New Beginning

They lay below them, nestled in amongst the fog like things of the past. He couldn't believe thats what they really looked like. The only images of them had been in books when he was growing up. They were taught about them, how they had been gone for so long - absent from the world as it choked on its own fumes.

He had been sent back with a team, before man had settled and taken root, before evolution had worked its magic. They had sent him back in time with the soul purpose of bringing oxygen back to the human race.

The population had never slowed down. There were scientists that  had sworn it would slow town and taper off, but it never did. Cities grew. Roads sprouted where they had never been before. Cars clogged these new roads, spewing exhaust into the sky. Everyone needed energy. When the gas and crude oil ran dry, trees came next. They hadn't lasted long. It quickly became hard to breath. The sky darkened with soot. People were beginning to fall down in the streets, asphyxiating on each others' breaths.

Thats when it was decided to travel back. To bring to the present the trees of the past. To make the world lush again.

It was amazing how beautiful they were in the morning sunlight.

He couldn't stop coughing, but he wasn't worried - it was only his body learning to breath again.