The near silence was enveloping. The only sound was broken glass crunching under my heavy boots. This was the norm ever since everything crumbled. The world was under massive pressure. The economy, environment, political climate; it was all just too much. Society crumbled. It started out as small pockets of unrest here and there, but as greed kept barreling full force, head on like a bullet train nothing could stop the inevitable. Those at the top continued to take even, and quite frankly especially, when the rest of the world had nothing to give.

Now we’re here it was dubbed the great fall, though I never really saw the point of naming the end of the world, but that’s the funny thing isn’t it? Nothing is ever really the end. Everything is just a continuation impacted only by the decisions we make, but the world keeps turning, the sun comes up again in the morning, though you can barely see it through the haze of seemingly permanent pollution. I wish there were a proverbial “they” to blame for all this, for the thick air that’s often too toxic to breathe without a gas mask, the heat with little to no relief, being catapulted into the dark ages, but there isn’t. I am largely to blame for at least this part of the world’s destruction. I ran the biggest corporation making billions of dollars a year with little regard for anyone but myself. I could have helped but I didn’t. Instead The Great Fall was my great equalizer. My money valueless, pushed from my mansion by looters with nothing but the clothes on my back I have been walking across America to my home town. Back to where it all started. I convinced myself it would be better here, as if anywhere would be safe from the destruction. It’s a ghost town, not a living soul in sight. I stopped walking to look at my reflection in what was left of the shattered display window of the local bakery. I watched as a single tear rolled down my cheek and scolded myself. I was sad for the same reason I didn’t prevent this whole thing in the first place: I care only because it’s affecting me. I may be the same monster, but at least I’m self aware.