Barely escaping the fires of destruction, Andy and Amy made it to the open area behind the mountains . They used to shield themselves from the blast waves. For the next hour as the bombs fell, Amy looked up to heaven silently begging god to make stop and for some kind of answer. Tears rushed down her face, so heavy that they nearly choked her. A glance to the horizon told her that the sun was setting prematurely, and darkness took them to a picture of hell. The world was dark and in the distance, you could see fire billowing and exploding, followed by screams in the thousands. Hands over her ears, she could still hear it. So, Amy gave a blood-curdling speech to block it out. It lasted only a few moments and then, a haunting silence fell upon them. The air became still once more. The tension mounted as everyone knew that the humans were dead. Exhaustion and shock took their toll as the adrenaline ran out and Amy collapsed.
April 22, 2011 4am
A humming sound began somewhere in the distance, it got closer. The humming became a dull roar of metal gears and wheels turning. What she thought was a car pulling up was far worse. A machine, upright with2 wheels for legs and guns for arms. The head was lights streaming along with ground and mountains as if looking someone or something. Amy woke up first and her heartbeat doubled. Andy's did the same. The machine was focused on the rock beside them but as soon as they woke, it snapped their way. The light reflected in Amy's eyes, as the machine's arms started to light up. Jumping to the right, they hurriedly ran from the firing and the sound of gunshots took away the uncomfortable silence.
The machine realized it was too bulky and heavy to pursue them so it moved on. Meanwhile Amy had managed to get behind a few rocks to hide from and spy on the machine. Andy who had followed her was nowhere to be seen. The machine moved around the mountains and turned left. Wanting to see where it came from and where it went, Amy followed it. The machine had led to an open field, where there was no place to hide. A couple of survivors had built a small fire to keep warm, the fire had attracted machine. A round fired cleared out all humans in the field and the machine pressed on, looking for more people to terminate. Following the machine for the next few days proved hard without food or water to keep her going, Amy was losing her strength.
April 30th, 2011 8pm
Amy reached the beach or what was left of it . Slowly building a fire , she was able to boil water to drink. After a few minutes of warmth, she put out the fire. On her chase with the machine, she had learned that they were attracted to heat and movement. She had given up her pursuit 3 days earlier from fatigue. Alone and cold, she cried for company. Reaching into the pocket of her Marine jacket, she pulled out a photograph from her wallet. Taken just after her girls had turned 3. She stared at it, laughing at the memory of it being taken. Her husband, Sam was in the far left of the photo, arms folded, turning to the right. She considered him to be her souvenir from the Marines. Their marriage official just after joining the corp and their girls after they completed boot-camp. Amy was positioned in the right corner of the photograph, her pose mimicked Sams, both were smiling and laughing at the photographers jokes. They were meant to make the girls laugh, but it made their parents laugh as well. In the middle of the photo were 2 3 year old girls. Identical in every way , pulling each other's hair while looking where they were told to, wrinkling their baby pink dresses in their hands. Ear to ear grins on both of them. She had wanted the picture to preserve their lives and it did. Both parents were dressed in their uniforms , separated to each other by the Marine emblem in the middle above the girls. For one moment, there was no war in their lives, just peace and each other.