The Next Generation

The Regenerating Tree.

"Yeah," Holly said, rolling her eyes. "That's totally what happens now. Does anyone see a cave or anything?"

We looked around for a little bit, and after a while the only thing we found that was even remotely close to shelter was a weird, huge rock that was in the middle of nowhere.

After we decided there were no trees or random discount stores people usually hide in so they're out of the thunder and lighting (which the storm turned out to be), we all moved under the umbrella shaped roof. "Is it too late to go back to Paris?" Dominic asked, shaking the water out of his hair.

Boom.

"I wish it wasn't," Holly muttered, and I found myself slightly squealing because I just realized that her and Raymond got together omg OTP I'M GONNA DIE AND THIS IS THE BEST ACCOMPLISHMENT I'VE EVER ACHIEVED, and because of the bones I just noticed, littering the sand beneath us.

Talk about mixed emotions.

"Well, it can't be humans," Holly said, noticing the bones after I pointed and scooted away. "Too early. If it we're my choice I'd say velociraptors or something."

Dominic looked surprised. "Since when did you become a dinosaur nerd?"

Holly huffed and moved a strand or two of hair out of her face. "Since, like, grade one. I had to do something except play with Barbie."

Boom.

I frowned. "How are there NO humans? What if they came before the asteroid, and then came after! Or they saw the signs of it and went underground or something."

"1. No fossils. 2. That's literally too much intelligence even for 1000ad, 3. Really?" Holly said, and I sighed.

"Just a question."

Boom. Boom.

"Those sound like they're getting closer," Dominic said, starting to play with the sand out of boredom.

"So?" Holly snapped at him. "It's not like lighting now is worse than lightning in the future."

"Yeah, but we don't necessarily have shelter at the moment and we're literally the tallest structures we saw in a mile or so."

"And?"

"Lighting strikes the closest thing to the sky as possible," I answered for Dominic, grabbing a stick. "And if we're the closest thing—" I struck the stick to the ground. "Boom." I said, right as the actually thunder came.

Raymond huffed. "Well we can't stay here forever."

"I can live with staying here forever," I heard Dominic say from next to me, pulling me right next to him

He can't seriously be thinking like that in the middle of Jurassic Park. Limited time offer— have one Sienna if you stay here forever!!!!!

"C'mon, we're leaving," Holly muttered angrily, grabbing Raymond's hand and bringing him towards the rain. "I'm not leaving my decision for a space rock."

After a minute of 'what if's, we came to the conclusion to keep looking for something even mildly interesting. We walked out of the 'shelter' and kept walking. And kept walking. And walking some more. Finally, we reached a sort of oasis— which wouldn't really do us any good, because it was sort of raining heavily on us, and a tree wouldn't be the best idea for people who don't want to get struck by lightning. But, hey, we still didn't know what we were there for, so hey, let's stop by a desert paradise.

It's almost as smart as teenagers splitting up in horror movies.

Dominic ran up and hugged one of the trees. "Oh, I never thought I'd be this happy to see a tree covered in—" he faltered off, his eyes widening in disgust before pushing away from the tree. "Moss. Icky, icky moss," he dusted himself off and looked at the tree like it had made another enemy.

Thank god he had moved away from the tree, because a split second later and he would've been fried chicken.

A blinding light seeded into my vision, and the heat made me feel like I would melt into a puddle— or even worse, it could've singed my eyebrows and eyelashes off. When the millisecond of painful light surpassed, I opened my eyes to see that the tree had been caught on fire.

Raymond quickly went to action. He summoned water (from where, I still have no idea whatsoever— there was a little lake (aesthetic) right next to us, but it was literally coming out of nowhere— like finding Starbucks in a huge city) and put the tree out before the flames could spread. Once he was done, though, he walked up and touched the tree.

To my surprise, the tree regained all its leaves, grew to twice its original size, and grew all sorts of flowers. It was like the tree's whole life just flashed in a second, but it remained alive.

"H...how did you..." Holly faltered, looking at Raymond with a mixture of shock and awe. It kind of reminded me of a child looking at their parents when they did something remarkable— like give birth to them (well, without the crying, but I guess her height is pretty much the same). It didn't seem like she cared though, because she ran up to him and squeezed him in a hug.

I couldn't see Raymond from where I was standing, but I could imagine he looked like the China flag— all red with a hint of yellow (or in this case, platinum blond).

I felt someone tug on my hand, and I got worried that it was some mutant velociraptor when I came crashing into a chest, and I looked up to see a very familiar face.

"I'm so scarred for life," Dominic muttered, holding my closer," I just witnessed a tree forcefully coming back from tree heaven and having to live through a whole other quarter life crisis. Hold me for a bit."

"I hope it makes you feel better that a quarter life crisis for a tree would be, like, a couple millenia and therefore the crisis will last even longer— but that's only if it isn't chopped down beforehand."

He grunted. "You're just a ray of sunshine, aren't you?"

"Never a sunshine— more like moonlight."