Earth and Fire

World War III

The year was 2037, and the world had been teetering on the edge of destruction for months. Tensions between superpowers had reached their breaking point, as diplomacy faltered and sabre-rattling turned into outright hostility. Nations once bound by fragile peace treaties were now glaring at each other across the globe, fingers hovering over triggers, waiting for the inevitable spark that would set the world ablaze.

It began with an airstrike over disputed territory in Eastern Europe. A NATO reconnaissance drone was shot down near the Russian border. What should have been a minor incident quickly escalated when Russian forces launched a retaliatory strike on a NATO base in Poland, killing dozens. The West responded in kind, and within days, war had erupted across multiple continents. The United States and its allies engaged Russian and Chinese forces in a brutal series of battles spanning Eastern Europe, the South China Sea, and the Middle East.

Cyberattacks crippled global financial markets, rendering bank accounts useless and sending billions into chaos. Satellites were taken offline, plunging modern military communications into disarray. Cities across the world flickered into darkness as power grids failed. What had started as a skirmish quickly spiralled into full-scale war.

Within weeks, entire countries lay in ruin. London burned under a barrage of hypersonic missiles. Tokyo fell silent after a devastating EMP attack wiped out its infrastructure. Washington D.C. was evacuated after intelligence reports suggested an imminent strike. The world had become an open battlefield, and no nation was safe.

Inside a heavily fortified bunker beneath Berlin, General Kael, NATO’s supreme commander, sat hunched over a glowing map of the world. The lines of conflict were clear—red marks for enemy advances, blue for friendly forces. The red was spreading too fast.

A soldier rushed in, eyes wide with panic.

“General, we have an unauthorized launch.”

Kael’s heart nearly stopped. “What do you mean, unauthorized?”

“ICBM detected. Origin: Pacific fleet. Target: Beijing.”

Kael’s blood ran cold. “That’s impossible. The President didn’t authorize a launch.”

“No, sir. This isn’t sanctioned. We’re trying to track the source now.”

It didn’t matter who had launched it—whether it was a rogue commander, a malfunction, or worse, a cyberattack hijacking their systems. What mattered was that China would respond.

And they did.

Within minutes, satellite feeds confirmed the counterstrike. A single warhead was launched from a fortified silo deep in Siberia. Its destination was clear: New York City.

In a war room beneath the Pentagon, President Harris watched the trajectory on a massive screen. The room buzzed with frantic voices, orders shouted, but she knew the truth—they had minutes, not hours. The missile defence system, once thought impenetrable, had been compromised by the earlier cyberattacks. There was no stopping it.

In New York, millions saw the fiery streak in the sky. Sirens blared across the city as terrified residents poured into the streets. The highways were gridlocked within minutes. Families huddled together, praying, crying, whispering final words to loved ones over failing phone lines. Some ran for the subways, hoping the underground might offer some semblance of safety. Others simply stood still, staring at the sky, paralyzed by the inevitable.

At exactly 11:42 PM, the world turned white.

The detonation consumed everything in an instant. Buildings evaporated, turned to dust in the shockwave that followed. Millions were vaporized before they could even scream. The mushroom cloud rose over the ruins of what had once been the greatest city on Earth, a towering spectre of death and finality.

Across the world, televisions and computer screens went black. Radio signals cut out. Those who survived, those who were watching from afar, knew there was no going back. The war had reached the point of no return.

Deep beneath the ground, in bunkers built for such a scenario, world leaders stared at each other in silence. The unthinkable had happened. And it would not end there.

Within moments, the retaliation orders were given. More warheads were launched. Moscow, London, Washington, Tehran, Shanghai. City after city, erased in fire and fury.

The world as it had once been—civilized, advanced, filled with culture and history—ceased to exist.

And in the final hour, humanity was undone.

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