Katya’s dreams were as colourful as a rainbow; her reality, as black as midnight. The colour was a tenuous thing. In the moment, the dreamer was neither fully conscious or unconscious. It was like the smell you couldn’t place, the sound of something close; just not close enough so that you could really tell what it was. Was it happening, was it not?

Sound, temperature and clear, conscious thought; these things told Kathy’s that she was awake. And sometimes if she was fortunate or quick enough, she could grab hold of the dream, of a snaking sliver, before it got away.

Green fields as far as the horizon, blue skies that went on forever, the yellow rays of the sun as they danced on her skin.

Katya woke to the sound of a distant thump. Feeling for the sides of her cot, she threw her legs over the side and sat up, orienting herself. Thump. There it was again. Likely Thompson breaking wood. Morning still, she thought, sniffing the air. It was amazing what the human body could adjust to after a time. How long had it been? How long since they had come, slamming humanity back into the dark ages? An earthy scent. Definitely morning. Get up too early in the morning, they used to say, and you might see the devil. Well, too late for that. The bastard was already here. Rummaging through the bed clothes, Katya’s fingers closed around a make shift cane. Standing up, she cocked the stick at a 45-degree angle at her feet. Tapping all the while, she started into the middle of the room.

Outside the sun was shining. I wish, thought Katya. There was no sun anymore, not at least in any meaningful sense. Vole’s comet had put paid to that. That, and one hundred trillion tonnes of dust, soot and who the bell else knew what. Katya could feel the particles in the air as an ever present haze. Thump. Time to check on Thompson……

TBC