Sri Lanka’s prime minister announced that his country has just a single day of gasoline left because of an economic crisis.
Fuel isn’t the only thing the country has in short supply; medicine and food are also lacking.
There’s a chance that the country gets more fuel from India. But, according to the prime minister, the country faces a difficult next few months even with those supplies.
Turning this into a story, what if the President of the United States came on air and announced that the country had a single day’s worth of fuel left?
We could follow a young man getting ready for a date with a young woman who lives in the suburbs, about an hour away. He’s preparing to leave when he finds out about the gasoline shortage.
As soon as the President announces the news, everyone leaves their houses, rushing to get gas. Unfortunately, the young man gets caught in the lines, his gas tank empty.
We find out that the two of them have been on dates before, and they are caught in the honeymoon phase of the relationship. In short, the young man will do anything to get to his date. We see him battle the gas lines, combat the traffic, and show up at her house while the rest of her neighborhood is on lockdown.
Because of the crisis, the young couple alters their date plans, going somewhere local instead. While they’re gone, the young woman’s father gets called into the hospital, where he has to stay for days at a time because of the fuel shortage. The mother goes to the restaurant she works at with enough clothes and supplies for days to limit the fuel usage.
In no time, the pair become a couple who live together, navigating the challenges of cohabitating for the first time.
As the fuel crisis worsens, they begin learning to live off the land, conserving water, and growing their own vegetables. Eventually, they deal with thieving neighbors and rogue packs of animals after the fuel crisis starts turning the world into a dystopia.
The story ends when the couple decides to head out, choosing a life on the road (walking) instead of waiting for the fuel shortage to finish. Her parents come home to an empty house and a single note from their daughter, telling them not to wait.
