The sun was strong that day. That wave of heat was uncommon, mainly because it was winter in Saphyr, so they shouldn't have such hot weather all of a sudden. When people thought about it, they surely could address that matter with the apocalypse. Probably, the climatic change was the consequence of the disaster that happened 20 days ago.
Under that terrible sun, a group constituted by a bus, a firetruck, and a simple family car, were crossing an road. Their objective was the same since they started their travel: go to the pier located in the north and make their way to the archipelagos of Saphyr.
Owen was sweating buckets inside the car. He tried to open all the four windows of the vehicle, but it didn't help to lessen it. He even tried the air-conditioner, but just for a while since he didn't want to spend all the battery they had in the car. After all, the man didn't know when would be the next time he was going to have the opportunity to change it.
'I regret a lot to not have changed it for a new one before... But, c'mon, I wouldn't guess that an apocalypse would happen. I barely used this car, anyway. However," he looked to his wife, who had her arms crossed and was glancing at him. "I should have had changed it because now I am suffering the consequences."
"You know that you messed up again, didn't you?" She said for the fifth time.
"Yes, I know."
"If Aly ends up with insolation, then it will be your fault and I will never forgive you again. You are aware of this, right?"
"Yes, sure." He wasn't even caring anymore about what she said. Lisa always used the same line of thought every time she would bother him with such types of judgments.
They got silent again.
"You should have had changed it."
"I know right!? Now leave me alone!"
As they both started to argue, Alysson looked at them not understanding anything.
Sarah and Scott were inside the truck. Instead of arguing like the others were doing, they were focusing on synchronizing the radio station. In the neighbor bus, Will did the same thing with the radio of one of the students.
"It is about to happen, right?" Scott asked, getting a bit frenetic. They didn't want to lose any of the content that would be shown to them.
"Yes, in five minutes it will happen, honey. We gotta do it as fast as we can before we lose it!" Scott looked at her with an expression showing that she didn't need to say the obvious. The lawyer simply kicked him on the calf, making him apologize.
"Hey, you two sloths! I could pull through it, see? Or, rather, hear?" Will was passing right beside the truck with the window of the driver's seat wide open. He stretched his hand, showing them the portable radio that the students had. The sound wasn't bad, but there was a lot they nearly missed because of the bad signal.
"Hello... Hello... 1, 2, 3. Testing, testing." A voice came from the radio, probably from a man in his early thirties.
Will pulled back the portable radio and started to hear it by himself, also to keep focusing on the street and don't kill the dozens of students inside there. However, right after he did it, Sarah and Scott could find the right broadcasting. The voice of the man echoed inside the firetruck.
"Hello? The sound is okay now? Yeah? Ok, then." After those sounds coming from the background, which showed how amateur those people were, they started to speak.
"Ah, well, good morning for all my listeners... if we really have one. I hope you all are okay, alive, and surviving each day. We will start our transmission now with the news about how Saphyr and the world are doing, and also explaining a bit more about what occurred twenty days ago. I hope it can be of some use for you guys. My name is Rick, the person speaking with me is Ash, and that's our news to you today."
Once they heard what he had to say in the introduction, they got excited about the outcoming. Those two gathered more information those days and were going to talk about it. Scott, Sarah, and Will were hoping from the bottom of their hearts that good news could come out of it.
Those two scientists were people who also lived in the capital. Nonetheless, they could move with the government's help to another research center that also got deserted and destroyed afterward. Now, there were just those two and a small group to help them do the transmissions and prepare everything.
They decided to make such an act because they couldn't be stuck at the same place forever, not contributing to something for humanity like they always did when doing their researches. The idea of having a channel on whichever the communication vehicle and using it to keep people tuned and explain what is happening was something that the own government wasn't doing.
"Hello, everyone. Just as Rick said just now, I am Ash. I will be very straightforward with all of you about this subject. We aren't here to hide anything from you all. We just want to help people who are in need the best way we can without the need to get out of this research center."
Sarah popped out her head out of the firetruck, looking behind and seeing that Owen and Lisa were discussing their silly things. That couple was like that most of the time. Fortunately, it didn't disturb the other survivors in the travel, but those two were always tired because of their long fights.
"Hey, Owen! Cut the bullshit and enter in the broadcast! Today we have good news, maybe!"
That "maybe" on the end of the phrase made it seem too little in confidence, but these days it was difficult to have too much faith in something. The right choice was always to take a step back before doing anything. The danger was always lurking from all sides, and good news were just a distant dream.
"Well, as you all already know, we are passing for what a lot of people call 'Apocalypse'. A Crimson Apocalypse, by the way. A lot of things can be taken into consideration when talking about past events, but the most relevant to speak of now are those red meteorites that fell on earth.
"Some trustworthy people who are studying a lot this apocalypse could get into the cause of the disaster, that were obviously those meteorites that fell from space. Curiously, the number of fragments falling from the sky was enough for each country of the planet, and each one of them fell in the exact center of their terrain. In Saphyr's case, the Capital is located right above its very center.
"After the impact of the meteorite, things started to happen. First, it's good to understand the nature behind those things. Well... the truth is that there is nothing to comprehend. Those shards are made of an unknown material that lets out a type of energy that interacts differently with everything in our world. This first impact triggered off this energy and made it all get out of the fragments, changing the world dramatically. Unfortunately, it's something mystical, not scientific at all."
Once he finished his explanation, he needed to take a break and sip some strong liquor. Even after so long, it was difficult to bear how humanity was worthless in that situation.
"The worst thing here is that we are sure that this different energy can also make changes on living beings' bodies in different ways. That is, although what is happening with the animals now is a matter of fact, we are unsure what this energy is capable to do with humans. The Dreads are still a mystery as well. Some people were reporting strange feelings on their hearts, and we felt it as well, which makes us bet that we all are probably with issues on our hearts that can trigger sickness or death all of a sudden. While we don't know the concrete results, that's the only hypothesis that we could come up with." Ash finished his part with a melancholic voice, then walked off.
"Well," Rick started to talk again after his friend gave his report. "I will talk about how is the situation of the world out there, and also what the authorities of our nation are doing right now to help the citizens. It's sad to say that they aren't doing much. The militaries are busy trying to find something capable of kill the Dreads. The governors were running away from the questions since the start, which leaves us thinking if they really are doing their job. A lot of necessities are missing in poor locations, leaving Saphyr with its nickname as Golden Nation stained with the blood of its citizens."