[ WP ] Global warming was a real issue , and by the year 2300 , sea levels had risen over 60 feet . It is now the year 2600 , and global cooling has taken place and sea levels have returned back to previous levels . People set out to explore the land humanity once ruled .

A whoosh followed by a thump, it seems to echo through the dilapidated city. 
 
 Whoosh, thump. 
 
 Whoosh... Thump. 
 
 Looking up from her perch on one of the two story buildings, she watches her brother launch himself to another building. Whoosh, thump. This one crumbles slightly, dust and a few rocks fluttering into the water below them. 
 
 Stretching, she waves, barely feeling the once unfamiliar exoskeleton that is now like a second skin to her. The machines - developed years ago by someone nobody can really remember - are the man made equivalent of an evolutionary jump they all so sorely needed. Now, the metallic skeleton wraps securely around their limbs, armour and agility combined into one, removable at the end of the day. 
 
 Her brother waves back, hanging off the side of the building with ease, one foot buried deep into the structures walls, the other holding onto the roof. 
 
 She jumps, the force from her exoskeleton sending her twenty feet higher and the air whips through her hair, biting her cheeks before she lands with a less dramatic thump next to him. She helps him up, standing atop the mottled structure and taking in the scene. 
 
 Water still drowns the majority of the city, but the taller structures have broken free of the waters chokehold, revealing discoloured skyscrapers that remind her of the abandoned submarines and ships they found in the oceans surrounding here. 
 
 Clearly when the water was higher, the marine life made their own paths through the buildings, and now the sun shines through the numerous holes in the structures, highlighting the dripping frames. 
 
 `` Creepy, huh?'' 
 
 She nods, twirling, `` Fascinating though.'' 
 
 Her brother nods, scratching his chin. They can still hear the others jumping from building to building, taking video logs of their surroundings to bring back to the base. This place is still on its way out of the Wipeout that happened so many years ago now, but pulling out her own recorder, they have more than enough technology available to make this a utopia again, above water until it drains away. 
 
 It's beautiful really, nothing like this back home. 
 
 Echoes of humanity are etched into the area, and making sure she catches every nuance of her quadrant, she basks in the history of it all. The Wipeout cleansed the city, but still her heart is heavy when she sees the graffiti marring the walls, the multicoloured but washed out ads surrounding the lower areas. 
 
 `` We best be going, there's no telling when one of these things,'' her brother punctuates this by kicking the ground, `` Will go down on us.'' 
 
 `` Yeah...'' Closing the recorder, she's unhappy with the prospect of leaving, but they have what they need. The helicopter lowers the platform, allowing them to jump to it. As they fly off into the distance, she breathes in the damp smell of the forgotten city. 
 
 They'll be back, someday. 

