A/N: Another one-shot! I've always been intrigued by the lack of details concerning the great disaster that led to the formation of Panem and the events of the Hunger Games universe. I've referenced it a few times throughout my stories and thought it finally time to sit down and write out exactly what happened. I know it's short but I really hope you enjoy. Happy reading :D
The Great Disaster
It all starts in Japan.
The observatory on the campus of the University of Tokyo is the highest-elevated astronomical observatory in the world, sitting 5,650 meters above sea level. The observatory is not only a popular destination for students in their free time and for casual dates, it's a popular destination for scientists worldwide. No place on Earth has a better view of the stars. Visitors say they're indescribable, so beautiful they can't be put into words. Thousands of glittering white stars shining out against the glassy, inky blackness of the sky. Shooting stars. A glistening sickle moon hovering in front of everything else like a lantern.
Our story starts with a twenty year old student named Haruto Kerezaki. He's an avid stargazing fan and can't think of any better way to spend his Saturday night. Wearing nothing but jeans, a t-shirt, and a light jacket, Haruto heads to the observatory, not knowing that in mere minutes the world will be changed forever.
He's only been peering into the telescope for a few seconds when he spots it. A faint black silhouette against the stars. He points it out to a nearby student, who consults a book on astronomy and reports that he can't find it anywhere. Almost like it appeared out of nowhere. Haruto and his buddy point it out to a nearby professor and in seconds there are yells. Everybody in the observatory gazes into their telescopes and peers up at the sky. The asteroid is moving closer and closer. Growing larger and larger. A few peer out of the windows and swear they can see it coming with their naked eyes—of course, smaller than a speck of dust at such a distance. Any object that large is enough to wreak havoc on a continental scale. Enough to cause mass extinction.
The authorities have only moments to warn the public before the object crashes into the Arabian Sea, about a hundred miles off the coast of India. In less than a minute, three billion people—just shy of a third of Earth's population—are dead. The shockwave and the sheer power of the asteroid send tsunamis crashing into India's coast, burying skyscrapers and destroying cities.
Everyone in the world with an internet connection is soon aware of the threat. Scientists warn that more impacts could be coming; through their telescopes, they've spotted a total of eleven similarly dangerous objects on their way toward earth. Asteroid One was merely the head of a large group of friends. People huddle piteously in basements with all the food and water they can carry in their arms. They scream. They pray. The second asteroid strikes down in the center of the Pacific Ocean, burying Hawaii and Oceania in hours. Fortunately, the remainder of the asteroids seem to have veered off of their course toward Earth—or, rather, Earth has veered off of their course. But then it happens.
It. The moment that will change human history as we know it for all time.
With a deafening roar that can be heard as far away as Central Africa, the third and final of the asteroids smashes into the South Pole. In a mass of pure energy and heat, the continent of Antarctica turns to liquid and pours out into the icy sea, crashing toward Argentina, South Africa, and what little remains of Australia.
The next week is chaos. Of the nine point five billion people on Earth, over eight billion are dead within twenty four hours. The only unharmed areas include the United States and Canada, Northern Europe, and the North Pole. At least, these areas are unharmed by the asteroids themselves. In hours more, dark clouds of dust and debris close in, raining Europe in foul black ash.
The fifty-eighth president of the United States, James McMaster Earley, is thrust into a higher position of responsibility than any human being in history. Earley's country is all that remains of Earth now. He orders his troops to fly to the sites of asteroid impact to help survivors, but there are none. All of Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and Antarctica are now either completely obliterated or ablaze.
Scientists predict the sky will not be clear of debris for as long as five years. During that time, Americans, Canadians, and the few Latin Americans unreached by the tsunamis and asteroids will be forced to survive off of nutrient supplements grown in labs. They taste disgusting and must be taken almost hourly for human survival, but survivors have no choice but to pay the high prices for these supplements. They are all that is left of the human race. The five year famine is a nasty one and is only made worse by disease, which runs ravage in many parts of the United States.
It is now six years after the impact of the three asteroids, and there are fewer than five million living humans on the planet.
Though the United States remained safe from the immediate impact of the tsunamis, the government can do nothing to stop the rising sea levels from the melting of Antarctica. All of Florida disappears under the ocean, as does Western California. Before the entire nation can be buried, precious survivors are carried in groups to highly-elevated Salt Lake City, one of the few and arguably the only functioning society left on Earth. This city will later become known as the Capitol.
Ten more years pass, the dust has finally cleared from the skies, and sea levels have finally stopped rising. There are an estimated one million people left on Earth, all that is left of the once-powerful human race. Five-hundred thousand Adams and five-hundred thousand Eves know that they will never bring human society back to what it once was, but that doesn't mean they can't try. A number of brave settlers head north to the jewel-infested mountains of Montana and Idaho and establish the first of Panem's outlying districts: District 1.
One hundred more years pass and the nation of Panem has been established. The shining Capitol, located in Utah, is the center of the new nation's economy. District 1 is located in Motana and Utah, District 2 in Arizona, District 3 in Pennsylvania, District 4 in Nevada and California, District 5 in Texas, District 6 in Michigan, District 7 in Washington and Southern Canada, District 8 in North Carolina and Tennessee, District 9 in Kansas and Nebraska, District 10 in Mississippi and Southern Texas, District 11 in Alabama and Virginia, District 12 in New York, and District 13 in New Hampshire and Maine.
The nation of Panem works in harmony for many happy years. A new constitution is written, and the first president is elected a total of one-hundred twenty-five years after the impact of the first asteroid. However, with time, the government grows cruel and tyrannical, exercising a harsh rule over the citizens of Panem and keeping them in line in sick, twisted ways.
Roughly fifty years after the election of the first president, the people decide they have finally had enough. They lead the first great rebellion against their Capitol and wage war against tyranny for their families and their wives and their descendants. They are beaten down miserably and return home downtrodden or not at all. This rebellion will later be called the Dark Days.
The rest you know.