The end of the Aztec calendar predicted a world changing event. Evidence from prehistoric times indicates that something similar may have occurred in Earth's distant past.
Sergio looked out of the space station observation port. Something unthinkable and strange was happening. He called over the Englishman and the American. The three looked out the window observation port. It seemed the oceans and cities were leaving the earth and coming directly at them.
This was an event that they had never anticipated. Sergio went to the radio to ask what was happening. There was no answer.
As the three watched they saw that the Earth was taking a rotation that they had never experienced. It was Sergio the atheist that uttered, "Oh my god!" The other astronauts looked at each other and commented that they were no longer in an asynchronous orbit.
Sergio again uttered, "Oh my god!" He went to his locker and brought out the bottle of Vodka that he had been saving to celebrate on their last orbit.
"It is time we toast to the death of the Earth and to our own slow death here on the station," he calmly commented as he poured the drinks.
There were to be only a few survivors. Each would face a different challenge and for the proverbial forty days and forty nights there would be so much rain that no one would be able to do much. Survival was a monumental accomplishment and one mostly of luck. It was the immediate actions after the Event that distinguished each survivor.
The barriers for each survivor were as unique as was the reason for their survival. An over imbiber recovering in a cave. Two young boys in another cave. Two lovers, bound together to experience a joint miracle. A train passenger who experiences a painful but miraculous journey from one continent to another. Each survivor had a unique and strange tale.
The number of survivors were at first counted on only one hand. The Earth went from eight billion to a number equivalent to when man had first emerged from the forest to walk the Earth. Once again it seemed that man was exiting the cave to repopulate the Earth.
Several of the survivors focused first on their survival but quickly began to look for and to save those around them. They envisioned finding more survivors and rebuilding the world anew. They exuded hope, they had the simple goal of ensuring survival and they shared a vision of the future that held survival as the purpose.
The survivors slowly find each other. They realize that they are the few, the lucky and take on the heavy lifting of getting a new world order in place.
Amazingly a global unity transforms into a multicultural, multiracial, multigender democratic society.
After more than thirty years the sun shines bright. The population of the Earth is slowly climbing toward its first one billion. The humans are repopulating every animal that they rescue. Occasionally, bodies still get washed up during ocean storms, but these have become rare.
Hope has risen that a new world order will ensure a friendlier global society.