Clean Up

A 100 word short story

A sparrow fluttered across the cloudless sky, singing its morning song.

Even this early, Bill could tell it was going to be a beautiful day.

No cars in the distance or planes up above.

Nice this way.

Sure, the plague had been bad, but it was peaceful now.

Empty streets. Quiet houses.

Unfortunately, those houses were full of bodies that needed dragged to the beach and burned.

Hard work.

Luckily, Bill was used to it.

He’d been a janitor at the lab.

Smashing that test tube was an accident.

Maybe.

This was his mess.

It was time to clean up.

---

So, I’ve been re-listening to The Stand audio book in preparation for reading “The End of the World as we Know It” which is a collection of new short stories set in the world of Captain Trips written by a host of great horror authors, edited by Brian Keene and Christopher Golden, and it struck me that King’s story of a plague wiping out 99.9% of the world’s population was not really a prediction of 2020 and Covid, but was actually, in many ways, a flash forward to this year. With despotism, martial law, the rejection of science and the murder of journalists for reporting the truth, happening worldwide, then this mighty tome, from 45 years ago, holds up a pretty good mirror to 2025. Guys like Randall Flagg and General Starkey would have a field day. Then, of course, we have the fact that people are so fundamentally divided about so many things and have ended up splitting into two rival camps, like the characters going to either Flagg in Las Vegas or Mother Abigail at Hemingford Home.

It has to be said though, as much as I certainly wouldn’t be a lickspittle to a paper tiger tough man like Flagg, I also wouldn’t want to sit in committee meetings, salute the flag and sing the national anthem either. I think I would probably live out in the country and mind my own business. Not so much taking a stand, just having a seat with a nice cup of tea in peace and quiet.

Anyway, all of these thoughts made me come up with this story of a nasty little man just wanting his own peace and quiet no matter the cost.

Hope you enjoyed it.

Thanks for reading. Until next time.

Photo by Akram Huseyn on Unsplash