First Thing in the Morning

Instinctively Jeffry shivered as his eyes opened: it was dark and cold. Lights flickered on and hummed slightly. He pushed off the thermal blankets and dashed to the closet to add a second coat, and a third. The sun had not shown in weeks, months, he had lost count. He was not certain of the precise day and time at all. The eternal turning of the Earth while revolving around the sun was something humans had known their entire existence, but now it was gone.

He puffed hot hair into his hands, they were already numb. Had pollution overtaken the environment, had computers plotted the end of their captors, had a crazed country started the last human war? There was no way to be sure without surviving. First, he had to live. And living required more heat than this! Think, he told himself.

The lights flickered again, and went out. Power, heat, he required it. In a matter of moments he would freeze completely, in the dark, alone.