What lay beyond the wreckage was silence. Creeping fires, hot dreaded sand, words indescribable as the scene unfolds. 

Throughout the wreckage, there was no form of life, no breath that laid waste upon the burnt corpses and metal that laid bare upon the dunes. There was no sound, only the whooshing winds of hot, lethal air that blew through the scarce region.

Touch was scarce, hearing was ringing, the taste was gone, smelling was destroyed. 

No sign of life came through, no way of a soul or spirit rising from the ashes from the depths of despair—no, there was the sound of metal thumping coming from one of the debris. 

The sound began to turn from thumping to knocking, knocking to thumping again, and then, a constant increase of loud banging. Banging that didn’t stop, only ever increasing as each grain of sand swept by.

Pretty soon, the banging stopped. But only for several seconds before a loud explosion came out of the metal shaft.

The force of the explosion disrupted the sound of blowing sand, and the way the heavy metallic wall of debris that flew only splashed hot sand throughout the lethal dunes.

And what came out of the metallic debris was one man.

A man so burdened by luck that no one could have made it out just like he did. A man who went through hell and back to save those that needed saving. A man plagued by horrors beyond any man should go through.

Was he a soldier? Was he a hero?

Was he human?

The man quickly took note of the devastation that was around him. Everything that was not metal was sand, dunes that reached as far as what human’s horizon expected it to be. With nothing but sand, and with a heap of metallic debris that he crawled out of, how will he survive?

Or rather, how will he prevail?

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(??? thoughts) Just my luck…

Loneliness and despair was all around the lethal sand dunes. Any normal person would feel horrid by the fact that sand was going to be the last thing that a person would lastly die on.

But the man in question had a sense of purpose despite the odds against him.

(??? thoughts) I guess this is how it begins…

The man, with a plan, didn’t panic, nor did he stay and hole up for better survival, but walked.

If walking was all he could do, then walking is all he would do.

Through the burning sand, he had a purpose, no matter the cost, he’ll—

(??? thoughts) No matter what, I’ll save everyone…

And away he walked.

No matter what he’ll push forward. Even in hell, even in heaven, he’ll keep moving in the present.

And as he walked, a burning sandstorm became ever-growing in the direction that he was walking. Noting that whatever happens, he’ll make it somehow no matter the cost.

For as long as he lay breath he will never die, and for as long as he walked—

(??? thoughts) I will prevail…

Closer and closer to the burning sandstorm at hand, his sense of loneliness only grows inch by inch, but his sense of despair only shrinks yard by yard.

That’s because he’s a soldier—no, he’s a hero—no, he’s …

(??? thoughts) Cause I’m…

In an instant, the storm of burning sand engulfed him like a melancholic monster.

And just like that, the man was never heard from again.