The Earth was dying.
Humanity had always ignored the scientists' warnings, reassuring themselves with thoughts like, That's a problem for the distant future. It won't happen in our lifetime.
I was one of those people. Burned out from city life, I moved back to the countryside where my parents lived. With the money I'd saved, I bought farmland and a rice paddy near their house.
Thanks to my parents' connections and help, I avoided any local pushback and started growing rice, fruit, and vegetables. On my days off, I lived carefreely, thinking about nothing as I watched movies, anime, read manga, or dove into novels.
Five years passed. Summer grew longer, and the temperatures began to climb to terrifying levels.
The TV ran emergency broadcasts every day: We have now exceeded the one-degree rise scientists warned about or What is Earth's future? Our farm felt the impact too.
The abnormal weather left us short on water for the crops, and the scorching sunlight started burning the young rice plants.
"Good grief, the world really might be ending. It's insanely hot…"
"Yeah. At this rate, we might have to quit farming and move back to the city."
My parents sighed as they spoke. That year, our rice yield dropped visibly. Thankfully, the crops we grew in greenhouses suffered less damage.
Ten years after moving to the countryside, the heat intensified. The entire world began to buckle under food shortages.
Countries near the equator, along with populous and impoverished nations, started suffering from starvation, but the international community turned a blind eye.
Our country designated food as a strategic resource. The government began providing farmers with free water, agricultural machinery, and greenhouses that could filter UV rays. Rice prices skyrocketed.
"This is about to blow up big time," I muttered.
Government support and soaring crop prices meant I was making good money, but the international situation was deteriorating fast.
Our country was still relatively stable, yet in Africa, Central and South America, Southeast Asia, and India, people were dying of hunger in droves.
Desertification in China had progressed so severely that it could no longer feed its massive population.
It started receiving aid from Russia, but when that wasn't enough, it began threatening neighboring countries to sell their produce at cut-rate prices. The United States condemned China harshly.
That was when I felt a genuine sense of crisis. I went on a frenzy buying survival supplies and used the mini excavator the government had provided for farming to start building a bunker in my yard.
"Are you insane? Stop it!"
"Enough. Nothing's going to happen."
When the front yard turned into a mess, my parents tried to stop me, but I ignored them and kept digging.
A month later, they seemed to give up and said nothing more. With no expertise, relying only on books and the internet, the project took an enormous amount of time, money, and hardship.
But after three years, I somehow managed to build a sturdy bunker roughly 20 pyeong (about 66 square meters or 712 square feet). in size beneath the house, complete with double-layered doors.
I paid special attention to installing the generator, air purifier, water filtration system, and waste disposal unit.
I canned vegetables and fruit in glass jars and stored them in the bunker's warehouse.
I dried the rice thoroughly and packed it into plastic containers. Protein was the problem. In our country, almost all canned goods are fish, and long-lasting smoked or dried meats were impossible to find.
With food shortages driving prices up, I had no choice but to tearfully buy overpriced American beef jerky in cans.
For weapons, I believed they were essential, so I purchased a compound bow and arrows—the only legal weapon I could get here.
If apocalypse fiction taught me anything, it's that zombies or monsters aren't the scariest threat. People are.
Another four years passed. It had been seventeen years since I moved to the countryside.
In that time, my father's health deteriorated from overworking on the farm, and he passed away.
Before I could even grieve, North Korea collapsed, and ten million refugees flooded in. Our food situation worsened drastically.
The government declared a national emergency, announced that it would manage all food production, banned private food sales, and switched to a rationing system.
Soldiers began patrolling our farm at all times. They took whatever we produced and left us with a meager compensation. There was nothing my family could do.
The only silver lining was that the bunker remained undiscovered. Between rations and our stockpile, we managed to eat fairly well.
About half a year later, China and Russia started a war against the United States. Our government tried to avoid involvement under the pretense of stabilizing North Korea, but under relentless pressure from Japan and the U.S., it was forced to join.
Feeling threatened, China began launching nuclear weapons indiscriminately. World War III had begun.
I rushed to the farm to find my mother.
"Mother! Mother! The Chinese launched nukes! We need to get home now!"
"What? What are you saying?"
I grabbed her hand tightly and tried to move toward the bunker. Suddenly, the sky turned red, and a deep kukung rumble shook the ground violently.
"Damn it!"
I looked toward the sound and saw a mushroom cloud rising in the distance. It had to be Seoul.
"What is…?"
My mother collapsed on the spot.
"Mother, there's no time for this! We have to get home!"
Even though my mind was blank, I hurriedly carried her on my back and ran home. The moment we arrived, I opened the thick steel door of the bunker, settled her inside, and shut the double doors firmly behind us.
"Phew… The bunker walls and supplies are all intact."
I had stocked the bunker with enough supplies for three people to last ten years. I had assumed any war would end in five to seven years.
With my father gone, we had about one-third more reserves than planned, but government food restrictions had forced us to dip into our stock.
Roughly ten percent of our total supply was gone. Still, it was enough for the two of us to survive more than ten years.
"At this rate, we can hold out for twelve to fourteen years."
My mother was still in shock, sitting blankly on the bed.
"Mother, are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?"
"Ah… no, I'm not hurt."
I checked her over and confirmed she was unharmed, then turned on the TV to check the news.
There was no broadcast, only a red screen with a piercing beep and white text warning people to evacuate to shelters. Every channel showed the same thing.
I gave up, turned off the TV, and powered on the radio and laptop. I desperately needed outside information. The laptop had no internet connection and was useless.
The radio reported that hydrogen bombs had been dropped on Seoul and the Kori Nuclear Power Plant.
"Shouldn't we evacuate somewhere too?"
"Don't worry. This is safer than anywhere else in Korea right now. And we don't have to worry about water or food."
My mother seemed uneasy seeing the bunker for the first time, but once I showed her the warehouse full of survival supplies, she calmed down.
The next day, the radio announced that a provisional government had been established in Daejeon and that emergency food stockpiles would be released.
Anyone without shelter or food was told to gather in Daejeon. I had no intention of going.
After about three days, we felt several weak tremors in the bunker.
What's happening now?
I hurriedly turned on the radio, but it was completely dead. No matter which channel I tried, all I heard was static.
A month passed since we entered the bunker. From the radio that had only produced static, a man's voice suddenly came through faintly. I was relieved and also desperate for news, so I turned up the volume.
[(Crackle~) Ah, ah… I don't know if anyone can hear this, but Daejeon, where the provisional government was, and all the major cities have been nuked.
China and Russia, pushed back on the front lines, launched every nuclear missile they had at the United States and its allies.
Do not go near major cities. Radiation contamination is severe. The southern regions are especially bad, so be careful if you're moving. Good luck. (Click…)]
Wow… damn it. If that's true, even holding out for ten years won't be enough to survive. This is insane.