Friday Fictioneers : The Long Night falls

PHOTO PROMPT © Danny Bowman

 

The sun was low by the time Alison made it out of the city. The streets had been clogged with traffic since the alarm sounded, every lane blocked by dumped cars. In the end, she’d left the Ford and joined a river of humanity drawn to the desert. Beyond the concrete and steel, things felt calmer, voices hushed over the sound of feet stumbling through sand.

A last emerald flash of sunlight and the Long Night fell.

She thought of all those she’d loved as the frost furred her lashes and the cold grew hard. Finally, her heart slowed, stilled.

 

Written for Rochelle Wisoff-Field’s Friday Fictioneers. See here to join in and to read the other tales.

The ’emerald’ sunset refers to a phenomenon called the Green Flash. See here.

 

65 thoughts on “Friday Fictioneers : The Long Night falls”

      1. This is really interesting as I never thought of it that way. Though perhaps with everything that’s happening in the world, it’s no surprise that so many of you thought this way. Thanks for reading Varad

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  3. Oh, the dread of the “emerald flash”. True fear of the nuclear winter is envisioned in this piece. So very real that I can feel the frost on my eyelashes. Wait, did I see a flash of green… ah, it’s just a tree in the wind. Shewww, that was close.

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  7. Splendid! “Green Flash!” Never heard of it, but enjoyed the video. Observed our sun when we were at the beach last week, as it went that wobbly/oblong shape. Nice to read you! Bill

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    1. Thanks Bill. I’ve never witnesseed a green flash either, but then living in the city, the sun gets eaten by high rise blockes before it hits the horizon. Love the sound of a wobblu oblong sun though 🙂

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    1. Well, I had in mind that the sun was snuffed out somehow and that she went into the desert because it was a lovely place to be at the end and maybe it would get cold more quickly without the buildings to shield her. Without the sun the Earth would be damn cold 🙂 Thanks Joy

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      1. Eep, that’s a chilling (ha ha, pun not intended) thought! I’ll bet there are people who could calculate exactly how long it would take for the earth to freeze if the sun suddenly disappeared, but I’m not one of them. I’ll go with “quicker than you’d like.” 🙂

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      2. Or maybe ‘not quite quick enough’? If I’m gonna go, I’ll quickly thanks 🙂 I could Google that stat – I’m sure it’s out there – but I won’t as the sun is shining here and the sky is a lovely blue!

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    1. Ah, thanks Dale. Yes, we can but hope we all aned with that gentle walk, rather than some of the other options. I’d rather like to go dozing on a beach, the sound of waves rushing in my ears.

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  19. Wow, you really lead me down a dark path. There was some really nice imagery in this and some how I felt her death was peaceful. Nicely done.

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  23. beautiful , Lynn.
    Could it be that Alison is suffering from a terminal illness and wondering how her last cold moments would be ?
    Thanks for the video on ’emerald flash’

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    1. Could be, Moon. Could just be she wants to be somewhere beautiful at the end, to feel a contact with nature outside of the concrete and steel. Thanks so much for the kind comment

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    1. You weren’t the only one, though I didn’t have a nulcear war in mind when I wrote it, so I wonder if what’s going on in the world has informed people’s reading of it. Thanks so much for reading 🙂

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      1. It could be. Also, a lot of dystopian fiction seems to have nuclear war (or zombies or both, hehe) as their source so that might just be going with the expected. The green flash made me think of a detonation of some type, I think.

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      2. Ah, yes, I think the flas took a few people that way. And you have to love dystopia with zombies and nuclear war – way to throw everything at the human race! 🙂

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