The Broken World

Chapter 1: The Undoing

There was fire and lava everywhere. Ruins, rubble, and dead bodies littered the ground as far
as the eye could see. People were running in pure terror, trying to escape the scythe of Death,
either barely surviving, or being pulled into the dark realm of silence forever. Glowing meteors
streaked through the air, crashing into the crater-dotted landscape. Groaning cracks and
crevices burst across the wounded world, engulfing terrified citizens by the hundreds. It seemed
as if the end of the world had come. Little did the inhabitants of Earth realize that it would really
be the end of civilization as they knew it.

Everything began many years ago, when the nations declared war on each other. The
Conqueror’s Coalition, a continent-spanning alliance, was invaded by the Empire of the Torch, a
new and powerful dictatorship. Every country chose their side. Brothers were turned against
each other, and nations that were once friends turned on each other. The war raged on,
exhausting the resources of each side, with no country able to overwhelm the other. Then, the
leader of the Torch, Heather Loyden, made a decision that would impact the fate of the planet.

She ordered a huge armada of military spaceships on an expedition, whose goal was to create
devastating laser beams made from the essence of the sun. Though these weapons would
reduce the Sun’s hydrogen power and lessen its lifespan, Heather didn’t seem to care. She
unleashed molten death on the ranks of the enemy, and even though she killed millions of
innocent civilians with her weaponry, she wouldn’t stop.

The Coalition was alarmed, and in their fright and anger, they ordered the construction of
thousands of military rockets and spaceships. They launched these into space, and using their
advanced grav-beam technology, pulled asteroids from the asteroid belt and launched them at
the Torch’s positions.

This was the last straw for Heather, and she ordered her 57th Interplanetary Division to the
moon of Ganymede. There, using stolen technology, resources, and mixing this with their own
cutting-edge equipment, the Torch made the most destructive rocket in all the history of
mankind. Heather called it the Deathbringer. Almost immediately, she ordered that it be
launched at the capital of the Coalition, New Greenland. Even though all the scientists and
researchers tried to warn her of the danger, she refused to listen.

The missile zipped through space at warp-like speed. However, before it entered the
atmosphere, the Coalition’s protective shield around the capital caused the Deathbringer to
shatter into many radioactive and volatile pieces. The city was saved, but the world was not
prepared for what would happen next.
The Earth’s gravity dragged the pieces of the Deathbringer closer and closer to the ground, and
as the missile was invisible to radar, nobody knew of the impending disaster. Until, on one
fateful night, while everyone was going about their lives, fluorescent green flecks suddenly
appeared in the inky black sky. It seemed like a beautiful sight, but for most, the ethereal view
would be their last memory.

The Shards drew closer and closer, ready to bring their destructive payload down on the
doomed cities. Some of the citizens began to sense that something was wrong. The growing
suspicions were confirmed when the first of the Shards crashed into the outskirts of a city known
as New Vei Jhing.

The destruction was unbelievable. The rockets, upon landing, released massive bursts of
radioactive energy. People unfortunate enough to be within a mile of the impact site were
completely obliterated. Buildings were completely leveled by the reverberating energy waves,
collapsing on those who had survived the first onslaught. Even monuments and statues were
not spared, as even the ancient Statue Of Liberty in New York crumbled under the pounding
rockets.

Finally, the bombing subsided. What few survivors remained gathered around throughout the
cities they once lived in. However, the trials of humanity were not over, as the Deathbringer had
crashed into the biggest asteroid in the asteroid belt on its way to Earth, and the remnants of the
rock were now hurtling at the world at great speed. Even worse, some of the Shards had
pushed deep into the crust, penetrating magma and splitting the tectonic plates. The world was
coming undone.

The ground started to crack as flaming meteors fell from the sky, causing even more destruction
on the already-bruised planet. Lava streams poured from yawning crevasses, engulfing all in its
path. The survivors fled in terror from the growing chaos, with only a handful making it to high
ground. From their towering view, the few who lived saw the tortured world, once filled with
bustling life, trees and parks, proud skyscrapers and humble villages, now all but an
almost-dead husk, only a shell of its former glorious self, a hellish world to live in.

All the pain and suffering caused by a merciless and power-hungry dictator.

Where was she, anyway?

Meanwhile, far, far away…

“I TOLD YOU THIS WOULD HAPPEN!”

The lead scientist paced around in the meeting room. His fury and restlessness was boundless.
At the head of the emergency meeting was none other than Heather herself.

After the world’s destruction had been reported, she had called a meeting with all of the
scientists and engineers who had built the Deathbringer. Everyone there was part of her trusted
league.

Another engineer tried to calm the agitated scientist down. “Professor Kingston, please calm
down-”

“I WILL NOT CALM DOWN!” yelled Kingston. He was currently tearing at his hair. “WE JUST
DESTROYED OUR WORLD! THE WORLD!!! DO YOU HEAR ME? WE LITERALLY
OBLITERATED OUR OWN HOME!”

He continued to pace around the room in his frustration. Then he stopped and pointed at
Heather. “YOU!”

The dictator pointed at herself in surprise. “Me?”

“YES, YOU! YOU WERE THE ONE WHO DID THIS IN THE FIRST PLACE! YOU DID NOT
THINK OF THE CONSEQUENCES! HOW COULD YOU?! YOU-”

“I did think about the consequences.” Those words caused the whole room, even Kingston, to
lapse into a surprised silence.

Kingston seemed to have difficulty finding his tongue.

“You… you did? But- why did you continue the launch?”

“Because,” said Heather, “humans are tiring. The people in my empire were close to mutiny. I
could sense it. So I did the most sensible thing: take a gigantic bomb and launch it at the capital
of the Coalition.”

“Why did it destroy the whole world, though? It should have only had the strength to destroy a
single city!” exclaimed Mr. Stanford, a researcher of the group.
“Simple,” replied Heather. “At night, I walked into the room where the Deathbringer was being
constructed, and I just added a few of my own deadly payloads to make sure it would break as it
entered the atmosphere, make landfall across the globe, and still be deadly enough to kill all of
humanity. Except us, of course.”

There was an extremely uncomfortable silence. No one spoke for approximately 30 seconds.
Then, as if by a silent, mutual agreement, the assembled group rose. They faced the tyrant in
defiance.
“Well?” asked Heather. “What do you want?”

“We will not agree to this… this cruelty!” exclaimed a scientist. “You destroyed billions of lives
without even a glance!”

“You’re a MONSTER!” yelled Mr. Stanford.

“Let’s go back to Earth. There may be other survivors there. We can try to help rebuild society.”

“What do we do with her?”

“Lock her up in the containment room until we get back. Give her rations every day.”

They all murmured in agreement and stepped towards Heather to detain her. However, to their
surprise, the dictator didn’t even show a sign of fear. She simply looked calmly at the group
getting ready to arrest her.

“I will return to Earth,” she said. “But not with you cowards.”

Kingston scoffed. “You and what army?”

Heather raised her hands. “This army.”

Instantly, hidden doors behind Heather opened as a multitude of soldiers rushed out, unleashing
hails of lead on the screaming researchers. Some survivors dove behind cover, grabbing
whatever they could find to defend themselves from the cold steel of the warriors.

Kingston crawled into a corner and was found by a soldier. He gasped out, “How can you do this
to our world? Don’t you see that Heather is a monster?”

The soldier removed its mask. Kingston almost blanked out in horror. The soldier was not
human. It was an AI.

“I serve the true destined ruler of Earth…” the robot answered in a monotone crackling voice
before crushing the professor with its metal fists.
Heather smiled in satisfaction as the soldiers surrounded her. One reported, “All traitors have
been eliminated, Heather Loyden. What are your orders?”

She looked towards the glass window, smeared with the blood of innocent humans. Making out
the diminutive, bluish-gray dot millions of miles away, she replied, “Let’s go home, boys. Let’s go
home.”

Chapter 3: The Survivors

Back on the ruined planet, the destruction was so great, one would have thought there would be
no survivors, yet miraculously, a few had made it to relative safety. They had escaped their
cities’ demise and fled the burning lava and were now searching for others who had lived
through that horrific day.

Alexa Dash was one of these fortunate survivors. She had been returning home from school in
the little town of New Floria, Sylvania on the day of the apocalypse. Having lived her life in the
countryside, she knew how to survive in the wild. After making it out of the town, Alexa fled to
the nearby woods, using the resources she found there to stay alive.

On the other side of the world was Ethan Maccoy, living in the pristine beaches of the island of
Aquatica. He loved sailing on the beautiful clear ocean, but this peaceful pastime was soon
ruined when the meteors caused by the Deathbringer struck the country, plunging deep into the
oceans and destroying the habitats of countless coral and fish. Only Ethan and his peculiar
water-loving cat, Swimmer, survived the onslaught, taking a raft and a fishing line out into the
ocean. After a week, the pair reached the continent of Southeastern Asia, and set out looking
for other survivors.

In the burning savannas of New Kenya was Amari Jelova. He was a kind and compassionate
man, working tirelessly at the nearby safari. He was leading a small group of tourists across the
wildlife reserve when the Deathbringer’s Shards struck. Amari, upon seeing the impending
disaster, led the group to a nearby hill, where a small shelter gave them minimal protection from
the falling debris and ash. When the worst had passed, they all set out to find food and
resources to rebuild the city.

There were other survivors, too, but if I were to tell you about every one of them, it would
probably be too much for this story. What I can say, however, is that no less than 249 people
escaped the clutch of death. Everyone else had perished. Their next task was to rebuild society
once more, to save humankind from total extinction.

But first, they had to find each other.

Let’s check back with Ethan and his cat. They had been trudging across the bleak continent for
what seemed like eternity(though it had actually been ‘just’ four days). They had jumped pools
of burning lava, crossed perilous rock bridges, and navigated winding paths and craters. They
had explored patches of jungle, barren wasteland, and once, they had stumbled upon a ruined
city. For all their efforts, however, there was not a survivor to be seen. Ethan already missed his
surfboard, which he hadn’t been able to bring in the heat and panic of his escape.

“I’m so tired, Swimmer, and there’s no city in sight. What do you say we take a quick nap, huh?”
Ethan asked his faithful pet as he wiped the sweat off his brow. The exhausted cat raised its tail
as if to say yes, and so they lay down together on a small grassy hill, which had mercifully been
spared the horrors of the apocalypse. Their eyes relaxed, accepting the sweet relief of sleep…