Brave New World....

I, Steven Mcfee, a child prodigy, 14, live with my aunt Macey and my brother Rodrigo in Detroit, Michigan, USA. Things have changed a lot since we were born. We’ve seen the Earth turn into hell within just a few years, hallucinating in the tragic and terrifying sights of mankind at its worst. The US government had reverse-engineered Uranium-235 and Polonium-84 to obtain a deadly element weapon labelled “Element X”. It was stacked in many of the thermonuclear warheads, making USA the most powerful of all, except for the formidable Russia, with its native “Tsar Bomba.” I had myself engineered Element X with a rare form of Rutherfordium that was left in the abandoned subway station under our warehouse during the Cold War.

It was the dead end of night when the CB Radio commented: “The most extreme temperatures on Earth are occurring in the frigid zonal... surrounding... natural imbalance...” The rest of the signals were drowned when I heard a thunderous boom streak across the city. I saw my window shatter within milliseconds. With great effort, I stumbled towards the smashed French window. I was stunned by what I saw. At the distance, an enormous mushroom cloud rose high above, giving way to tremendous heat and light. I rushed to the basement and into the subway tunnel. I ran to a big wall where we had a vault, an underground shelter. I turned the big wheel with great strength and entered the access code. The door opened and I rushed down towards the elevator. As I gained pace, I could hear the warehouse collapse over the ground above me. When I reached the vault, I remembered my aunt and my brother and ran towards the entrance. A big door stood there and as I turned the huge bolt, I felt tremendously relieved to see my brother and aunt safe inside. I went to the infrared camera fitted on a wall. I saw the last of the world end in the blink of an eye. The mushroom cloud was still expanding – until a bright halo of light came in the way and knocked the camera off. I fell back. “This is surely a dream,” I thought. “This can’t be.” I just couldn’t process anything. I fell sick, dizzy and overwhelmed with fear. I lost consciousness.

When I woke up, it was six months from the nuclear disaster. I had been put on hibernation for six months. I brushed the dirt off myself and went around the vault. We had enough supplies for another six months, but not a day beyond. But if an earthquake were to strike, we’d meet with certain death, because we were at least a mile below the surface and we couldn’t get out. We were trapped. I examined myself and found out that I had a ‘Harry Potter’-like scar on my cheek and a slight but long, thin burn on my torso. I knew there would be serious consequences if I had it any longer, so I grabbed the first aid kit and pulled out a sterilised blade. I wasn’t ready to do this, but I had to. I sliced open the burnt skin as blood oozed out. I cried out in pain. I felt very weak and slowly walked to the hibernation chamber to isolate myself for another six months.

I woke up, feeling very weak again as the nutritional dispenser connected to our bodies during hibernation was low on charge. I walked towards the door and realised that it was Christmas Eve. I went to the analysis monitor, where it showed that the radioactivity had lessened comparatively. This encouraged me to venture out. I went to the vault entrance and put on my anti-radioactive suit.

I walked toward the elevator and into the station. Much of it was in ruins. I had a gun and smoke bombs to defend myself from mutants. I walked up the stairs to the top and put my hand on the knob. “Here I go!” I said, as I turned the knob and pulled the door open. There was the first traces of broad daylight coming in. My suit showed low oxygen content so I put on my gas mask, and walked out to see nothing but miles of barren land, and no sign of life. Fallen debris was everywhere, cars smashed, buildings collapsed and no signs of life. It was more like a radioactive landfill. My mind went back to the green valleys and rivers that used to flow by. Just then, something caught my eye. I saw my canister on the ground. I picked it up. I was amazed to see that a microorganism was eating away the decaying radioactive isotope. It could also create a symbiosis between plants. It was a great discovery. For the next two months, Rodrigo and I got busy nurturing it and giving it suitable conditions to multiply. After five months, we loaded the organism onto big barrels. There were hundreds of them now. We went outside, across the barren fields, and fixed a projectile in each of the barrels equipped with a self-destruct mode. I hit the launch button and hundreds of projectiles blasted off and detonated in the sky. We knew that it would change us forever.

Sixty-five years later, the world has changed again. About 1,00,000 people survived the tragic incident all over the world. The world now is a much better place with trees, rivers and valleys. The bacteria had eaten away all the radioactive soil and developed a relation with surviving but weak plants all over the world. Soon the world will be full of people again, but this incident will be marked on this planet’s history.

We have to live in harmony with all the earthlings from now on. We are starting from the year 0001, a fresh millennium awaits us. I just hope that recent history doesn’t repeat itself again. We are alive to tell this tale to our younger generations, bound by faith, love and humanity, and that’s what makes us significant as humans.