The Light at the End: a short story about the end

By: Donna Burgess

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Bill Andrews always ran the north end of the beach on Wednesdays, but this morning starfish littered the sand. Not a few, but thousands. He stood, quietly perplexed, as the winter sun glinted off the Atlantic and the waves lapped gently at the fields of dead and dying creatures. Here and there, pointed limbs flexed slowly toward the endless blue sky as if grasping for some kind of mercy that was not coming. The news made little of the dying and the article buried deep on page five. However, there was a much larger dying in the wings… Something dire is coming and the government is keeping everyone in the dark. A strange little countdown clock has appeared in the bottom corner of the cable news networks and people are beginning to talk. They feel anxious, afraid. What do you do? Hide? Live your life as if tomorrow is promised to you? Do you give up? Do you hope? Turn your neighbors away at the door? Turn the gun on yourself? Turn inward or reach outward? Do you hold your family close and know that whatever happens you are together? The Light at the End is a 4500 word tale of hope and family during Earth’s darkest moment. Also included: an extended preview of the apocalyptic novel, Solstice.