The soldier strode through the rubble, carefully stepping around bricks, broken asphalt and whatever else stood in his path. He peered ahead in the distance and for miles there was only emptiness. There was merely a large stretch of desert, containing a road on which a little farther down contained the remnants of what was once a thriving city.
The year was 2042. Collapsed buildings and deserted vehicles lined the now forgotten city, its last remaining citizens having been displaced. The soldier distinguished the ruins in the distance, the flames having long since dissipated, now covered in ash and dust.
The soldier stepped forward and felt a crunch as his boots crushed something beneath him. He lifted his boot and as he inspected the ground, he noticed a small bone most likely of that of a lizard or some other smaller creature that had lived in the harsh desert conditions. The soldier shrugged his shoulders and moved on, treading around other bones and rocks in his path.
The soldier halted for a moment and observed his surroundings. The sky was hazy red and full of dust and particles giving the sky a post-apocalyptic feel. The soldier assumed that this was what the atmosphere of Mars resembled, though he had never experienced life on Mars.
Not wanting to risk ingesting one of the many harmful chemicals that were floating in the sky, the soldier diligently removed his dust mask from his pack and placed the mask across his face securing it over his eyes, nose, and mouth.
With the absence of clean oxygen, the life forms had mostly all died out, except for certain insects like cockroaches and millipedes that managed to live on despite the difficult climate and landscape. Precipitation was also rare in the area and any rain that did fall came out acidic, burning away any remaining trees or shrubs.
The soldier straightened back up and persevered on; stepping over the bones of what he assumed was a deceased human body, though he wasn’t entirely sure. He regarded the body and saw that the flesh had long since been torn away, insects and small animals having eaten away at the body leaving only the bones behind for bacteria to decompose later.
He shuddered, and turned away in disgust, nearly vomiting in the process, as a millipede crawled out of one of the eye sockets of the skeleton’s skull and scuttled down its head.
For a moment, the soldier paused again to examine the world, attempting to remove the mental image of the millipede from his head. The soldier wanted to confirm he wasn’t missing anything, any forms of life, but there was nothing; just a barren landscape.
Only a few years ago, in the year 2034, war had broken out between the West and the East leading to the beginning of a series of battles and conflicts over different sections of land. The soldier was indifferent to the war, but nonetheless had been conscripted into the war, forced to fight soldiers on the opposing side who had joined the military under similar circumstances.
He fought and fought, firing bullet after bullet at other human beings, until eventually both the West and the East ran out of both resources and soldiers and the war came to a conclusion. A peace was called shortly after and the soldier was one of the lucky few to survive; though he wouldn’t consider himself lucky. Not much remained of the world as he knew it and he had no home or family to return to. The soldier couldn’t help but wonder what the purpose of the war was. It had only resulted in death and destruction.
The soldier pressed on, shaking the thoughts from his mind, having heard of a place in the distance that had been reborn after the war. He had heard rumours that this new city contained wildlife, an ecosystem, and a functioning society. It felt unreal to him, like a perfect dream, but he had nothing to lose by attempting to locate this recreated city.
Since the war had ended, not much remained. Both combatants of the war had collapsed in an effort to defeat the other. All that was left was destruction; societies had been demolished as if they never existed, the new nuclear technologies of war resulting in extreme devastation of cities and the environment.
The soldier had watched as men, women and children had fled, attempting to escape the battles only to end up in the middle of another. Eventually without anywhere left to escape to, people began disappearing into the distant forests which had been left untouched by the war. They vacated their homes, schools, and everything else that a functioning society consisted of, in order to begin new lives. They abandoned their cities, allowing their homes to be beaten and battered by bullets and explosions as soldiers battled each other relentlessly.
After the completion of the war, the soldier had walked for miles to reach the secluded forests. After days of no food, and limited access to clean water, he finally reached the forests. To his dismay, life in the forests was complete anarchy, people fighting each other like savages over the smallest of scraps. Fortunately, he met a one-eyed lady who told him about the rumours of a new society, one that was being rebuilt. With nothing to lose, he decided to venture out to find it.
Now, the soldier had a purpose. He was determined to find the last remaining society; one that had risen from the ashes. For the first time in years, he was optimistic about the opportunities that existed; hopeful regarding the future.
The soldier forged ahead, ramming his way through stones and other debris, the red sky motivating him to forge on towards a better place.
As he passed the barrens of the collapsed city, he could feel the death and despair around him, as if the dead were standing around him, watching him. But that didn’t destroy his optimism. He continued on towards his goal of finding the new city, hoping for a better life, a new life.
