I was fed up with the apocalypse, so I turned my back on it and walked away. Sadly it seemed to be the next big thing and was hard to escape. By the time I had left the trashed city far in the past I was getting edgy and bored with my own company. My four legged familiar trotted next to me but was unreachable and diffident, a creature of habit.

No matter how far I traveled, I never quite reached my destination, unsurprising given the lack of any real direction. I simply ambled along, hoping against hope for a shining oasis in the desert of my dreams. The winds of change blew past me but barely ruffled my feathers. It was time to rethink things.

As the fearsome smoke billowed on the horizon I approached a black and broken structure that resembled a midden heap of man’s greatest follies and fears. Where was love when I needed it? All this time I had been obsessed with myself and I had failed to notice reality crumbling at my feet.

The end of the world was only the beginning. The soot of man’s decadence fell from the heavens like black rain. I could just make out the truth if I looked hard enough. Somewhere in that black pile in the distance a thought lived and scuttled across the detritus of our desires.