There was nothing, absolutely nothing.
All Claire saw before her was a city in ruins, brought down by something designed for greatness, yet twisted and inevitably used for all the wrong reasons.
She walked through an empty street, careful not to trip on the uneven and cracked bitumen that once formed the road. The front windows for every building were either shattered or on the verge of it. Though there were trees that had been planted on the sidewalk, they all appeared withered and not one had a leaf on them, regardless of colour. There was even no chilling wind, adding to the feeling that the world had died.
Because it basically had, everything except Claire.
She glanced at the sky, and felt a pang of sorrow renewed as she saw nothing but dust-filled clouds, blotting out practically all of the sun’s rays. Claire longed for the clearer skies of her youth, when the cloud were a pure white instead of murky brown, and the free open blue that great machines flew through it. And then there was the night sky, and the stars that dazzled her as she gazed upon them.
As she looked back down, she came to a stop in a business district, where few skyscrapers stood tall as all once had. Some had fallen only to lean on another, while others had collapsed outright, almost as if they had disintegrated.
Claire looked back down to the ground, and something caught her eye; something tragic and horrible, but all too familiar.
Protruding from underneath the rubble of a collapsed building was a small withered hand, the skin wrinkled and a sickly shade of greyish-brown. Dried blood surrounded the limb as it reached for a fluffy teddy bear, once white but now dirt brown and wearing a faded red bowtie.
The sight was not new for Claire, but the sickening hollow feeling never stopped reappearing at the sight of a dead body. It also brought something else out too, something she battled against every single day; despair.
As she knelt down to examine the bear’s lifeless black eyes, the tufts of fur giving it a pained expression, those feelings within Claire resurfaced. It was like her whole body became hollow, save her heart, which hung by a thread amongst the void and threatened to fall at any moment.
And her mind was also assaulted, by the questions of doubt, of fear, of meaning. Why was she, at the time a young and frightened thirteen year old, able to survive the apocalyptic war that killed everyone else? How is it that she still survives to this day and more importantly why? What point would there be in continuing to live if you would be the only one of your kind left?
Claire held the bear close, hugging it in an attempt to bear with the pain and isolation. A rare feeling made itself known behind her vision before a rare tear escaped her emerald eyes and ran down her dirt-covered cheek. Despite being alone for four years, travelling an empty wasteland, this was the loneliest she had ever felt.
“So,” She thought, “What should I do now?”
As these feelings and thoughts threatened to overwhelm her, something on a rare breath of wind made her raise her head and stand up, something she hadn’t heard for such a long time.
She heard another voice.
It was faint, and she was surprised she could hear it, but there it was; a cry coming from beyond the ruined city. Claire immediately ran towards it, still clinging to the bear as a small spark of hope came to life.
“Is this happening,” Claire thought to herself as she ran, every possibility running through her head. “Am I dreaming?”
She stopped outside an abandoned house, panting with hands on knees after her sprint. But the noise was still there. The sound of a young child’s cry echoed from within the derelict home, fuelling the flame of hope within Claire’s heart.
She quickly stepped inside, the smell of dank wood and rotting food being over-ridden by the need to locate the noise. She quickly scanned the scene; the room to her left – a former lounge room with a broken television and torn carpet – empty. To her right, a bedroom – the wooden frame of the bed broken, and shards of glass on the floor explained by bullet holes in the wall opposite the window – empty. She then noticed the stairs, and bolted up them. She avoided steps that were broken or close to it, rushing to the top.
Claire slowed at the top, catching her breath as the cry continued. There were two doors on the top floor, one broken to splinters to reveal more carnage, while the other was slightly ajar, but open enough to allow the cry to escape it. Claire slowly opened the door, and her mouth opened as, for her, for one instant, time stood still.
Inside the room, amid the torn curtains, shattered plates and ripped bed covers, sat a young boy. He looked fragile; kneeling next to the corpse of a woman she only assumed was his mother. They did share the same pale cerulean eyes and dark hair. He couldn’t have been older than five, and while he was silent now, observing his new guest, the tears on his face proved it was him whose cry she heard.
Claire slowly walked forward, dropping the bear before falling to her knees and embracing the boy, who froze for a moment before he began crying again, their emotions getting the better of both of them. It had seemed like a millennium had passed since Claire had felt this happy.
“Finally,” She spoke, the first words in a long time, “I... We’re not alone anymore.”
They remained that way for a long time before Claire untangled herself from the boy and moved to his mother, closing her unseeing eyes and praying for her. Out of the corner of her eye, Claire saw the boy copying her, and smiled, surprised and relieved she still could.
“What’s your name?” She asked, looking back to him.
“J-Jeffery,” the boy replied nervously, a hand holding the back of his neck as he looked down. Claire smiled at the boy as she walked over the bear and gave it to him.
“Well Jeffery,” Claire asked, kneeling to his eye level as she offered him her hand. “Would you like to come with me? I promise I’ll protect you, just as she did, and still does.”
Jeffery looked back to his mother, her face now resembling a peaceful slumber, before turning back to Claire and nodding, slowly taking her hand while holding onto the bear in another.
And as the two walked out of the house and through the streets, for the first time since all the destruction around her took place, Claire felt warmth inside her, something she thought was long since dead. It was a sense of joy that she was no longer alone, but also a feeling of responsibility for Jeffery, a sense of purpose.
“I promise,” Claire silently vowed to Jeffery’s mother a smile now resting comfortably on her face, “I will protect him. And thank you.”
