What have we done? The once great city has been reduced to a desolate wasteland, to bleak, blackened ruins. I remember the stories my grandmother told me about when humanity destroyed itself.
A border feud had turned into full scale nuclear warfare until there was nothing left but the burnt skeletons of once-magnificent cities and an atmosphere poisoned by radiation. Some of the most beautiful places on earth turned into nothing but ash and memory.
Occasionally the sound of collapsing buildings reaches my ears as what is left of our world decays. A breeze tumbles through the derelict ruins, accompanied by an icy chill, the groan of rusting metal and the echoey silence of being alone.
As I tiptoe through the city, the voice of my grandmother comes back to me. 'I lived in a marvelous city, with huge skyscrapers that pierced the sky like jagged spikes. It used to be so bright when the sun reflected off the glass windows. People would bustle along the streets, gossiping away to one another...'. I look up as I try to envision my grandmother's world. A peaceful one.
I try to imagine what the buildings looked like when they were more than shells. When the sun reached the ground instead of being hidden behind a thick layer of radiation. The bright, welcoming signs of various cafes, shops with mountains of shoes or racks of clothes or piles of books outside, that had once been scattered along this boulevard. The school that stood on the street corner up ahead, once bustling with hundreds of students.
I try to think of the people. There's not many of us left. Even if we were all in one place, we wouldn't come close to the commotion of the world before. I try to steer my relentless thoughts away from the day the war began, but as I skirt around countless skeletons, the hollow indents where their eyes used to be, stalk my every move as if they're daring me to disturb their resting place more than I already have. I can't help but wonder, what had they been doing? Where had they been going? Did they know that they were going to die?
Time ticks away, the remnants of our delicate civilization slip out of existence. We can't go on like this. We can't fight our inescapable disappearance. We, like everything else, will depart the earth, leaving a blank canvas for evolution to draw new life on. As I reach up to brush away my wild hair, I am reminded of how cruel the radiation is as a clump of the untameable mess lands at my feet. A cockroach scuttles from beneath black rubble. Though they have survived for years, the world is nothing more than an empty wasteland.
Maybe the next inhabitants will see what we did. Maybe they won't make the same foolish mistakes we did.
What happened to the fragile existence of peace?
AN:
Hey Wattpad. This story was written for a school assessment. I thought it was rather good, so I decided to share it with all of you to try and get some feedback. So please review.
Thanks
2012louisemorley13
