National Geographic - End of Decade Microfiction

Is Tuesday becoming Microfiction Day? It might be. This is another of my nearly-award-winning pieces. This time for Icon Magazine's Stories for the End of the Decade contest. The win went to Mimi Zeiger of Loudpaper. You can read it here.Mine goes a little something like this:

"It's cultural hedging," said my guide, as we picked our way through the parking lot, "Think about survivalists in Y2K. If everything had ended, they'd have been equipped to thrive. It didn't, so they lost out.""It still seems like a bad decision," I said, pausing to aim my photo rig, "The collapse of America is hardly imminent."The viewfinder showed nameless meat hung to cure along a guardrail, framed by skyscraper shadows and spotlight by the setting sun. I was fiddling with the focus when someone racked a shotgun."This ain't America," said the bandit, "This is Detroit."