Chapter Two - The Last Day of Earth

The Day was August 23rd, 2036...
Nearly three weeks had passed since the war came to an end. However, unknown to the world, in the hills of South Dakota, inside a remote nuclear testing site - everything mankind understood about the world and the universe was about to come to an end. For decades, The United States was attempting to build a new type of nuclear weapon. One that still had the same power and destructive force, but was able to minimize radioactive fallout. They theorized that if enough energy was released within a small, almost microscopic level, that a temporary black hole would be created. Thanks to the work at CERN with the Large Hadron Collider. A massive machine which successfully created a Higgs Boson Particle or what is commonly known as 'The God Particle' on July 4th, 2012. The belief is, if matter can be charged with enough energy to create a nuclear explosion.. The Higgs Boson proved the opposite, if you release enough energy - you could create matter. It effectively proved that The Big Bang Theory was possible. However, as with most new technology. It isn't long before someone thinks of a way to weaponize. In the state of South Dakota, The United States had built their own Hadron Collider and were gathering their own Higgs Boson Particles. With the purpose of creating a new type of weapon.


It was called, The Fusegen Device. The basic idea was to contain the radioactive energy after a nuclear blast. After the nuclear bomb detonated and its energy was released. A secondary device (The Fusegen Device) would activate and release the Higgs Boson Particle. The Particle's exposure to that much energy would start the chain reaction akin to the formation of a star. However, it wouldn't have enough energy or matter to actually ignite, so it would collapse in on itself. All of this is done on a very small scale of course. So all the energy, matter and destruction brought on by the detonation of the nuclear bomb would be sucked into a black hole. Which would then collapse and vanish after a few minutes. Taking the radiation and everything else in the area with it. It was quite possibly, the greatest and most terrifying instrument of war that mankind had ever created. The United States weren't only thinking of themselves for once. Their plan was to create enough of these Fusegen Devices to distribute enough to all their enemies as well. So if they did decide to use their nuclear bombs, there would be no lasting damage done to the Earth. Obviously, they didn't finish them in time. And a month after the ending of World War III. The nuclear fallout brought on by the bombs that landed on Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle was about to reach South Dakota.


A large scale evacuation of the South Dakota Research Facility began. And when the radiation reached the facility. A chain reaction was set off. The SDRF was powered by several nuclear power-plants and all five of them were about to be overloaded by the radiation cloud. It was then that a man named Henry Duncan had an idea. The Fusegen Device used the radioactive energy left over as its fuel to create the black hole. Meaning, it was possible that if the radiation had spread farther than the destructive range of the nuclear devices - the Fusegen Device would also spread with it, gathering all the connected radioactive energy and pull it into the black hole as well. Duncan convinced enough of the staff to go along with his idea. They attached the Fusegen Devices to enough remaining warheads and plotted them to be fired at the major and worse effected areas. New York, Baghdad, London, Los Angeles, Beijing, Moscow and a handful of others. They fired them into the air and then Duncan and his people planned on sacrificing themselves in the process. They didn't have another bomb to fire in their area. So they chose to use the destruction of the nuclear reactors as their nuclear devices. Duncan turned on the Fusegen Device and waited for it to be exposed to enough energy activate itself. That moment came when the radiation from the fallout cloud caused enough heat that the nuclear power-plants couldn't contain it. The meltdown occurred and a massive explosion rocked the quiet hills of South Dakota. Followed by one of the greatest explosions the Earth had ever seen. Not since the early days of its creation, constantly being struck by asteroids. And like the explosion brought on the by the impact that killed the dinosaurs.. This explosion would also change the world.

Having expected to be vaporized by the nuclear meltdown (brought on by the fallout), the nuclear eruptions (brought on by the five power plant meltdowns) and then being sucked into a black hole (by the Fusegen Device). When Duncan did open his eyes, he could only assume something went wrong.. or right. Depending on how one would look at the situation. Everyone knew something had changed. The air smelt different, the world felt strange. When he got to the top floor of his research facility and found the rest of his staff that stayed behind to help him. They began to make observations from within the facility. All of them were too afraid to walk outside. That is when the earthquakes started. They lasted for hours and even though they were registered more than a mile away. The SDRF was nearly torn apart by them. That is when Duncan made the decision to open the door and have a look outside. He figured that somehow his plan had destroyed the world far beyond repair and it was tearing itself apart. He thought that if the world was going to end, he would have one final look at it. What he found was a blinding blue light with no source; it was as if the very molecules in the air were shining. And after the earthquakes stopped, the light followed suit. It took several minutes for their eyes to adjust to what would become a strange new world.