Josh remembered how this all started. He remembered as the engine hummed quietly and desolate hills passed by. It was Joe's turn at the wheel, and the sky was tinted orange. The others, too sat and stared out at the forsaken wastes- the enemy was thorough.
Josh remembered very well that night, he'd been at an amusement park.
The landscape became a blur as he slipped into his thoughts.
It had been a pretty good day, and now his family, wallets empty, sat around the lake awaiting fireworks. The show proceeded as expected, despite a brief drizzle, and the children could not have been happier. Even the usually obstinate Josh cracked a smile as the deafening finale exploded into the sky, clouding the darkened sky with graying smoke. Then alll was quiet.
A jolt of a speed bump tore Josh back from the memory.
Joe drove on, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel. The others lay about sleeping, well maybe not the old man, you couldn't tell. Another thought occurred, and Josh checked the man's pulse. It was fine.
The teen remembered doing the same to some of his family. They had not been so lucky. He clenched his fists, and entered nebulous memory once more.
It was in that moment, between sheer awe, and the haphazard bustling to the next attraction, that fate had it happen.
The sky was still hazy with spent works of fire, when a purple light began to glow overhead.
A deep humming could now be heard as well.
The light, at first could have been mistaken for one last firework, oh, but it was not.
For the light grew larger, spreading outward and rounder, and the humming louder-
then in a beam, in a roar, the light came down-
and the dream was no more.
