[ WP ] The sun goes out . Tell the story of a person who now lives a world of darkness .

The year is 2597, 18 years after what was termed in the media as the `` Great Darkening''. Humanity did not die when the sun went out. Production moved underground, into subways and access tunnels. Food started to be grown hydroponically, with power and electricity from nuclear fusion. We adapted and survived. 
 
 Now, my team and I, physicists, were putting the finishing touches on a device that would provide our power needs with only water as the waste product. Clean energy, clean waste, energy enough for all of mankind. We were able to prototype the device small enough to fit in the level two bunker, under Central Park. Today was a red-letter day. The first full-scale test. 
 
 There was complete silence in the testing room, the spectators on the other side of the one-way glass of the view room. Unseen, but we knew they were there. I had the auspicious honor of beginning the activation sequence, and I held my breath as my hand trembled, poised over the ignition switch. The countdown seemed to move through molasses, every second elongating into eternity. 
 
 `` Three.'' 
 
 `` Two.'' 
 
 `` One.'' 
 
 I braced myself. Limitless power was ours for the taking. Only one more second between humanity and Godhood. 
 
 `` Initiate.'' 
 
 I jammed the switch down and the room lit up with an ethereal blue-white glow. A dull hum sounded, and all the lights in the bunker lit up, almost to the point of self-immolation. Even the lights on the surface, dark for so long, screamed to life in a blaze. Every lightbulb, computer screen, streetlamp, television and electronic device roared a challenge to the dark with their beautiful incandescence. 
 
 We all gazed about in wonder, minds barely able to comprehend the significance of this moment, not willing to hope that we could return to the surface. We had light again! One of my team suggested that we go outside to stand in the magnificence of the accomplishment, and we all heartily agreed. 
 
 The massive bunker door, rusted and caked with dirt from disuse, groaned in protest as it was opened for the first time in so many years. It was beautiful, light as far as the eye could see. Lights not used in remembered history blazed in silent vigil against the dark. This was the crowning of a new age. We were humanity again, able to force our wishes on the world around us. 
 
 From the cacophony of celebrations and well-wishes there came a growing pall. One by one, the people from the bunker grew silent. I believed that it was the magnitude of what we accomplished that finally entered their minds and made them stand, slack-jawed at the magnificence of it. I noticed that they were all looking up, at where the sun used to hang, before it's darkness. 
 
 I saw then, God help me, I saw. 
 
 There were long tendrils of some formless mass snaking out from behind the dead star, some unknown and unknowable dread awakening from it's hibernation. This was the thing that had turned off our sun, drove us underground. 
 
 Our invention screamed a challenge from the entire Earth into the cold black of space. And God help us, something answered back.
