Worst Nightmare

The Earth has long since been like this; humans are dying out... following the death of its other inhabitants: animals and plants alike.

I could not think of anything else but food... and water. I have not eaten in about a month... and I haven't drank in weeks.

It rarely rains in this region anymore. They say that it used to rain at least once in a week but all my life I've only ever seen rain twice... and it lasted for only a few minutes where we were able to gather a maximum of 5 gallons of water which we were able to drink. We had to save the water not knowing when we can get water again. We also use to barter goods from our neighbors or the merchants who travel across countries.

But it had been harder and harder as time went by. My parents died of hunger so I could live. Our other relatives parted ways in search of food and water. And I traveled alone to find life.

I met a group who traveled from place to place to loot goods from its dwellers. I didn't know it then and we got on well. But when I found out what they really were doing, I set off with a few others who disapprove too of the raiding. But a sandstorm that we never anticipated came and passed and we lost each other.

And now I trek the planet looking for sustenance, where? I do not know.

When I suddenly saw a glitter from somewhere that I thought was a pond. I could not believe it! Could it possibly be? Weakened by hunger and thirst, I was half dragging my body and half running to get to the oasis. At last! I could quench my thirst! I fought the exhaustion dragging me down. Only a few hundred steps maybe... nearly there... almost...

If I could just crawl a little more... maybe... I'll make it.

I reached out my hand and touched something moldy.

I looked up but before I could a stale odor reached my nostrils. Whatever was in front of me stank more than I have ever smelled and then I saw what it was...

I wasn't a pond after all... it was a mountain.

A mountain of plastics... trash the world threw here and there... litter that drowned our waters... rubbish that wasted our ecosystem... the debris of what killed the planet.

Tear streaked, I faced my impending end... like how the planet faced its.

I woke up gasping. Holding what remains of the soft drink I had been drinking before I fell asleep on our family vacation on the beach.

"You want me to throw this away for you?"

I smiled at the man beside me who obviously had just stirred from sleeping too.

"You're not throwing it in the ocean, are you?"

He smiled knowingly at me and answered, "Of course not."