Mother

The desert air scorched down her throat as she gazed upon the peace before her. In the distance, the hills of sand shimmered with heatwaves. The towering sandstone structures were a wall, separating her small strip of paradise from the broken civilization just beyond the ridge.

It was a hot and abandoned place, but with no water in sight, she knew she was safe.

It didn't take them long to realize that the mold wanted water. More water than their bodies could give it.

It wasn't fast enough to keep the lakes and oceans from collecting drowned bodies… but still fast enough to save some of them.

Soon after the beginning, she had watched the destruction fall upon the community she grew to love. People rioted, stealing supplies from stores and homes.

The panic destroyed them almost faster than the mold, almost as if civilization was just searching for a reason to end itself.

She recalled the screams of people watching their mothers, sons, fathers, and daughters slowly walk toward the water's edge, unstoppable and inevitable. If they tried to stop them, grabbing arms and yanking in an attempt to save them, they too were infected by the mold, joining their loved ones in the water. The heartbreak was something she could never forget.

Her eyes closed as she soaked in the warm sunlight. She wasn't outside often, the hot Arizona air was slightly uncomfortable in the summertime.

It was nice to take a break, though. She had been working all night, and into the morning. She was close to a breakthrough, she could feel it… but she was tired.

Her hand grabbed the heart-shaped locket with his picture in it. It hung around her slim neck at all times, never separated from her.

Since the beginning of the end of the world, she hadn't stopped working. For him. For them.

The locket clicked open in her hand. He had been such a handsome man. She remembered his smile, his giving heart, and how he was always there for her in times of need. His soul was even more beautiful than his face.

His beauty was lost as his body bloated with water in the small pond a mile from their home. She stood at the edge of the pond and watched him wade in, diving in face first and taking a deep inhale as soon as his head was submerged. It only took minutes for him to stop moving in the water.

She had stayed the whole time, wanting to be with him one last time. She hadn't cried, not then and not now. There was no time for tears, not if the world was to be saved.

The thirst couldn't be controlled, that much had been clear. Once it started… those that were infected just drank and drank, entering any body of water to soak dehydrated, cracking skin, until the moisture-filled every part of them.

She shook away thoughts of the waters polluted with quickly decaying flesh.

With no one safe at the water's edge, all the bodies remained, and the water systems everywhere were unclean. The first polluted supply led to the next and the next, just… too fast to contain.

A hot breath escaped her mouth as a weary hand dragged down her sweaty face.

Her locket clicked shut as she turned to go back inside.

Passing by her kitchen counter, she grabbed a handful of baby wipes to clean off her salty skin. The water lines to her house had been shut off, only turned back on for emergencies or work. It was just safer.

She didn't mind the dirt and grime. What she had to do was too important to risk her dunking her own head into her bathtub and taking the longest nap she'd ever have.

The descent into her lab was cool and quiet. The lights were kept fairly dim to save energy, and the underground temperature was comfortable. The bubbling solutions and beeping machines were soothing in a way, after all these months.

It was her niche, her happy place. It was where she belonged and could make a difference.

It had fallen to her, after all, to resolve the plague, fix the sickness.

From her long bench, she carefully lifted a wide Petri dish. The yellowish-green mold spores shimmered and danced under the lights. It had always looked so elegant, much like poisonous frogs and dangerous animals. The development of defenses was quite the evolutionary talent. After decades of studying plants and animals, they still impressed her endlessly.

Looking closer, she finally saw what she had been looking for. A small red spore had nestled itself into the mass.

She couldn't help the tears that filled and stung her dry eyes. She had finally found it.

She finally had the solution.

She had managed to make the mold resistant to the dryness of the air. It wouldn't need the water to take control anymore. It would be unstoppable now.

It was… perfection.

Finally, the plague could come to an end. Those that survived, got smart too quickly, and got as far away from water as they could, wouldn't be safe anymore.

The human sickness upon the planet would finally be cured as she had always foreseen.

For as long as she could remember, all the humans did was destroy and take. They walked upon the planet like it was theirs to corrupt, with their waste and their wars and their greed. Never enough trees, never enough water, never enough food… but did they ever stop to think what the world might need? No. They had always been selfish creatures. And their plague was hers to end.

"Alright my loves…" she whispered sweetly, storing the newly formed spores in the artificial forest she had built.

"You take your time… grow big and strong… and we'll only have a few places left to visit."

She turned to her small wooden desk, retrieving her beaten old journal.

The black ink pen on a brand-new page sounded like music.

'Day 153

It's all going to be over, very soon now.

Isn't it beautiful?

With all my love,

Mother'