By humanity’s 288th new century, the world had lost its seasons, its cloudy and sunny days, and the gentle boundaries between day and night.
Since the start of early spring in March, the sky had fallen utterly silent and turned crimson.
The once-clear blue sky screen had been sealed off by a dense, scorching, motionless glow of blood-red light. For thousands of miles there were no clouds, no wind, only blazing light that seemed to set heaven and earth aflame. The sun high in the heavens had long since ceased to behave like an ordinary star. No longer a source of light that nurtured all life, it had become a ball of molten iron set ablaze by primeval force. Its crimson-orange, golden flames burst and churned in layer after layer, cascading down through an atmosphere thinned and ravaged by extreme heat, indiscriminately crushing, scorching, and burning the entire land.
There was no dawn, no dusk, no turning of stars and moon.
