I looked back at how peaceful the world was it kinda made me forget what happened in the last six months. But I could never forget it.
A complete disaster. November 21st 2012 NASA found an incoming comet headed straight for Earth. We only had a month to evacuate the impact zones. A single month for NASA to hopefully admit they had miscalculated. They never did. Instead they sent out word to the entire world, and mainly, China. China was literally at the centre of the impact zone. Beijing, the Forbidden City, all of the history of the ancient world would be destroyed. Well it has. I'll get to that after.
The entire world was in panic, I had family here in China and my parents went crazy when they found out that my relatives were in trouble. In fact everyone was. It didn't help when NASA came out and said that yes they did miscalculate, but no, not about where the comet will cause the impact. Turns out, the comet is bigger and even more likely to cause damage. Airplanes, helicopters, the Red Cross, even the military rushed to China's aid. But they wouldn't allow it. The only planes, helicopters and military that even left the Beijing airports, were the ones carrying China's most powerful and elite.
That's when the entire world came to help. And when I say the entire world, I mean it. The three most powerful democratic countries sent in help no matter China's restraints. My parents and I went to Canton to help our family there. It was December 16th. We were staying on the farm there with relatives. My parents did most of the talking, after all my Chinese isn't that great. My grandparents would always tell me to help out with the dishes, the laundry and a whole lot of other stuff.
December 19th. Our little farm was one of the lucky ones to have T.V. Too bad it was all in Mandarin. Once the news came on, everyone would rush in to watch. I remember sitting on the couch staring at the madness on that little screen. There were people rushing to get food, people being pushed around by the police. Each scene was mostly the same, everyone was panicking. One guy ran to the airport with a gun and threatened to shoot anyone if he couldn't get on the plane. He was shot to death.
Come December 21st we're all panicking. Police cars made their way down the rural roads towards Beijing and the surrounding cities. They were there to make sure that they didn't leave the city--or the country for that matter. The citizens won't leave, but neither would the police, they were all on the brink of death. 12 o'clock. The dreaded moment finally came, within seconds the atmosphere had been penetrated and the comet had made impact. Beijing was flattened, so was Tianjin and all of the land a hundred kilometres around. Even where we, were we could hear the impact, a horrible crushing noise from all around.
But that wasn't the worst of it. There was an earthquake, and a big one at that. Apparently it shook the entire world, literally. All of the continents came together and pushed the North and South poles to either end of the world. Mount Pele and the other volcanic islands came together in the South-West creating a strip of islands. And from what I heard there are even small mountainous islands in the North, South, East and West.
Many people died. Nobody knows the exact mortality rate because, for some unknown reason, the scientists have fled. The technology that most people couldn't live without was gone too, destroyed like almost everything else. For most of the time we thought we'd be living without anyone to guide us. Many of the world leaders have died, some off with the scientists and others so powerless no one wants to listen to them. We later found out that China's rulers were still out there and they wanted control. The news came a little slow. I suppose that's what happens when there's no phones, no T.V., no Internet. We were back to the Stone Age. Or maybe the Dark Ages. Either way, a horseman came with the news; we didn't get it until a couple of days.
I remember sitting outside when he came. He was riding a black stallion and wore simple brown clothing. They looked like rags. I suppose they were. His hair was messy and he looked exhausted, his face gave it away. I walked up to him, he muttered a few thing in Chinese-which I was glad to hear that he was speaking Cantonese- and I made out a couple words, "Name is Lung Fe." He gave me-to my surprise- a scroll and said some more things in Cantonese, but I only made out "Parents." I opened the scroll as he galloped off. I wasn't too pleased to see all the writing in Chinese. I gave it to my parents anyway.
What the scroll said was horrible. I still remember the words. Of course my mom had to translate but it still stuck.
"An announcement from the government.
Unfortunately after this disaster, Tibet has fled to the mountainous islands, the Shaolin Monks and those who believe in their nonsense traveled to the volcanic islands in the South and the people of Nepal set off on a suicide trip to the North and South poles. They can if they must. Our lives will be better off without them. And to make sure they understand, I am re-naming China the Earth Kingdom, and I shall be the Earth King!"
Well that was it. The world has separated, I was born in a country that no longer exists, and live in a new one ruled by some horrible man. No longer was I Olivia Megan Alm from Canada, I was Olivia Megan Alm of the Earth Kingdom.