THE THERMAL APOCALYPSE

The Thermal Apocalypse: Six Months After Impact.

The Event: "The Tear".

Exactly 187 days ago, the meteorite dubbed "Tear" by the first survivors did not impact the Earth directly, but fragmented in the upper atmosphere, releasing an unprecedented amount of dust and aerosols that forever altered the atmospheric composition. What the scientific community could not foresee was that this interstellar dust would act as a catalyst, weakening the ozone layer and allowing radiation to transform weather patterns within weeks.

Today, the planet no longer experiences seasons. Only two phases exist: the "Solar Hammer" (day) and the "Night Claw" (night).

Life in the Extremes:

The Solar Hammer (Day):

From sunrise to sunset, mercury climbs to 67°C (152°F) in the shade. The light doesn't just burn: it dehydrates in minutes. The first days after the Tear, people ignored the warnings. They went out to look for supplies or simply didn't believe the weather could become so hostile so quickly. We call them the "Dawn Burned." Their silhouettes still remain on the streets, frozen in grotesque positions by the thermal shock of the first night that followed that infernal first day.

The Night Claw (Night):

When the sun sets, the temperature plummets to -45°C (-49°F) within an hour. The residual humidity crystallizes instantly. The trees, already dead, burst with dry cracks that sound like gunshots. The pipes in ghost cities are just cylinders of burst ice. The few streetlights still running on generators create distorted light halos from the freezing air; sometimes, the cold is so extreme that the filaments simply snap.

Infrastructure and Resources: The Economy of Cold and Heat.

The Energy Dilemma:

Survival depends on a single resource: fossil fuel. The generators, nicknamed "Tin Hearts," roar day and night. During the Solar Hammer, they power A/C units in precarious shelters; during the Night Claw, they bring life to heaters.

But diesel and gasoline have become liquid gold. Gas stations were looted in the first month. Now, fuel is extracted from forgotten tanks, abandoned vehicles, or, in desperate cases, from oil pipelines tapped on the surface with special suits.

Solar panels, which were the initi