Short Stories

45 Degrees Celsius

The early morning sun's light warmed his skin, keeping the chills of the night from reaching his bones. He wasn't outside for very long, though, for the sun would be well above the horizon soon.

It was the only time of day that anyone could really be outside. If someone set one foot out their door past 10am, they were doomed to a horrible death. The planet had warmed beyond saving, reaching a high of 45°C every day at noon, and they were barely one year in to the peak of global warming in 2102.

If only humans had acted sooner. If only the rich gave a damn about the poor. If only the idiots had realized that humans were on the brink of extinction sooner and listened to the science, then none of this would've happened. Yet, Simon and his family still had to suffer because of the mistakes that other people had made.

At the beginning of the crisis, the wealthy had made their way off of the planet by spending all their funds for just one or two spaces on a rocketship headed for the recently-human-visited Mars. They hadn't even colonized it yet, but for many, it was worth the risk. When word got around that they all murdered each other on the way there, no one was surprised, and no one mourned their deaths. In fact, many believed that they deserved it for abandoning the less fortunate and not spending their money on building greenhouses and water facilities.

The house that Simon lived in fortunately had a solar panel, so they could use that to power their fans and A/C. Other people were not so lucky, and oftentimes, they'd have people come and stay at their house during the day so that they wouldn't overheat and die at noon. Then, when it cooled down, they all went back to their own homes.

During the first major heatwave, many people actually died because they either had no knowledge of what was coming, were some kind of cult psycho that didn't believe in climate change, or thought that it wasn't a big deal. It was disheartening to hear that one of their neighbours died on the first day because he didn't hear the news. There was no funeral for him because it was too hot, and no one could pay for even a cremation of some kind. Eventually, a fellow neighbour went out in the early morning and buried his week-old body under a tree.

Times were desperate, and becoming even more so as each hour goes by. Every day, there's some kind of crisis. First, it was the livestock: They all went kaput and everyone had seen it coming. Then, the more taxing of the crops died off, and so we were left with beans, potatoes, and other root vegetables. Fruits didn't really do well, other than the ones that thrive in the heat. And very soon after came the water shortages. Only those that were well-off could afford to build a well in their backyard, as well as have their own water filter to get out all the nasty stuff. Simon's family had all that, and he felt too privileged for all this. He was already 19 and didn't want to burden his parents and little brother with another mouth to feed, but they had insisted that he come home. Simon knew that if he hadn't returned, he'd probably already be dead.

Climate change was very real, but idiots a century before didn't believe. And now, people were suffering for it.