| abstract
| - Lucky souls who survived the Great Cataclysm remember a swift wind, colored black with uplifted earth, covering the ground with tens of meters of dust. Entire villages were buried; in the night, billions suffocated in their homes. Unlucky ones woke up to realize that they would soon be dead, as all their exits had been blocked by a killing storm, and tons of dust lay on top of them. Those who were lucky enough to face the cataclysm and survive were devastated by the widespread destruction. Within minutes, their world turned alien; roads, cars, houses, and trees lay hidden under the burial drift. Soft earth and gravel, tree trunks, boulders, and walls summarily torn from their foundation and hurled thousands of miles away... Most of those who could not escape to the higher floors of multistory buildings and skyscrapers were asphyxiated or killed by the flying debris. The apocalypse lasted mere minutes. On the impacted hemisphere, over 99% of the population perished.
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