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Paris, France. February 2036.

   It was early morning, and due to anxiety Nadine had woken up before the sun rose. They had spent the night sheltered in a small decoration shop. The door to the street didn't offer extreme security, but she preferred that to a building where they could have been drowned on the other floor without them knowing anything.

   The shop was small, a large sign with beautiful handwritten cursive lettering read: 'Magenta.' From the outside it felt like peering into a cozy home through the window, the furniture arranged as if it were a real house; but when you walked through each room you had to walk with one foot in front of the other due to the lack of space. Unlike many shops they had passed by, this one was still standing. Nadine didn't understand the point of stealing sofas or lamps when the world seemed to be ending.

   With care not to awaken Wilfred, who slept in a large iron bed, she got up and walked between the dining room and the kitchen. Dreamily, she centered the empty vase on the wooden table, ran her hand along the countertop, adjusted the knobs of the useless stove, and opened the empty fridge. She continued her way to the living room, approached the sofa from the back, passing one leg and then the other over the backrest.

   As she crossed her legs on the pink sofa, Wilfred mumbled in his sleep while his stomach growled angrily. Nadine watched him until he settled down again, then she glanced towards the turned-off television as she covered her body with a blanket. Behind the TV was the storefront, which faced the street. Not much could be seen due to the dirt and the cold, but the effect of light it generated was reassuring.

   She stayed there to watch the sunrise. She managed to see the silhouette of the sun peeking behind their destination. The ice on the glass melted quickly, carrying much of the dust with it, allowing for a clear view. Nadine followed with her gaze the little light that managed to filter through the clouds, observing every detail of the building they were heading towards. Its columns, its grand dome, and its statues, which had fascinated Wilfred so much that he had clapped with excitement. Seeing the simple happiness of the child, Nadine had started to jump in circles while laughing with her little friend.
   With a smile at the warm memory of the previous day, she stood up, rummaged in her bag until she found the last tin of preserves that a tall, charismatic woman had given them. Seeing the surprise of the girl at finding food in good condition and the little skinny boy accompanying her, she hadn't been able to resist.

   Their entire journey had been through the countryside, where people hardly consumed canned food; the little they had, they had taken with them. There, everyone bought fresh food from the shops in their villages. When such a thing still existed.

   She turned towards the bed to wake up Wilfred. It was empty. Fear ran down her spine. A noise distracted her, she looked towards the dining room. Wilfred was sitting on the dining chair, with swollen and closed eyes, his sweaty hair sticking to his face. He yawned while rubbing one of his eyes, twisting his glasses in the process. With his spare hand he moved his hermit crab. Wilfred changed its name twice a day.

   "Good morning, sweetheart."

   "Good morning, Mommy," the still sleepy child responded.

   Nadine's heart squeezed. The child's stomach pains caused him to have a fever during the night; in his dreams, he called out to members of his family. Nadine had counted almost eight names. Wilfred looked better since they had arrived in the city; now he only vomited once a day, during the time when the sun heated most intensely.

   She sat down beside him, kissed his forehead, and handed him breakfast. On a plate she had served lentils and carrots.

   "Thank you, Nadi," he said, now more awake.

   He took a bite, which made him nauseous due to his stomach condition, but he managed to hold it in. He smiled and mentioned that it was really delicious. Then, he handed the spoon to Nadine.

   "Oh, don't worry! I already had breakfast while you were still asleep," Nadine lied with a smile.

   While the little one enjoyed his breakfast, Nadine took one of the board games she found in what seemed to be the child's room, and set it up on the table carefully. The game involved stacking wooden pieces into a tall tower, with each player taking turns to remove one piece at a time; the one who made the tower collapse lost.
   When the tower fell for the fourth time on Wilfred's turn, the boy asked if they could play hide and seek, his favorite game. Nadine stood up, took the empty plate and spoon to put them in the sink, giving herself time to think.

   "Okay, let's see if you can beat me."

   They played for hours, hide and seek, riddles, built forts with bed sheets, and told fantasy stories until they were exhausted. They sat on the floor, under the dining table, surrounded by cushions and sheets simulating walls. In silence, they looked into each other's eyes. Wilfred with a serene face, Nadine with an expression resembling suspicion; a tear fell down her cheek, then she blinked.

   "You lost!" Wilfred shouted as he squeezed his eyes shut repeatedly.

   "Oh mon Dieu*!..." Nadine laughed as she rubbed her eyes and elongated the vowels. "How do you do it?"

   "The staring contest is my spelialty," he said with humorous arrogance.

   "Well, my spelialty," the young woman repeated, "is beating you at hide and seek..."

   Feigning annoyance, he replied, "I didn't know my feet were showing."

   As expected, it ended in a pillow fight. In a moment of carelessness, Wilfred's cushion slipped through his fingers, causing the boy to punch her directly in the face. He immediately brought both hands to his mouth, with wide eyes, he looked at her. Nadine, mouth open in surprise, began to laugh, and the boy joined in. With so much laughter, one of the walls of the fort collapsed, revealing that the sun was setting.
   The boy looked at the window, which quickly froze over, confused, he mentioned the fact that they had forgotten to go to the shelter, while hugging Nadine. She responded affirmatively, admitting they had forgotten.

   In fact, she had decided to give the little one a day off. She had known him for a month, and he had been poisoned by food for a month, even before that, from what he told her. She didn't know what they would find at Pangea headquarters. She wanted to give him a day of something resembling normality.

   After putting everything back in its place, they sat hand in hand on the sofa to watch the sunset, the beginning of the night. The days were quite dark due to the little sun that managed to filter through the dense clouds, but the darkness during the cold hours was like the ocean at night.

   The boy's deep sobbing tore her from her sleep. He sat on the sofa, having vomited a little, awakened by a nightmare. Immediately, she pulled him close to her chest, trying to calm him down.

   "Daddy!" he cried in pain. "Daddy, don't hurt yourself!"

   His screams were painful, his voice grew hoarse at the end of each sentence. He cried with his mouth wide open, hitting his legs with his hands. He kept repeating "stop" over and over again, begging his absent parents to stop.   It took several long minutes for him to calm down, crying softly. Amidst sobs, he repeated the same phrases to Nadine over and over again:

   "Daddy answered his phone and then hit himself a lot, a lot. Mommy got scared and wanted him to stop, but she couldn't. Why did Daddy make Mommy unable to move anymore?"

   "Shh, calm down," she whispered softly, holding him close as she carried him to bed, their tears mingling.

   "Daddy also stayed still. I asked them to get up, but they wouldn't even open their eyes."In bed, cuddled up, Wilfred repeated the same phrases until he fell asleep again. Complete silence enveloped them, only their breaths and the boy's stomach could be heard.

   Nadine cried silently until she fell asleep.

*Oh mon Dieu: "oh my god" in French.

...

Paris, France. March 2036.

   They gathered their belongings and cautiously left the shop. Despite the rough night they had both endured, they felt recharged with energy and optimism. The previous day had been wonderful with all those games, Wilfred mentioned over and over again. He didn't look good, was paler than ever, his dark circles seemed twice as big as the day before, and traces of yellow could be seen around the iris of his eyes. Despite his sickly appearance, his spirits were bursting with health.

   They walked for half an hour to the door of the opera house, where a sign hung clearly stating: Pangea. The building looked like something out of a fairy tale. Wilfred counted the columns at the front with his chubby fingers, while Nadine was completely mesmerized by such an architectural masterpiece, unaware that she began to tell the boy about the building:

   "Look, an uncommon detail is that the building doesn't have a main door, observe that there are many arches, not just one main one," she spoke unintentionally fast. "If you look closely, you'll see the windows where the attic is. The architect used different types of marbles to create that multicolored but harmonious effect. I love it!"

   Distracted, she lowered the boy from her arms to gesticulate better as she explained, as if it were a class, she spoke non-stop about the architect's different choices. Why he had chosen those columns and not more detailed ones, and why he had decided not to use certain marble.

   "That's called a dome, isn't it beautiful? It used to be blue and turquoise," she finished while taking a deep breath. Speaking for ten minutes straight without stopping certainly leaves you breathless, she thought. The boy, accustomed to her eccentricity and obsession with architecture, smiled and pointed out that the statues were his favorite thing about the building.

   Nadine was about to respond when someone lunged at her, throwing her to the ground. The boy screamed as he covered his eyes with his little hands. Nadine, gripped by terror, looked at her attacker, who was on top of her, raising closed fists, preparing to strike her face. By his expressionless and colorless eyes, she knew it was a drowned person. Before it could land the blow, it was sent flying to the right, propelled by a firefighter's ax, which had struck it directly in the neck, leaving the head hanging by a thread.

   The girl got up and looked at the boy; he was still in the same position, safe. She called him, and he ran into her arms, relieved. While hugging him, she looked at her savior.

   She appeared to be around twenty-three years old, standing at a distance, calmly handling her ax with great dedication, behaving as if they weren't there. Moles could be seen on her face, her complexion was white, but sun-tanned. Her eyes were a dark bluish-green, the left one more squinted than the right. She wore her brown hair in a long braid, which hung over one of her shoulders.   After two minutes, Nadine decided that someone had to start the conversation.

   "Um... Thank you," she said.

   In response, the girl diverted her gaze from her sharp tool. She looked at Nadine, raised her thumb in a sign of okay, smiled for a second, hiding her thin lips, and resumed her task. Nadine watched her for a moment, then turned to look at the drowned person; surprised, she stared into they open eyes, which had regained their color and life despite lying in a pulseless body. They seemed at peace.

   The stranger turned around and began walking towards Pangea's headquarters, the former Opera Garnier. Nadine hurriedly stood up, took the boy's hand and began walking behind her.

   "Sorry! Are you from Pangea?"

   "Yes, I founded it," she replied. She had a strange way of speaking, as if she didn't pay much attention. From the expression in her eyes she seemed to be thinking about important things.

   Silence. Her lack of cooperation gave the impression that she didn't want to be bothered, but they hadn't gone that far to not be able to enter.

   "My name is Nadine, this is Wilfred..."

   The girl stopped walking and looked at them carefully. A few seconds passed, then it seemed as if she remembered something and raising her palm in greeting, she introduced herself:

   "Greta, a pleasure," she said in Swedish, and then continued in French, placing a finger on her temple: "Sorry, a lot of business... Do you want to enter the headquarters?"

   "Eh, yes, of course. That's what we are here, thank you very much, really." Nadine hurried to respond, Wilfred repeated like a little parrot: "thank you very much, really."

   Once inside, a large circular hallway could be seen. The floor was decorated with marble mosaics, the walls carved, statues everywhere. The place was clean, and the few things that were not in perfect condition had been fixed as best as possible.   They walked behind Greta, who seemed absorbed in her thoughts.

   Nadine did not imagine that she would find the building in that state, nor did she imagine how few people were inside. They had only come across two people, who were carrying heavy boxes, they smiled at them and continued on their way.
   They were already at the foot of the stairs. At this, Wilfred was amazed. Nadine had been there more than once, before the pandemic. They began to climb.

   "The staircase is beautiful, right? One of the most splendid spaces in the building due to its design, its height and the diversity of the materials used... Marbles, onyx, copper..." Nadine began to tell the little boy in a low voice. Pointing to the ceiling where various crystal chandeliers hung, she continued, "Magnificent paintings... Olympus, Apollo, Orpheus..."

   "I see you know a lot about the subject," Greta interrupted, as she stopped halfway down the stairs, where it divided into two separate paths.

   "Yes, i was going to be an architect." Shyness could be felt in her words.

   "Bra*... I have to go prepare everything, the next trip to the shelter will be in a week . This place is just passing through. The shelter is located in Iceland. There people can form a new permanent home.

   »Pangea existed long before the pandemic, in fact, it has existed since 2027. As a teenager I became an activist against climate change, I even left school." The Swede began to release the information while she stood in front of them. "Pangea was created in '27, because from that moment on the climate crisis caused by global warming became inevitable. Long before, my team and I tried to warn the great authorities and the people, but few listened. Those who listened, followed us.

   »The only thing that changed two years ago, when the pandemic began, was that we finally had people's attention. The smartest countries joined the cause, along with countless other organizations." Greta gave that speech that had already been recited to too many travelers to count. "A year later, they handed over control to us, since we had been ready for a long time.

   »The human race has destroyed the planet to the point that there is no turning back. I'm sorry to tell you that this will never end. We can get ahead, believe me, by changing many aspects of our lives and our values. But I just want you to understand that this is the new reality of planet earth. Nothing will ever be the same again...

   »I have to go," Greta suddenly blurted out after her speech. She had kept her face with an almost non-existent smile. After announcing her retirement she gave them a wider smile. This time she showed her teeth, small, a little crooked. "Leonardo will help you two."

   She began to climb the stairs from the left wing.

   "Goodbye Wilfred, goodbye Nadine. See you soon." Greta finished before disappearing down a hallway.

   Leonardo was waiting for them at the end of the right wing of the stairs, he was the fourth person there. He was an old man with a sweet smile, with dark skin and white hair, a light beard covered part of his face. He was dressed formally, as if he had just come home from work. Despite his age, he was in good shape.   They approached him, who received them with a warm welcome. He explained the facilities to them, how they were handled inside and outside, until they reached a large locked door. Crossing the door was a long hallway, which was with built in a circular shape; The end of the hallway was also the beginning. They walked to the right a few meters to another door. This hallway surrounded the stadium, which was behind the door. Adults, teenagers and the elderly walked through the facility, performing different tasks. Nadine managed to count fifteen people in total.

   "There aren't many volunteers, since there isn't much to give if you have nothing," Leonardo mentioned while he searched his pockets for the correct key. "There are many refugees, but they are not yet ready to volunteer... you'll see."

   Behind the door there was a great commotion. Nadine was not able to identify what caused those sounds. In her mind she imagined a countless group of people screaming, laughing, crying and running. She started sweating because of her nerves.   Leonardo put the key in the lock, turned it three times and a sound of gears told them that they could now pass. The man stepped aside and let them pass, entering last and closing behind him. The strange sounds that could be heard inside frightened Wilfred, who extended his arms upward, closing and opening his hands. Knowing the gesture, Nadine took him into her arms.

   They were in the main upper tier of the stadium, they could only see the curtain. In silence they walked between the brown seats, until they reached the railing. Nadine had a lot to say, but she couldn't get the words out of her mouth.

   She just looked with her tear-filled eyes at Leonardo, who was smiling placidly.

   "Wilfred, look," the man said, gently touching the boy's shoulder.

   The little boy took off his protector's shoulder and looked down.   Hundreds and hundreds of children were playing and shouting with joy. They jumped between the chairs, drawing while sitting on the floor. Some slept on the mattresses placed on the stage. Paper airplanes flew into the room, imaginary dragons were fought with cardboard swords. The only adults in the room, besides Nadine and Leonardo, were about six people in the smaller upper tiers. They took care of the babies and younger children, while at the same time they controlled the children who were playing from above.   Below, four preteens helped ensure the children's safety.

   It was the most beautiful disaster you could ever see in your life.

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*Merci: thank you, in French.
*Bra: Okay, in Swedish.