The Collapse

Worms, cockroaches, roots, and rats. Those are the last remaining things on this planet that can be eaten.

We thought it was a myth, that it would go away on its own, that not everyone had to care and contribute. The summers got hotter and the winters became more like spring. The rain stopped falling and the arctic ice melted, flooding Florida and other coastal states. Then the droughts hit as the planet heated up more, whole lakes evaporated and eventually the oceans, leaving nothing but salt and sand. The only freshwater left to drink lay deep beneath the surface. -Diary entry 15 | 6/30/22 | Nico Ashline

The people with millions of dollars in money bought their way onto the government's spacecraft, hoping to find a new world to spoil and abandon. The middle-class people, just above the poor banded together and made bunkers to protect from the sun and survive. A network of tunnels connected a majority, creating a sort of underground city. The poor and the homeless stayed on the surface, only a few families were spared due to the kindness of some of the middle-class people in their social circles. -Diary entry 21 | 7/6/3022 | Nico Ashline

The surface became a dry wasteland of cracked earth and dead trees. The many animals that once roamed the earth died when the plants shriveled up. -Diary entry 380 | 7/6/3023 | Nico Ashline

The only things remaining now are cockroaches, roots, worms, and rats. Many of these survive in caves and bunkers with us. The bunkers deepest under the surface grow plants from cooler climates, and the ones higher up house tropical variants, though the amount of crops produced isn't enough on its own. The best source of meat that's sustainable to eat is rats because of their small size they take up less space, as well as eat almost anything. They have a short gestation period and produce large litters. The bones are also easier to crush and use in medicines and other things. The worms are cultivated in the compost, they not only recycle waste but they serve as a key ingredient in our diet for extra protein and nutrition. There used to be a chicken coop that provided eggs, but one year no roosters hatched and the old hens stopped laying eggs. Eating the old chickens was even part of a holiday for those years. It was named Polt and was a day of togetherness for the bunker survivors. -Diary entry 4,030 | 7/6/3033 | Janney Ashline

I left the bunker today to search the surface for any signs of new life or any remnants of what used to be. I covered myself head to toe in a suit of thick heat-resistant materials. I used a special mask to breathe in the surrounding air without scorching my throat and lungs. The sky was no longer blue like in the stories I heard as a kid. The ground beneath my feet was hard just like the floor in the bunkers. Ash from dead trees that had burned lay mixed in with the dry sandy earth. The only buildings I saw still standing were made of a rock-like material. The openings where windows of glass had been, were now empty. While scavenging in one of the buildings, I found a locket. It was metal and shaped like a heart, and while it didn't have a picture on the inside, I decided to bring it back to the bunker. A fire must have started on the inside of the building because the locket was scorched black. I decided to put a picture of my grandma Nico in it, for she had mentioned having a heart-shaped locket when she was a kid. I'll always remember her stories of the world before the collapse. The trees and the green grass, the lakes and rivers, springs you could drink from, and all the cute and amazing animals that existed. -Diary entry 4,045 | 8/11/3033 | Janney Ashline

I miss Grandma Nico, she made this existence so much better with her stories. All the pictures she kept of the animals and memories she made back then, make me wonder if this world will ever heal to be as beautiful as it was. Rows of endless flowers of every shape, size, and color. If only I could see it with my own eyes. All we have here in the bunkers are strawberries, cucumbers, starfruit, bananas, lemons, limes, lettuce, spinach, eggplant, and carrots. There aren't any flowers, and if there was they would be in the medical center for medicinal purposes, like with the honey. She told me about all sorts of pets, cats, dogs, hamsters, and birds, she even drew me some pictures so I could see them. Grandma wasn't the best artist or the best writer, but she made learning fun and she taught me how to grow food and how to respect the earth when it finally heals so this doesn't repeat. -Diary entry 4,046 | 8/12/3033 | Janney Ashline

Today I planted some of the fruit and vegetable crops outside the bunker as an experiment. I decided to water half of them and leave the rest to adapt to the dry earth and heat. I'm going to monitor them every day to see what happens to them. If the dry ones survive we can move the crops out of the bunker, and won't need to use our remaining freshwater on them. I've also decided to monitor the humidity outside to see if rain comes back. Today I also visited Grandma Nico in the compost area, I cut up a star fruit and laid the pieces around her. Soon her body will be recycled into the garden soil to continue feeding us for another couple of years. Her organs were given to those who needed them, the ones that weren't a match for anyone were frozen and studied. I hope someday we return to the surface, so I can grow flowers for her. -Diary Entry 4,047 |8/13/3033 | Janney Ashline