False Invincibility

The end began with cautious warnings. One degree warmer. Scientists' pleas birthed protests and fruitless promises for change. Two degrees. They wrote of an expiration date as if our planet was a milk carton. Three degrees. We laughed.

Four degrees.

Irreversible.

We laughed, drunk on false invincibility. After all, we had survived century upon century, ice ages, floods, and fire.

We laughed.

We were wrong.

Five degrees.

Waves ravaged coastlines, droughts parched farms. We buried ourselves beneath the same Earth, whose landscape we had consumed and destroyed. And now we make homes in self-imposed prisons, laughing only at our foolishness.

Winter

Winter used to be my favorite. The snow, animals tucked into burrows, catching snowflakes on tongues and coming home with rosy cheeks. I didn't understand when Mom told me to stay in the basement. Not to look outside. Not to make a sound. I was five.

It glowed green, the snow. Now I can feel my bones withering, creaking from radiation. My mother is gone. My home? Empty. The snowflakes taste like death. Winter will last forever, and there is no source of water beyond the glowing green. The apocalypse is far too quiet. I don't like winter anymore.

Ravenous

Hunger was a scaly beast constantly trailing behind me. It clawed at my sides, carving out ribs and sinew into my sallow skin. I sank to my knees, my aching joints sighing in relief. My time as a wanderer on this barren Earth could finally end. Well, not until that pesky creature stopped growling in my ear. I groaned for it to leave me alone, for once. It tilted its head and whined in response, kneading its claws into my back. Finally, I looked up. Something like a smile stretched my cracked lips. Just beyond the horizon, a campfire crackled...

Huitzilopochtli

It was the day the sun fell. The light in her eyes was extinguished as the beautiful moon denied her. The sun's pain reflected that of Icarus when he fell for her, wings of wax melting. She was full of anguish as she descended from the sky, heart breaking. Condemnation shook the Earth as the sun plummeted into the world that worshipped her. As villages were ignited, people cried out to the celestial goddess for mercy. They turned their filthy palms towards Heaven but wistfully realized that a deity in agony showed no mercy, only morose closure in ashes.