First it had rained, there was nothing odd about that, even though it rained for almost a week in some places, it was nothing new.

Although it did rain enough for some poor bugger to wish for it to stop.
He probably felt vile, considering what came after, but really? It wasn’t his fault.

But whatever; it stopped raining eventually, and there came a week of perfect weather; the sun was shining, but not too brightly, there was little cloud cover, it was warm, but not too warm, a gentle summer breeze.
The whole world experienced these perfect days, but they ended, and far too soon.

Pessimistic, superstitious people said it was the calm before the storm, far too good to be true, but no one paid them heed, that was how they always talked, why pay attention now? Even though, later, they would be proved right.

It started off with just a few minor natural disasters, probably not minor for those that experienced them, but minor in the grand scheme of things.

However things escalated, and rather quickly too.

Soon enough there were hurricanes and twisters, joining the earthquakes and tsunamis, volcano eruptions, wild fires, and avalanches.

They stormed the world, buffeting it, and scaring whatever they could.
Somewhere in all that mess, many power stations the world over, were taken out, plunging the world into even more chaos.

The emergency services were overrun trying to help, and more often than not there was nothing they could do, even if they could make it to where they were needed.
Finally the storms blew out, leaving a tattered world, and one more, not even whole, perfect day.

The ‘eye of the storm’.

Before that day was out it had started; the ‘real’ storm, the main act of the apocalypse.

With heat that hit you like a brick wall, rushing up and swallowing everything.

Following the heat, or maybe pushing it along, came the winds, lashing out at everything they touched, which really, was everything.

And, possibly, the worst of all came the sand, so much sand, carried on the wind; it sliced any-and-every thing, leaving nothing untouched.

No one really knows how long the storm lasted, only that when it finally petered out, the world was left a barren wasteland, a bare ruin of the old world, and, for the most part, inhospitable.

There was however a ray of hope; in the midst of these storms, someone of something had created cities walled and gated, Oasis’ to be exact.
Places where everything one could ever want was preserved from the old world, a ‘perfect’ place to live.