Angel

The tiny, slight figure stirred. The debris surrounding him was pushed aside as be brought himself up to his knees, looking around. No life sprung up from the ground, only the jagged edges of wreckage that he couldn't identify. Underneath the dark grey that seemed to coat everything was rusted. As he moved, he found that the ashes covered him too, stinging his eyes and making them tear up. It took a moment to realize what had happened... this was the aftermath, and there was nothing left. He felt over his own emaciated frame, hairless and weak. He tried to wipe off the ashes covering his body. Once they had been his family. His mother and sisters. Once he could touch them and feel warm skin. Now they just smeared his skin with black soot. He looked around again, realizing he was seeing the ashes of thousands... no, it had to be millions of families just like his. There was nothing but dead silence, but his ears still rang with hundreds of sounds. Gunfire. Barked orders. Screams. Crying. Prayers. Whispered hopes and reminiscing of a better time. His mind had long since quit trying to process them all. Despair was nothing new to him. It didn't even really affect him anymore. Everything had already carved out a hole in his emotions. The only thing that registered was exhaustion.

Nevertheless, he rose to his feet, legs shaking. Where was he supposed to go from here, he thought. His whole body still ached, with hunger and exhaustion. He's not even sure why he even stood up. Lying down and dying would have been so much easier.

And yet he walked. The debris cut into his already worn feet. His knees would buckle, and the ache in his entire body would only grow. But he never stopped. Even as the wasteland gave way to rising buildings and empty, passing faces, he never wavered from his path, moving forward and no closer to wondering why. In his wake he left a trail of ashes.

One day he walked into a park, and found himself before a single yellow flower. For the first time since he'd left the wasteland, he stopped and looked down. The realization of where he'd gone, how much the world had changed and he hadn't. For the first time the sunlight nearly blinded him as he became aware of it. Every sound, every sensation of the warm summer wind against him... and this little yellow flower at his feet...

He dropped to his knees and for the first time the tears flowed, sending trails though the ashes on his face. Life had never felt so horrible and beautiful. He finally knew why he'd been walking. Maybe there still was something left.