text: The Last Light The last of the world’s artificial night light just went out. Crusted with rust, the flashlight has served its function, and now the last bit of power from its batteries has come to its end. People huddled as they watched the flashlight flickered, and then darkness. Pitch black surrounding enveloped them. They will never know that it is the last artificial night light in the world, as different cities in the world are no longer able to communicate with one another. Before, the world was brimming with light. Fossil fuels and nuclear power plants powered homes and different industries. Bitcoin consumed a lot of energy and produced a lot of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Industrialization, despite the progress it offered, led to the depletion of natural resources. Oil wells are now depleted, and explorations for new oil reserves are suspended as the oceans are now filled with trash. As our Mother Earth suffered and cried for the destructive acts of humanity, innovators sought after “green solutions” as the world was warming up. People turned to wind energy, biomass, solar energy and hydroelectric energy. These solutions were too late. Acid rains damaged infrastructures, killed trees and damaged innovative solutions for clean energy. Glaciers melted, submerging one-fourths of the cities of the world. Scientists left Earth in search of a new planet, a new home for everyone but they haven’t returned to Earth for 13 years. The last lamp just went out. People cannot use open fires as the air is now highly combustible. A single match lit on the first day of the worldwide blackout caused an explosion that killed residents in a city in China. Similar incidents happened to wherever fire is generated. Since then people are afraid to make a fire lest they suffer the same fate as those who perished. As dawn broke on that same day, they all rejoiced for a moment. The pitch black night is consumed by gray light from the sun. People came out of their shelters to forage and scavenge for anything to put in their empty bellies. They collected grass (those unaffected by acid rains) and boiled them in water, to provide sustenance they need for the day. A starving boy sat on a window sill of their shelter, wondering why people are still fighting to survive even if Earth is dying. He just sat there, looking out in the horizon, an endless sea of trash. He thought he saw a cockroach scampering around the trash and he went after it. “Food”, he thought. Unfortunately, he have said his thought aloud and now a dozen more people are going after the prized cockroach. A woman caught it and gave it to her little girl who was watching the spectacle from their shelter. The girl bit the cockroach hungrily and with a second thought, offered half of it to her mother but her mother just waved her off. The starving boy, at the present, is cursing himself for being so careless. If it had not been for his fat mouth, he could have secured the cockroach. Unknowingly, he had trodden on a path towards the city circle. He heard a baby cry in a distance. He suddenly remembered his little brother, who died in his sleep because of hunger. He had to bury him the next day, and he had felt so alone. A crashing bottle brought him back to the present. A group of teenagers are throwing bottles on a nearby building, and laughing hysterically while they are at it. A shard of glass pierced through the sole of his foot, and he immediately removed it as blood gushed out in a steady stream. He ripped his worn shirt and wrapped it around his foot to stop the bleeding and he made a mental note not to cross that part of the city again. His quest for food resumed. He saw a group of old women coming from the west with bundles of weed, laughing heartily for their day’s forage. He knew better than ask them for some for when his brother was still alive and tried to beg for some food from an elderly man, he was just met with a heavy hand. Now, he ran towards the direction the group came from and he slumped at the sight. A patch of newly dug soil. The old women had greedily took all the weeds, including the roots. His stomach growled. He instantly went to his knees and search the patch of land for any root or seed that was left behind. He has collected three seeds and is now feasting on them, savoring each one with a miserable longing for food. He went back to his shelter with a trail of blood. He removed his makeshift bandage and examined the cut. It was deep and the blood is still gushing out. As the last of the daylight faded, his strength also decline. His temperature rose, and he started shivering. He started remembering his better days. When his father, mother and little brother were still alive. When his father brought them a rat the size of a chicken, they had a feast and he reminisced his little brother dancing to his mother’s upbeat songs. He reminisced when his mother fought with other women catching a cockroach. It was such a spectacle. Claws and hairs were everywhere. A low chuckle slipped his dry lips. He dragged himself to where he was keeping his rusty tumbler. The water was slightly acidic and his stomach complained as he gargled half of the contents of the tumbler but he couldn’t stop. Afterwards, he clutched his rusty tumbler to a peaceful sleep. A new day has come. He took his last breath. As his vision shifted from the gray color of sunlight to a blinding white, residents of the city are awakened by a loud crash. From a distance, the people saw a lifepod and a white clad man. The white clad man climbed out of his pod and shouted jubilantly to the spectators, “We finally found a new home”.