Chapter 6

Conor looked in the direction of the scream and saw a little girl running towards a house. He just stood there before slowly taking in the environment around him. Earth was not looking so good. It seemed to be worse than ever.

Conor figured out that he had "spawned" somewhere on a large farm. However, it is not the lush green kind of farm. All he could see was destruction. Half the crops in the farm were dead, and the other half was preparing to die. Crops which Conor knew were green, were orange.

Turning around, Conor went to the house where the little girl had gone to. A small commotion seemed to be coming from the house. He walked up the porch and knocked on the door, and then waited for someone to show up.

A burly old guy with a mustache opened the door. He looked very thin and as if he could really use some nutrition.

'Erm, hi. My name is Conor Sam. I am a physicist from NASA.' He said, at the same time holding out his hand for a shake. The old man took the shake.

'Hello, I'm Kristof. Why don't you come in?' the old man introduced himself. He had a Russian accent in his speech. Conor smiled and came into the house, which was not much, but it was good enough. Kristof gestured at his other family members to go upstairs while his wife remained behind.

'First of all, I must ask you a few questions.' Conor said. Kristof simply nodded. 'Well, I'm not really sure where I am, and what year it is.' Conor continued. Kristof's eyes widened.

'I was wondering the same thing, like where the hell did this guy come from. Anyways, it's the year 2517 AD now, and you are currently in Siberia.' Kristof said with a smile. Conor couldn't believe what he just heard.

'You're joking. This is not Siberia.' Conor said.

'Yes, it is, sir. I've been living here my whole life; I know what this place is called.' Kristof said.

'But Siberia is all ice and pine trees and-' Conor couldn't finish his sentence as Kristof had shushed him.

'That was all before. Look, I don't know who you are. I don't know how you ended up here in Siberia. You seem to have no idea what happened here. C'mon, let me take you to my office.' Kristof said and dragged Conor upstairs into a darkened room.

Once they were in the office, Kristof turned on a light and put several charts on his table. He opened up the first one.

'Look here. This is a chart of the global average temperature. It has risen significantly in the last century, rendering Earth a very hot place. Ice in the north pole is completely gone, while Antarctica is rapidly melting.' Kristof explained. Conor couldn't believe what he was seeing. He scrambled through a few more charts and then found a map.

'What's this?' Conor asked while opening the map.

'That is a map of the amount of land left. Rising sea levels had cost Earth approximately 15% of the land, and many people have lost their homes since they tend to live along the coast.' Kristof explained. Conor's eyes widened.

'Listen, I need to get to the authorities. I need to be quick. I can't explain to you where I came from and other details, those are state secrets.' Conor said.

'It's okay. I can get you to Moscow. But it will take time since transportation is not really convenient. Might take up to five days even. I'm not sure. By the way, where are you from?' Kristof asked.

'I'm from the United States. I thought you would've known. I already mentioned I work for NASA' Conor said. Kristof went "oh" and then nodded curtly.

'You look beat, you should go get some rest. I'll ask my wife to prepare something for you to eat in the meantime.' Kristof said and smiled. He led Conor into a bedroom and let him rest there, while he went downstairs to his wife.