Then came the clouds. Dark foreboding clouds. On the heals of the clouds came night. Frightened animals ran amuck, from the creatures of the forest to the animals in their pens, to the beasts held captive at the zoo. In the cities, an eternal twilight was created by the ever shining city lights. The sky ceased to exist, only a dull gray at the horizon that slowly faded into an impenetrable black.

    Then came the rain. Day after day. the heavenly faucet kept pouring forth it's elixir of depression. When it wasn't raining, pouring or drizzling there was a mist of precipitation blanketing the land, adding to the gloom.

    Then came the snow. Grayish-black crystalline fractals of water. Some people used to say that they could smell snow, or tat least when it was coming. Now everyone can smell it. It's not a totally unpleasant smell. I guess that's because we're all getting used to it, now.

    The came the burning disease. Boils, cancers, tumors, and the such. No one knew the cause, or, if they did, they weren't telling. Prophecies of the end spewing forth from the mouths of charlatans, "The desert, the desert!" they say. "That is where you will find you salvation!" People flocked there in droves. All that was ever found there was a mile wide circular stretch of greenish-gray glass, fused into the living earth itself.