Speak Up, Sweetheart

Chapter One

3,999 was a year of wealth, even for Rome, whose name represented strength and power. Her parents always told her that the year she was born was the best year of their lives. It wasn't just because she was born, but because the economy was booming, which meant it was a great year financially.

Both her parents raised her and her older sister in a cozy, little apartment in Hillwyn. Her dad was in sales and did well for himself, and her mom was a loving housewife. Her sister attended college for a degree in hospitality. Everything seemed so perfect for years until the economy began a great decline.

Rome's family was able to stay in their apartment, but they only made enough to make ends meet. The economic downfall caused her dad to lose significant hours of pay, and her sister had to drop out of college and get a job to help pay the bills. Her mom became a heavy drug user. She used some of the money for bills to get doped up, which made it even harder for them to get by.

Screaming matches eventually became the norm in their home, until one day, her mom left, and she never returned. They never knew what became of her. Then it was just Rome, her dad and sister, until the year 4013. Rome was fourteen years old that year; the year she referred to as the beginning of the end.

There was talk of a monumental heat wave that would take effect across the globe. It was plastered all over the news. No one ever took these alerts seriously, not in Ehrod anyway, because ever since Rome could remember, there were alerts for severe heat waves that were nothing but a nice beach day. This time was different.

One morning, not long after alerts were issued, people began to panic. Things were normal at first, but then the temperature rapidly climbed higher and higher. The humidity rised with the temperature, creating a deadly combination. That one fateful day, the temperature reached a record-breaking high of almost 160°F with a humidity of 83 percent.

While the heat wave progressed, no one had any idea how underprepared they'd been. Rome's dad and sister already went to work that day. It was a weekend, so Rome was at home. They all went about their normal lives until around 1 p.m., when it reached 126°F. The hottest Ehrod had ever been was around 105°F.

With all of this going on, Rome received a call from her dad. He told her everyone was rushing home, him included, so the highway was severely backed up, and he would get home as soon as he could. Also, he told her to put all the window fans on "exhaust" to keep the hot air out since they didn't have an AC. She was then instructed to line the bottom of the entrance door with a towel and to keep all the lights off until they got home. Her sister called shortly after, and she was also in the bumper-to-bumper lethal traffic jam.

Rome remembered that day like it was yesterday. It was around 5 pm when she peeked out the window, and the sun blazed like never before. She saw waves radiating off the pavement. A lot of people were shockingly still outside doing God-knows-what. She still didn't hear from her dad or sister, so she called her dad first and then her sister. There was no answer.

Rome flipped on the TV to her local news channel. All across the screen were headlines of the horrendous traffic jam on the main highway in Ehrod that went through a ton of major cities in the US. Deaths were reported every few minutes due to heat stroke, dehydration, or organ failure. Cars overheated and shut down, and people were too far from home to walk. Ambulances were stuck in the jam with everyone else.

Rome turned off the TV. All she could hear outside her apartment was wailing and shouting. She ran into her bedroom and lay on the floor, which was the coolest part of the room. Dreadful thoughts filled her head until the humming of the fans lulled her to sleep.

When she woke up, the world fell silent around her. The fans were no longer running. The power went out some time during her nap. It was now dark outside, and she was still alone. Rome flickered the lightswitches around the apartment, but none of them turned on. The air was hot and thick; it was enough to stop you from breathing if you weren't careful. She went back to her bedroom floor and attempted to sleep off the rest of the worst day in history, with the hope that her dad and sister would walk through the door the next morning. Days turned into weeks. Weeks turned into months. They never returned.