Most people would call the end of humanity ‘The end of the world’. I am inclined to disagree. Humans are nothing special, if they died out peacefully then it is fair to assume the world would continue, and quite possibly something new could evolve. No, I intend to discuss the real end of the world and this end of the world happened whilst I was onboard the International Space Station. This apocalypse forms my last recording, it has not only wiped out every multi-cellular organism; it has also caused this station to slowly drop into the atmosphere where it will be burnt up by the friction of the atmosphere.
It happened like this…
“Good morning and welcome to BBC Breakfast news. I’m Andrew Trainer and this is Hannah Dunhill. Breaking news today, the price of a barrel of Brent Crude oil has broken $1,000 sparking fears of a global recession as stocks run dry. In response to fears the OPEC oil-cartel has increased production for a second time this month. In other news Britain are due to take over EU presidency next month and will try to use this to push for more aid to rebuild Aberdeen after cyclone Eva battered the coastal city.”
“Indeed, and the expedition trying to recreate Robert Falcon Scott’s doomed attempt to reach the South Pole has today ran into unexpected difficulties with both the standard compass used by the re-creators and the GPS systems used by the support team malfunctioning.”
How the United States kept us in this Space Station I don’t know, probably the missiles on its underbelly pointed at most of Asia, not to mention the huge TV revenues for being the only Ultra High Definition transmitter in the Northern Hemisphere. Ten years ago the USAF installed an outer space ready chain gun, this cut through satellites ran by the competition, leaving the ISS free to dominate media coverage across the globe, and with fuel prices so high, no one can afford to launch a new independent network.
The GPS was so reliable that no one thought about leaving their house without some form of locator on them, the idea it had broken down shocked everyone. The GPS (which would drive a car for you) still ran from the atomic clocks put into space decades earlier by the US army. The new Galileo system created by the EU had caught a dose of radiation sickness and rained high explosive death over large chunks of Asia.
Traffic was blocked up. London’s grid was locked for the first time since the M25 was demolished. Overnight deliveries failed to reach their location, people died in ambulances unable to get to the hospitals. All because of the GPS system failing, but the GPS system wasn’t broken, the planet was. A few scientists voiced reasoned arguments but their undervalued contribution was lost in the melee of witch doctors and mad bishops. The media had a field day. Elvis was sighted on 27 different occasions, once complete with his blue suede shoes.
Well the next day, the planet showed that the scientists were correct, however the Earth wasn’t broken exactly. The Earth’s Magnetic field, battered by eons of cosmic rays and drained by millennia of imparting a field into iron, had shifted. This stark change affected the rotation of the planet. With the new North Pole in French Polynesia, the South Pole in Saudi Arabia, and the equator brushing South America and Northern Europe. The shift caused massive tidal waves to sweep every coast, dependant on geography some people had six hours before the tides washed in. Not that it mattered, the vast portion of the remaining oil was being quickly buried under two miles of ice, along with the inhabitants. With a dysfunctional GPS the fleeing masses drove to high ground, looting and pillaging as they went. The tidal waves ripped northwards, South America due to its Southern point fared better than most. Australia, South Asia, large portions of Africa, the entire Mediterranean much of the Southern United States lost under walls of water miles high.
The next broadcast came by radio, “This is the Acting Prime Minister Robert Spencer, in this disaster, everyone has lost someone, but Britain will weather this storm. We who stopped the Luftwaffe, we who said no to Slavery, we who every year hope for two dry weeks at Wimbledon, we can survive. Gather what you can carry and head into central England, this way the floods can hopefully be avoided. The army are on hand to aid you. Remember everyone, England expects” they had twelve hours before the next deluge from the South. In the intervening time, all countries with a coastal North were swamped. Northern Africa was horrifyingly battered by the waves carrying the dead from the Southern coasts of Spain through to Turkey.
Up in my metal capsule, alone with months of food, water and air, I will survive the longest. Some of the tribes, those used to harsh conditions may outlast me, but with the change in geography a large portion of their diet will die out. Before the third wave could crash into the shoreline the toll of billions upon billions of gallons of water shifting caused a number of volcanic eruptions. Choking fumes erupt from a dozen locations at once. Even without this hazard, every sector of life has been affected. Great plains now dry as deserts, deserts now deep under ice, ice flows perfect for a rainforest, forests dying down to grass, not a single creature escapes without some change to its life. Every sector of the globe has its own tragedy, herds drowning in mile wide lakes that were streams last week, birds flying to breeding grounds that aren’t there, fish looking to feed off algae that have died in a cold ocean.
Carrion feeders lasted longer, like most scavengers they walk hand in hand with death. It took just 18 hours for the crisp and clear image of the Earth to turn into a smoky and smoggy dot in the vastness of space. Thunderstorms combined with rains of fire and brimstone brought an end to most terrestrial life, the freshwater followed, turning to sulphuric acid. Deep in the depths something may have survived, but with the shifting tides and water ways, one can only wonder if a suitable breeding ground could be found.
The next day there was no communication, just static, from America to Asia, on every radio band, nothing but the hiss of electronics finding nothing. Using what was left of the technology on the ground and breaks in the volcanic clouds I could on some days gather what was happening down on my choking home. Large herbivores that could find food fared well, lasting weeks before the succumbing to the poisonous atmosphere, predators died sooner, due to a higher concentration in their foods. The last sign of motion I saw was a vulture coughing and choking to death, then the remaining power on the ground failed. Perhaps something found life in this toxic mess. Humanity had been killing the world for hundreds of years, ironically when the world struck back it was too late. To kill us it had to kill itself. I feel sure some bacteria have survived, but even with life clinging on with desperation the cataclysm had one last effect.
The magnetic core hadn’t resettled, the seas had poured into cracks in the crust, cooling magma in deep swathes. The thermodynamic instability finally overcame gravity. The Earth cracked like an egg, runny liquids from the centre freezing when first exposed to the atmosphere. With this great release, the planet can reform, but I in my heart have seen the true nature of destruction, and we could never manage it so effectively. After all this years and all this evolution, we are still inferior to nature, what a world it would have been if we knew this back then.
My time grows short, I will release a beacon into space in the hope the energy imparted may keep it in orbit and relay my message, my last will and testament. The momentum imparted to the beacon will hasten my decent, however this does not worry me, unlike the untold trillions of deaths I missed, from great ape to lost deer, from fearsome predator to scared rodent, I will not drown nor choke, I will evaporate into light as this craft is burned away.
Here once stood the Earth, and here lies its remains, this was our story, pray that it does not mirror yours.
After Edit: 1426 Words, Not my best standard but I think a different approach to the end of the world.
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Too easy though. We'll see what I can come up with.
