16 December 2012
The pale morning light filtered through the snowy white haze of the sky to fall on the broken horizon. Broken and twisted metal shapes dotted the skyline like rotting teeth, each one looking ready to crumble into rust. His fresh tears slid down his skin along remembered tracks as he gripped his shovel and began walking. The ground was barren and turned to dust underfoot mingled with ash. The white snow that constantly fell dissolving at the slightest touch.
By the time he reached his destination the shack was barely visible, the light already dimming. Ash had clung to his worn boots adding to the blackened leather. With a sigh he plunged the rusted shovel into the soft earth. Soil stained orange and black slewed between thrusts and a haze of ruinous dust added to the clouded atmosphere. Sweat threatened to appear on his brow, the thin atmosphere unable to block the broken suns rays, but already the light was fading.
Standing waist deep in the ruined earth his face blackened and rust reaching up to his elbows he threw his shovel down one last time to climb out. A high pitched clink met his sense of failure and his hopes soared. Falling to his knees he scraped hand fulls at a time. Slowly the object became visible.
The dim light left from the fragmented sun intensified as its depleted rays touched the glassy surface. The once opaque it turned translucent displaying a parade of colours he had almost forgotten existed. Digging with a new energy he clawed the crumbling earth away faster and faster.
As the last mounds of earth were cleared his hope became dashed. The glassy material was almost a large as he was. The superheated sand mixed with radioactive elements, beautiful once cooled. A tomb when being formed. Crouching in the glass prison a young women knelt beside a man each sheltering their heads with horror in their frozen eyes.
Rust & Ash 2 • Opuss № I