The Last Flower on Earth

The One Thing Which Never Rots, Plastic

Turning at yet another intersection we are faced with a giant window, and behind said window is a massive indoor waterpark with a wave pool which is sadly frozen. But it appears we have to go around to get in.

Emma makes a sad sound, "I forgot to pack my bikini." She pouts, but what I would give to see her in one. I stare off into the pool and wonder how a warm beach under a bright sun with crashing waves rushing over the seemingly infinite shore of sands I could never imagine the feeling of. I dream of myself lying under a large umbrella looking up to see Emma calling me into the crystal-clear waters. But the faded and chipped paint of palm trees lining the walls inside the park are as close as I'll get to a real tree, as those don't exist anymore.

I can tell that that fantasy was about to bring me to tears as mourning such a far-off fiction won't get me anywhere. I turn to see that Emma has run off in search of the entrance to the waterpark.

I gaze into the park and continue where my reverie ended off, I wave over to Emma who waves back with an ear-to-ear smile. "Connor!" She calls out, "I found the way in!" This shocked me as to why would she say that? I then realize that the real Emma is the one saying this.

"I'm on my way!" I shout back, placing a mental bookmark so I can continue that dream later.

Emma and I stand beside one another at the intersection between male and female change rooms, we could both go through our individual changerooms, but what if a Hate Demon is in one of them and the other doesn't make it out? I could follow Emma into the female changeroom, but that kinda feels wrong, but Em' would be fine entering the male change room.

"I'm following you into the male change room right?" Her thought process was identical to mine.

"Who says I can't enter yours?"

"True, no girls in there are going to be butt-ass naked and scream at your and call you a pervert like in those shows and movies. So, there shouldn't be a problem." True, as I've never seen a female changeroom it would be a new experience.

"We could enter the female one and exit the male. How does that sound?" Emma chuckles to themselves with a perverted grin, I chuckle to myself knowing that she is down with the plan. The chuckles turn into laughter as we find it far too funny.

While Emma steps in with an absolute nonchalant attitude to her step I peek around the corner as if I'm in a firefight, this is a big step for men. Emma walks back and forcefully drags me inside the locker room.

The lockers are smaller than the male ones, and there are fewer of them with separate smaller rooms to change being plentiful. While Emma pursued the exit I take this chance to truly take in every detail that caught my attention. There was a surprising amount of counter space under the mirrors with outlets being evenly spread across the entire ledge. The showers were larger than I anticipated with closing doors. The stalls were also plentiful as well. "You done snooping around the lady's locker room for now?" Emma's remark notified me that what I was doing could paint me in a negative light. I keep my mouth shut and follow her out of the changing room.

We step out into the large, and by large, I mean large, chamber. I hesitate to go further in as the water slides are only held up by a steel jungle, which if the amusement park taught us anything they shouldn't be trusted to handle any weight.

Emma grabs my hand and rushes me over to the previously wave pool, now uneven ice rink. Once we're over I find a sturdy lawn chair and lose myself in thought.

"I'm going to go on one of the slides!" Emma rushes out of sight.

Though dangerous, the fact that it is a combination of steel and concrete holding up a hard plastic doesn't sound that dangerous, and Emma has a leaner build so by this logic it shouldn't break. "Leave your stuff here!" I shout out, she turns back in shock that I'm letting her even ride the thing.

She drops her bag and rushes up the staircase. Once at the top Emma walks over to the railing and calls me up, I shout back that there is no way I'm going up there. She continues to pester so I bite the bullet and go up after her.

I climb the staircase and approach her. "Make sure to keep your hands and feet in this position before riding the 'once water now just slide' slide." She makes a mockery of lifeguards before letting me sit down.

"If I die-." Before I finish she uses her foot to push me down.

At first, I freak out at my unexpected departure but after realizing that my screams were unwarranted I begin enjoying the ride. At the end of the ride, I notice that it dropped into a pool which I quickly slowed myself bailed out of the slide, but I knew that Emma didn't have that fast of a reaction time and that she was going to fly across the ice.

I shouted back up that it was safe and prepared to watch the show. Her head disappeared behind the faded red plastic of the entrance to the slide. The woohoo's and yeah's which echoed through the dark pipe grew closer as I made final seating preparations.

Emma flew from the slide, and the moment of realization was right when she became temporarily airborne and hit the ice. Don't worry about the freezing water below as it's ice from top to bottom.

Emma held her bottom while hearing me laugh. "That wasn't funny!" She shouted as I wiped tears from my eyes.

"It wasn't funny, it was hilarious!" I held my chest with my other arm. I quickly finished laughing to lend her my hand. I noticed her angry expression left quickly.

I followed her back up the slides to try a different one. "We could try one of those two-person tube slides," Emma says while looking down the large slide.

"Problem one, decomposition of material, those tubes probably cant handle weight in their current state. Problem two, plastic and freezing don't go together, 'can it inflate without ripping itself' is the big question. And problem three, we don't have water for the tube to float on, if the elements don't shred it the friction of the slide well, and those divots where the separate pieces meet will probably cause the tube to drop us off early." My claims are obvious, but she sat at the top of the wide slide waiting. I walk over and sit beside her, we end up going down together despite the barely legible signs discouraging going down two at a time.

We both brace for impact at the end of the slide and get off problem-free.

"That was fun," Emma says, "but there is still one thing I want to do."