The Day Our Sun Doesn't Rise!

If you woke tomorrow to a sky filled with nothing but black, what would you do? With your days numbered and extinction approaching, how would you react?

If on a day like our own the sun fails to rise, what shall we do?

For certain the day our sun forgets to rise, such a story would explode onto headlining news. The first to put together the story of the epidemic would reap generous revenue.

Perhaps school may be canceled in the absence of our fiery god. With streets far too dark for travel, a trip to school would be decided a dangerous commute. Children will play in the night, waving flashlights about; running amongst fireflies and crickets working overtime.

If the sun refuses to rise on a day we’ve come to know, surely we must proceed with caution. Crime would climb to record breaking summits. The night will have grown heavier in the absence of Moon on what would be afternoon. Shops closed due to inclement sunlight and deathly blackened streets create the perfect crime. Thieves and muggers would scurry through the shadows, throwing bricks through display windows, and robbing widows and fellows. All the while, raccoons raid dumpsters and mice loot the lifeless bakeries, hungry for double portions.

If on a normal day that comes and goes the sun does not rise, the president must appear and explain what is going on, wouldn’t he? “Today, we live in darkness, but tomorrow is near. Tomorrow is where we shall see light, happiness, and cheer,” our leader would say; vague, but concise and clear. The people will applaud as the man finishes his remarks. He’ll step from upon his podium and into his bright lit jet, turning his back to the people shuffling home in the dark.

Bedtime approaches and people lay curious of tomorrow. Dreams so sweet float in and out of the minds of little ones’, while adults toss and turn in a feverish sweat. Traumatized by the darkness, night terrors set in from thoughts of their closing business.

If a tomorrow arrives like we’ve imagined, we find ourselves staring at a morning sky of black, what then? We’d stand curious with necks craned upward strained by confusion, waiting for the crack of a tardy dawn. A miniscule glimmer of sunlight would fill our hearts with hope, but nothing, not a hint of blue.

If on a tomorrow like we’ve lived before, the sun remains absent, we’d turn to what we know best and sell materials for PROFIT. People would set up stands along the streets selling t-shirts that read “Got blue”? Others selling snow globes painted black, retractable flashlights, and glowing glue! Environmentalist would gather in anger and pose picket signs with writing scrawled in paint, chanting “Save Our Blue”!

If on a tomorrow that we’ve grown to love the sun stays hidden, panic, confusion, and depression will start to sink in. The grass will begin to whittle and the trees will start to bend. Photosynthesis will long have been halted and our plants will begin to die. The people would pray to a god for a warmer, brighter tomorrow, but the earth will grow colder with no explanation of why.

If by next week still no sun has risen, we’d take to scientists to explain the frozen, irrational prison. “After CONTINUOUS examination, it appears we’ve left familiar orbit. The sun that kept us grounded in the only solar system we’ve ever called home, has vanished.” The mad men behind burners and beakers would explain.

If on the fourteenth day and still no sun, terror would break loose. Chaos would run the streets and nobody, not even the president, would know what to do. Nearly all vegetation has vanished during this rapidly approaching ice age. With the bottom of the food chain extinct, death begins its ascend to the top. Next, the animals die off, then you, we, and I too. Humanity will begin to cry when our food source runs dry. Despair invades the air making it difficult to breathe.

People would begin to propose ideas or survival tactics. “Perhaps we can dig to the earth’s core where it’s warm!” one may say. “We can live in submarines deep beneath the surface where we wouldn’t freeze!” suggests another. None but a few agree, while the rest have accepted their fate, seeming to stare blankly into the frozen eyes of doom. Death will approach our doorstep until the voice is heard of one lonely buffoon.

With the sun stolen and replaced with despair, a little boy sneaks into an abandoned radio station one icy black afternoon. Unpermitted, he transmits a message heard round the world. Everyone was listening, and you should too.

“Ladies and gentlemen, sons and daughters alike, I have something to say. We are freezing, starving, and our extinction is right around the corner, perhaps tomorrow not too sound gloom. In our final hours, ask yourselves, what will you do? What have you done? And what is still left for you to do?”

“Every business on earth has closed for good. Besides what is in our homes, there is nothing left for food. With the sun gone for so long, it’s a wonder we’ve survived this far. Men and woman, boys and girls, I propose an idea to you. It is something we need more than ever, especially with our days numbered to just two.”

“We must come together, help one another, your friend and a stranger too! We must lend a helping hand and love one another, it’s the only way, I promise its true!”

“Once this message comes to an end, I beg of you, head to the center of your towns with as many items as you can carry. Start the largest fire possible and keep one another warm. Feed the flames with items that hold no meaning until the fire stretches upward beyond belief! Feed as many people as you can with the food you have left to give. Bring spare coats and blankets too!”

“The trees have long been dead and are no good for burning. Anything you don’t need, every precious dollar you may own, throw it into the open flames! They’re useless unless for burning! I’m no good at closings, so people of earth I ask you again, what is left for you to do? Don’t think too hard, the answer is simple. We must love and help one another. That is all there is left to do, and what we should have been doing all along. Even before the extinction of our sun!”

“It seems to me, the single chance we have at survival is doing away with the one thing that has left us disconnected for centuries, and come together closer than we’ve ever known. If you are listening, thank you.”

The little boy fumbled his way out of the recording studio and made his way to the town center. Much to his surprise, he found himself approaching a fire roaring beyond imagination. With flames stretching and licking at the stars, he watched as the people of the city began tossing wooden dressers, tables, chairs, shoes, magazines, television sets, picture frames, bags of money, and excess clothing into the whipping and winding flames. The beauty was overwhelming, producing tears that were immediately frozen against the little boy’s cheeks.

Hot cans of beans, bowls of steaming soup, moist warmed bread, and delicious melted cocoa were being passed around in abundance to each of the city’s citizens. People began exchanging blankets, coats, and pillows too! Those who were once freezing were now warmer than they’ve ever been before. Handshakes, smiles, hugs, were bountiful among the people and became but a natural thing to do.

Though the sun has been absent for two weeks or more, to the people of the town the sky was shining brighter than anyone had ever witnessed. Their hearts beat louder, and levels of happiness were the highest they’ve been for centuries. It was estimated upon completion of the little boy’s speech, human extinction would take place just two days and some odd hours later.

They lasted for five.

If on a day like our own, the sun doesn’t rise, what ever will you do?

 

 

Thank you for reading! PLEASE, like or share your thoughts about this by leaving me a comment down below! Did you hate it? Let me know!

Reviews

[OctaBrain]

I like how you phrase things. It flows well.
The big issue with this story is that if anything ever happened to the sun, we'd all be dead before we knew something had happened.