Watchers

The earth was getting hotter, icecaps were melting and sea levels were rising.

Coastal villages and towns were being taken by the sea.

Tsunamis, Tornados, and Typhoons were leaving trails of destruction and death worldwide.

Floods hit areas where trees had been cleared, and the equatorial deserts were spreading.

Famine was endemic while other parts of the world dumped food into the sea, often poisoning the fish that were left.

Factory fish farming had cleared large parts of the seas and oceans.

They had watched over this world in many forms for millions of years, and they had chosen to become trees, to look after the planet and keep it on its course through this particular astral system.

How they did this was a mystery to all but the trees but now they talked. They were watching the Earth being destroyed by creatures who were both intelligent and stupid.

In their time the creatures had created gods to control the masses and the latest god that everyone had to follow and worship was money.

The Trees Speak:

"We are losing control. They kill us in our millions to create space for livestock and build houses for the expanding population. We have provided them with safety and food but it is not enough. Don't they realise we take the water so that the lands don't flood, we take the carbon dioxide and give them oxygen to breathe, we provide sanctuary for animals, and our roots go deep to stabilise and steer this planet around the sun?"

"I agree, some humans are intelligent and good, but they are not the ones with the power. They are wiping us out and we cannot maintain the planet as our numbers dwindle. If we do not take action, we will be gone, and the Earth will die"

"I agree, but the only option is to remove the humans from the planet. We do not have the option of being selective, it is all other nothing. It makes me sad because humans have created some great things on this planet, but if they are allowed to pursue their current course the Earth will die"

"So will the woods and forests take the required action? It pains us all, but it is not just us, it is the survival of all life on Earth, the survival of the planet itself. We must destroy humanity or humanity will destroy everything else. Yes, there will be many innocents punished for something that they themselves tried to stop, but we have no choice.

This will make Noah's flood like a splash in history. We will release the spores that will destroy humanity and when the race is dead the bodies will rot or be eaten by animals.

Maybe one day another animal will evolve to learn the knowledge of how the humans built their civilization."

The plague was released, and within a week there was no human life left on Earth. In the International Space Station, the inhabitants watched as the lights went out on their homeworld.

As planes landed at airports the passengers and crew were immediately struck down.

Human life on Earth was gone.

The forests and woods started to grow back.

Tsunamis, Tornados, and Typhoons became infrequent, though the drowned villages and towns stayed drowned.

The trees in the forests were sad but safe.

They knew they had killed many innocents but they had saved the Earth and its wildlife and made it a place where things could grow and be better.

The Earth once more became the Garden of Eden, there were snakes but no Adam or Eve.