...how it all ended.

At the peak of our civilization people felt as if our progress had reached heights that, decades ago, seemed unimaginable. Our intelligence was increasing at an exponential level; skyscrapers literally scraped the skies, supercomputers monitoring and maintaining our societies, and a new machine for every discomfort. Near the end some felt as if our technology was beyond our ability to control it, and as more people delved deeper into their virtual worlds of techno-comfort, the bonds that held people together grew ever weaker.

Throughout history people found it difficult to live in even relative peace with each other. Being the dominant species, humans had nothing to focus their common angst upon, so in turn it was focused on each other. Families turned into tribes, tribes into legions, and legions into countries. Separation and discrimination occurred on all levels, in all forms; religious, racial, political and social groups...the list bordered on the infinite.

It was a moment when civilization was desperately in need of harmony between the people. It was critical to the survival of everything we had struggled to build.

November 11, 2011 [11.11.11] – An asteroid 400m (1,300ft) wide passed by the Earth to the delight of astronomers worldwide. Although invisible to the naked eye, according to NASA, Asteroid 2005 YU55 was the closest an asteroid had been to Earth in 200 years as it tumbled past us at 30,000 mph. The aircraft-carrier-sized asteroid was darkly colored in visible wavelengths and nearly spherical, lazily spinning about once every 20 hours as it raced through our corner of the solar system. According to an official statement on NASA’s website, “The trajectory of asteroid 2005 YU55 is well understood. At the point of closest approach, it will be no closer than 201,700 miles or 0.85 the distance from the moon to Earth. The gravitational influence of the asteroid will have no detectable effect on anything here on Earth, including our planet's tides or tectonic plates.”

What was not well understood was that its trajectory had sent it on a crash course with the moon itself.

No one is sure of exactly what happened during those dark days. Some said that it was a fireworks display like no other; blinding lights lit the skies as the dust and ice burned off in the atmosphere. The fire that fell demolished centuries-old cities in minutes. The strongest world powers crippled by the hand of nature. The celestial tempest that showered the Earth ripped thousand year-old trees from the ground and toppled even the mightiest skyscrapers, igniting everything with searing blasts while shooting debris and shrapnel into the air. Winds raged, tearing apart anything in its way, while coastal regions were swallowed by tsunamis and the shockwaves echoed destruction across the land. Mountains toppled into the oceans as molten rock spilled like blood from the Earth’s great veins.

The heavenly bombardment only lasted four days, but that was all it took to pull the trigger on our fragile human anxieties. Everyone assumes the worst in the moment of chaos… The major world powers assumed they were under attack… Glowing red buttons were pushed around the globe…and our own Earth-shattering defense systems went into motion.

Some of the debris that entered the Earth’s atmosphere were bigger than houses but most ranged in size from melons to Volkswagens. The destruction was only comprehended on an extinction level. The smoke from the meteor was not of this earth and outright toxic; coupled with the chemical weapons hurled into the sky, many areas were wiped clean of all life and left barren for years.

Weeks passed as the dark skies were lit from below by the fires of cities and forests as they burned, and the blasts in the streets as military forces fought in futility.

For over five years the skies were dark. Poisoned dust choked out the sunlight and sent the world into an ice age. Winter was the only season the world knew without the warmth of the sun to bring about the spring. Thick silt blanketed the earth. Food would not grow, and without help thousands more died. When the sun finally peeked through the clouds and we glimpsed at the heavens again, it was the first time we dared to hope again. Where once we had a moon, a ring of its shattered remnants now surrounded us, illuminating our nights as a thick band spanning the horizons. The magnetic pull that once created our tides, like lungs of the Earth, now had an even stronger effect which altered our already delicate ecosystem. New life came quickly to our transformed world, and it seemed like our altered heavens held an even more fascinating bond than we could imagine.

As life began to crawl from the ashes and start anew, it did so with strong and flourishing new abilities.

Small civilian conflicts began whilst the survivors pulled themselves from the ruins. In a fanatic frenzy for survival many turned to theft and preyed upon the weak to sustain their own lives. Others, in reaction to this, grouped together for protection. The cities left untouched by the cosmic hellfire were soon pillaged and stripped by neo-scavengers, eaten by nuclear warheads or biological weapons and other nasty devices deployed by small countries and other large powers in an attempt to gain what they felt was now their for the taking.

This chaos still governs our existence.

It has been roughly 32 years since the onslaught that sent the world into darkness. Now we face a world covered in ash, still trembling from the abuse of long ago. Earthquakes rumble in echoing remembrance, acid rain eats through plastic, hurricanes plunder the rubble, and repeated tsunamis cleanse the coastal land. Beasts have arisen in a new kingdom of wilderness: militias, scavengers, gangs, tribes, clans, vagabonds, religious fanatics, and all the mutations of nightmares brought to life are only a few examples of what you can find across the wastes. Enemies can be anything, and without established governments, lawlessness and chaos prevails. Even once common pests threaten our very existence.

The world is in ruins, civilization has crumbled. What is left behind is a dark, harsh world looking to swallow those unwilling to fight to the end. The world we once knew has a new face. Our fathers hoisted themselves up from ashes only to face an even more grim fate.

This is only the beginning...we are the sons and daughters of a new world.

This is RoadKill.

"Long time ago, m'people walked in creterock forests. Built big 'macheenz', M'dad once told me the oldworld Cocroaches..said if they waz the size of a cat, they could run as fast as a car...I've seen 'em the size of a bus." -tribal elder