Onward

I woke up, my body still aching from the events of yesterday. My eyelids parted to see the splintered wooden roof above me. Part of me had hoped I would wake up to see my apartment ceiling, yet part of me hoped I would not. It was a contradicting feeling I could not understand myself. Though I do not remember much of what led me to come to this ash filled world, I at least got to see my room again, even if it was just a dream. I took a moment to stretch my pain out before readying myself to head back out into the gray stained landscape. I stared into the eternity of ash dunes, watching gusts of wind lift gray haze off its loose surfaces. The sky's dark waves pulsed and reformed as they followed the wind's direction. This was truly it, the life I had to endure now, but I know that whatever is out there along the dark horizon would lead me to some sort of answer to what is going on.

Before leaving the leftovers of this village, I explored the last couple intact houses for anything of value. Many of the other houses were hardly a framework or foundation at this point, but some still stood tall, albeit on the brink of collapse. I was not able to scavenge for much other than dry aged food that I had found in compartments in some houses, seemingly the only food that looks safe enough to eat in the dreaded conditions of each house. After collecting as much food as I could and fitting it in my satchel, I departed for the colossal shadows, their distance making them feel like merely a backdrop. I gave the shrine that I found myself in once last glance, taking in the importance it probably once had. There was nothing I could do with it now, being as ignorant of this place as I am now, so I finally departed with it. My footsteps imprinted in the soft flakes of ash, leaving a short trail behind me as the wind washed away any evidence that I had traveled here. I pulled a piece of my cloak over my nose and mouth as the wind kicked up, trying to prevent any ash and dust from entering my throat.

The walk was long and silent, the whistling of the wind over gray dunes being the only sound to grace my ears. Despite the barren land and forsaken sky, the moving air over these gray dunes was somewhat serene, its gentle hushing easing my overbearing mind. I had many thoughts worrying me with each step. Many times I tried thinking about the life I lived before arriving in this new world, yet nothing would come to me. I knew of the city I hailed from and the apartment I lived in, yet nothing of how I came to be there was present in my internal history. I could not recollect how or why I lived in that noisy city in the first place. Who was I and what did I stand for? The thoughts bothered me as I traversed the vast emptiness of these swaying gray dunes.

There was nothing out here for a while, just more ash dunes and the same pressure of wind hitting my left, the tails of my cloak constantly weightless. The silhouettes of the structures against the dark sky gave the illusion of an ever expanding tower in to the open air. The dull landscape along with the confusing depth gave me the feeling that I had made no progress. I was beginning to lose hope, trudging through layers of ash that only seemed to grow higher. I kept my eyes forward through the gray haze, the shadows of the monuments before me looming, yet so far away it felt like I would die before I reached them. As the the ash kicked up and my view fell into a haze, I noticed a strange shape take form. I trudged a few more steps higher through thick ash until I reached the end of a steep dune, its slope greeting the edge of my toes. I looked downward to what was below me, the shapes that had once been blurs now coming into full view. At the bottom of the dune I saw miles of dead trees. Their bark was nearly black and their branches twisted up and outward from the ash. The darkness of their bark covered the ground ahead, casting dark shadows in this already shaded world. Without a second thought, I took a step forward and slid down the ash dune, the thickness of the layer slowing my descent.

I reached the bottom and stared into the twisted woods. I continued and reached the edge of the forest, the layer of ash beneath me now thinner than it was on the dunes. The canopy above was not as dense as it seemed when I saw it from above. Hints of the dark sky showed themselves through the darker wood, the branches intertwining in intricate vein like patterns. I examined one of the dark trunks, curious of how its wood had gotten to be so black. Its bark was peeling off, disrupting the uniform flow of its surface. Ash filled the cracks of the vertical grains which defined each of the small segments of the bark. I kicked the trunk with the edge of my brown boots, the surface crumbling to black dust as I made contact. Just from that, it was obvious that this tree had been burnt to charcoal along with all the others. It only made sense with all the ash and now the burnt trees. Whatever burned to the world to ash must certainly be far beyond anything I can handle. I walked further and further in, just me and my thoughts being the only thing keeping me company. Why did I wake up here? What did I do to deserve this?

As my thoughts spiraled into a bottomless pit once more, I noticed the dead forest began to thin out, with the twisted trees becoming more spread out. Just up ahead, a clearing of ash showed itself and the things it had to offer. A small dilapidated village filled the clearing, each building spread out a decent space from each other. The structures that made this village were similar to the appearance of the village I had woken up near, but these structures were made of much more wood than stone. The planks that held each building together were dark and and peeled back, and their thin stone bases were blackened. At the very center of it all, I saw a large spotted mound that was as tall, if not taller than the buildings surrounding it. Its surface was dark and rugged and it had two long formations that stuck out of it like the branches of a tree. Among those branches, a dark tarp was webbed between each, its tattered material swaying with the quiet breeze. Something crimson stained the ground around the mound, its dark shade embracing it. It only took a few steps more to finally understand what I had happened upon.