Oxygen 2043

Chapter 1: Before All This

The time was late 2023. 2024 tomorrow. Some passionate astronomers at the International Space Research & Exploration Agency (ISREA) working late at night on New Year's, not because they don't have family and friends to go back to or because they didn't want to celebrate.

It was because they noticed something at work. Something no one paid attention to, in a rush to leave for the holidays. A little dark spot on the edge of the sun. Moving towards the center, and getting bigger. The most likely explanation- an asteroid. Armed with a whiteboard and nervousness, the five astronomers who cared enough to not let this pass and stay to work on it, calculated its trajectory. Headed straight for North and South America. The sheer size of it, massive. This singular impact would decimate both the continents to the ocean floor, and plunge the world into a nuclear winter. 

Fast forward one month of these five astronomers (Rachel & Jack Finise, Michael & Muri Aquitis and Charles Diaz) trying to tell everyone and getting ignored because of another large scale event on earth- an all-out war with mounting tensions between the allies of the two warring countries. The asteroid, finally noticed by the ignorant head honchos at ISREA, (who was previously only focused on launching the military satellites in time) starts garnering attention. Due to it being set to hit in 2 months, an emergency redirection plan, PARM or Perditor Asteroid Redirection Mission was put into place to launch and destroy the asteroid (which by the way came to be known as Perditor by the media, which is destroyer in Latin) with a month's time to spare.

Perditor was a better name than WB-13-C248M, the asteroid's ISREA classification name. Anyway, with the support of world governments and every space agency in the world, the project was completed in time. Being rushed, it had its flaws. Specifically, one massive ignored flaw. The rocket, which would blow up the asteroid using itself as a massive explosive, wasn't strong enough. It needed to be nuclear. Well, using a nuclear bomb in space didn't exactly sit well with everyone so, based on wrong calculations, they used an underpowered bomb. Before this, our parents (the five astronomers) got on the first plane to the only place relatively safe- Australia. Completely secluded and as far away from the two impact locations they predicted.

They carefully calculated and ran simulations of PARM. Every time, it failed and Perditor broke up into two massive pieces, now hurtling not only at North & South America, but now also at Northwest Asia.

Now, we and our parents were safely tucked away in Central-Eastern Australia, watching PARM execute itself. Surprise surprise, Emily's, Matt's and my parents were correct. I'm Adam Aquitis. Seems a little late, but at least now introductions are out of the way. We were toddlers. We had no idea what was happening.

Anyway, with the month left, the world began bracing itself for impact. The world would plunge into a nuclear winter, and the worst issue of all—oxygen in the atmosphere would be unusable due to the several other toxic gases that would be present along with it. The dome cities we reside in today were and served their purpose and many still are today. It's the only reason the remaining 2 million or so humans can live peacefully. It wasn't just the impact that killed the other billions of humans, it also included floods, tsunamis and fires caused by the impact. During the first year there was no sunlight thanks to the massive clouds of smoke and toxic gases. It was also very, very dangerous to be outside. We survived in shelters and after the first year or as it's more commonly called, "Death Wave", ceased, the outside became less hazardous (but it was still impossible to live in normally), we could come out of our bunkers and move to dome cities.

Needless to say, during Death Wave, all plants and animals that weren't specifically chosen to be saved and protected along with us, died out.

Our 3 families huddled together in a bunker during Death Wave. We bought tons of tanks and canisters of oxygen before Death Wave set in, knowing we'd need it after we moved to dome cities, in about an year.

Now, the survivors in our area and the government together built our dome city. Its name is Peace. Peace has a population of about 20,000 that has somehow remained somewhat stagnant until now.

Now, the story of what happened after Death Wave ended.