Prologue – Episode 3 Melbourne, Australia Friday, 6 August 2010, 8:30 am The house shook. Then came the sound of an explosion. I threw on some jeans and ran outside. The air was surprisingly mild for a winter's morning. I remember feeling quite comfortable, even though I was barefoot and had just a grubby old singlet on. I also remember feeling deeply embarrassed that I had just a grubby old singlet on. Luckily none of the neighbours were around to see me. I was struck again by the "typical sounds of morning". Well, more specifically, the complete absence of them. I listened for the neighbours' stupid mutt that always barks when I walk up my driveway, but there was no sound. I listened for the sound of birds, but there was none. I listened for the steady stream of cars on nearby Dover Road. Nothing. I reached the top of my driveway and looked down the road. In the distance, maybe two kilometres away, a huge plume of black smoke towered into the early morning sky. As I watched, an enormous fireball rose over the tree-line. "Oh," I said. And that was about all I could manage. It was an extraordinary sight...made even more extraordinary by the fact that I was the only person out there watching it. There were no neighbours standing in huddled clumps gawking up at the sky. No children asking their parents what was happening. And, most significantly, no sound of sirens echoing through the suburban streets. It was just me, standing alone. So that was my introduction to the day life on Earth vanished without a trace. The day humankind became an endangered species. The 6th of August, 2010. Extinction Day. E-Day. First published: Tuesday, 6 April 2010 Credits: Rodan by Jepe Topmodel Kit 3 Underwear by outoftouch, Bice, ilona Pants from DAZ3D Character rendered in Poser Pro Background photography from multiple sources Composited and postwork in Photoshop CS4 Notes: The background was made by compositing together a photo of my street with several fire, explosion and smoke photographs sourced from the Internet.