Post Sun

Chapter One

The world is black, seemingly inoperable at first glance. Somehow, despite the wishes of the Gods, humans have survived. Thirty percent of the original population, anyway. In the beginning, no one knew how life would be fifty years later.

One day, with our technology and latte selfies, life flipped on human-kind. By that point in time, around a hundred species had become extinct and eighty percent of plant life had been destroyed. A man-like creature, one of the Gods, had descended onto the world.  He was filled with anger and cursed the land for our irresponsibility and selfishness for constant resources. For the first twenty years, people went without electricity and internet. By the second year, the majority went insane without the use of their obsessions and governments fell to murder and uprisings across the world. Then, when the Gods saw that the inhabitants of Earth didn't learn the lesson intended for them, they punished them further. One day, the sun didn't come up. Like a light switch, or what was said of one, it flipped off. It never came back on. Fifty years after the first curse, thirty percent of the human population still walk the Earth.

The Gods gave up on protecting them long ago. They unleashed the creatures of old onto them and didn't care to come back. They hadn't been spoken to in what felt like a millennium. But that was the old age.

Eden grew up with the stories, and she believed they were just that. Stories. There were never Gods. There were never lattes. Just an explanation of why the world was so shitty.

Eden lived in what was labeled as The Orban, a mass of land in the district of Omerika where the population was slim. She hadn't seen another human being, other than her family, in a decade. Travelers would come and go, looking for better lives. But there were no better lives. It's make do, or die. She realized this even at the ripe age of seventeen.

The girl placed herself in the brown grass, staring up with simplistic grey eyes, at the twinkles of light that showed above. The black canvas that could be seen is somehow very comforting to her, despite the fact she has never seen the sun. In her mind, there had never been one. It never crossed her mind.

Her hair matched the sky with its' everlasting blackness. Like the stars, freckles danced around her features uncontrollably and almost insecurely. They were like an ocean over her face and her neck, yet never changing. The torn trousers and the dirt stained shirt she wore were loose. They were her fathers before he had died from sickness only the men seemed to get. The clothes also comforted her. His scent still lingered, which reminded her of things from before. The good things, anyway.

Her minded lingered on him longer than she had intended to.

"Eden!" A harsh woman's voice called from the farmhouse. Age had hardened her vocal cords, making them rough like rubble and concrete.

She stood up as quickly as possible, brushing the black dirt and loose grass from her clothing before rushing into her house. "Yes, mama?" She said. Eden's tongue was more elegant and had an accent that seemed to flutter.

"Where is your brother?" her mother asked, stress making her voice tremble. "That Blyth is back," she glared out the window. She was a thin woman. The skin that appeared to sag and stretch were hints of her once full curves and muscle. Looking at her then, Eden wondered how the visible bones and veins could have ever been fit with food. Eden was a twig compared to her mother. Food was scarce. Only Nobels and Warriors seemed to be fat with yummy riches.

"I'm not sure," she said, taking a glance out the open window and into the field of dead things. Most would say people have poor sight in the dark. However, they have evolved since then.

Eden could visibly see the scaly skin with random fur poking through the flaps on its' legs and head. Talons shredded the dirt, searching for a meal that wouldn't come. The creature's skin on its' face was decomposing or appeared that way. She couldn't help but gag at the sight. The Blyth was one of the creature's sent by the Gods. Some said it was controlled by the Rule, a type of corrupt government that rules Omerika. They use it to get poor souls to join the Warriors. They had been coming after Eden's older brother, Connin, for weeks. The Blyth suddenly snapped its neck in the direction of the house. It seemed to stare directly into Eden's soul, piercing her body with its' dreadful gaze. A rumbling escaped its' lungs, letting them know they had been spotted. The dirt no longer distracted it. The real food resided in the house. It strode toward them, almost smirking in triumph at its' next meal.