Lights Out

The day came when the fire finally went out. They were cold after that.  And it was dark. The people wandered through the caves, bumping into each other and apologizing. They were used to eating only canned food by then, but now they didn’t even get to choose. When they got hungry each person took a can and opened it with their personal can opener. Yuck, someone might say, peaches. Someone else would have Spaghettios. Or cold soup. Or broth. They figured it balanced out, nutrition-wise.

The cold was harder to fix. People started paring up, though again, the selection was random.  John thought the body beside his was Mabel, but when he realized it was Sam he didn’t mind. Sam turned out to be warmer than Mabel. All that chest hair.

At night – which was always – they told stories.  The Day the Sun Died was popular, but so was Adventures in Toe Stubbing.  It didn’t really matter. They all knew they didn’t have much time.