New Dawn

Prologue

I wish I had never done that.

It was supposed to be a normal school day. He was meant to be with his friends walking the loud halls with other chattering students, talking crap about each other and those around them on their way to the cafeteria to eat the same chicken sandwich he always got. But things were so, so different. His bones were frozen in place and his heart couldn't decide whether to speed up or slow down. Seeing Sarah tucked away in a corner, suspiciously wearing a long-sleeve shirt despite the approaching summer weather worried his mind on what she could be hiding, after all, she loved her t-shirts. What was once a lively classmate and friend was a mere husk with all aspects of life drained from it.

What did he do to her? What happened yesterday? The bell rang and the halls were empty with the exception of those two. He begged for the answers but couldn't take that first step into finding out what happened, all because of fear. A teacher swooped in and spoke to Sarah, but his beating heart and sharp breathing drowned out what they talked about. It wasn't long until Sarah was escorted to the social worker's office, and he was left alone, still standing. The moisture from his mouth escaped him, transferring to non-stop tears running down his cheek.

Years before, on January 5th, 2009, the Sun approached Earth. Snow on the floor and rooftops melted rapidly. Icicles hanging from trees and the underside of cars dripped into a puddle, and soon, evaporated. People bundled in their hefty jackets or wool coats were forced to remove them from the sudden heat wave. The sun was still behind the clouds, so the heat pounding down didn't correlate with the people below and sparked mass confusion.

"What's going on?!" Four people questioned.

"What's with this heat?" Two people asked.

"What happened to the snow?! I love winter!" Someone cried out.

"So...climate change is real." Another voice added to the scatter of noise going on in the area. People yearned for their questions to be answered more than others, and began yelling over the next person. Shouting causes fear, fear causes panic, and panic leads to an outbreak. Before anyone knew it, the first hit was thrown, and then another, and then another. In downtown Omaha, people on the street used their fists and legs to resolve their problems, rather than talking it out. People began to fall and stained the sidewalk red. It was unhinged, senseless chaos. Before long, however, the clouds separated and made a path for the Sun to shine gloriously on the Neanderthals below. The heat pulsated in each and every one of them until it manifested as a flame on their clothing. They put their fighting aside to put out their flames, but it was to no avail. This eternal flame kept burning and spreading until it consumed their victim whole. The screams pressed on, though they morphed from rage to agony. One by one, flesh and clothing seared alike, and people once again dropped like flies, only this time they wouldn't get back up. At least, not until nighttime.

Everyone outside that day, whether it be Omaha, New York City, Los Angeles, Rio de Janeiro, Mexico City, Toronto, and anywhere else the sun illuminated on were met with the same fate. On January 5th, 2009, approximately 11.6 million people died in just those cities alone, with millions more from other cities, and in later hours when the sun rose on other parts of the world. Day, after day, after day. Their corpses laid there, waiting for the moon to rise.