The tall trees stretched up into the blue sky a soft breeze flowed by shaking the trees. Hailey giggled at the sight the trees looked like they were waving at her.
“Hello trees.”
“Who are you talking to Hailey?”
“The trees mom, they looked like they were saying hello.”
“That’s silly honey, come and look at this.”
Hailey walked over to see mom hunching over an old log on the ground. Getting down next to her mom she touched the wood. The texture now soft enough that it crumbled under her touch this was different than the bark on the other trees. There were giant white discs protruding from it and a soft green growth.
“Now watch this Hailey.”
Mom took out a knife and cut into the bark, making a deep incision and the taking the knife pushed out. Part of the bark bulked out and Mom grabbed and pulled off a chuck. The light brown wood on the inside was covered in quick moving bugs. There were so many different ones to discover and watch. Some were small, black and the body had three different segments. Another was a gray crustacean looking bug and when Hailey went to touch it the creature rolled up in a ball. Then a brown worm caught her attention and gently picking it up noticing the many legs.
“Mom, what’s this bug?”
“That’s a milipede and they have one hundred legs.”
“Will it bite?”
“No, they are harmless. Good job I still needed one of those for our collection.”
Hailey was careful not to drop the bug as mom retrieved a specimen jar. Mom opened the lid and the bug was safely put inside. Then the jar was placed back in the cooler this was only temporary until they got them back home. In the distance a twig broke and there was some rustling noises and two other hikers walked past them. Hailey stared at a tall man and a boy who was in bright colors each wearing a backpack. They waved and Hailey returned the wave noticing how many creatures could say hello. The kept on their way and suddenly a feeling of sadness came with their departure.
“Can we tell them mom. It’s sad and they looked nice.”
“Hailey, I wish we could. But if we tell one person that there home is going to be destroyed in two years then the whole planet would panic. Millions of people dying in sheer terror, its better this way and they will die quickly.”
“You promise?”
“Yes and these small creatures we can save and take them to our home planet.”
“Why not the people?”
“We can’t save them all and these are small enough to take on our journey.”
Hailey looked around and wondered how the earth will look after the powerful gamma ray arrives. The thought saddened her until she found a flying bug with golden wings.
“What’s that mom?”