The skies...that is which we use to peer into the empty world of the voids, where we gaze upon the many edifices that scatter within it...
Where we can look upon the sublimity of reality without being overwhelmed by it...but as they always say...
It's rude to stare.
.................................
The sky opened that day...it's eyes peering back at us....a single eye for each that had gazed longingly...
Eyes that never looked away...as tears slowly fell from them...
With those tears...came monsters...
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I remembered it, clearer than any day, yet winds stiller than any frost...my mother's hands the only warmth felt...
As the teardrops fell, more dense than any pond...as the skies that I admired turned to...something else...
The city's eyes locked with the tears falling to the surface...and creating ponds from craters...and gifting with life...
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In front of my own eyes, came a limb from those ponds...something akin to 5 hooves connected by webbed membrane, attached to a armored form...clenching the ground...as if trying to lift itself from the water...
My mother dragged me away before I could see its true form, yet what I could see, etched itself into my mind...the screams and stench of metal did not help...
The once bland yet still ever bright city became vibrant and dim...
Soon, the smell of gunpowder wafted into the air...looked like the responders were quick to respond...or maybe it was because we were running into the inner city...
Though considering the still lively sounds I heard while running...it didn't go well...
I guess with how the world is now, it was pretty obvious...but hey, the least those guys should have done was making sure a child felt safe running behind them, no?...
Well at least we weren't rich enough to be in a high rise building when the drops fell...our luck hadn't ran out yet...
We actually thought our luck had finally flourished that day, for what was the chances of us being able to reach a cement barricaded mountain tunnel in just three days of constant running, without dying to this apocalypse?
My mother really was determined...I miss her sometimes...
Oh yeah, what happened next? Well nothing much...
After all, what could a single child and his mother do in a crowd of dozens...
We were just lucky the one leading all these people was an exemplar of humanity...even offering to forage on his own at times when no one else wanted or could...
He even treated me and mom with respect...and took care of mom whenever I joined the foraging team...
Considering my biological father had left us alone to these monsters as he entered that escape truck...I wouldn't have mind to call him dad if it was for my mom's happiness...
Honestly, those years I spent in that tunnel had been the first time I've ever seen humanity as a hopeful species...though that could have just been the fact I was too young to know what hope or good were...
Hell, him just patting my head and assuring me everything would be okay as he went out to forage became a core memory of mine...
That says a lot, no? Either how innocent I was back then...or maybe how everything is right now...
Oh shit...tears huh...looks like I haven't changed much huh, mom...
Sorry...looks like I'll have to continue this later...see you in the next one...