coastal flashSciFi

The Last Paradise

     The sky to the south darkens with rain clouds and something undefined--have the drones finally made it to this sector? Or is a fleet of corporate jets? The end of the season is here, It appears that the research teams were gone, taking the data ships until next time  The boats were gone too.  The Aviatrix III and Technoprobe IX were the last to go. By early evening, the horizon had imbibed her fill, the lights from the research vessels melting into a watery distance. Silent storms creep from the south and west of the island and spread a drenched dullness over the jungle, last primeval forest on earth, where  thick tropical ferns dance in the darkness, naked against the wetness.  

     Further up the mountain, Giant Koa and Banyan trees stand majestic, multiple root systems cling to the black soggy jungle floor in a twisted maze, resembling giant petrified octopi. Sprouting puddles are the instant headwaters; rivulets, streams, and rivers emerge. The massive wall of water gushes down the mountain, dancing off volcanic rock, a gravity-aided thrust to the vast ocean below. The last paradise.