Flash Fiction Entry

I haven't done one of these in a while but since I'm trying to write creatively everyday and I have more time on the weekends it just seems like the right thing to do....

Vanity's Bonfire
He said little as they paddled their way along the sunken streets.
“This wasn’t our fault you know,” his balding compatriot offered to the dismal silence.“I mean, really. How could we have known? It was all Chicken Little stuff. Nobody could have predicted…” his voice trailed off.

Of course somebody had predicted, hadn’t they? But it’s so easy to dismiss a bunch of weak wristed intellectuals. Power has a way distracting you. Pride goeth before… what was it?

“Make a left here” the dark-skinned woman said to the rower.
“I’m sorry ma’am, that way is blocked.”
“Blocked?! But we came that way just this morning!” her dark eyes burned with annoyance and her small white teeth nipped at the cold air.
“It’s…” the rower glanced at the sunken gray faced man at the stern of the boat. “It’s safer this way.”

Protestors, of course, had blocked the pass. The small armada floated along course. Just months ago it would have seemed absurd to see twenty odd boats filled with black suited men and heads of state rowing their way down the streets of the world’s most powerful city.

Even when the EPA confirmed the unprecedented rise of the world's oceans it seamed like nothing more than a passing weather anomaly. But today the most powerful nation in the world had been thrust into third world status. The entire coastal infrastructure crippled.

They weren’t the only ones of course. No the only ones suffering, and not the only ones to blame. But the world blamed the United States for it anyway. And virtually every nation on earth had abandoned it except for Israel and the UK.

Well, what was left of the UK anyway. Mass sections of the island nation were submerged, save for some fortunate areas of the Scottish Highlands. The government had been relocated to Ben Nevis.

The trip back from Capitol Hill was long and dreary. When they steered the boat down Pennsylvania Avenue the gray man stirred and lifted his eyes. A warm glow fell across his face as he gazed upon the final demise of over two centuries worth of history.

The balding man and the black woman gasped and tears rolled down their cheeks. Flames licked the horizon. White pillars jutted out of the water and thrust upward into a red and yellow blaze and a billowing column of smoke; like so many candles on a floating birthday cake.

The President lowered his head into his hands and began to sob. The Secret Service rower placed a hand on his shoulder in comfort. “It’s okay sir… it’s going to be okay.”

But it wouldn’t be okay. Because global warming was just getting started.