The Tree and I

I sprint through the field.

The grass is so wilted and dry that you can hear a loud crunch with every step I take.

Luckily I'm far away from the city where no one can hear me.

Although this is about a kilometre away from the last known house, it's still been just as effected by the air pollution.

Everywhere has been.

Ever since the last known trees were cut down all places were effected.

The ice caps have melted. The floods wiped out so many areas, killing so many innocent people.However I lived in Nebraska, a place far from the sea.

I walk towards one of the world's most sacred places, a place only I know about.

A month ago as I was exploring I found something special. Deep near the end of the long meadow laid a tree.

One tree, standing alone. Possibly the last tree left in the whole world, my tree. I'm the only one who knows, I plan on keeping it that way.

If they find out it would be cut down so quickly. The scavenge for resources has become intense.

I've been trying to use the branches to plant a small forest. But with the weather conditions and close to no natural water, it's quite difficult.

None have grown so far. I finally see the big oak tree on the horizon. The branches strong and long, the trunk is sturdy and wide.

Their were no leaves left though. I reach the tree and take a breath of air.

The city air is slightly better near this spot. That's why I love it so much.

I know I'm not the first person to witness this tree though. Carved low in the trunk is "S+R 2013". Whoever wrote that is elderly now if not diseased.

The year is now 2089. A year of grief, a smoky year.

Ever since the air went bad people have developed a new sickness. They call it "Alossin disease".

It travels into the lungs filling it with a poisonous chemical found in the air. It causes a person to go insane, then slowly the colour drains from their skin and they simply fade away.

They just sit there forever, rotting away, helpless.

That's what happened to my parents. They had to go to the city centre everyday where the air is the worst.

It was a horrible time for my brother Charlie and I. They went mental, they beat us and screamed.

Charlie was only a toddler at the time. I sent him away to our neighbour, a kind old man.

I decided after my parents died, that Charlie should just stay there. I wonder about him, is he still alive?

I have so many questions, but so few answers. I haven't been to the city in a year, I don't know what going on there.

I've been living in a small hole that I found in a mountain not to far from the tree. It is small, but cozy and it shelters me from the extremely hot weather patterns.

Today was an okay day however, still hot but tolerable. It was days like this I called harvest days.

The way I live is off this mysterious sap that pours from the tree.

I place my hand in the tree and stick my thumb into the rotting wood, breaking the bark.

Slowly a gooey sap leaks from a little dent in the tree. I put my small pail right beside and wait.