Glaring sunlight shined upon the waste land of sandy soil, made the air and the ground even more scorching.

Although the rob was full of sand and dirt, also soaked by sweet made wearing them itself a torture, Lohcos Vahran knows he cannot take them off. He had seen what the skin of a body who was lying on the sand became.

Scorching air, exhaust of water and hours of nonstop walking on sand makes Lohcos felt his vision, which was compressed by the hood, mask, and goggles became more and more blurry. His consciousness was already slowly fading away from its the vessel. He felt he could no longer command his legs, but they were still moving forward as if they had self-conscious.

If, I could no longer control my limbs, then what is keeping driven it to go forward? If there is no longer consciousness, will the vessel still follow the instinct of survival… Lohcos couldn’t help but letting the thoughts wandered in his mind.

The sun shined so bright that made the sky with no cloud seemed no longer blue, but glowing white. Other than the footsteps of his own, Lohcos could also hear a crow. That crow had been following him for many days, for so many times he wished that crow could just fell to the ground so that he could had something to eat. But that crow kept circling in the air and staring at him.

Suddenly, a giant sound of stomping noise came from afar. Lohcos looked up to the horizon as that colossal being moved. Every stomp it made, its body pauses and shakes, as the ground roared with it.

“Pioneer” was what those gigantic auto machine like this one was called. Its duty was to “clean up” the sand and help to rebuild the cities that was being destroyed. However, the reality proved that those machines alone was not able to delay the downfall of human civilization.

As the rhythmic mechanical stomping went on, the machine was very close to Lohcos. He stopped, looked up just to admire this being——it’s body was covered in rust, as every stomps it made, the rusty gears sorrowed. The humans had gone, but the “Pioneer” kept fulfilling its duty, it must had been kept circling around a city and tried to clean up the sand. Without knowing that its operation devices were no longer functional, it will keep trying until its energy run out.

With the heavy stomps, the machine slowly walked pass Lohcos, as he could almost feel a sense of determination from this “lifeless” being. Lohcos felt that in some way, they were the same.

The machine had gone far away. Lohcos moved on, he knew the appearance of “Pioneer” could only mean one thing——a city was not far away from him. He pulled out an old, ragged map with sand on it from his bag. Lohcos breathed heavy, his fingers with cracked skin shaken, moved around on the map, and finally stopped, pointed towards the name of a city. 

Finally…hope it’s not hallucinations… He had seen hallucinations from few days ago, but it was more of a mix of memory and daydream than pure illusions. He saw the streets of his hometown, his parents, his wife, and different weathers——like rain and snow. Lohcos remember liked rain when his was a teenager, when four seasons still existed. Whenever there was a rain outside of his window, he loved to just sit down and watching the rainfall, as the water drops on the ground overflowed with greenness. He also loved the sounds that rain made when they dropped on the leaves. Those sounds, for some reason, gave him a sense of comfort and peace.

He was finally certain that it was not hallucination when his feet stepped on a small piece of reinforced concrete that was exposed above the sandy soil. He was filled with excitement as the ember of hope in his heart slowly lighted up again. He wanted to shout, out of excitement, but could not as his throat already lost its voice.

The sand nearly consumed everything. Lohcos never measured but was fairly certain that the sand was at least more than 10 meters above the ground that people used to walked on. With many of the structure collapsed due to the endless erosion of sandstorm, only the city that was once massive may only still had a few buildings left. As the more and more wreckages of building became visible above the sand, a group of structures appeared above the horizon.

Lohcos stopped. His heart started to race and the few remaining water molecules turned into tears as he felt relieved.

The scattered white and grey wreckages of reinforced concretes remained him of the beach he once went. It was that once he went to camping with his wife, Delia. They got up early and went to the beach next to their campsite just to watch the sun rise. They sat on a smooth and white tree trunk, there were just them on the beach. The white sand beach was scattered with some shells; the breeze with slightly salt on their faces; the waves came and left, made a cozy, rhythmic sound; on the side, there was a lighthouse covered in white and red surrounded with dark clouds. As the sun rises, the sky covered in dark blue was lightened as the cloud was given the color in golden.

Awaken from the quicksand of thoughts, Lohcos moved on towards the remaining of the city. Distant from the city, was a weather station with a huge radar on top of it. As Lohcos walked closer, he noticed that the city was at the center of a basin, and the station was on the edge the slope above the city. The station seemed to be abandoned for a while, as its entire out layer was covered in rust and dust.

Lohcos stopped in front of the station, he saw the crow sat on the radar and stares right at him, next to a wind vane which didn’t move for a single bit.

Lohcos walked on the metal stairs on the side of the building, hoped that these rusty old stairs won’t break. He stopped in the end of the stairs, in front of a broken door. It took Lohcos a while to push that door open, greeted with refreshing airs, as the sunlight led to a wide but dark hallway. However, it wasn’t long before two lines of dimmed red lights got turned on. It seems the emergency power system of the station was still functioning.

It didn’t take long for Lohcos to confirm that the doors on each side of the hallway was firmly locked. Lohcos left with no other choice, walked towards the double door at the end of the hallway. As the door was pushed open, Lohcos came across into a wide, open room.

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The huge telescope in the front, and the rows of electronic devices suggested that this was the observatory of this huge weather station. The memory of Lohcos watching weather report as a kid came in mind. He looked at the dusts on broken telescope, sighed. Human’s technology was once formidable, but so quickly and easily fallen apart in the face of nature.

Lohcos took down his masks and goggles, sat on the stairs of the observatory. The air and dimmed light made him felt relax, then there was a sense of sleepiness made him closed his eyes.

Walked on the waste land, there was nothing but sand with hot air hovering it.

Lohcos walked while supporting his wife Delia with arms, it’s been a few days since Delia’s condition got worse and now, she could barely walk. They went for rest after sawing a small piece of shadow made by dune. Lohcos slowly putted Delia on the ground, as he almost collapsed to the ground, breathing heavily.

“Dear…” Delia’s voice was so weak that it could barely be heard.

“Yes?” Lohcos bent down his body.

“There is one thing…” Delia paused and coughed heavily,“you have to promise me…”

Lohcos opened his eyes, sighed. Those past memories felt like it happened yesterday. After another round of searching, Lohcos putted his head gear on, and left the weather station.

Far away, those city buildings once were like woods in forest, tall and straight pointed to the sky now were nothing but some rotten trees leaned and scattered on the sand.

Although they looked very different, Lohcos could still recognized some of the buildings. Lohcos sped up as a great sense of nostalgic rose.

Lohcos was crumbled by something. While tried to get up from the ground, he turned around to check——wreckages that were exposed above the ground were not rare, but this one is unusual. The smooth surface of the marble reflected the sunlight. Lohcos walked closer, wiped the sands around the marble away. He realized what this was.

After the catastrophes, people built these monuments. There made of black marble were ten rows, each have more than a hundred meters in length, and ten meters in height. It was said that they were built, not only to remember the past, but also to hope that these fallen souls could be remember by the future generations. Now, however, these monuments that were full of names seemed to be bounded to rest under the sand.

Looking at the marble in the sand, an idea was flashed through Lohcos’ mind, but he quickly abandoned it. Slowly he got up, and proceeds to the city at the center of the basin.

Lohcos stopped in front of a ruin which looked like an apartment, like other ruins of buildings, the apartment was dilapidated. After looked around, Lohcos jumped in from a widow after casted a glance at the crow that still hovered in the sky.

The corridor’s ground was covered with dusty broken glasses, collapsed walls and handrails. Without checking any of the doors, Lohcos walked straight up, his footsteps echoed and hollowed in the corridor as he stopped at the top floor. Lohcos searched and pulled out a chain of keys, he selected one of them with shaking hands and opened the door.

Walked over the broken dishes and glasses, Lohcos looked at the walls which their paint had been peeled off and left with only grey cement. Sunlight shined in from the holes on the ceiling, lightened the center of the room. The path towards other rooms was blocked by crossbeams, Lohcos rested his eyes on the only furniture left in the room——a coach that lied against the center wall.

Wiped out the rubbles, dust, and sand, Lohcos sat on the coach, stared towards the wall once had a television on it. He putted his bag on the coach, poured everything out——an old map, a chain of keys, empty water bottles and cans, a rusted knife, a golden ring and sand.

Lohcos took a breath, leaned his head on the coach, surrounded by comfort and sense of belonging, he closed his eyes.

The nighttime on sand was supposed to be as cold as the late winter, but Lohcos could not feel anything. Lying on the ground with his wife Delia, they gazed at sky in silent, with waves came and left.

“Are you still awake?” Lohcos felt relived upon hearing his wife.

“Delia?”

“Yes. I’m here.”

“Delia…”

“Will you believe? Believe that even on this waste land, there could still be life blooms?”

Light snow slowly fallen; between the snowflakes, was the milky way clear and dazzling.

Lohcos once again, opened his eyes.

Lohcos left the room, walked down the corridor. Listened to his lonely footstep, with every step, he felt his body became heavier and his limbs were becoming more disobedient. He climbed out of the window and left the apartment ruin.

With determination, Lohcos walked forward.

After a long walk of only hearing his own footsteps between the city ruins, Lohcos saw a flower, a snowdrop, and its petal and leaves were complete and lively.

How a flower like this could grow on the sand? Lohcos walked towards the flower, but his legs finally could not bare the burden, and Lohcos collapsed to the ground.

He reached his hand forward, but soon, his arm sagged down to the ground like his legs. Lohcos felt the hot sand were becoming warm, as the sand started to devour him. The surrounding became deadly silence, and all Lohcos could saw was that snowdrop.

Lohcos tried to move his hand, in the hope of protecting it, but he gave up in fear of hurting it.

Words of his wife Delia echoed in his mind, he then realized that the snowdrop did not need any protection, but only to be seen.

As fleshes will rotten and vanished, structures or technology may be fading away by erosion; but the flower, and only the flower was impregnable.

Lohcos closed his eyes, he heard sounds of waves filling up in his mind.