2050 A.D

"AS109 calling earth, we're ready for landing..."

The message rang out loud and clear on the receiver at the earth station. The microphone beeped and the blue light blinked twice, but nobody responded to the call.

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"What the heck is wrong with them? It's been almost three decades since they severed contacts." Captain Jorgan banged his fist on the control panel making it vibrate.

"Maybe the Soviets got to them. Maybe the third World War has broken out... Alien invasion, Nuclear Holocaust... Anything could have happened," Lilian tapped her foot in impatience.

The silence from the earth's side was depressing. The crew were somehow convinced that they had been left for dead due to the lack of communication. They had gone on a mission beyond the solar system on the search for planets conducive to life.

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As the door opened with a groan, Captain stuck his head out through the opening. He froze.

The surface of the earth wasn't soil anymore... It was plastic...And bones...

Animals and humans lay side by side in a scattered array of bones.

He was going to take off his helmet when Andrew caught his hand. He deftly whipped out the oxygenometer and thrust it through the opening.

0.18% saturation with humidity 0.1%.

"Wear your spacesuits and move out. Stay together," barked the captain.

The space station was fully lit but there was not a soul in sight. The haunted corridors were a mirror of death. And as they went further into the building, skeletons were what greeted them...rotten, decomposed...

Lilian's heart flinched as bone and plastic crunched under her feet.

"Maybe, there are survivors," someone's voice quivered.

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The sun's heat was unbearable as they staggered through Death's land, searching for a clue. No sound was heard... No animals, birds, insects...no sign of life...

Only plastics in heaps, all clogging the soil. Ghastly skulls peeped out from under the plastics.

"Wasn't there supposed to be the sea here? Our base had one within a ten kilometer radius, as far as I remember. "

Lilian's question was met by unbelieving glances at the stretch of the plastic dumpyard in front of them. The water was practically non existent. Bottles, straws, plates, toys, boxes and everything was floating in the sea of waste.

"Plastic waste was thrown into the sea, indiscriminately. Microplastic had affected marine life. Phytoplanktons give approximately eighty five percent of the oxygen to the atmosphere. So obviously the animal kingdom perished... The earth got heated, plants died too and well... Life on earth had finally been destroyed for good " sighed Aron.

"And all for the greed and neglect. What do we do now?" asked Ochre.

"I think we should go back to Planet Nova and stay there. It's the most favorable planet for us in the Andromeda," commented Lilian.

They all nodded in unison. There was no point in staying on the God forsaken earth anymore.

The spaceship took off with the last surviving humans as earth watched in silence.

500 words completed... For the #PlanetOrPlastic awareness by NationalGeographic

And people please go to their website and take the pledge. You do your bit cause this story may be the reality of the earth someday.
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Thanks Pipigrin MaryFahey  KashishBelikov  for being with me throughout.