Sea of Sand

At some point in to 1952, a solar storm struck the Earth. 38% of all water evaporated, and was blown off into deep space along with a portion of the atmosphere. Electrical failure caused blackouts and disabled all communication. Survivors of the heat wave and atmospheric loss must find a way to survive. Many countries took advantage of receding water levels, and expanded onto the dry seabed. The English Channel dried up, allowing a highway to be built between England and France. England and Ireland were connected, and Oceania re-emerged from the sea, connecting Asia and Australia. Venice, relieved of its flooding issues, now had a different problem to face. Now that the water that had supported the weight of the city for centuries was gone, the rotted wooden beams risked collapsing, bringing the city crashing down to the salt flats. With parts of the Mediterranean gone, all of the Greek islands were connected, making transportation much easier. The dry salt flats also provide a military advantage to the armies of the Mediterranean. Along the American coastline, miles upon miles of empty seabed sit, just waiting to be colonized. New York harbor is now nothing more than a barren stretch of land. Much of the Land of a Thousand Lakes is now just as dry as the rest of the Canadian Shield. Much of the Great Lakes is now dry land. The Gulf of California has ceased to exist, along with most of San Francisco Bay. The Panama Canal is now just an artificial canyon. Much of the lush South American rain forest has died away, replaced by grasslands similar to those in the Midwest United States, much of which is now sandy desert. The Bay of Finland dries up, and Russian troops quickly mobilize to take as much land as possible. The Gulf of Mexico partially dries up, leaving oil rigs standing high and dry. The dried gulf reveals a previously submerged Mexican territory, lost sometime in the 14-1500s.

It is now 2003. Most of the United States is considered uninhabitable desert. Cities like Detroit and Columbus have been partially swallowed by the drifting sand dunes. Others, like New York and San Diego have been all but abandoned, their dusty streets filled with rusted cars. The decrepit highway system still winds across the country, leading to and from the bleached bones of cities once populated by hundreds of thousands, even millions of people, all bustling to and fro. Sea levels have continued to shrink over the past 51 years, sea levels have continued to fall. Humanity's future looks bleak. Only time will tell if the human race survives this apocalypse.

It is 2015. All but the deepest parts of the ocean are now bone-dry desert. And yet, humanity still persists. Across the vast oceans of sand, weary travelers sail upon homemade land ships. These ships usually have free-spinning wheels or caterpillar treads, and are wind or solar powered. Their captains and crew live nomadic lifestyles, rarely encountering one another. However, when this does happen, things almost always get violent. Most of the world's governments have buried themselves underground in bunkers. However, some have built massive land ships, such as the USS Eagle, the mobile home of the US Government. The President is selected every 4 years from the other land ships the Eagle encounters. These government land ships are heavily armed, and confrontations between two nations almost always results in the destruction of one of the two dueling titans. The previous year, the Eagle had destroyed the Perun, the Russian governmental ship, finally bringing her worst enemy to her knees.

It is 2019. All the oceans have completely dried up. Humanity is on its last legs. All the remaining world governments have collapsed. All the land ships have crept to a halt. The last few bastions of civilization are on the verge of collapse. By the end of the year, the world population clock, buried in a bunker, long since abandoned, hits zero.

The Earth is a dead world, marked by dry, barren deserts. Now similar in appearance to Mars, the Earth drifts along it's orbit.

Dead.

Scorching hot.

Barren.

Silent.