They say the world was green once. Trees and grass. I've seen the pictures, but it's still hard to believe. How the hell did we come to this? There are a hundred different stories, and who knows what's true and what's not anymore? You see, I was born after. Never got to feel the grass between my toes or climb a tree the way my Grandfather talked about. For all I know, he may have been the last one from before, and he's gone now, too.
I suppose it was bound to happen sooner or later. Grandfather said that men always seem to find a way to destroy each other, and themselves. Seems to me that they did a hell of a job this time, and took out the whole planet in the bargain.
I guess we're not any different now, though. No lessons learned. They say it was a real mess in the dark, that time just after when the survivors began crawling out of their holes. The sky was blacked out by ash clouds, and almost every growing thing was dead. People killed each other over food, and to hear Grandfather tell it, sometimes they had to eat those they killed.
Wasn't long before folks started banding together. They built strongholds in the rubble, and they salvaged what they could from the machines of Before: Cars, Generators, Guns. Eventually, the dark passed, and Man survived.
You might think that's a good thing, that it's the start of civilization again. You might think that the worst is behind us now. But if you'd ask me, you'd be wrong. You see, these "civilized" people; they still fight and kill, sometimes for the sheer joy of it. And some of those who crawled out of their holes in The Dark came out changed, twisted, mutated into something no longer completely human. No, the worst is not behind us. We're right here in the middle of hell. So I roam the roads alone, my car and this gun my only companions. Waiting for my turn to die.
