Before World War III, the earth was covered in life. Plants, animals, and humans could be found in every corner of the globe. But after the fallout, the nuclear winter, which was supposed to last for no more than 10 years, has lasted nearly fifty with no end in sight.
Those who survived the initial devastation have moved underground and now live in abandoned mines and bunkers, only going to the surface to scavenge and look for signs of the earth returning to normal.
But those that do venture to the surface must be careful of the Ash Walkers, who roam the wastelands and feed on human flesh. Their deformities are equaled only by their violence.
Will humanity ever see the sun again?
Can we ever return to the surface for good?
Only time will tell.
Before World War III, the earth was covered in life. Plants, animals, and humans could be found in every corner of the globe. But after the fallout, the nuclear winter, which was supposed to last for no more than 10 years, has lasted nearly fifty with no end in sight.
Those who survived the initial devastation have moved underground and now live in abandoned mines and bunkers, only going to the surface to scavenge and look for signs of the earth returning to normal.
But those that do venture to the surface must be careful of the Ash Walkers, who roam the wastelands and feed on human flesh. Their deformities are equaled only by their violence.
Will humanity ever see the sun again?
Can we ever return to the surface for good?
Only time will tell.
Peering out towards the horizon, all I could see through my ash-covered goggles was the devastation from the fallout. It had been nearly sixty years since the total global nuclear war between the Western and Eastern powers had ended. Not even the Star Wars or other defense systems could prevent what seemed to be the end of the world.Â
My generation has been taught that no one can seem to remember or will say what caused or who launched the first nuclear missiles. There were ongoing rising conflicts, and the rift between the world powers seemed only ever to escalate. Once one launched the initial nuclear warhead, all others followed suit.
When it was all done, World War III lasted less than two weeks. Two weeks in which the world powers launched nearly 17,000 missiles consisting of more than 6,400 megatons of nuclear warheads. The impact of the nuclear missiles wiped out most of the heavily centralized populations globally, including most life in the United States, Russia, China, North Korea, United Kingdom, France, Israel, Pakistan, and India. Within hours, the initial explosions accounted for the initial 3.8 billion dead. As the nuclear warheads made contact, there were blinding flashes of light across the planet, and temperatures at the contact locations became hotter than the sunâs surface. The buildings, trees, people, and any structure above ground at the impact points were instantly disintegrated.
The blast wave the impacts created traveled several times faster than the speed of sound. They blew with the force of compressed and super-hot air, sending rock, gravel, metal, and other debris for miles and caused much of the surrounding areas to be destroyed within seconds of the bombs hitting the ground.
Twenty to thirty minutes after the initial impact, those who survived began to learn they were not the lucky ones. Radioactive ash began to fall for even more miles around ground zero, and those caught in the outdoors quickly perished.
The following 2 billion members of the worldâs population succumbed to the devastation of the initial nuclear fallout, including weapon debris, fission byproducts, and radiated soil. Anyone who had been caught in the initial blast zones had been instantly vaporized. Those caught on the outskirts of the initial blast zone seemed to be the least fortunate, as they developed severe radiation poisoning and melted from the inside out over a few days to a few weeks.
Along with this, the electromagnetic pulse that was released by the bombs as they exploded caused all electronics to cease working. Cell phones shut off, lights went out, and planes fell from the sky. In an instant, there were no working vehicles, computers, or internet. The whole world went dark. In a matter of weeks, the worldâs population had plummeted from 7.8 billion to just under 2 billion people.
Hospitals in the countryside quickly became overwhelmed, making the once talked about 2020 COVID-19 outbreak seem inconsequential. Over the next few weeks, society slowly broke down as food became scarce and people looked towards survival. The worldâs population also continued to dwindle to just over 1 billion survivors.
Dark plumes of smoke rose into the atmosphere and spread across the globe over the next couple of months, dropping the earthâs surface temperature to near freezing and blotting out the sun. Those still alive looked for shelter underground for survival, seeking protection from the planet, which now seemed to want to kill them. The ozone layer became severely damaged, causing an increase in unfiltered and radioactive ultraviolet rays to reach the earth's surface, killing plants and animals alike.
For the others of my parentâs generation who survived the initial weeks and months of the nuclear winter, the impact of the apocalypse only continued to worsen. Blood disorders, tumors, keloids, any number of bodily deformities along with social and mental disorders seemed to become normal.Â
The ash and debris covered the total atmosphere of Earth, plunging us into perpetual darkness and cold. And that is where I was born, underground in the abandoned Emery Deep mines of what was once Utah in the United States. Now we call the underground expanse Toleran.Â
Before the devastation, scholars had predicted that the nuclear winter of a full-scale nuclear war would last no more than ten years. However, we are now approaching a bit more than 50 years since humanity restarted the calendar at year 0, and temperatures still hover just above freezing year-round. The sun is still blotted out by the dust, ash, and debris that seems to have become perpetually suspended in the atmosphere. There has been little to no communication with any other surviving communities, if there are any.
Although no one in my community has confirmed it, it is believed that all the worldâs major capitals and other areas of impact are still uninhabitable and radioactive. Animals and plant life on the surface are scarce and deadly to eat in the surrounding areas. No one knows for sure, as a few of us now travel topside, and those of us who do, do so in small increments, but there is hope that one of our Topsiders will someday find more survivors.
Written by author Peter Servidio, Earth has Fallen: Return from Darkness is a dystopian science fiction novella set on Earth after the world has seemingly been destroyed due to nuclear war. The story follows protagonist Loreto and his community at Emery Deep.
From the set up of this novella and the details included in the writing, I got the impression that Servidio really enjoys the world building aspect of storytelling. Indeed one of the strengths of Return from Darkness is its world building. Straight away the reader is given a very thorough description of Earthâs new history and a lot of information about what life is now like for survivors. This made it very easy for me to instantly visualise the world I was reading about.
There are strong themes of entrapment and escape throughout Return from Darkness. The storyâs two main locations, Emery Deep and Elysium, both feature communities with long-established regimes and structures in order to ensure the survival of the people living there. Although Emery Deep is underground and thus physically restricting, I got the sense that it was mental and emotional freedom Loreto was seeking. By becoming a Topsider, Loretoâs fulfils both his feelings of wanting to be free and his dreams of seeing the surface. By contrast, it was when Loreto encountered the Ash Walkers and found Elysium that I felt his need to escape the physical boundaries and limitations he was contained by.
Personally I preferred the first half of the story when Loreto is in Emery Deep completing his Topsider training to the Elysium storyline in the second half. The plot had a steady pace in the first half with one event naturally leading to the next. The second half was more frenetic with the story jumping from plot-point to plot-point. For example when Loreto finds the trapdoor and Elysiumâs history, the discovery unintentionally feels convenient because there has been no build up to reach the information.
Due to the radiation many of Emery Deepâs inhabitants are described to have physical and mental disabilities. Loreto only has a very minor disability in the form of a single knuckle on one of his little fingers. As a result Loreto is ânot weak in body and mind, as are many who are alive todayâ. Again this is only my personal opinion but I believe the story would have been more impactful if Loreto had had a more pronounced disability and was still shown to be the strong and capable character he isâŚrather than being strong and capable because he is not like the other inhabitants.
There was the occasional spelling error in the novella but these did not impact the story, with the exception of chapter ten where one of the characterâs names accidentally changes twice.
I have mixed feelings about Earth has Fallen: Return from Darkness. There are definitely some good aspects to the story but also areas, like the pacing, that could be improved on. The novella actually ends on a strong plot twist so I will remain hopeful for the second instalment in the series.