Week Twelve Story: Leave It to the Rabbits

  "Huh, so it is really happening." I sighed as I looked up at the sky. "The sky is actually falling". 

All of us in the rabbit community knew that this day would come. Global warming has been an issue since the early 1990s, and well, we are way past the point of return nearly 200 years later. Humans are long gone. All that remains is the technology that they put in place to mitigate the harmful effects of the UV rays. We have heard jokes and tales of people mistaking falling objects for the sky falling, but it appears that the human's attempt at rebuilding the ozone has finally collapsed in on itself. I guess we knew it would happen, that the bubble would burst, but no one knew it would be this soon. I stand and watch on the muggy street corner near my childhood rabbit hole as thin slices of some sort of engineered plastic fall from the sky. The sun shines through the holes in the bubble that appear small to the eye but must be half a mile wide. The rays are bright, almost as if they're being amplified. I squint as I look up to the sky. The UV stings, my fur feels like it could singe under the heat. I have heard stories of how the human before "the bubble" lived. If they wanted to go outside then they had to be fully covered from head to toe with layers of SPF underneath. It is a scary thought. This could have been avoided, but now I stand gathered with a small group of strangers under the falling sky. No one says a word. 

This moment feels weird. I do not think that this is the end, however. I think we will just have to go underground and hide for a while. One of the perks about not being a human is that we were able to adapt to the changing climate must faster. We are what is left behind. The human's selfish actions are long forgotten, but we are still here. There is only so much that a band of animals can do to provide any relief for our circumstances.

So for now, the group us just stand and wait. 

Authors Note:

So, I was not really sure what to write for this story. I felt sort of inspired by the "what if?" of the sky actually falling. What would cause the sky to actually fall one day? I could not think of what would cause the actual sky to fall, so imagined a Stephen King style "bubble" around the countries that suffer from the harshest UV rays, but I think that one day that bubble would burst. No solution can last forever, right? This story, if extended, would take place in a near-future dystopia where things are entirely different from the world as we know it. The humans are long gone in this world, and the only inhabitants are the animals clever enough to adapt and survive. I think I would have a lot of fun turning this into a short story that explores the fixes and complications that come with trying to save the sky from falling. 

Image information: The Folklore of Rabbits and Hares

The Foolish, Timid Rabbit By Ellen C. Babbitt