The old man stood on the wreckage of an ancient car wreck and glared through the sunlight and over the hills at the city that loomed in the distance. He watched as small shapes slowly disappeared into the broken buildings as the sun became to hot for the crustaceous creatures. Climbing down from his perch he brushed the rust from his hands and grabbed his backpack and set out towards the ruins where he was hoping to find a peaceful place.
The outskirts of the city had the scent of death hanging heavy in the air as the man walked through the burned out shells of the homes in which families were caught unaware as the world had burned with nuclear fire. The few families that were prepared had fled leaving a trail of broken items in their hurry to get to the nearby shelters. The man ignored the discarded clothes and broken toys as he entered one of these houses. Inside he found a filthy mirror with cracks forming a crystalline spider web spreading from a point where someone had punched the mirror, judging by the skeleton clutching it's fist in the corner of the bedroom. Shuffling into view of himself he saw an old man with hair long gone, leaving his head bald. His eyes were tired and sunken into his skull as they continued to glare at everything.
"Where will you go?" He asked himself outloud, his breath disturbing the dust covering the mirror, sending it around the rooms in cascades of gold as the sun came in from holes and the windows. He turned and left the question hanging in the air. Leaving the house altogether, he kept walking down the road until he came to an intersection where a young woman was motioning to a group of scavengers coming from a different direction. Near the woman they became nervous and with wide eyes and panicky motions they were gunned down along with the subdued woman, as multiple raiders jumped from their hiding spots. Each one drugged up so much that they didn't even notice that they were shooting each other. It wasn't until the scavengers were lying in a small lake of blood did they stop and notice their wounds. Carefully the old man left the mess and continued into the city where he found even worse things.
Not until he came to a museum in near perfect condition did he stop. Climbing the stairs he turned at the door and looked down where he found his reflection in a puddle of water near his foot. "This is where I will go." He said and closed and locked the doors. Inside he followed a map he had found on the wall and entered another room. In this one was a model of the solar system. The model had long broken and would no longer play the audio recording of a man with a high pitched voice talking of the neighboring planets and the universe surrounding them. The man set his pack down and pulled from it a broken and battered picture frame showing him and his mother. His father had left when he was young and would send gifts from wherever the army would send him. In the picture he stood with his mother in the same room he stood in now, and in the background the planets were light up and spinning. The old man sat down in the front row of seats of the circular stands. Outside of the museum he could hear the gunfire of a distant fight. "This is where I will stay." He said and closed his eyes and let his body relax as he breathed out as he slipped into a deep sleep.
