enchantedsleeper
Eloquent Explorer
Introduction
England, 2050 AD
When disaster struck, no-one was prepared.
They would have been prepared; had the floods arrived in a few months, or maybe a year, things would have been very different. Citizens would have been evacuated from their homes, ration packs organised and distributed; temporary shelters would have been set up further inland, the numbers of dead and the spread of disease minimised.
They should have been prepared, since scientists had been predicting events such as these for over fifty years. The concept of global warming, and its probable effects, had long been common knowledge, with Global Science taking its place on school curriculums across the world.
They could have been prepared. But those in power turned a blind eye for too long, intent instead on fighting the never-ending ‘war on terror’. The floods of 2050 were a natural disaster, yes; but one that could have been prevented.
Instead, hundreds died and thousands were left homeless as badly-maintained seawalls burst and the coastlines of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland shrank inwards. Even privileged first-world drainage systems were no match for the sudden onslaught of water, and the spread of cholera, a disease which everyone thought had been left behind in medieval times, was rapid and rife.
Other countries looked on, and many sent aid. The United States of America, whose Great Lakes had already begun to overflow. Japan, also an island, who had read the warning signs of some years previous and was already taking action. Australia, for whom important coastal cities like Perth and Sydney were now threatened.
Little did they know that this was only the beginning.
Arizona, 2057 AD
Seven years later, effects on the Earth due to global warming have risen to new heights. Tempestuous storms become commonplace as the weather of the seasons is practically reversed. Seas are rising and beginning to flood smaller islands, and global temperatures are setting new records.
In the state of Arizona, chaos reigns. Soaring temperatures make many regions uninhabitable and Phoenix, which was once the sixth most populous city in the USA, has now become the most deserted due to a mass exodus. The American government has turned its back, and in the Lawless City, new laws begin to emerge. Survival of the fittest. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. And not to mention the Golden Rule: whoever has the gold makes the rules.
The few that are left in Phoenix fight for survival. Many of them are orphans abandoned by their parents and brought up by their peers, able to use a gun almost as soon as they can walk. Against a setting that makes the Wild West look like a civilised tea party, who has time for romance?
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