From silence comes noise in but a second, like a fuse lit tensions and smoke rose high. We could smell it, those living near the edge, the edge of where it would affect most, first. It’s always those who are in the middle, the ones who are in the middle that pain. Us who just try to carve out simple lives, we are the first to be drafted in war, in a war we didn’t pick, just gun shots. There were two factions, three… no... four or more. Things are never black and white in the time, only historians later can say. The fog of tomorrow, this cloud infront, it blocks out certainty and cold reason. We can have death, turmoil, and treason, nothing more, nothing less, no time to rest.

It was a simple day when it all began, this fuse reaching it’s end, igniting war. As if the gods of war themselves all rose, they gave a edict for all of us, “live”. This was the only desire, to live. What more could I hope for? Something primal. This primal desire to run, to fight, for what I cannot say, war is greedy… I doubt that this war is for good intent, I heard that those in the slums have grumbled, grumbled about the state of the era, I heard that those high up have grumbled too. Whoever set off the first shot, set all. I hid in the basement for the first days, unsure of times ahead, waiting for help. I left the basement the week after, gone… gone were the streets I walked before this war, instead hollow shells made of stone and wood. The souls of the buildings were long… long gone. That day I looked around, trying to find. What did I look for? Someone who knew what, what to do when the world crumbles around.

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“The streets are ruins, empty and soulless, the sky is grey from the fires and pain. Who are they fighting against, me? You? Them? I’m unsure, unsure if any of this, What will become of me without a job, without a place to stay and sleep calmly? I should get going now... where? I’m unsure… Anywhere but here, no reason to stay”