Between moments when the sky wore red, when it took on that classic blue color, she felt like the world was lying to her. Sure, everything couldn’t be on fire all at the same time, and fires were less common on the east coast anyway, but the blue did not describe what the world had become. Of course the world would stop the charade eventually, and the red sky would herald the coming of more ash, which she almost looked forward to at this point, because it meant the new beetles would take shelter. An absurd instinct - didn’t they know this was their world? - but one that allowed her a moment to forage.

Trigger Warning: animal death, child death, climate destruction, insects/disease, end of the world