Part 1 - Song of the Century
" . . . panic, and promise, and prosperity . . ."

Static.

That's all that could be heard or seen on radios and televisions. No more Internet. No more cable. No more phone lines or cells. Just static.

The year 2039 came with many advancements. Solar chargeable automobiles and solar powered cell phones. No more burning of fossil fuels. New discoveries in science and medicine. And, of course, most importantly: the ability to travel across the vast universe.

The year 2039 also brought what was known as the Elixir. An alien artifact discovered on a far away, seemingly lifeless planet, the Elixir puzzled Earth scientists. It was shaped like a pillar, half the size of the Statue of Liberty, and had unknown, alien symbols scrawled upon it. The most striking thing about the Elixir was the unimaginable power it radiated. Scientists realized that anyone who came into contact with the Elixir would be cured of anything, from common colds to cancer. The Elixir of Life.

It was taken to a secret American government base in the desert for research. Small pieces were cut out of the Elixir for study. The amazing reality was that the Elixir would immediately regenerate itself when a piece was taken from it. An inexhaustible source of Elixir. Jobs were given for people just to break it apart and ship it all around the world for international scientific study. It had no visible or internal side effects present at anytime.

After ten years of countless trials, research, and tests, in the beginning of 2049, the Elixir was available to the general public. It remained in the desert base, and was sent out from there. It was used as medicine to cure simple symptoms or life threatening diseases. Soon, it was mixed with food and beverages when scientists discovered that regular contact with Elixir stretched life spans beyond what was thought possible.

In the year 2050, the Elixir was all but worshiped. In churches, synagogues, and the holy places of every other religion, thanks was given to God or gods for the Elixir. This was also the year that the world began to lose all sense of moral. People became addicted to Elixir, like a drug. It was an addiction that went beyond simple Earth lives were based on only getting more Elixir. They attacked, mauled, and killed to get more. They were paranoid of the world around them. Locked up in asylums and mental hospitals, the worst Elixir addicts were called Burnouts. People's lives were so based on Elixir that it continued to be distributed and used in everyday lives, because no one could imagine life without it.

2055. The year that everything fell apart. People were dropping dead. Literally. The deaths occurred so quickly that scientists couldn't come up with anything near a logical explanation. Everyday, millions would be gone. Every unexplained death had the same symptoms, according to scientists. It seemed as if their genetic code was being rewritten, but their bodies couldn't take the change. Ratios showed that 90% of the population had the same occurrence, living or dead. Only 10% survived the change of their genetics, which resulted in so many deaths. None of the Burnouts died.

The mutation of the people's genetic code became known as the Change. It was a painful experience that only a few select people could survive, if their body managed to agree with it. The Change gave people amazing Powers, ranging from elemental control to telepathy. There was one ultimate price, though. Due to the imbalance of having a Power, their bodies shrank in size, leaving them about six inches tall. People with the Change seemed to quickly adapt. They could go without food for days and use their Powers to survive the quickly changing Earth. The young ones were the few that had the strength to live through the change.

Naturally, the world was thrown into chaos. A little less than 80% of the population was dead. Half were Changed, shrunken with Powers. And the other half of the new population who hadn't Changed either stayed normal, also known as Normies, or were Burnouts. The Burnouts all escaped from their padded cells and straightjackets. They roamed the world, still craving Elixir and finding it in any way they could; attacking, mauling, killing. The normal people couldn't keep control of the world, so everything went down.

The new world of danger and death became known as the Static Age. No one was around to control Internet connection or maintain phone towers. The only way to talk was to meet people face to face, and although people could still easily be found, there was the high chance of them being a Burnout. The tiny Changed people were shunned by the new paranoid society because they were thought to be unnatural monsters and the cause of the chaos. Some towns were seemingly abandoned. Others were full of normal people, Normie towns, havens from the outside, away from Burnouts and the Changed. But in most of the world, there was only one noise, one everlasting sound.

Static.