I Walked Out of That Cave to Nothing

Описание: I had been out on the trail for two days when the world ended. It was the first backpacking trip of the season and I needed it more than I could explain. The last frost had finally broken and I had my pack loaded with everything I needed. My bow was strapped to the side. My fishing rod lashed below it. Rook was moving ahead of me on the trail the way he always does with his nose working the air and his ears catching things I never could. We found a cave carved into the hillside as the light dropped and I set up camp deep inside where the rock curved and the wind could not reach. I ate. Rook ate. We settled in and I remember thinking it was a good day. I woke up to a light so bright it filled the entire cave tunnel like the sun had dropped to the ground. The shockwave hit before I could stand and the rock around me shook so hard dust came down from the ceiling in thick clouds. I grabbed Rook and pushed deeper into the cave and held him against me while the roaring outside went on longer than anything I had ever heard. Then came the sound of debris raining down for hours like the sky was falling apart and dropping back to earth in pieces. I did not go near the entrance until the silence that replaced it was the most total silence I had ever experienced. When morning came I stepped outside into something I did not have words for. Every tree was a black skeleton standing in a carpet of grey ash that stretched as far as I could see. The sky was a dark churning mass of smoke with a sickly orange glow at the horizon. The smell hit me like a wall. Rook stayed tight against my leg and did not range out the way he normally would. I walked to where my house had been and found nothing but rubble and ash. I stood there for less than a minute. Then I turned around and went back to work.