As is the case with most things, nearly everyone was wrong when it came to how the world would end. Giant Meteor, Nuclear Holocaust, Massive Volcanic eruption, Super-storm, Global warming influenced weather, et al. tended to be the most popular theories. Smaller, but just as vocal, groups insisted God or Aliens would descend to earth and end it all. Fascination with the apocalypse has been central to Human mythologies, because once someone starts thinking about the how and why something started, they tend to jump to thinking about how it will end. Movie and book plots, sports, games, people placed bets that amounted to predicting what would happen, but when the biggest gamble of all came up, everyone lost. The end of the world came, not with a bang, but along the quietest of whispers. We, as humans, are self-involved to an almost narcissistic level. The Winnowing, as it would eventually be called, affected everything on earth, from the rocks to the plants to every animal, but we named it the winnowing for how it affects us people. We fell like chaff in the fields during harvest season, only with no farmer to pick us up and direct those that remained. And those that did remain, well they were changed.
Hindsight is 20/20, and so looking back, there was a veritable mountain of evidence that the Winnowing was happening. It wasn’t a dramatic BOOM and everything was different, it slowly crept through the earth, into the plants, through the animals. It was first noticeable in the earth, the only observations about any changes that were being noted were one that have the possibility of impacting people.
As with the Winnowing’s effect on various minerals, it wasn’t until it started affecting our food crops that the scientific community really started to pay attention to the shifts happening in the plant world. Mass extinction of various plant species were being recorded by botanists, too quickly for anyone to properly catalog and publish the data. Botanists would be measuring and characterizing growth one day and by the next morning the entire nursery would be infected. The infection moved rapidly through plant populations like a plague of locusts, the trademark spiderweb-like black necrosis tracing it’s way though leaf, stem, and root. Day by day, dozens of species would be declared completely extinct, wiped out by rapidly progressing, yet unknown illness. Around six months after the Winnowing had been first noted in plants, a nursery out the Carolinas region of the United states notice some of their venus fly traps had begun recovering from the infection. Not just recovering, these plants seemed to have changed, continuing their growth far beyond the realm of what should have been possible for their species. To keep pace with this new growth, the botanists increased the size and number of insects being fed to the plants, even going so far as to begin feeding them small mice. These botanists put forward a theory on the Winnowing, stuffed away in a report on this seemingly new carnivorous plant species. This theory posited that the Winnowing was not simply killing every infected thing came into contact with, rather it was radically altering the physiochemical make-up of the species, with a small fraction of some species able to take these changes in stride and death for those who could not. Debate raged back and forth, with many botanists, frustrated with their own experiments collapsing due to the Winnowing, calling the entire report a fraud. This theory, and the reaction to it, should have been front and center of the scientific community on the divisiveness alone.
By the time this report was published, the Winnowing had started to affect animals. Snakes, rats, moles, livestock animals like cows and sheep, even cats and dogs, none were spared the ravage of the Winnowing. If anyone thought to be worried about the massively shrinking food supply, they soon found “relief”. The Winnowing had come for Humans. It attacked quickly, with no discernable mechanism of infection, laying waste to entire communities. Towns tried blockading, full quarantine, creating makeshift Biological Clean rooms, but the Winnowing kept marching on. Terrible and swift. The one silver lining for those not yet infected was the Winnowing didn’t leave bodies around to allow for decomposition. As the telltale black webbing spread across the skin, like a late-stage sepsis patient, over time the infect person would be covered entirely, eyes and all. Once dead, their remains would collapse in on themselves, like a pile of ash, and scatter. There were a few survivors, with no common thread running through them. Even if there was one to be found, there weren’t enough left to perform the tests or analysis. Entire governments collapsed, power-grids shut down, and the world ground to nothing.
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Oil and Gas United
Report: 35-7893
Division: Quality Control and Development
Date: 03-17-2038
Regarding samples analysis S-031138-00158 for ASTM D2699 and ASTM D2700 Octane rating. Octane results came back significantly lower than the expected 89. Additional samples from the batch were pulling, and analysis performed by another technician on another instrument and the rating remains the same. As is, the batch is not available for release. Given the drastic nature of the decline in Octane rating, replacement of all instruments may be necessary should the following batches continue to show reduced octane rating.
Regards,
Bethany Wilder
Senior Director of Quality Control
Oil and Gas United
Report: 35-8123
Division: Quality Control and Development
Date: 03-23-2038
Regarding sample analysis S-032338-00035 for ASTM D2699 and ASTM D2700 Octane rating. New batch shows continued decline in octane rating, now half the previous batch. Complete replacement of instrumentation is recommended, while samples from both batches are being sent to outside labs for testing. As is, neither batch can be approved for release before the sample analysis can be complete, and the octane rating falling within product specifications. Further analysis of these type of samples is to be handled solely by Research and Development
Regards,
Bethany Wilder
Senior Director of Quality Control
Oil and Gas United
Report: 35-8537
Division: Research and Development
Date: 03-30-2038
Rush outside testing continues to confirm the in-house analysis results, indicating that both instrumentation and technicians are performing the analysis properly. Sample S-033038-00005 from the new batch have undergone the octane testing and the pattern on continued, dramatic decline in result is now confirmed. Every new batch of gasoline seems to be less potent than the last, declining sharply in the energy that it releases under combustion. Coordination with R&D labs throughout the industry has confirmed that this is not an isolated incident within the company, rather it seems to be an industry wide issue. No product has been released in the last month, an this is beginning to grab the attention of various groups with investment in the industries continued well-being.
Sincerely,
James Williams
VP of Research and Development
Solar Anytime
Report: 138-11
Date: 03-10-2038
Newest batch of manufactured panels has a reported voltage output significantly lower than acceptable range. Analysis will be rerun offsite, but batch may need to be discarded due to faulty manufacturing.
Jesse Abrams
Director of Quality Control
Solar Anytime
Report: 139-03
Date: 03-17-2038
Newest batch is having the same voltage output issues as the previous one. Reached out to the manufacturing plant regarding any process deviations and they’re seeing the same issues from panels coming off the line. We will need to find another manufacturing source until their facility can determine what the issue is.
Jesse Abrams
Director of Quality Control
Solar Anytime
Report 140-16
Date: 03-25-2038
RE: Decreased Voltage Output
After reaching out to multiple distributors and manufacturers, this problem doesn’t seem to be localized. Manufacturers in multiple countries, with diverse raw material sources, are all reporting the same issue of decreased power output. With the recent uptick in business, we don’t have the inventory to continue sales. Per Jesse’s report, the voltage output from all the newest batches is so low that it barely going passed the Limit of Detection on the monitors. We need to discuss a potential shutdown until the raw material problem can be sorted out. Considering the scale, this might end up being an industry blackout.
Angela Bleesie
Vice President of Manufacturing