To call it ‘afternoon’ would have implied the sun was visible below its zenith. I preferred to think of it as ‘slightly dimmer day’ – given that the light was a horrible, diffused gray, streaming through the omnipresent ash. The sun was AWOL , leaving behind a silent, ghostly plain.

I lifted my gasmask long enough to light a USA Gold (598 left), and sucked to wipe out the momentary stench of wet ash and rotting… something. I was in the middle of what had been town; surrounded by piles of blackened rubble.

The tallest thing standing was the town’s bronze statue – I couldn’t remember who it was originally, but it had melted into a surprisingly good resemblance of Gumby.
It was dead quiet. Pardon the pun.

When the end came, it came quickly; hence I reasoned that itd be hard for anyone loot fully stocked grocery stores when:
a) They’d been turned into humanoid sticks of jerky.
And
b) The stores themselves were blown over like sandcastles.
I made my way over to the general store – or what was left of it.