The world had ended.

But what did that mean to a plant?

In a world where humans had killed themselves off with some deadly strain of virus, it didn’t mean much. Especially when that virus was the result of tampering with Mother Nature. Catreena believed the humans had gotten what they had deserved; she couldn’t really feel sorry for them. They had already cut down so many precious trees and grown new ones only to cut those down, too. Many humans treated plants as their pets, training them and pruning them when they went astray. Well, no longer. The forests ruled the Earth once, and they would again. Nature always had a way of reclaiming what was its own.

Humans seemed to have believed they were above nature; that they could ascend above its laws so said laws didn’t apply to them. Survival of the fittest, eat or be eaten – such harsh rules were used to describe other species, not their own. They kept killing and cutting and burning at will, believing all the world was their resource and they had a right to take and do whatever they so wished.

One day, Catreena couldn’t stand it any longer. In a precious forest that the humans were in the process of cutting down for lumber, the dryad cultivated a tree that bore delicious fruit. Upon destroying the tree, the humans discovered the fruit and made it known to the rest of their kind, going on and on about its valuable properties and how healthy and delicious it was. Soon, no one could get enough. The trees could grow anywhere, so the humans had them planted all over. By the time they discovered their mistake, it was too late.

When the plants’ leaves withered and died, they became food for a certain kind of microbe in the soil. Those microbes enriched the trees as new ones grew, making them stronger. A dormant gene was activated in the tree and when it flowered, the pollen the flowers carried began to infect people with a virus once it was breathed in. As widespread as the trees were, it was only a matter of time before all the humans were infected. The beings at very bottom of the food chain had triumphed over the beings who believed they were at the top. What they had not realized was that the food chain wasn’t a chain at all, but a circle.

With the humans gone, Catreena knew the plants would have a chance to start over. Nature had caused the demise of the creatures that had distanced themselves from it; had tried to use it and harvest it for their own needs. However, against other plants, the virus was harmless. Other animals were keen enough to stay away from the trees, unlike humans who never seemed to know what was good for them; only what they wanted. In this way, balance was restored.

It would take a while for nature to reclaim everything that the humans had ruined and corrupted. Rubber, styrofoam, and plastic would have to be broken down, but life always found a way. Concrete crumbled and weather wore at metal structures. Time wasn’t much of a concern to Catreena or the other plant life, though.

After all, what did that mean to a plant?