The Burning World Author:J. G. Ballard WORLD WITHOUT WATER: "The drought" everyone called it, as day after day after day went by with no rain. All over the world it was still "the drought," though the rivers had turned to trickles, and the trickles to mud as the earth dried, cracked open, and crumbled into dust. Dust that was at first ankle-deep, then calf-deep, then knee-deep...Mo... more »st of the world's population streamed oceanwards, choking the highways by the millions as they all sought the same thing: the last of the water. And the sun beat down remorselessly on a world no longer capable of sustaining life...« less