part one

17/01/2167

 

It’s night.

Again.

But unlike the ordinary night I face, looking into the bleak space of sleeplessness and unnecessary noise I have come to find the lack of power somewhat enduring and so forth allowing the people surrounding my lonely little flat to further advance their partying attitude. It’s cold. Not only is it cold it’s also dark. The barren sky of London seems a million miles away from the blanket of stars I’m used to lying under.  Seeing only the warm orange glow of pollution rather than the bleakness of space it is, rather than being somewhat comforting, an absent reminder to how far away I actually am.

The snow has been falling for a few days now, something no longer unusual to London, though during my days of university it was a very rare sight. The cold seems to have set into the very heart of England now, and if you want to truly avoid the bleakest of weather the only truly occupy able place on this great island is south of the M25. Many nights now I long for the days when the sun shined and would burn through the layers of snow, when we really had a spring never mind a summer. The arctic climates grasp seems unable to shift its hold, leaving me, and the rest of the northern most countries, in a do or die situation.

Power; how we live. Fossil fuels banned for being the supposed cause of this turn in the weather has left us with few alternative choices, thankfully the arctic winds provide us with much power from the wind farms, though at the same time they blight us with the empty chill rendering us unable to farm apart from in underground bunkers, vast oceans of wheat and barley, herds of cattle, flocks of sheep and a myriad of markets and homes bustling below the surface. This being said the surface isn’t unlivable, but it will be soon. Gigantic solar panels grace the hillsides, maintained by specialists, clearing them of snow and allowing them to gather the little sunlight on pristine mornings.

I recently heard news from the more southern countries that their climate is worsening in the extreme opposite, droughts and wild fires more prevalent than ever before over their lands. Not that we get the news from distant places often here, finding it hard to keep track of what’s happening much further north of Nottingham seems to have become a problem of its own.

As I look out of my window this very moment the emergency generators have once again activated, casting the orange gloom into the sky once more, I’m considering going down to the lower levels. This will only mean that the heaters have once again been turned off so to provide street lighting on mainly unused streets.