The End is Just the Beginning

I woke as if woken by an unseen force. I woke with remnants of thoughts stirring behind my eyelids, thoughts of the universe, half-forgotten dreams. I had dreamt of the universe as a conscious being and that the human race is not nearly as significant as we think ourselves to be. We believe the universe belongs to us when truly we are only a tiny part of it. Shaking my head clear of such profound notions, I am fully awake and ready for my morning ride.

The world is dark and silent at this early hour. I ride my bicycle through the sleeping city, feeling like the only person alive. The city towers over me, its formidable buildings and streets blurring into one colour as I pedalled past. Cycling through the lonely streets I can imagine what this city, made of concrete and human ambition, would look like when humankind was long gone. I had never liked the city, my heart longed for the countryside, with its open fields and blue skies.

I shivered as I thought of how much destruction we had caused the Earth, entire forests had been demolished to build these cities and the natural habitats of countless animals replaced by concrete jungles. The skies were a polluted grey, the world’s creatures had retreated into the negligible green left, and signs of life were rare in this artificial city. What right did human beings have to regard this planet wholly ours?

If we abandoned the Earth, would nature flourish again? Would it erase every sign of human existence, stone buildings collapsing, trees growing higher until they covered the surface of the earth as they did once? Or would we leave the world as a chemical wasteland, uninhabitable to any form of life? These were the thoughts that kept me awake at night.

Lost in my musings, I nearly collide with a stray dog. Swerving to the right, I fall off my cycle. When I try to sit up, I am seized by a bout of dizziness. I wonder if I had hit my head. When my eyes adjusted to my surroundings, I nearly fell back in shock.

The world shifts from grey to colour.

The sight before me is overwhelming. Green, twisting vines envelop the buildings around me. It looks like nature has sprung from the ground itself, and covered the man-made structures with plants. Everything around me is in ruins. The urban city I knew has been transformed into an unrecognizable place. It looks as if humans have abandoned the planet, and in their absence, nature has taken over completely, erasing signs of our existence. The path beneath me is covered in moss. Wildflowers are growing in the cracks in the pavement. The city is no longer silent, it is thrumming to life.

Breathing in deeply, I am exhilarated by how clean and sweet the air is. “Where am I?” I think aloud. As if in answer, I hear a chirp to my left and notice a wine-coloured bird sitting on a branch. It is beautiful, a species of rosefinch I have only ever seen in books. As I walk further, I see many more species of birds and butterflies. The world is full of colour and fragrances I never knew I loved until now. There is a stream nearby, I hear the sound of flowing water before I see it. The water is refreshing and untouched by pollutants.

I feel completely alive here, with the sun shining directly on my skin and pure, unpolluted air. I close my eyes and give myself over to emotion, savouring the feeling of life surrounding me.

A sound behind me startles me from my stupor, and when I open my eyes, I am standing next to my bicycle in the middle of the street. The world is back the way it was, with its imposing buildings and littered streets. I am disoriented and dismayed. The car behind me honks impatiently, the driver gesturing for me to move to the side. I move to make way and get on my cycle, cycling back home. I am dismayed at how quickly the world had vanished and disappointed that it had all just been a hallucination.

Months pass. The vividness of the vision stays with me, forever imprinted into my mind. I carry the memory of blue skies and the green world with me, as a reminder that beauty like that still exists, even if it is too far away from reach. Some days I am enveloped with a deep sense of longing, an emptiness of what could have been. The world had been so alive, vibrant with colour, and now that it is gone, all I can do is close my eyes and imagine green.

Almost two years later, I am walking on the sidewalk when I notice a yellow flower making its way from a crack in the pavement. It is a sunflower, my favourite flower. I am infatuated by it, and it reminds me that even though the earth is decaying at a fast rate, life like this still exists. I decided to nurture it, to live on to the chance that it could bloom. I feel joyful and I feel like I am tasting pure hope after a long time. I can feel a smile transforming my face. There is still some hope left for us.

“The clearest way into the universe is through a forest wilderness.” - John Muir

The end of the world as we know it.