“H-hey!” a nearby port worker shouted, “Is that you Smith?!”

  “Y-yeah,” I said with a shiver, “Who else?”

  “We haven’t seen you in a month or so though! We thought you’d cancelled”

  “Is that so, eh?” I said in annoyance, “And… And where’s Kenneth?”

  “He’s in hospital,” the worker said with a headshake, “His arthritis got the better of him… That and hyperthermia”

  “You loaded my ship? I asked.

  “Yeah?”

  “Great, then I’m off, I can’t stand this blasted place”

  Pressing down on the wooden plank that used to be an accelerator, I set sail into the darkness all around. The ship still performed its duty though; carving a line through what was now ice.

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  Here we go. Maybe one more time after this? It’s getting too much.

  With a loud sigh, I turned off the last switch on my dashboard. Now there’s no more radio. But I need to keep this engine alive, even if it’s just to get back.

  But, through the silence of the frozen sea, I hear a noise. A terrible, terrible noise. A hiss. A terrible, terrible hiss.

  Looking out from my cabin, I look around the silent ice sheets to see an endless white stretching before me. Well, more like stretching until the darkness I mean.

  However, looking above I see it. A glowing light travelling at some speed like a comet.

  Quickly running into my cabin, I grab my binoculars while fumbling to get the caps off. Then, I aim them toward the bright light.

  It was no comet. A comet brings a sort of strange hope to people. This object on the other hand, destroys hope. Indeed, it was a large missile of sorts.

  On it, it appeared to have the words “The Last Flower” written on it along with an orange rose.

  And, as I sat in my chair in a frozen waste land, I watched a large orange glow envelope the horizon as a toxic mushroom rose into the atmosphere.

  This will be the coldest winter of all.