Evolution

Evolution
Billions of years ago the skies of the primeval Earth were filled with swarms of meteors that slammed into the fledgling surface, heating it to hellish temperatures. In this wreckage, all over the world, there were small wading pools of proteins and molecules that had been carried to Earth by the marauders from space. In one of these pools, deep down, at the microscopic level, something moved.
They were discovered deep in space and they were moving towards Earth. They were a group of massive asteroids all the size of Alaska and they were on an impact trajectory with Earth, flying at unimaginable speeds. A worldwide convention of the most prominent in the world scientists calculated, that on their present course and speed, asteroids would collide with Earth in roughly ten years.
Eons passed and life began to spread across the surface of the planet and diversify into the countless number of species that would eventually inhabit the entire world. Soon, certain branches of the lizard family started to grow larger and larger. Finally, the dinosaurs emerged and they were the dominant life on the still growing and changing Earth.
The media named them the Seven Angels. The asteroid swarm consisted of seven large asteroids surrounded by a cloud of lesser debris. The name also drew upon the vision of the Seven Angels of the Apocalypse in the biblical book of Revelations. This just fanned the flames of chaos across the entire planet. Hundreds of thousands of people around the world committed suicide or joined one of the myriad doomsday cults that had sprung up around the Seven Angels. Riots broke out in the streets of major cities all over the world and vicious acts of police violence added to the destruction. Governments scrambled to find a way to lessen the impact of the asteroids, but all in vain.
One day, a global disaster struck, a massive asteroid slammed into the Earth’s surface. It spewed a cloud of dust into the air, which shielded the Earth from the life-giving rays of the sun. The dinosaurs could not adapt in time and their domination of the world crumbled. Uncounted other species also fell to the Grim Reaper in the months and years following the impact. This was a disaster for the dinosaurs, but it was a blessing in disguise for mammals who had cowered under rocks and trees as the ruling dinosaurs stalked by. Man’s ascension had begun.
It was only two years away. Governments collapsed, unable to deal with the strain of six billion people gone mad. The entire world spiraled into chaos. With no governments to regulate them, the transportation companies fell and places became isolated. Crime skyrocketed with only self-appointed vigilantes to protect the innocent. Thousands were murdered every month. A few, small universities and colleges banded together and tried desperately to either stem the destruction or to stop the apocalypse.
In a cave in what would become northern France, a tribe of modern man’s ancestors crouched, hiding from and animal that would kill them if it had a chance. They had a leg of raw meat, but the cold was quickly descending. Then one of them picked up a stone in each hand, he just wanted a weapon. To get the others’ attention, he banged the rocks together and a shower of sparks flew threw the air and landed on a bed of pine needles. They burst into flame. The cave men pressed themselves against the cold, moist wall of the cave and threw their hands in front of their eyes, trying to hide from this sun on Earth.
It was only months away. Soon, they would destroy all life on Earth. People built makeshift shelters, trying desperately to escape. They fled to the many cave systems that were scattered all over the crust of the Earth. Entire communities attempted to hide in those places. It was a futile, though, and everyone had figured that out be then. They just needed something to keep their minds off the impending disaster.
In the following thousands of years, civilization developed. Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley and China became some of the most long-lived states. Wars swept across the land and then were resolved, forgotten. Empires flowered and died away with their demagogues. The Seven Wonders of the world were built and amazed men for centuries. Gunpowder, the internal combustion engine and space flight revolutionized society in broad, sweeping ways. The steady passage of time sped up as technology increased by leaps and bounds.
The last few days, then hours, then minutes, ticked by quietly until the Seven Angels entered the atmosphere. They began to burn more brilliantly than the sun, then the glow disappeared and the Seven Angles slammed into North America. The crust buckled and shook, folding over itself and obliterating the Rocky Mountains in and instant. Liquid rock poured out of the mantle as blood out of a wound. In hours the tidal waves of flame had swept away from the gash in the crust, erasing all traces of humanity on the North American continent. A huge plume of dust exploded into the atmosphere and was carried all over the world, blacking out the sun.
In a few hundred years, humanity had become a global, technologically advanced society. Democracy was the predominant government and the people were happy. There were no more famines, epidemics or droughts. Crime was almost nonexistent and the average life expectancy was more than one hundred years. Human society had become nearly a utopia. Then the Seven Angels were discovered.
In a decade, most life on Earth was dead. Only a handful of humans had survived the holocaust. Plants died without the sun, animals died for lack of food and sea creatures died in the boiling oceans. Humans survived for as long as they could, scraping algae off of rocks. In the end, though, the last human died with the bacteria and the algae. All life on Earth was extinguished. Then, near the impact crater, in a pool of boiling sludge, deep down at the microscopic level, something moved.