There ain’t no sky today. He thought to himself. Even though I may never see the sky again. These thoughts circled through his mind day after day as he started to feel like he was going crazy. He was all alone in the basement of the shopping mall that he worked at. It’s been years since the sirens rang all over the country, and that same amount of time since he has seen a human being. WWIII had begun six years ago. But the bombs went off four years ago. That day we would remember forever. The horrors that he saw were like no other. The screams of people, the loud explosions, and the overall chaos on the streets.

His radio sat next to him on a cardboard box playing only a static noise. He turned off the radio to conserve the batteries, grabbed his gas mask, and went to check if there was a sky today. Nope, the sky was still filled with radioactive grayish–yellow clouds. The skyscrapers still stood but were turning into skeletal husks, their steel frames warped and half melted. The streets were dead, but are now slowly coming back to life as the color green started to fill the cracks in the concrete, and cover cars. Although the thought that he may be the only person left alive, it was a relief that things were starting to regrow, as if it was some sort of sign.

He jolted his head down the lifeless street behind him, as a small roar began to echo. What could it be? Other survivors? Some sort of creature? As he got closer the sound grew, it sounded like a generator, a loud rumble. The smell gas grew in the air. A large camo jeep sat in the middle of the street, the only vehicle with some life and not covered in a sheet of ash. Two men in military uniforms and gas masks stood next to each other, with large crates and barbed wire surrounding them. He looked closer into their uniforms. It was the American military! There were actually survivors of the fall out! He tried yelling out to them, but nothing came out as he almost forgot how to speak. He tried again loudly, HEY! The two men swung around startled and pointed their guns at him. He shot his hands upwards. The men were more startled then scared, they thought that no one survived in the city.

After the dispute, they invited him back to a military camp just a few miles out of the city. It had hundreds of people; doctors, scientists, engineers, etc. He sat in silence on the way to the camp. But for the first time in a long time, something stirred in him. Hope.