Legacy

“There’s even less than last month” sighed Eve to nobody as she added the last figure to the table on her laptop. She sat back on her ample paunches, orange peel cellulite showing through her tight cotton trousers, and surveyed the surrounding rain forest. Although life buzzed around her, she wished for signs of large mammals, unfortunately now believed to be extinct.
Packing away her laptop before the battery died, she cast an eye upwards through the canopy and noticed swirling rain clouds spreading fast across the perfect sky.
“Definitely time to go”, she announced to the large parrot disturbed by her busy packing. Its vibrant green and red feathers breathed with intense colour as they swished past and wafted dank air into her nostrils. She sneezed as jungle dust clogged her sinuses; then wiped her nose on her sleeve. After all, she thought, no-one could see her and tissues are just another form of pollution to suffocate the world with.
Eve had qualified first in her class in 1012 and been awarded a Distinction for her research on animal behaviour during climatic change. As the current world expert on the effects of climate change on earth’s fauna, there was a high demand for her expertise.
Musing on her previous assignment, she recalled the sawing cold of the Antarctic where she had observed penguins uncharacteristically attacking and killing their neighbours’ chicks in unguarded nests. At first, she had been horrified, then fascinated by the cannibalistic behaviour; wondering what actions she would take to protect her unborn children. She had concluded that constantly diminishing food and space was the cause; a situation not unusual in human society.
The chance to spend six months in a tropical rain forest had sounded like the Garden of Eden in comparison to snow blizzards and frost bitten fingers. Her experience had more than qualified her for the job and her application had been accepted with only the briefest of interviews.
However, with dust up her nose and sweat oozing from every pore Eve began to wonder if she’d made the right choice.
The journey back to camp was not an easy one; insects buzzed and bit exposed flesh with unusual zeal, enjoying the luxury of healthy red blood.
“Ouch; where did you guys appear from all of a sudden?”
Eve swatted three mosquitoes with one swoop of her nail bitten hand, their engorged bodies exploded and flecks of dark blood stained her already filthy T. Shirt.
“That’ll teach you!” Eve smeared blood and gore onto her shorts.
Resuming the struggle through the verdant undergrowth, her thoughts wandered to another jungle, almost ten years ago and to Paul, her tall and gorgeous companion. She had met Paul on her first assignment in India, shortly after qualifying. He had laughed at her conversations with herself, asking if she did it to reassure herself that at least one person was listening. They had tracked the last known tiger for two months, desperate for a glimpse of the magnificent creature and each other. Their love making was animal; frantic, desperate, yet deeply satisfying.
The relationship had not survived the grey Derbyshire clouds and English winter of constant rain. Parting as friends they maintained occasional contact, each responding to the others work. They not seen each other for several years and Eve decided to contact him on her return; maybe it wasn’t too late. Either way, she looked forward to discussing their work and watching his blue eyes dance as enthusiasm for his subject grew.
She became aware of the shadows which began to overtake and smother her own. One glance up was enough to see that the sky was full of determined birds racing south. Panic stricken souls lost in the mist screeched in fear. Larger birds attacked, dive bombing and swooping through the crowds of panic, like dolphins through shoals of corralled fish.
The air grew heavy with moisture and as the pressure dropped it became harder to breath. Her head began to pound with the exertion; stopping she took a deep drink from her water caddy. Although warm, the water soothed her dry throat and the dribbles washed beads of sweat away. Draining the flask, Eve looked up and frowned.
The sky was pigeon grey. A dense sheet of clouds, low enough now to partially obscure the upper canopy, filled the atmosphere with a threatening presence.
“Weird. The cloud shouldn’t be like this. The insects are going crazy and the birds are panicking.”
Curiosity was over ruled by common sense; turning quickly Eve hurried as fast as she dare towards the concrete-block hut a few hundred yards away in the clearing. At the perimeter she began to run, eyes downcast watching for trip hazards.
Shivering, as a sudden cold wind curled around her exposed arms and legs, she resumed running. Around her the jungle rustled and trembled, plants and trees jostled each other like confused dancers on a suddenly unlit dance-floor. Further away a tree was torn from its veins, crushing a forty foot swathe through the overgrown flora.
“Oh my god,” she shivered, over awed for a moment, “this is madness. What in the name of humanity is going on?”
At the door, Eve paused and fiddled with the lock, the laptop hindering her movement. Struggling with the sticky catch, the sudden silence registered on her preoccupied brain. The wind had dropped so suddenly it was hard to believe its ferocity only moments ago. She turned quickly, suddenly fearful that someone was watching her; seeing no-one she gave the warped wooden door a desperate heave and it sprung open.
Once inside amongst familiar surroundings Eve laughed at herself. “Fancy getting so worried about a summer storm, anyone would think I’d never been alone in a jungle before”. Although reassured by the sound of her own voice, she was frightened.
A commotion began outside, rustling and frantic squeaking was coming from the outside loo; a hole in the ground surrounded by a flimsy wooden trellis. Peering out of glassless window, Eve observed two rats near the latrine area, fighting. A female rat was slowly being overwhelmed by a much larger male as she defended her nest site. Her offspring huddled together in a tight ball at the entrance of the hole, a mass of tails and feet squirming in fear; too large to hide and too small to fight. The rat’s ear splitting death cry dwindled to a gurgle as the male inflicted a fatal bite to her throat. Now limp, she didn’t see the father massacre his young before tearing across the clearing, foam and blood around his mouth, flecks on his hide.
Disgusted, Eve turned away from the window and reached for a fresh bottle of water. Gulping life and sweeping away the horror of patricide, her scientific training took over.
“I’ve gotta find out what’s causing this weird storm and if it has anything to do with all this crazy animal and bird behaviour.”
Reaching for the radio and attaching a fresh battery to the laptop, Eve wondered if the BBC World Weather would be able to enlighten her. The website usually had good quality, live satellite pictures and she wanted to see the extent of the storm.
The radio hissed in defiance, white noise filling the room. She turned it off.
The laptop quietly hummed into life and Eve logged on to BBC weather. What she saw she didn’t understand. The satellite pictures showed the earth wrapped in cloud; not one area of ocean or land mass could be seen, anywhere. Staring at the screen, her mind franticly discarding potential causes and effects, she noticed that the earth appeared to be breathing. The steel grey cloud was expanding with gentle, barely perceptible pulses. A phosphorescent glow wormed through the soupy smog, illuminating dark particles like inverse fireworks.
The laptop crashed; Earth frozen in time.
“Damn; satellite signal failed. Whatever’s going on up there must be causing interference.”
Eve left the now less comforting surroundings of her hut. She felt closed-in, suffocating in the heat and air pressure the wind had left behind. Anxious sweat slicked its way down her neck and cleavage as she opened the door, reaching for fresher air.
Outside, the cloud had formed a thick fog and Eve could barely see the ground in front of her. Squinting towards the jungle, she took a few steps without thinking.
Confused, she realised her stupidity, turned around and hurried in the direction of her hut. Within seconds she realised that she was disorientated and felt adrenalin urging her to run. Swallowing her panic, Eve began to think. She was sure she hadn’t moved more than five paces from the hut door. A plan emerged. If she walked ten paces, turned 180 degrees and returned to her starting point, then turned a quarter turn and repeated the exercise in each direction, she would find the hut once more. Calmer now, Eve began to execute her plan.
A cacophony of noise hit her like the shockwaves of a bomb; she stumbled and landed in the dirt. Within seconds her hands were covered in insects and she felt a wave of movement under her belly as more bugs found the gap between her shirt and her shorts. Repulsed, Eve jumped to her feet, frantically brushing the invaders off. Her nerve endings were alive, prickles of imagined bites coursed across her skin, adrenalin powered and thumped around her heart.
The jungle was alive with the roar and commotion of animals in panic and the destruction of undergrowth. It sounded as if all living creatures were heading towards the clearing. A large rodent crashed into her legs in panic, before scuttling off in a Southerly direction. Eve could feel the passage of other animals close by; their fear of human stench overridden by uncontrollable panic.
Heart thumping and frozen to the spot, Eve began to hyperventilate.
“Panic reflex, or lack of oxygen?” she questioned; the scientist always seeking answers.
She vomited suddenly; fear’s ice fingers winning the battle with logic. She spat bile towards the now invisible ground; rancid and yellow it fell to obscurity.
Looking up, Eve watched as intense, arc-light blue flashes streaked through the cloud, illuminating the swirls of fog.
“That’s so beautiful,” she thought as the earth disintegrated.