad water and die together.” The first animals to go with her were her old friends Dorothy and Farrah. But slowly the other animals must have decided she was right because they all took a step forward as one.

         Slowly Theodosia reached out her hands and cupped some of the nast grey water. She could already feel it staining her skin. She slowly raised her hands to her lips and took a soft drink. It was the worst thing she had ever tasted, like a mixture of pickles, mayonnaise, and brussel sprouts. She barely had time to register the taste before she collapsed.

         All around Theodosia the animals were collapsing. They all took a drink from the poisoned water and barely had time to think before death hit them like a dark tidal wave. The water rose up and claimed all the bodies exactly like it had claimed all of their souls.

         Meanwhile around the world the waves were rising. The tide was growing, and the coast line was no longer visible. The polar ice caps had melted and the water was dangerous. The water rose to cover the entire world killing everyone it touched. It froze once it’s job was complete.

         In the distance a brief streak of light could be seen, almost like a shooting star. Although all the inhabitants of Earth had been killed due to their lack of respect and regard for their world, a tiny group of scientists had escaped. They flew away at the speed of light, on a spaceship hoping to find a planet that they could preserve this time.