Those Who Favor Fire
“The last time I saw Paris,” he said, taking a drag from his cigarette, “it was on fire.”
“Because you set it on fire,” I said.
“Well.” He waved dismissively, smoke curling around his scarred right hand. “Someone had to.”
We watched the sun slide into the vast blue ocean. The sand between my toes was still warm, but a stiff wind began to blow in from across the water.
“I miss the Louvre,” I said softly. “I don’t suppose you saved anything?”
He shook his head. “No time. Art is great, but I’m not risking my life for it.”
I took a sip of coconut water and sighed. “Stuff survives for hundreds, thousands of years, and then poof. Gone.”
“Like humanity.”
“Like humanity,” I echoed. “Still, we’re here, eh?”
“Cheers to that.” We clanked our glasses together and drank as the last sliver of sun vanished, leaving only an orange-red sky darkening to blue-black.
“Think we’ll ever take the mainland back from the zombies?”
He dropped the dying butt of his cigarette in the sand. “Not enough fire in the world.”
Tags: Micro fiction, Microfic
Okay, I might like this one the best on this theme.
Funny, VP et al. hate the zombies line. I’m trying to figure out what else could be set on fire in a vast apocalyptic fashion. Thoughts?
What! I love the Zombies line! Maybe it’s just that Zombies are everywhere right now?
hmmm. Buffy torched vampires, but that’s been done to death. I’m not sure what else would work as well as the Zombies do…
My class liked the zombies so I guess they’re staying. Their argument, and my initial one, was that there needed to be a reason for the fire setting and subsequent conversation, and zombies work on a couple of levels. I’ll just have to not show this to people who read a lot of zombie fiction, I guess.