The Lost

“¡Ayúdame! ¡Por favor!” 

“Help me, please! My family is inside, and I can’t get back in to save them.”

The sound of the rushing water almost drowns out the desperate pleas of Marco’s friends and neighbors, but he can hear them nevertheless. He feels guilty (how could any human not feel guilty in times like these?) but at the same time he knows that he and his sister have no real shot at giving help to any of these thousands of people in dire need of it.

Suddenly a louder voice comes from behind Marco, breaking through the never ending cacophony of the outside world. His family keeps the news turned on at all times these days, for all the good that does them. The newscaster who broke his trance is closing her segment with the line “these are unprecedented disasters that the world has never before seen, and hopefully will never see again.” 

“Well they got that right,” says Marco’s sister Ofelia, says “come on Marco, get inside, standing in that shit isn’t going to make it any better.” 

Marco wants to take her up on his offer, but he can’t bear to turn himself away from the cataclysm unfolding in front of him. At first glance it seems that he is standing in front of a glimmering silver wall. After a couple seconds the scene becomes a little more clear. Amidst the downpouring rain the gray of the apartment buildings blends almost seamlessly with the clouds ominously looming over the city, and destruction down below. The streets are no longer streets, but rivers, a web of tributaries all leading inevitably to feed the Atlantic Ocean. The city of Miami is almost unrecognizable in the midst of a “once-in-a-century storm.” 

The voice comes through from the TV, saying “STORM WATCH DAY 19: this is the fourth time already this year that Miami has experienced abnormally large storm surges. Large portions of Florida are already under water, but until recently Miami had been able to make it without too much damage…” The voice is cut off abruptly, as Marco’s sister angrily pressed the power button on the remote.

“They talk about this thing as if there aren’t any humans involved bro, it’s crazy”

“Yeah if they would only come down here and look at us, look at the people who are actually affected by this, maybe someone would try to help us.”

“Are you kidding me, all the elites don’t care about us normal people! As long as they can keep their money, their homes, and their lives it’s almost like we don’t exist.”

“I still have some hope, I mean I think eventually someone, at least the government will be forced into action” said Marco, while meanwhile he was thinking something completely different.

First, they said that global warming wasn’t real. The companies have been in control of society, from the government on down, almost forever. It was really only a matter of time before a CEO was elected president of the United States. In 2032, that finally became a reality. 

The United States had actually made some moves which were moving the country and world in the right direction. A Green New Deal had been passed, emissions were down, and there was hope. Until the 2032 election, when it all changed. After the election, the government rapidly moved to shut down any sign that the phenomenon of global warming had ever existed.

Worldwide emissions shot back up, sea levels rose, and suddenly the world was right back in the same predicament it had been in before. The government told the citizens not to believe what was right in front of their eyes, and the media, also owned by the corporations, did little to help, of course. While the rich prospered with little regulation over their power, monopolies grew and wealth inequality grew ever greater. The rich began to move en masse away from the coasts, leaving many of the coastal cities as nearly dead ghost towns. The poor of the world were dying at rapid rates with no help from…

Out of nowhere the ever-present sound of screaming suddenly grew closer, shutting down Marco’s train of thought. As Marco turned his attention to the sounds coming from the street five stories below the apartment on North East 79th Street, there was a thud, accompanied by the crushing of metal, which rang out across the city. Just as suddenly as they had broken through his stupor, the screams were silenced. Ofelia ran over, and together they leaned out of the window to get a view of the street.

“Joder,” exclaimed Ofelia, “that’s Xavier’s family down there!” 

The currents rushing through the city, propelled by 19 days of torrential rain and wind from the massive Hurricane Hugh, had swept a car of people trying desperately to escape the storm into the front door of the apartment complex. Most of the families trying to escape were doing so because the city had lost power (around day 9). Marco’s family was lucky enough to have been able to afford a back-up generator, and had bought it in preparation for the devastating effects of global warming that they knew were coming. 

Other families, such as Xavier’s, were not as lucky. Ofelia and Marco rushed down the stairs, hoping desperately that the crash wasn’t as bad as it had looked from above.

Wading through the water and the rubble formed by the hole in the front of the apartment complex, Marco yelled, “Xavier? Mike? Are you all ok?”

He knew the questions were futile though. Even as he called out, Marco noticed the red ribbon making its way out of the car to join the grey mass of water that made up the North East 79th Street of Miami. He and Ofelia had started to turn around in disgust when they heard a faint sound coming from the car. 

They rushed over, and saw Xavier’s youngest daughter Julia, secured miraculously still in her car seat. Her short black hair was flowing in the water as it began to run over her head, and Marco rushed over, ripping her seatbelt out and taking out of the car. It was clear she was the only member of her family who had survived the crash. At only one and a half years old, Julia would never remember Xavier or the rest of her family. In fact, she would never even have any memory of the city of Miami other than one largely enveloped by the rising ocean.

“Well shit Ofelia, we have ourselves a kid to take care of now. How the fuck has this happened to us?”

“It's unbelievable,” said Ofelia, “our friends are dying around us, who knows how long we’ll have power for, and now we have a baby to take care of!? How the hell has our government not done anything yet?” 

Little did she know this was only the beginning. Hurricane Hugh would rage on for 20 more days, and by then much of the city of Miami would be under water for good. 

*On the next episode of The Lost, we will continue to follow the story of Marco, Ofelia, and Julia, and we will see how the poor people of Miami became The Lost. A government-less society where the people have been left to themselves to try to survive, The Lost tells the story of the forgotten people of Miami. Come back next Monday at 9 for Episode Number 2.

*TV is turned off*

“Alright kids, time for bed,” Abby Smith said to her kids. “Ah, but that show was so much fun” yelled the kids in unison. Their evening entertainment was over, and they were sent up to their nice beds in their cozy house in Minnesota. Never did they stop to think that maybe the people on their screen were representing real people, and real lives lost to the climate crisis.

END