in space?'

'I do wonder sometimes,' I replied. Maybe while we were inside the Black Hole, each day that passed was equivalent to 500 or a thousand years or something on earth. I don't want to get into much detail or I'll go crazy.'

'Why?'

'The night before we left for space. We waved our loved ones, family and friends goodbye. We will never see them again, they're dead,' I cried.

'True.'

'I don't even know where they were buried at. The most painful part is I never had time to grieve, because I thought this was a prank until reality hit home.'

'I hope we're not in a dream or in another realm.'

'Impossible. Anyway I'd like to propose a toast,' I said as I lifted the wine glass in the air. I feltis visible through the clouds. Then covered the sun and Appian turned dark in an instant. We glanced at each other in disbelief.

'That was quick,' said Charles.

'I was starting to think it's a good omen for me. A break of a new dawn in Appian, something like that.'

Charles shook his head as he glanced around the city.

From our luxurious presidential residence, we had a 180 degree view of Appian. We shook our heads witnessing what we already knew. Black smoke belched from almost all the dilapidated buildings and the stench was unbearable.

'How did John and Jessica sleep at night?' I asked.

'Yeah, by looking at this view, I feel miserable already.'

'What can we do.'

'I never thought I'd say this, but the effects of global warming has led to this