Words to Remember Me By

The world didn’t end in fire.

Nor did it end in ice.

No, the world ended because of science.

It started with the growing panic over climate change. Most of the world was up in arms over how the temperature was increasing, how the ozone was thinning, and how the ice caps were melting. Not that I blame them - no one really knew what was going on. Change is scary and we didn’t have the data to determine whether or not what was happening was supposed to happen, let along if it was a good thing. So the world tried to adapt to the changing climate. Companies and governments pledged carbon neutral goals - a race to improve carbon emissions. They pledged to reduce waste - anti-plastic campaigns and reusable material. They promoted reduction, reuse, and recycling in an overall effort to be better for themselves and the planet. And most of the population tried to do their part. All of which I personally found admirable. No one would have thought that the “climate change is fake” zealots were actually closer to the truth than the rest of us.

For a while, everything seemed to be heading in a better direction. People actually seemed to care. But some people still thought it wasn’t enough, especially the scientists. There was a group of them that served as council and experts to the government. They thought that the damage done was too extreme, too irreversible by the natural and “minimalistic” efforts that were being taken. They wanted something drastic. Then came the pandemic. The virus spread across the world in the span of a few months - millions sick and hundreds of thousands dead. The biggest problem was the fear. They took it as a sign that the Earth was trying to kill off humans, that we were getting too big and too much for the planet to handle. Maybe they were right. Maybe not. I don’t know and I’m not going to judge. It’s too late for that now anyway.

The pandemic led to the rediscovery of the power of ultraviolet light. Since it had the ability to eliminate the virus, sales for the technology exploded, and with it, the study of its capabilities. There were a ton of great uses - agriculture, medical, etc. But that is not what the scientists were interested in. They found that UV was an effective way to create ozone from the oxygen in our atmosphere. It’s too scientific and technical for me to explain here, and for the sake of anyone who reads it, I refuse to explain the process. Needless to say, though, is that it worked, and it worked well. Too well.

They created a weapon. They called it a solution. In essence, it was an explosive release of UV light all across the world to create more ozone. The idea was to repair the ozone layer, which would help regulate the internal atmospheric temperatures. That combined with the efforts to reduce pollution and clean up the world should have been enough to fix the world. But they were wrong. So very very wrong.

I remember how it happened. No one really expected anything on the day that the governments announced that they would be conducting the procedure, so everyone went about their days as normal. I was at work at the grocery store when it went off. WIth no warning, there was a concussive force as the blast went off. It slammed the doors of the walk-in freezer shut, trapping me in here. I watched out of the little port window as my co-workers were blasted back. Those in the direct line of the ultraviolet rays immediately began to scream as their bodies boiled and burned - UV kills the skin and it killed my friends in seconds. The ones who survived the first blast weren’t any luckier, because once the wave passed, the ozone kicked in. The ultraviolet set off the reaction, turning the oxygen into ozone. I again had to watch as the rest of my friends and coworkers died - choking and scratching at their throats. Between the lack of oxygen and the poison of ozone, they had no hope. I heard the radio go off, announcing from various global bunkers, all screaming about how horribly it had gone. From the sound of it, no one outside the bunkers had survived - all air was no poison. I was in shock for the first day. I couldn’t process what I saw or heard. It hit me by the second day though - everyone was gone. I was the only one left and there was no way in hell anyway was coming for me, certainly not anytime soon.

Luckily the back-up generator for the store kicked it, and I was able to dial back the temperature and keep the lights mostly off, saving as much power as I can to keep the filtration system running for as long as I can. I have been in this freezer for over a week. The radio stopped reporting anything by the fifth day, and I know it still has power. The generator stopped working a couple of minutes ago.

I knew I wasn’t going to make it out of this alive. At the very least, I would run out of food and drink eventually. And no one is coming. I made my peace with that pretty early on. There is no hope for me. But that is why I write this now, before I too join the rest of those that have perished from this. Here are my last words - the words to remember me by: a warning. If anyone finds this, if anyone is still left, learn from our mistake. The world is a far greater power than us. What we didn’t understand is that the climate change was a natural course, a cosmic adjustment, nothing more and nothing less. It wasn’t the end of the world. The response was.

Please, whatever you do, never mess with nature. It was the death of us. Don’t let it be the death of you.

Goodbye,

Greta