The Blackout Pact

Peter climbed the last steps to the roof, opening the door to the terrace and closing it behind him. His breath fogged in front of his nose and mouth, the cold night biting his skin and reddening his cheeks. Still, it was bearable, the worst of winter gone for months now.

Rubbing his hands together, he smiled to the dark night. The stars were bright in the Londoner sky, and Peter tried to memorise them, because it would be months before he saw their unobstructed shine again. Although he loved them, he couldn’t help the anticipation building in his stomach. His fingers hoovered over his chest, feeling the heart-shaped locket he carried around his neck, which was identical to the one Alex had.

Winter had finally given way Spring in the United Kingdom. The days still had a chill in the air, but they were longer, and nights were shorter. March brought with it a new beginning. It called back life as what it was supposed to be.

Looking at his watch, Peter smiled and started the countdown in his head.

59…

March brought back the lights. Literally.

55…

Peter had been but a baby when the old world had ended – just for a new one to begin.

The Old Order had almost killed humankind entirely.

Unsustainable industrialization. Mass production and consumption of goods. Unregulated deforestation. Unmitigated pollution and destruction of the environment.

Those things had been the pillars of a global society that wanted more than they needed. Of people that were driven to believe happiness could be found in things – and the more they had, happier they would be. But it was a system where no number of things were enough – they always needed one more to be happy. One more shirt, another mobile, one more dress, another necklace, one more pair of shoes…

Everything had to be fast. Everything had to give people the gratification they were looking for.

Earth became hostile to humankind.

45…

It started with global warming, the symptoms of a sick planet that needed its inhabitants to pay attention. To stop before it was too late.

Nobody – but some scientists – paid it any mind.

Governments were too focused on their ideological war. Enterprises were too busy lobbying to make their industries grow. Cars. Fossil fuels. Fast food chains. Technology. War. Fast fashion.

The rise of the global temperature was a farfetched issue. A problem for the next generation. And then, for the one after that…

Peter had read all he could about it. He had been taught in school about the Old Order history. He had never understood it. How could states ignore that their poor decision-making was going to kill them all?

40…

Global warming became Climate Change.

It was not only the planet’s temperature rising anymore.

Tropical storms became more common and devastating. Droughts events increased in frequency. Winter storms froze everything and everyone when they came. The sea-level rose and whole islands disappeared. Famine and diseases spread like wildfire. People became climate refugees, requesting asylum in those places less affected by the rapid global changes.

It all came to a head when the powerful countries were severely hit.

Power grids failed, cities flooded, and their people suffered and died… Finally, the threat had become imminent enough. Something needed to be done.

30…

Conferences upon conferences were called. Summits after summits were made. Took the United Nations years to make the governments understand that the time for lowering carbon emissions and climate change mitigations protocols had long passed.

They needed something extreme.

The Blackout Pact was born out of commiseration and desperation.

Peter often found himself thinking how those negotiations had gone. The books were very surgical about it, but he doubted there had not been screams and denials among the world’s leaders. How would they tell their people of the agreement they had made? How would they explain that it was between 6 months of darkness annually against a perpetual one?

In the end, Peter supposed, that had been exactly what the leaders had said. They could either have two seasons without lights or certain death.

They had chosen the former.

Thus, they chose darkness as the power grids were turned off and the fossil fuels were rationed.

25…

Peter had spent half his life in darkness. As had anyone that had been born around or after the Pact had been made. During 6 months of the year, from the first day of autumn to the first day of spring, people around the world spent their days brightened by the sun and the nights bathed in the light of the moon and the stars.

Those were the coldest months, but the logic was that people could use fire, clothes and generators to keep warm. His parents liked to tell tales of cities being illuminated all year long. Of lights that never went out on the streets. Of no need to ration fuel to keep the generators running during winter. Of boilers that warmed the water and decorative fireplaces.

He could only wonder what that was like.

Of course, capitalism and socio-economic disparity were still very real. Those with significant means could spend more on private reserves of fuel for generators, or could invest in solar panels and wind farms. But that came at a cost, for those people became ostracized by society.

Nobody liked to have their bad situation rubbed in their faces.

20…

Those that have lived in the Old Order saw autumn as gloomy, and winter as miserable. But Peter and his generation understood it was part of a cycle to heal the Earth. The New Order was all he knew. Autumn might bring some hardships, but spring represented renewal and hope. It brought the promises of a better world.

Peter got near to the parapet and waited, his elbows resting on the cold surface while his fingers played with the locket – it symbolized a promise he had made to Alex two years ago, when his boyfriend had gone to Australia to study the change in the seas’ currents and levels.

They would be together again and that would be their last New Spring apart.

Glancing at his watch, he smiled. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6… He fixed his gaze forward.

0…

The lights of the buildings turned on like a wave, as if London was awaking from a long sleep.

Peter could hear laughs and yells.

Spring was here.

In Australia, Alex opened his eyes and looked out of the window. The sun was high in the sky, but he could feel the Autumn chill in the air, later he would light a fire in the backyard. Smiling, he took his heart-shaped locket and opened, seeing Peter’s photo on one side and their picture together on the other. Sighing, he wished his boyfriend a Happy New Spring knowing that they would be together when the next one came.