Another vehicle from the society of productivity drives past. She becomes cautious when it appears to slow down on sight of her. It is a long stretch of road in the middle of nowhere on the way to somewhere. It is almost dark. Only One sees the flourescent triangle flash by her vision on the back window SAVE THE FORESTS.
She scampers out onto the road far behind the vehicle, flaying her arms about her head, feeling it is truly her last energy coming to an end. She will die on the road before the night is out. Her last hold on life and the last vehicle is slipping away into darkness. She coughs to no-one as the air is turning cold around her.
Will Douglas hears the faint cry receding in the distance behind him. He sees the fragile dance of life in his rear vision mirror. He sees something flapping around on the road. In this light the girl seems unreal. She could have been injured or dancing. She could have been only a child. It was hard to tell. She looked like a strangling vine without a tree. Collapsing onto road then building herself up into something to simply collapse again. He stops the car.
In a moment she is beside him on that dark stretch. Opening his door to her outstretched self. She is as naked and vulnerable as physical life. There seemed nothing threatening about her. It is almost night. He is hypnotised into a lack of caution concerning her, yet at the same time knowing her weirdness.
YOU'LL GET HIT OUT ON THE ROAD AT THIS HOUR IF YOU'RE NOT CAREFUL, he says concerned. But his eyes are gentle and his voice calm like evening, muffled secretly beneath his five year beard. He has sensed the forest trembling within her.
Only One lets her fears slip away through her fingertips. Will is different. He never seems to watch her like Ian had during the early hours of the forever day. Instead she feels him listening to some part of himself, that is waking and slumbering, chaotic and dreaming.
She herself within herself is weary. She feels his weariness slip past her vision and settle within her. But as they pull slowly out onto the stretch of nowhere, driving into the dead calm of night, she prompts his restlessness with peaceful bygone thoughts of the Dwindling Forest.
Will tries to reassure her. WHERE ARE YOU HEADING? YOU SEEM EXHAUSTED. WHERE HAVE YOU COME FROM? WOULD YOU LIKE TO WET YOURSELF WITH WATER? THERE'S RAINWATER IN THE BACKSEAT. YOU'RE WELCOME TO ALL OF IT. YOU LOOK LIKE YOU COULD DO WITH SOME SLEEP. RELAX, WE'LL BE OUT OF THE TRAFFIC BY MORNING.
A past of Dwindling Forest calls to her but she does not hear. It calls her silent self to its stillness and ruin but she does not hear. She sees the road ahead and there is only one road. She is a passenger within the vehicle of instability. She hopes that it doesn't break down before they reach their destination.
Will Douglas drives to where he knows the sun will shine again. He feels the weight of his vehicle like a weight inside him. His eyes are heavy with struggle. He is listless and weary. After all these years he is driving away from everything he has once accepted. Away from all the things he has loved and feared and loved. He has rejected them also. There is nothing ahead but the dark stretch of cleared land. The anti-life society is dying behind him. Drowning within its own waste.
He hears them calling but at the same time they chose not to come with him. Perhaps it is himself calling himself. In the seat beside him separate from himself, Only One is whispering. She appears to be speaking but isn't moving her lips. He smiles when he sees that she is half asleep. But his amusement subsides as the girl makes sense. Is it her speaking or some voice inside him? Either way his understanding increases. The darker it becomes on the outside the less she looks like one of his own kind.
Only One is within. Her skin still retains some of its older green tinge. Will shudders inwardly, telling himself that it could have been a play of light from the forest itself, although it is night. It is her eyes that are glowing, semi-nocturnal and on one of her hands, a strong claw protruded. This disturbs him a little. Yet she appears to fascinates and holds his attention. In between coughing she appears to be listening, to something apart from the conversation.
WE ARE NOT CLOSE TO THE FOREST YET, he tells her. Her nose twitches as she scans the surrounding dark land from within the vehicle of instability. Her eyes are glowing but are small and deeply set. She appears to be using other senses. Will Douglas isn't surprised by her new interest in life. He sighs as the lights of oncoming traffic become scarce and the night comes closer. He speaks to her.
I'VE ALWAYS LOVED WILDERNESS. THAT'S WHY I LEAVE IT TO ITSELF. I JUST DON'T FEEL READY TO FULLY CONNECT WITH IT. I FEEL LIKE I'VE SOMEHOW BEEN LOST FROM ITS NATURALNESS AND LIKE I'M FINDING MY WAY BACK. ONE DAY WE'LL ALL BE THERE WITH IT. COULD BE SOONER THAN WE THINK.
A new age of perception, he mused. A paradigm shift. He wonders how the hell they are all going to get there. He wonders about his own responsibility in taking part. He fears how the societies of the world might change. What will they become? Perhaps it is something they all know but have forgotten. He plays within his thoughts for awhile until they become circular and spinning. Then he simply lets them drift into the night opening his mind to an inner freedom.
By the second dawn of the forever day, they have reached the outer limits of The Great Daintree. Will keeps his mind on maneuvering the vehicle of instability. Meanwhile Only One is alive to the scent of it and almost unblinking. She stares into the second dawn light that will perhaps never reach the distance of her deep set eyes. She is renewed although Will knew that she hadn't slept all night.
Not that they had spoken much either. She had been within herself after his initial conversation. She has left Will to his driving and himself. There are times for understanding and times for inner understanding. This is the way Will likes it. He has been comforted by her quiet energy and has arrived at the forest feeling relaxed. Only One turns to him with childlike concern.
WILL I BE SAFE HERE?, she appears to ask the question, seeming almost to come from the forest itself.
PROVIDING YOU'VE GOT FOOD AND SHELTER, he assured her. THERE'S NOT MANY PEOPLE IN THE FOREST. ONLY SQUATTERS AND OCCASIONAL BUSHWALKERS ON THE OUTSKIRTS. But then he paused. It wasn't the answer Only One was looking for. He smiled across her being, filling his lungs with tree scent and bush whispering.
IT'S WORLD HERITAGE LISTING, he said. As if it had taken him all of his life to be able to say such a thing. A warm pulse of heat shot up through his spine and tickled his throat. It had been a long hard battle to preserve The Daintree from the clutches of the anti-life society. The triumph itself has scarred him.
NO-ONE CAN HARM THE DAINTREE. YOU WILL BE SAFE HERE, he says with a certainty and is at peace. Only One acknowledges him and becomes a deeper shade of green. Will's eyes are watery blue. The first tip of the sun of the second dawn comes into view over the tree tops. Only One disappears into the lower storey, leaving Will Douglas standing beside the vehicle of instability, looking up into the trees.
