412 days. How long would this winter last? He replaced the kettle on the wood-burning stove and cupped his hands around the mint tea. "Only an hour more of stove time," he thought woefully. The IR scans would give him away beyond that.
Why did he even ask that question anymore?
He knew damn well this was the last winter, and there would never be any spring afterwards.
The Second Star started off faint, a glimmering light in the distant night. But every night, it grew brighter, and brighter, until everyone could see it during the daytime. And sometimes, there was no longer any night. Just heat and draught and never-ended summer, like the entire concept of a day was rendered into something of the past. Like when people 'hang up the phone'. They don't actually do that anymore, just a weird idiom left over from when they did.
Now people talked about nighttime, but that didn't really happen anymore. It was just an expression.
Those were a dry few years. A lot of people died. And they thought that was the height of misery.
Dying of dehydration, in the warmth. But, as the Second Star seemed ready to burn all of us to death, it began to leave. Every day, it got dimmer and dimmer and we got cooler and cooler.
But it wasn't the Second Star. The Sun got dimmer too.
Another Astral Body had entered, and was about to exit, our solar system. In doing so its' gravity destroyed the planetary orbits, and Earth was slowly being ejected from the solar system.
We all knew what was happening. We all knew that everyday was going to be colder than the last. Starvation was already rampant, and they were nearly at the orbit of where Mars would've been.
Soon the plants would stop growing.
And after that, there would only be stockpiled food, because no new food would ever be created.
But there was fuel. Wood and Coal and Hydrocarbons. Those things last a very long time.
And for the rich...
They had gone underground, with seeds and Nuclear Reactors. They might live for another few thousand years.
But up top.
We are stuck with a Winter that will never leave us.
It won't get better.
And I have enough stockpiled to know that I will starve to death.
Cold and Empty and Alone,
And Without Hope,
Of a Sunnier Tomorrow...
That is some high concept Sci Fi. Definitely got me thinking.
How do these prompts suit you?
All prompts be suited.
Writing is just fun when you get creative and shit.
I think up these and just have to get to the computer or phone to write them before I forget them. Sometimes I think of them when driving. Reading Heinlein short stories makes me think I could write something too
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