The world had forgotten about real nature, living entirely in climate-controlled biomes. The Outback Preserve, a massive stretch of protected, untamed wilderness on the old continent of Australia, was left alone for centuries. It was a vicious, beautiful place that followed its own rules.
Dr. Aris Thorne was the only human assigned to monitor the Preserve's perimeter sensors. His job was a sinecure; nothing ever happened. The plants and animals stayed within the boundaries.
One hot spring day, his sensors went offline. All of them, simultaneously. He grabbed his field kit and drove his reinforced rover out to the perimeter line, expecting a hardware failure or perhaps a rare electrical storm.
He didn't find broken sensors. He found the line where the wilderness ended and the cultivated, tame world began. The trees had moved up to the line. Not just one or two, but thousands of them. They stood shoulder to trunk, dense and silent, a green wall staring at the tame world.
Aris got out of his rover, unsettled by the unnatural stillness. "Perimeter breach," he broadcast on his emergency channel, though he didn't expect a reply.
He approached a large eucalyptus tree. Its roots were exposed, thick and moving like muscular legs. They had walked here. The entire forest had decided, collectively and silently, to move fifty yards forward.
A low, collective hum started up from the forest floor—a communication of root and soil vibration. It wasn't aggressive, but firm. A statement of presence. The trees needed more space, or more water, or perhaps they simply wanted to be seen.
Aris backed away slowly, getting into his rover and driving back to his station. He wrote his report, detailing the migration of an entire ecosystem. Nobody believed him. They filed his report under "Heat Exhaustion Psychosis."
The trees stayed at the new line, a silent, green question mark on the edge of the human world. Aris monitored them, a new understanding of nature settling over him. It wasn't passive. It was slow, patient, and when it moved, it moved with the quiet inevitability of time itself.
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