Solar Flare

Chapter Four: Sector 0934

The maps in the book weren't always easy to follow. The roads were torn to shreds and buildings weren't where they were supposed to be. But I was getting pretty good at navigating the ravaged terrain.

The world didn't become like this overnight. From what I remember my mom telling me, and what I've read in salvaged books, the earth was being killed long before the sun became the source of damage. I read about global warming taking its toll on the ecosystem, and the many world leaders that insisted it was all a hoax. Scientists showed study after study, but the people with real power put their fingers in their ears like children being scolded by their parents.

It wasn't until the oldest glaciers melted and released unknown, deadly toxins into the air and water supplies that the leaders decided it was time to act, but at that point it was too late. Over half of the world's population was wiped out by a plague released from the ice. Doctors couldn't come up with a cure quick enough, and to this day no one knows if one was ever created. Eventually, people stopped dying from the airborne plague, and it was the water supply they had to focus on.

With so many lives lost government systems quickly crumbled. There were no longer any easy means of easy long distance communication. Many people banded together to form small communities called sectors. And it worked for a while. I was born into sector Fortis. Or as the militia would often call us, sector 0934.

Fortis had been around for only two generations before I was born, and when I was ten years old I watched its downfall.

One thing I learned early in my life was humans are accustomed to their conveniences. Even with the world in ruins around them, the people of Fortis were shocked when things happening in the world directly affected them. When I was nine I was awakened by my mother late at night, and told we had to go to a town meeting.

As I followed my mother, holding her hand tightly, I could hear the ringing of the bell in the center of town. People from the whole sector crammed into the small church that typically only held about fifty people. To me it seemed as though there were a thousand people. All half dressed and holding their loved ones close. Some were angry for the interruption, and demanded an explanation. My mother sat on a pew in the back of the church and pulled me onto her lap. We listened to the frantic voices around us, but she never said a word, just held me close.

"Ladies and gentlemen please!" came a voice from the front of the room. My eyes found a man, standing on a small wooden box, with his arms in the air. He wasn't half dressed like everyone else. On the contrary, he had on a wrinkly white button up shirt and worn black pants. His black hair was disheveled and his eyes looked as though he hadn't slept in days. "We have some important news. And it's critical that you listen. Don't drink the water. Any of it. The well water as well as the rivers have been contaminated." There was an outbreak of cries of fear, and even some anger.

"Please! Everyone remain calm."

"What are we supposed to do mayor?" Someone shouted from the crowd.

"We are working on a system that will purify the water. What we need from you is to leave the water alone for now, and caution anyone you see who may not be here tonight. I promise, our entire attention is being focused on this."

His words calmed them. For a while. But we can only go so long without water. And for many, the thirst was just too great. It was only days before people pulled up buckets from the well and filled pots at the river. The sector lost nearly one hundred people that first week. After seeing the first people die, not just hearing about it, but watching as their bodies shutdown and liquified from the inside out, people took the threat seriously.

Lack of water wasn't a new problem, but this was the worst it had ever been. Rivers that used to gush water, wide and full and filled with fish, were reduced to small streams that gently flowed deep at the bottom of valleys. Sometimes it would dry and reduce to a muddy pit.