What there once was

It was the year 3658 and the world was not what it once was. The ground was hard and bare, except for all the buildings. The place where I love is pretty much deserted and was once known as Miami. It used to be full of life here or so I was told. It was before my time that this place was thriving and beautiful. I'm Ady and this is how the world came to be.

The world is a beautiful place that's been taken for granted. It's hot like any other day at Miami Beach in Florida. It's thriving with beauty and people. Trees, buildings, and the ocean are everywhere you look. That's when things started to take a toll. No one cared about anything other than themselves anymore except for a few. Those few were the savors of the human population. They managed to survive long enough to have the next generation and get them independent enough to survive on their own. We care for one another now and are looking to regroup to build our population back up to try and save the world we've now come to know.

The heat struck first. It was incredibly hot everywhere and the temperature got steadily higher and higher. Everything was drying out. The flowers were wilting until they were no longer in existence. Trees were bare and had lost all their leaves. The grass was dead. The ground was hard, dry, and cracked and it was getting difficult to find more than a few drops of water outside. Pipes and tires on cars were starting to melt as it continued to get hotter with each passing day. Windows shattered and people were collapsing left and right from heat strokes. In the month the heat wave lasted we lost 286,000 people. Others were having a variety of symptoms that included: heavy sweating, clammy skin, dehydration, tiredness, headache, dizziness, nausea, cramps, and a quick, weak pulse. We were close to losing more to the heat wave when it suddenly ended one night.

Those who woke up the next morning were half frozen and some had frostbite. No one knew it at first but they had just woken up in one of the worst ice storms in the world. They're caused when a warm thin layer of air is pushed between two thin layers of cold air. Poles, cars, trees, and some small buildings were destroyed from the layer of ice. Those who didn't wake up were either frozen solid or their bodies were too weak and their hearts gave out with the temperature changes. Some were frostbitten while others suffered from a variety of symptoms including: high blood pressure, shivering, rapid breathing, low and high heart rate, constricted blood vessels, apathy, fatigue, impaired judgement, and lack of coordination. Some were killed of hyperthermia during the heat wave and now we were slowly being killed of hypothermia in the ice storm. We had a CO2 build up in the atmosphere which caused the earth's temperature to rise to dangerous levels. Now we had a dangerous ice storm to try and out live and the worst was yet to come. People died from going outside so everyone stayed indoors and closed off rooms that weren't being used while sticking towels and clothes under doors to keep the cold out. We lit what we could to try and stay warm including books and things like that. It lasted for two months before the first of it started to thaw and another full month before all the ice was gone but everyone was too scared to go outside still. By the end of the cold we had lost over 800,000 people and no one had any clue what to do with all the bodies so they were left there to rot.

About a week after all the ice was gone and things were slowly starting to go back to normal, disaster struck. All everyone could hear was what sounded like trains slowly getting closer and closer which was weird because we didn't live near train tracks. A thunderstorm had it and it became a night of tornadoes and those who reacted fast enough were the only survivors, which was only a handful of women, children, and men.

My mom got to safety with the help of my dad and she was eight and a half months pregnant with me when she went into labor in that storm shelter. The night she left with my dad and they never returned is the night she gave me my locket. I was four when they left and I stayed in my hiding spot until the last bit of supplies ran out then I ventured into the unknown looking for other people, supplies, and shelter. And if I ever wanna see my parents again all I have to do is open my locket that my mom gave me and I get a holographic picture of them and the world before. There are now 27 of us and we're still out looking for more people trying to survive and overcome this treacherous world.