Year 20,263,881- Continents’ shifting toward the north pole has started to cause noticeable change in climate and wildlife population. Insects and vermin are becoming sparse in The United States, Canada and Europe. Crops in these areas are struggling. After “The Global Warming of the Hundred Thousands”, all requests for chemical controlled farming have been denied. Importation costs are at an all time high, fueling the economies of North America, Africa and Australia.

Year 50,736,928- North America and Europe have connected to form the supercontinent that scientists long ago named, Amasia. In the last twenty million years, human population has slowly decreased. As the once over populated countries drifted toward arctic climate, many could not adapt. However, more crushing than that was the depression these areas faced due to economic status. The poor died of starvation and plague before hypothermia could take them. Now small, frosted white villages are what is left on these planes. Skyscrapers still stand, but the temperatures at altitudes so high are unbearable. The people follow similar lifestyle to the eskimos of ancient history, if you discount their cybernetic enhancements.

Africa and South America are now the driving forces of the world. Population here and in other “warm” continents are at full capacity. Citizens from the then emerging country, Amasia, were allowed to immigrate over in controlled numbers. Energy efficient, compact living towers are a mass on their horizons.

Year 73,873,018- Continents have drifted closer to the north pole and more of Amasia has become uninhabitable. Amidst all the earth’s shifting, pieces have shed off of land masses and left hundreds of new islands speckled in their wake. Those who still brave the arctic climate have adopted more advanced cybernetic technology: body plates that generate heat, acute irises to see through blizzards, internal radar, various installed weaponry… Despite all these advancements, Northerners have taken on a more primal way of life. Small villages are the largest form of settlement. For this reason, there is no means of enforcing law between tribes. In the way of government, they are “off the grid”. Lack of resources in the harsh environment makes for brutal inter-species competition, especially relating to the looting of technology.

...

A new strain of malaria, undocumented by scientists spreads through Africa and South America. It took four grueling months to find the cure. That was all the time it took on the African coast line, which now spans across the equator, to kill nearly three million people. The building expansions made to accommodate the influx of Amasian refugees are now overrun by insects. The state cannot afford to have the pests exterminated, due to the costs of administering vaccinations for the disease they spread. The casualties were lesser in South America and the state still thrives, but many African citizens have been suction vacuumed of larva and evacuated in submarines to the chain of new islands in the Vast Ocean.

Year 73,873,062- The island Semus is one mile by one and a half miles large. It is house to a small village of compatible-tested families. The distance to surrounding islands is swimmable. The villager’s primary source of revenue is fishing.

...

In a cottage on the coast, a mother is shrieking. A newborn lay gray, before her, “Adam, do something!” She was shaking, the exhaustion of labor overcome by adrenaline.

The father stands, paralyzed by his creation, brain whirling around its small form. Its webbed fingers twitch. He waits for the scene to shift, for something nightmarish to happen, to gain lucidity and wake up in a cold sweat next to Lucille's protruding belly.

“Adam!” His eyes snap up to hers. Her face is pleading. For his acceptance, he realizes. It was real. This thing is real and Lucille is its mother…

And he is a father.

In a panic, he scoops up the infant and runs for the door, out toward the dock. Glancing down, the child wears a pained expression, like a horrid stone sculpture. The only suggestion of sentience being the gruesome, gasping slits on the sides of its neck.

He reaches the end of the dock and pauses a moment, second guessing his instinct. The water is calm and deep, the bottom invisible amidst long seaweed.

There is nothing else… He thinks.

And unceremoniously drops the child into the sea. Without any air in its lungs, it sinks like a rock and disappears beneath the seaweed. Adam holds his breath as he watches.

There was nothing else I could do. He tells himself.

The water settles and everything is quiet. He can't hear the current or the forkbill gulls, as if nature held its breath too, awaiting its fate. He looks back at the cottage to see Lucille in the doorway. Her face is haggard. It seems that whatever strength she found to get out of bed was now leaving her. She clutches and leans heavily against the frame.

Then an air bubble surfaces. And then another, followed by a full breaths worth. As Adam watches, the anticipation gets caught in his throat.

A bleary shape approaches the surface, flesh toned and warped beneath the water. As the face rises, it shifts with the current and becomes a dozen, abominable, nude masks. Adam is fearful, once again questioning the validity of his consciousness. He looks back at Lucille and smothers the regret he had begun to entertain. The face is near the surface now and he widens his stance, preparing.

And then, the infant's head, soft and slight, bursts above the water. It's gills, still submerged, suck greedily at the salt water. It opens its mouth, pink and toothless, and unleashes the pitiful, life affirming wail of a newborn.