Shineless...MicroFiction

There's this site called The Imagination Generator (just google it). It gives you a prompt to write from. The one that came up for me was "What if the sun didn't come up?" It prompted me to write this.

It's been months since the Earth stopped spinning. I haven't had a good nights sleep since. It isn't the light, I have the misfortune of living in the Western Hemisphere. It was night here when it happened. Those lucky bastards in the East have all the heat and daylight. It's the paranoia. It's gotten pretty barbaric everywhere.

They're trying to keep up appearances, mind you, but it isn't working. I just heard on the short wave that people keep assassinating everyone in the line of succession for the Presidency. I don't even think the Constitution specifies who's next. They've been winging it for a while now anyway. I didn't think it'd get this bad this fast. It's only been 3 1/2 months since "The Event" (as the tiny bit of media left is calling it). Within the first two weeks people started freaking out. The cold was setting in and companies were downsizing left and right. Really, they could've continued on, but everyone got scared. We had the feeling of the End Times. Wouldn't you?

First the companies started closing as their leaders just wanted to secure their own nest eggs and run for sunnier locations. I don't blame them, but it was just like dominoes. A few big corporations fall and then the rest follow suit. Then other countries quit trading with the frozen tundra that the US was becoming. So about a month in, hopelessness settled in. Those who ran in droves to Europe or Asia found that the Atlantic Ocean was frozen about halfway over. So you either had to try drag a boat over the icy expanse, which proved futile to most and they turned back due to hunger or death, or they tried to bring enough gasoline to drive the trek in a vehicle. Going westward, in theory, you could walk straight to India. Unfortunately, the lower common denominator of our society have taken to piracy. Unless your heavily armed and numerous, you're really at the mercy of lady luck. From what I hear she's quite the cunt.

The very lowest dregs of us have stayed in the cities of the east coast. Raping and cannibalizing for warmth and sustenance. The government, or what's left of it, is holed up deep inside some mountain refuge, pretending to plan our amazing turn around from lost world into Super Power again. It's not gonna happen, but at least the foolish can believe in something bigger than the horrors of the street. I can't lie and say I haven't fallen victim to the hopelessness myself. I've tasted human flesh. I've killed to protect my meaningless possessions. I've turned a blind eye to a teenage girl being sodomized in a frigid alley.

I've got a plan. I've heard rumors of a paradise in Afghanistan. Well, what used to be Afghanistan. Supposedly, it's become a melting pot of cultures. A Garden of Eden in this horrible fuckhole of a world. Half of it's freezing, the other half is sweltering. Maybe I can make it there and sleep through a night. It's gotta be better than just surviving.