The Shock

The year is 2371. My world is a dark place.
My name is Mikhail. I’m the sole survivor of the Shock.
In the two years since it happened, I’ve trekked across landscapes devastated, cities flattened, forests burned down. To think that one thing, not even the size of a city, could wipe out everyone and everything. We called it the Rock. The scientists called it 2369 GF. Our world was destroyed by an asteroid.
The first six months after the Shock were hell on earth.
Flaming debris fell out of the sky and lit fires everywhere. Earthquakes flattened cities worldwide, and volcanoes covered them in layers of lava. Darkness ruled over the earth, the air was thick with dust and ash, the temperatures dropped and dropped, and hurricanes of acid rain battered the coastline.
I hid in our cellar. The tiny, dank earthen room became my sanctuary, yet my prison. My personal belongings I kept in a waterproof backpack.
The food I had so carefully stockpiled was gone at the end of month five. I had been observing strict rations, but I couldn’t stretch it any further. I was then forced to open the door to my shelter, and go hunt for food. Our house was nothing but slabs of cement, strewn over the ground, fractured and worn. It wasn’t the only one. All through the city, houses were ripped apart, caved in, or simply pushed over. The sea was a foot higher than when I went into seclusion, and many areas where I had walked without problem were now submerged.
I stayed for another two months. I roved through the ruins of my once-beautiful city, hunting for food, anything useful. There was hardly anything left, nature having wreaked havoc on my secure world.
When I finally left my shelter, dawn was breaking, though you wouldn’t be able to tell from the sky. It was still covered in a grey blanket that had been slowly settling since the Shock. It was so cold out, even though I was wearing three layers, I was freezing. It was the beginning of November and no longer was there the wonderful Mediterranean climate of past years. The temperature had dropped enormously, leaving me shivering, with goose bumps everywhere.
My pack on my back, sleeping bag strapped to it, I set off, heading north.