The Dust Storm
10-Minute Flash Fiction
Before her eyes, the sky glow erupted into the carnal lust of a new day. Bathea shut her eyes and let out a loud breath, grateful. Every new day was one day closer to the end. She didn’t know when it would all be over, so she chose to be grateful for every sunrise that warmed her face.
The toxin in the soil had been settling for decades, slowly building up and building up until it was too toxic for new plants to grow. This set off a chain reaction of events that was destroying Earth’s ecosystem, much more rapidly than it would have otherwise. Bathea knew she would see the end of a habitable Earth before she met her own end.
Though the end was certainly nigh, that didn’t stop Bathea from living now. Her farmhouse in the middle of a hot Southern county, miles from a city, was heaven to her. There were still a few trees here, hanging on by the will of God, and the sky was mostly still blue. Bathea was also glad to still have her grandparents’ barn and a neighbor down the street who checked up on her every once in a while. Most of the population had abandoned the town, hoping for a better chance somewhere else, so it was just her and a handful of old folks left. She basically had the run of the town supermarket, library, and the playground. When she was a little kid, the playground equipment was always too crowded for her shy self…
