The thick fumes from inside the old apartment began creeping into the streets. The old paint peeled off the wall as a last attempt to escape from the heat inside. The sixth fire this morning. The forty-eighth this week. The two-hundred-and-fourth this month. A city falling apart, a mother crying over lost love, a tree giving one last crack in defiance as it tipped over. All signs, all screaming at Aiden to get out, telling him to run as far as possible as fast as possible. All ignored. Rubble crunched under his feet with each step, remnants of a life that was no longer an option. Each flame that licked at the walls was another reminder he couldn't stay.

Aiden scoured the city for anything faster than walking, but almost every vehicle in sight was either stripped to the chassis for parts, torched beyond repair, or run into the ground by other survivors. Almost. A boxy SUV sat on the crumbling road, with only a smashed windshield. Aiden slipped his backpack off, unzipping it to pull out some small pieces of shrapnel he had been saving.
A way in.

Electronics were notoriously unreliable in extreme heat, and car manufacturers went to traditional mechanical locks instead. Locks vulnerable to a simple pick. The door creaked open, inviting Aiden to take refuge inside. He kept moving toward the west. Toward freedom. Away from the fires, the cries, the heat. He remembered the day news anchors and world leaders finally acknowledged the severity of the situation, the escalating heat, the rising danger. Only it was already too late to stop it.

The American dream really had become the Global nightmare. Greenhouse gases thickened the atmosphere, trapping heat and preventing its escape from Earth. That led to the Arctic melting, the water rising, more extreme weather phenomena, and eventually chaos. It was so hot that almost anything would light on fire at the slightest spark.

Buildings burning. Cities falling apart. People living in warmer cities were evacuated to colder ones, and eventually they had to relocate every few weeks. Only now those citizens had nowhere to go, and the world was crumbling around them. Aiden lived on, the only way he knew how. Run from the smoke.

CBC Books asked students to give us a glimpse of the great Canadian novel of the year 2174. They wrote the first page of a book set 150 years in the future, with the protagonist facing an issue that's topical today and set the scene for how it's all playing out in a century and a half.

Two winning entries — one from the Grades 7 to 9 category and one from the Grades 10 to 12 category — will be chosen by middle-grade author Basil Sylvester.

They are the co-author of the middle-grade novel The Fabulous Zed Watson and the recently published second book in the series, Night of the Living Zed.

Both winners will receive a one-year subscription to OwlCrate, which sends fresh boxes of books to young readers across Canada on a monthly basis. In addition, each winners' school libraries will receive 50 free YA books.

Last year's winners were Christian A. Yiouroukis for his story Where the Maple Leaf Grows and Bee Lang for their story One Question.

The winner will be announced on CBC Books on June 12, 2024.