Black sun

I don't remember the day when it all began. I think it was morning, someone was probably babbling on the radio. I was sitting in a cheap diner not far from work, I was always there before and after my shift. The food in front of me was cold and unappealing even to decomposition. The fried egg looked at me somehow judgmentally, and I decided I probably wouldn't eat it. Lunch was ending, and it was time to get back to work, after all, staplers don't move themselves.

Already standing with one foot on the overheated asphalt, I noticed something that caught my attention. The television, or rather the faces of the TV presenters, some indistinct trace in their expressions, made me go back inside and close the door against the dry sand blowing in. I asked them to turn it up, but even here I was ignored. Feeling around for two small bumps on the back of the set, I turned up the volume.

“As you understand, that's all, the sun is expanding at an unprecedented rate and by this evening it will burn up the Earth, the atmosphere will be scorching hot by around 6:30 PM, and at exactly 6:31 PM we can expect total annihilation, thank you, and now over to my colleague Jim...”

What?

What kind of joke was this, was today some kind of prank day? The bell announcing new customers rang right next to my ear. Several office clerks leisurely walked past me to a table by the window.

• H-hey, did you hear that? – my voice trembled, I always got nervous when talking to strangers.

• Hmm, hear what? – the office lady replied somewhat dismissively, barely turning her head.

• T-the sun, the sun is going to destroy the Earth! It's a joke, right?

• Ah, that's what you mean, yes, of course we heard, everyone was talking about it a week ago, I didn't think this topic was popular again, - she shouted her order toward the kitchen and went to the restroom.

• Oh, I see, so it's some kind of trend, well, bless G... - I wasn't addressing anyone in particular anymore, and none of the remaining men in suits were looking at me either.

• A trend? – someone was looking after all, - no, we're all really doomed.

• Wait, then I don't understand anything, why isn't everyone screaming about this on every street corner, and what about the government, what about warnings or bunkers, I found out about this completely by accident! – my voice cracked from nerves, and by the end I was squeaking like a newborn baby that was about to be eaten by the sun.

• Hey, hey, calm down, man, the fact that you don't follow the news is clearly not the government's problem, the whole internet was buzzing for a week or two, and then this news met the fate of everything popular, people forgot about it, after all, we don't talk about some hurricane for an entire month. – He killed a fly on his snow-white shirt. – Ahem, got it dirty, you know what I mean?

• Not... really... excuse me, I need to go, - I bolted outside as fast as I could, I needed some fresh air.

I ran straight home without stopping for a second, mothers with armfuls of groceries and children rushed past me, billboards offering to call some Saul, advertisements for glasses, I only looked straight ahead.

Bursting inside, I automatically locked the door. My legs gave out, and I collapsed onto the floor. Feeling its smooth, cold surface, my face, burned by the summer wind, finally relaxed and cracked. Tears rolled from my eyes, forming a pleasantly cool little puddle beneath my cheek.

My thoughts spun around in my head, taking up more and more space until finally they pushed my consciousness into nothingness.

The shutters were banging from the strengthening wind, I must have forgotten to close the window. Struggling to pry open my swollen eyes, my body managed to get up.

• What time is it? Did I fall asleep at a time like this?! – rummaging frantically through my pockets, I came across my father's old watch, he had hidden it somewhere during the war and gave it to me before he died.

“6:15 PM” - f-fifteen... f-fifteen minutes, I have fifteen minutes until the end of the world?! A shudder ran through me, and all my muscles cramped up. I simultaneously wanted to eat and throw up, I ran upstairs, throwing a pile of junk into a brand-new hiking backpack.

Okay, okay, passport, flashlight, um, um, what else was I supposed to need, keys, hooks, a dictionary of abbreviations, there, there, faster, faster, ripping the blue raincoat off its hooks, I flung open the front door.

Heat enveloped me as if I had become bacon on a pan that was still heating up. My neighbor was trying to scrape some kind of charred scrap with a collar off the asphalt, I didn't wave back at him politely, there was no time. My running shoes, made of durable materials and fitted with modern insoles, began absorbing the ground beneath my feet. It felt like I was walking through thick jelly. I needed to find shelter, if everything was going to be roasted soon, I had to, the watch beeped “6:23 PM.”

• ..., - the freezer in the café, that's it, those office bastards went there for safety, and they didn't even tell me anything, they always looked down on me!

Dragging my feet along the melting road, I felt the watch becoming one with me, while the backpack gradually devoured all the dictionaries I'd grabbed, turning them into one giant multi-letter journal, this was no good, so after taking out a couple of the most important ones, I threw it away.

“6:27 PM.”

I'm finally here, the glass door had already sunk into the parquet floor, so I slipped inside without even setting off the bell. There was no one inside except for some stains around the table by the window. Those bastards had surely taken shelter farther in. A corridor, another corridor, and another one after that, and there was the goal finally right in front of me. All my experience and the journey had led here, the iron door beckoned with coolness, and with the tenderness of a lover, I swung it open and collapsed into the dark room. “6:29 PM” - Some kind of cracking sound came from outside, but I didn't give a damn, and after closing the latch, I slowly began to relax surrounded by semi-finished chickens. The cracking grew louder and louder, and the ground beneath my feet began to shake harder and harder.

• What foolishness all of this is now, my life wasn't lived in vain, bless...