Location · Inadaptable Zone (Category 2)
Kishanganj
The town where Serenity Junction sits. Once lush-green fields, now a Category 2 inadaptable zone — 55.6°C average surface temperature and a population down 43% since 2060.
The sun scorches the dusty streets. Fields that were once lush-green bear the brunt of it, turned to arid patches with cracks running deep.
Environmental snapshot — Kishanganj sector, 2074
| Average surface temperature | 55.6°C |
| Average max indoor temp (non-cooled) | 49.1°C |
| Precipitation, annual | 61% below 2020 baseline |
| Child malnutrition | 63% (est.) |
| Primary food source | rations via damaged dispenser grid; black-market hydration pods |
| Predominant climate risks | fatal heatstroke, aquifer collapse, airborne fungal spores, PM2.5: 312 |
| Local designation | Inadaptable zone (Category 2) |
| Population change since 2060 | −43% |
Emergency cooling shelters are mandatory for survival.
Inadaptable is an administrative word, and it is doing a great deal of work. It does not mean uninhabited. Roughly half the people are still there, running a tea stall at the end of the platform and arguing about the bus timetable at 49°C indoors.
What the designation actually records is that the state has stopped planning for them.
What is underneath it
This used to be a coordination node. That’s why the comms lines still hum underground. Superheroes came through here once, headed to rescue missions that failed.
— Nandini
Most of what still works in Kishanganj was salvaged: helmets no longer worn, boots that used to hover, devices that once scanned loyalty. The infrastructure of the hero era, stripped for parts and put to use by the people it was supposed to save.
The heat isn’t just in the air. It’s in the memory of the ground.
— Station-side proverb, Kishanganj