Capítulo 68: Chapter 68
The city was already dead when he met her. He had been walking for hours, avoiding the small pockets of people who still clung to some illusion of safety. The sirens had stopped hours ago, and the sky was now a dull, colorless gray. The concrete beneath his boots cracked with every step. All around, the world was nothing more than a slow, crumbling ruin, covered in ash and soot.
He saw her on the corner of an abandoned street. She was standing alone, staring at the distant skyline where a few weak clouds hung in place, as if everything had just frozen. The tension in the air felt sharp, but the silence was the loudest thing.
Her clothes were simple, almost too simple for the world they were left in. But it was the way she held herself—like she was already gone, but still somehow here—that caught his attention.
For a moment, he thought maybe she hadn't noticed him. She stood there, still, like a part of the scene. Then she turned, slow and deliberate. Her face, pale as death, barely moved as she stared at him.
"Don't," she said, her voice thin but cutting through the quiet.
He felt his pulse quicken, though his body didn't obey the usual instincts to run or hide. The sight of her felt wrong, but in a way he couldn't place. He had seen so many people break before, had heard too many cries for help, but this...this was different. There was nothing left but this empty silence between them.
"Don't what?" His voice came out cracked, weak.
She didn't respond right away. Instead, she stepped forward, dragging her feet as though the effort to move was too much. Her eyes never left his, not even when she reached the edge of the sidewalk.
"Stay away," she said, her lips barely moving, like the words were forced out of her by something beyond her control. "They're coming."
He didn't understand at first. He looked over his shoulder, as if expecting to see the distant glow of a nuclear blast. Instead, the sky stretched on in a grim line, like the world was holding its breath, waiting for something.
"What are you talking about?" he asked, more to himself than her. His head spun. The blast. The war. Everything. There was nothing else left to wait for, was there?
"You know what's coming." Her words landed cold and heavy, like they were somehow pulling him deeper into this black hole of dread.
He took a step back, trying to gather his thoughts. What did she know that he didn't? He wanted to run, but the fear held him in place. Maybe it was her—maybe it was the hopelessness in her voice—but something about her kept him frozen.
"Why?" he asked. "Why don't you run? It's over for all of us, you know that, right?"
She finally blinked. Once, then twice. It was so slow that it almost looked like a signal. The silence stretched on again between them, each second dragging out longer than it should have.
"The world doesn't end with a bang," she whispered, barely audible over the dead wind. "It ends with silence. And that's when you know it's over."
Before he could reply, the faint, distant rumble of an explosion echoed in the distance. It wasn't the loud, heart-stopping sound he had expected. It was muted. Like a slow, terrible drumbeat to the end of everything.
He felt it more than heard it. The ground underneath his feet vibrated slightly, and for the first time in what felt like forever, he actually felt the weight of his existence—the sheer, crushing insignificance of it all.
His heart raced. His thoughts scattered.
"What do you mean?" he whispered.
But she was already gone. Not like she'd walked away. Not like she'd disappeared. One moment she was there, and then the next... nothing. As though the air itself had eaten her up, swallowed her whole.
He stood there for a long time, staring at the empty spot where she had been.
The rumble in the distance grew louder. Another explosion. The sky flickered, then darkened.
He didn't run. There was no point.
When the blast finally hit, he felt it in his bones first. The ground cracked open, then the heat reached him, tearing through the air like an animal. He never screamed. There was no time. Only the last thing he remembered—the ash falling like snow, and the hollow, empty sound of a world finally gone.
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