"The end of the world!!"
Before Noah lay a scene of utter chaos, like a living hell on Earth, the sky was devoured by dense, pitch-black clouds, shrouding every ray of light and leaving only a cold, ominous void. The streets were clogged with cars crashing into one another, the wailing sirens of ambulances echoing everywhere. Lost children cried out in fear, separated from their families. A panicked crowd jostled and shoved, trampling over fallen bodies without even a glance back. Shops had been looted clean, their empty shelves standing as grim testaments to the impending doom. Humanity had descended into savagery, stripped of its civility, clawing at scraps of food and drops of water, losing their very sense of self.
"This can't be happening! Why has it come to this? Someone tell me what the hell is going on!" Noah screamed, his voice breaking amidst the frenzied crowd.
—-
"Ahhhh!"
A piercing scream yanked Noah out of his nightmare, but little did he know the reality ahead was far more terrifying.
Blaring car horns from below shattered the stillness of the morning. Staggering to his feet, he made his way toward the window.
Pulling the curtains aside, the sight outside stopped him cold. A vast expanse of white stretched before him snow blanketed the ground, rooftops, and even the trees lining the street. It was a scene utterly foreign to the sweltering heat of June.
"Snow? In the middle of summer?" he muttered, his breath hitching. His eyes stared unblinking at the void where snowflakes silently fell. In just one night, the city had been transformed into a frozen wasteland.
Without hesitation, Noah spun around and switched on the TV. The screen flickered to life, and the voice of the news anchor, now frantic and a far cry from her usual composed demeanor, filled the room.
"This unusual weather is a direct result of the meteor that crashed into Antarctica yesterday. The meteor, combined with its heat, is rapidly melting the ice at an unprecedented speed, releasing massive amounts of CO2 and methane into the atmosphere."
"Coupled with last night's torrential rains, this triggered a silicate weathering process, causing Earth's CO2 levels to plummet dramatically. This is why we are witnessing such extreme weather conditions today."
"Are you kidding? CO2 levels dropping fast? Silicate weathering?" Noah connected the information he had just received with what was happening around him, then he panicked and continued: "Fuck!!! The Ice Age?"
"Please continue watching the information we just received from the helicopter camera monitoring Antarctica. Through the dense smoke mixed with the cold air, we've spotted enormous objects moving at a slow pace." The news anchor said seriously.
The helicopter approached for a closer look, and what was about to appear on the screen would leave the world in shock.
"They're elephants... mammoths?" The news anchor's voice faltered, her eyes wide, unable to look away from the image on the screen. The disbelief was clear in her voice, as though even she couldn't bring herself to accept what she had just seen.
"Are you kidding? Mammoths, extinct for nearly a hundred million years, are being resurrected in Antarctica? How is this possible?" Noah asked himself after witnessing the unexpected return.
"Wait a minute, according to the thermal camera, those mammoths don't have the temperature of life. How are they moving?" The news anchor stuttered, her voice showing confusion as she stared at the screen connected to the Antarctica camera. But before she could finish, the screen abruptly went black.
"The transmission from Antarctica may have been interrupted. We will update you as soon as we can. Have a nice..." The anchor's greeting was cut off, and the screen fell silent.
Noah sat in silence for a moment before reaching out to turn off the TV, muttering to himself: "Nice my ass!"
Then he fell into his thoughts.
For someone like Noah, who had been fascinated with ancient creatures since childhood and had absorbed a wealth of knowledge over the years, the only thought that came to mind now was the Ice Age, the cold of extinction.
In just one short night, the amount of ice that had melted was enough to cause major problems for the world, and with creatures like the Mammoth returning, it wouldn't be just them. The microbes and organisms locked in the eternal ice would return as well.
The world would be turned upside down to the point of being uncontrollable, and the dominant species at the top of the food chain today wouldn't survive for long. The world was on the brink of annihilation.
"The apocalypse? So the dream from last night was Deja Vu?"
What Noah saw before him was the most important thing to do: stock up on food. It was already too late to leave for the supermarkets; they had surely been wiped clean. He opened the fridge to check what food could still be used and discarded those nearing their expiration date to avoid bacteria contaminating the fresh items.
Next, he called his contacts at the hospital, asking them to prepare food as soon as possible.
Then he tried calling Fin but received no response, which left Noah feeling very anxious.
Being alone, with no family, was an advantage in this situation. The only thing Noah needed to do now was survive and wait for the government's help.
The ringtone of his phone pulled Noah from his thoughts.
"Hello, who is this?" Noah asked, seeing an unfamiliar number.
"It's me!"
After Noah's parents died in a car accident, he went to live with his grandparents in Sun City. Here, he had an aunt, Annie, who was five years older than him. When they were younger, they were very close, but after his grandparents passed away, she moved to Moon City, where she had lived for six years. They hadn't been in frequent contact, and the only thing Noah knew was that his aunt worked at the country's largest research institute in Moon City.
"I don't have much time to explain, but listen to me. Someone will come to take you to Moon City. Communication will soon be lost! So, you need to follow him! Sun City won't be safe much longer."
"Whatever happens, you must survive and make it to Moon City to meet me!"
"What's going on?" The signal weakened, and the call between Noah and Annie was abruptly cut off.
Immediately after, there was a clattering sound at the door.
Noah hesitantly opened the door, and through the security bars, he saw a large dog with blood on its mouth, baring its teeth and glaring at him.
"This looks like a Poodle, can it grow this big?" Noah quickly closed the door and locked it, but the dog used its incredible strength to break the door down and enter.
It slowly moved toward Noah, its mouth covered in blood mixed with saliva, causing Noah to feel chills down his spine. He grabbed a baseball bat hanging on the wall and struck its head, but it didn't seem to hurt the large creature. It stepped back a few steps, growled, and then lunged at Noah.
The large dog pinned Noah to the ground, its massive body and weight overwhelming him, trapping him in a vice like grip. Its sharp eyes stared directly at Noah, and saliva dripped coldly onto his face, sticky and terrifying.
It truly considered Noah as its meal, gazing at him hungrily.
Noah's mind was completely frozen in fear, and he thought to himself: "So, I'm finally going to meet my parents again."