Mother Earth.

Chapter 2: Fusion.

Svivla Falla.

American-Canadian Border,

The year 2090.

"Where were you when the bombs fell?"

White, coarse sands filled his boots as the heat burned, looking out over the horizon on the American Border in the dead of night. The ticking, crackling Gyger Counter in his ears began to swell. Winds blew past him, even as he attempted to redirect them, threatening to blow off his fleece shawl wrapped around his neck as Svivla's grey hair blew in the gale.

"What was it like seeing the world you knew vanish?"

Rhythmic popping bullets thundered in his ears as exit wounds splayed bloody paintings across dusty cities with twilight embers glistening against the shattered glass and tears.

That was when the soul-shaking roar of hundreds of jets cut through the sky above into the borders of the United States. Svivla could only hear the heartbeat and ragged, strained breathing in his ears as the planes swept the country.

"I... well, I saw a great flash-"

Night transformed into day in a single instant in the briefest moment.

"...Svivla?"

Goosebumps stung Svivla's arms as the sprawling death of hundreds of millions of screaming, wailing voices were snuffed out in the blink of an eye. A woman's face presented itself, caressing his face with a smile. Her freckles glowed with her eyes.

Then, her skin began to peel off in flakes as the firestorm swallowed her entire body and she turned to dust-

"Svivla!"

***

Svivla Falla, Saffi Kalashnik.

The World Capital: Relocated Oxford University,

The year 2156.

"Svivla!" Saffi shouted, leaning forward in her creaking red office chair, titanium elbows planted on the glass table. Shaking his head, swallowing his thoughts as his head picked up to face her. "Lost you there!"

"... Sorry, Saffi, lost in thought."

Saffi sat back in her chair, straightening her beige sweater as she crossed her legs, feeling the rough jean fabric wrap tighter around her thighs as she rested her cybernetic hands on her knee. Looking up at the man across the table, her bright hazel eyes meeting his, only he seeing something far back beyond the present. Dull, brown eyes with strands of his long, stark white hair falling forward. Saffi tilted her head, a strand of brown hair falling from her low ponytail. "You gonna be okay doing this?"

A lone, bright fluorescent light hung above the two in the shabby, pale grey room they had taken up. It was an older room in the oldest section of the university, it was appealing to the young scientist; what came before in the beauty of physical books, the smell of old wood among the papers and dust. The only bookshelf in the room was filled with engineering textbooks on one shelf, and the other was sparsely filled with miscellaneous texts, one being titled: The War for The World: A Deconstruction of Humanity.

Inhaling sharply, throwing on a smile, Svivla sat up straight. "I will be fine." He said, his voice gruff and rough with his age. In the corner, his staff was propped up with his bag close by. "It was just quite the question to start off with, is all."