Very Short Story - Catastrophic

 I found this short story written for a long ago online challenge, the prompt being "catastrophic". It seemed oddly appropriate to current circumstances. Even in the worst of times, there's always one...;)

Catastrophic

It had always been Jim’s biggest problem. He had to try and make the best of things.

The cave – for that was all the name one could really use for the remains of this deep Underground tunnel with its broken rails and walls shorn of random clusters of brick like a toothless old man’s maw - was shaking now, dust bursting from the roof in scattering spirals that glinted in the light of the last candle stub as the few remaining ragged survivors clustered there, their faces bloodied and their clothes in rags, clinging to each other in primal, vibrant fear. But for the roar above, a roar that whispered that the walls of this tunnel would not much longer shield them from swelling apocalypse above, there was silence.

 Until…

 “Still. It’s not all bad, is it?”

 Slowly, but as one, the eyes turned, eyes filled with despair and loss and hopelessness now tinged slightly with incredulity as they fixed upon one ragged figure in a tatty jacket and dusty jeans. The remains of a jaunty tie dangled from his throat.

Jim beamed at his newfound audience. “Okay,” he began with a concession. “It seems a bit grim right now.” His words were punctuated by a howling screech from a distant above as another poor soul met a terrible end. “But if you think for a minute, there’s always a bright side. If you don’t focus on the violent death of your loved ones and the loss of everything you’ve ever known and the end of our civilisation as we know it, I mean, at least there’s no more Simon Cowell right?”

 Silence. Eyes blinked in the fading light.

 “Exactly!” Jim grinned. “No more late trains, no more queuing for the bus that never shows up, no more pin numbers to remember, no more rap music and young men with their trousers round their knees! No more extortionate Starbucks coffees, no more lectures on your five-a-day! No more global warming! I mean, maybe things are bad now, but… it’s not the end of the world, is it?”

The silence grew heavier, deeper, more terrible as the traumatised eyes spoke more fluently than a thousand words as the Earth above them crumbled. Jim stared around the silent circle as another plume of dust wafted across him and sighed.

“I’ll get my coat…” he said.

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