Lamentation

I live in the city of Kokytos. In Greek, it means "the river of wailing" or "lamentation." In Dante's Inferno, it was depicted as a frozen lake in the middle of Hell, where Satan himself was stuck. This should illustrate how optimistic the people here are about their situation. (My own recommendation of "Coldtown" was thoroughly disregarded.)

Right now, I'm on Grow Room duty. That's right: we have our own Grow Rooms - except, instead of pot, like they would normally make, we're growing food. And, holy crap, it's hot in here. We're using high-intensity discharge lamps and they make the room into a land of summer. It feels wonderful.

Everyone wants Grow Room duty. Outside the Grow Rooms, it's basically freezing. You have to wear a jacket in the hallways. No power for heaters -- all extra electricity is routed to the Grow Rooms. Food is more important than heat. After all, we're warm blooded creatures, we can survive the cold. We can't survive starvation.

It won't last, though. The Grow Rooms have been steadily decreasing in the amount of food they provide. Soon, there won't be enough to feed everybody here. They say it has to do with the variation of seeds that they plant -- but that's bullshit.

The cold's creeping inside. It's getting into the Grow Rooms. I can see it now. Some of the plants have withered. It might be months or even years, but the cold will take it all. And we'll be left with nothing except each other. It'll be a big Donner party, then.

I seem flippant about this, don't I? The loss of food, turning to cannibalism to avoid starvation, everything. Well, I am. What else is there to be? Super serious? That won't change anything. That won't bring Agnes back. The problems of us little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.

Speaking of beans, I tried to convince the Grow Committee to let us grow some coffee beans, but they said that wasn't a priority. Priority, my ass. I miss coffee. I think that's why they called this place "lamentation" - because I am seriously lamenting not having coffee right now.