Heart Of The Storm

1- Disaster

The year is 5400 AD. Earth has suffered tremendously throughout the years. 3380 years ago, Pollution from our past generations caused the atmosphere to become weak. Sulfuric Acid rain began to dump on our lands and melted everything that we created. Buildings, vehicles, and all other creations made by humans.

After the massive 100 year storm that covered the earth, the heart of the storm was above, and at this point, it was too late. Sun rays scorched our Earth so bad that everything was on fire. Every drop of water on the planet dried up. Vegetation burned to ash, and humans that were not in an underground bunker died off faster than the dinosaurs in the Ice Age.

The old blue planet that is now red like Mars is no longer in our original orbit. The sun slowly pulls the entire milky way into it, leaving Earth to be the closest planet to the sun in the summer days and the farthest planet during winter days. One day used to be 24 hours long but is now only 12 hours. The Earth is spinning twice as fast, and there is nothing left other than the only survivors that are stranded.

2- Awaken

The chamber door of A massive cryogenic pod slowly lowers. A flashing green light shines through the clouds of dust that fills the air. The man’s eyes open as a female artificial intelligent voice speaks.

“Hello, Charles. Good morning; it’s good that you are finally awake. Don’t be alarmed, but the year is 5400 AD. You have been asleep for 3000 years. Take your time to stand up, and make sure to get nutrients from the mess hall. Come back to me if you have any questions.”

His eyes are open wide with a worrisome look on his face. He has short brown hair with dark green eyes. Thick bushy eyebrows with a long brown goatee. Around his neck is a gold heart-shaped locket.

He slowly reaches up and rubs his eyes to clear his blurry vision. He takes a step out and falls to the ground, and begins to crawl toward the wall. Finally, he sits up against it while his hand holds his head as strange visions flash before him.

While holding the locket in his hand, he opens it, and a hologram picture beams out from it. It’s a picture of the man’s wife and kids. Tears begin to form and stream down his face as he closes the locket.

Struggling to get back to his feet, he finally stumbles toward the mess hall. Without hesitation, he begins to feed on food out of tubes that look like neon green paste. He pukes it up instantly as veins pop from his head and neck.

He looks up at the bunker door and yells, “I have to get out of here!”

He begins to pace back and forth until he finally decides to try and open the door. With all the strength he could muster, he tries to turn the wheel, but he is too weak and must wait it out until he gets his strength back.

3- Chances

4 days have passed, and all Charles could do is eat. Empty crushed food tubes lay everywhere thought-out the bunker. He has been awake this entire time, and sleep deprivation is fully kicking in with delusions and hallucinations.

Curled up on the ground, rocking back and forth with bags under his eyes, He begins to talk to himself once again. He screams, “I can’t sleep. Why can’t I sleep? What is this vision of fire?”

The artificial intelligent voice answers, “Charles, you suffer from paranoia, delusions, and hallucinations. This is a common symptom of sleep deprivation, but remember, you were asleep for 3000 years. Your body needs time to adjust.”

Charles looks at the hologram computer screen and asks, “Are there any others in this bunker?”

The AI replies, “No, you are the only one, but I don’t know about elsewhere. Once you are prepared to go up, you should find civilization, although I am programmed to tell you to stay down here as long as you can until help arrives.”

Charles shakes his head in confusion and walks away, but he asks a few more questions before leaving the room. He whispers, “What happened up top? Why was I put in here? Is the surface safe?"

The AI replies, “It’s been thousands of years since the great acid storm. Civilization is rebuilding, and some survivors are repopulating. The world suffered great losses, but these bunkers were designed to withstand nuclear power and natural disasters. There were thousands built and many survivors within them. You were put here by NASA for your knowledge of Astronomy and Astrology. You are a scientist, so don’t forget the knowledge that you learned many years ago. The world will need you, for you are the only scientist to survive. So when you are ready to go up top, the world will be new to you, but surely it is safe. The great storm is over, and nothing else has happened, but again I am programmed to tell you to stay put and wait for help to arrive.”

Charles walks out of the room and lays down on the bed. A few hours later, he wakes up from more strange visions of fire. The temperature in the bunker raised about 40 degrees as sweat drips off Charles's forehead.

He walks up to the AI and asks, “How long will I have to wait until help arrives?”

The AI says, “I am sorry, but I don’t know the answer to your question. I was only programmed during the great storm, and I know nothing past that. For someone to show up is on them and not for me to calculate?”

Charles lashes out and screams, “WHAT ARE THE CHANCES OF SOMEONE SHOWING UP? HOW DO WE KNOW ANYONE SURVIVED THE STORM? WHAT IF I AM LAST ALIVE?”

The AI replies, “Charles, I am programmed only to tell you what I know. I know that someone will come to your rescue, but I do not know when help will come. I am not a calculator for time or percentages of chance, but I can assure you that you are not last alive.”

4- Insanity

Weeks pass and Charles breaches pure insanity. He has no one to talk to but himself and an AI programmed to say only certain things. He has a scruffy beard now, and he has practically pulled out all of his hair. He is slowly running out of food and water but asks the AI again if he should wait. It replies again and tells him that he must, but it’s his choice. They spent hours talking one night about everything the AI knew. Although, he only got basic knowledge about the storm. The AI doesn’t know about the orbital change, only about the pollution and acid storm. The AI tells him that many survived the acid storm and the world will regrow, but little does it know the truth.

Charles decides to wait what feels like a month but was actually 6 1/2 years. He doesn’t realize how long he has been down here. He has nothing to do, no books, no games, and no one to talk to. All he does is rock back and forth and laugh uncontrollably. He can’t even have pointless conversations with the AI at this point, considering it says everything in its database more than 1000 times.

He lays down again. Another 10 years pass, and he finally says screw it. He rises with all of the emotion built up inside of him. He walks up to the bunker gate and begins to turn the wheel as he gasps for air, using all of his strength, and the door slowly creeks open.

5- Arise

Charles grabs onto the ladder and begins to climb up as the AI tells him to wait. One step at a time, he looks up and sees the final door to his escape. He slips and almost falls to his death, but he hangs on with all of his strength.

Finally, after a few hours of slow climbing, he reaches the final bunker trap door in the Earth's ground. He cranks the wheel, and the door depressurizes and swings upward.

He climbs out of the hole and looks up to the darkness. It seems as if black smoke covers the skies completely. He begins to laugh and look around with joy and notices there is nothing but dry dust, sand, and rock all around. The moment he takes a step forward, and the smoke-like clouds move above, and a huge hole is in the middle of the sky.

Charles looks up to what is the heart of the storm. He sees a massive ball of fire 100 times bigger than the moon to our eyes. It burns with the intensity of hell and the universe itself. He quickly puts his hand over his eyes to block the light. It is so bright that he can see an x-ray of his hand.

Before he could take another breath, he feels a slight tingle as if he was on fire, and he disintegrates into thin air. The wind blows the ash from his burnt corpse away. The heart-shaped locket slowly crashes to the red rock on the ground.

6- Rescue

About 5 minutes after, the heart of the storm passes, a small ship comes flying in from outer space and lands in front of the entrance to the tunnel. 4 humanoids step out of the spacecraft in shiny silver heat-resistant suits. They walk toward the bunker and climb down.

They come back up after realizing no one is there, and one man says, “This is the last bunker that we have searched and not a single survivor in any of them.”

A woman replies, “This is a tragedy. We were supposed to bring them to our mother ship and transport the remaining humans to a new world that supports life for us, but it seems like we are the only humans left.”

The older captain says, “Just be glad we were not on Earth when this happened.”

These lucky survivors were on an old satellite that lost orbit from Earth during the great storm and fire age. Lucky for them, they were cryogenically frozen and woke up to the captain and his ship, but now they realize that no one but them survived.

The woman looks at the ground and picks up the heart-shaped locket. It dangles from the chain and swings back and forth. They climb back into the ship. She opens the locket and sees the hologram of the woman and child. She asks, "Do you think they are still alive?"

As the ship takes off, the man asks, “What do we do now?”