(Zeslinry)
Days went by, but I kept waking up in panic as if it was still the first night.
I'm sick and vomit again.
I pick up what I can find from the next abandoned car, still feeling dizzy.
The stench of death keeps me at bay for a while. I try to forget that illuminated night. I head deeper into the old island, looking for anyone or anything to remind me of my own humanity.
I've just fled away and tried to forget. Trying not to be the one to die next. But travelling alone and not seeing any people in the distance is terrifying.
I look for anything edible or useful along my random way. The national park mines are a long way, but unfortunately likely the best civilised place I still am aware of. The island was already mostly deserted anyway.
However the further I went, the worst looking things became.
I rubbed my eyes over what I wish I was hallucinating.
Sprawling trees coalescing into a gigantic tower by the southern horizon.
And by the next bog on my way, I can see gigantic frog eggs growing peacefully. They look like embryos of something awfully big, the size of small dogs already.
I sweat at these sights I can't comprehend, and I run away before some of these crawling spirits come to reach and haunt me.
~
I keep running from one terrifying appearance to the next, spooked as if the whole land and side roads had turned into a spooky train ride.
But the stench of death lingers all along the dirty road, reminding me how much I wasn't meant to be alone there. And how much frail my life might be if I'm not careful.
Rodents are gnawing on the flesh turned gelatinous of a body lying beside the road, like I would be.
It makes me vomit again.
Weird insects crawl out from the dirt to come check the waters I just released. I'm running again, thinking that I'm losing my sanity.
~
I found a truck crashed beside the road. I recognised it almost on the spot. It's the one I left.
Now like in many others, the polymers inside have grown mushrooms of a few kinds. The sits are damped and stained. It smells horribly.
But I look around and search for more. A phone lies there, unable to connect. The truck's radio is dead too.
A firearm exploded in rusty spikes a while back there too. People must have fled along the crash since no one was left there.
Some of the dead people I've seen lying along the road must have come from here.
I find some cigarettes and trails of people panicking away. That's all.
I lit a smoke trembling and resume walking. The woods starting along the road here are worrying me.
I press on, smoking nervously. It's not enough to relax me, as I still am trembling nervously and dizzy.
I reach the end of a hill and this road as the day comes to an end.
Behind, another city is blanketed in ashes, and the road cut by deep chasms. Here too fires and quakes simply eradicated everything it would seem.
The mud kept some tire tracks from the truck seen earlier today. I think they were driving away from this city falling into chaos...
They drove east toward the coastal side, to flee from this forsaken town.
Now I feel sad, and a little hopeless. Our roads have crossed each other over the same hopeless purpose. They drove away in panic, leaving this city to its fires behind. Until somewhere further along the road, something caused them to crash.
And then, like countless others now, they were simply spirited away...
Some slugs of gathered ash flakes are crawling toward me I notice. I step back nervously. I throw my cigarette butt away and turn back in pain.
Night is falling, I'm still as scared as I've ever been, and I wouldn't dare head inside that other toxic cloud of a city.
I feel hopeless, now accepting it's been a bigger tragedy than I could think.
Maybe it's how the old war ends. But I don't trust my thoughts anymore.
~
I hid for that night in another vehicle abandoned on the outside of that other city. I just hoped nothing will grow like parasites over me this time.
The stench of burnt tobacco did calm me perhaps a little, as I tried desperately to sleep that night. That smell and taste lingered with me.
Nothing else but worries came to bother me.
And then I followed another road, heading north, a little more randomly.
What else would there be....
I was afraid and kept walking, trying to control my anxieties.
Another road and another chance, maybe.
~