The streets are empty.

No. Not empty.

The winds are howling across the now-desolate alleys. Desolate? Heh. Decimated might be a better term. I stumble over the rubble, the gusts whipping at my scratched back and legs. Dust clings to the exposed skin. It stings. I don't dare put my hoof there, though. If I so much as scratched them, the sand would dig into my flesh and cause infections. At least I'm alive and well enough to worry about such things. Thank Celestia I was in the basement when the bomb went off. Those who weren't lucky enough to be underground...

In the thirty minutes I've been outside of the basement, I saw more dead bodies than I ever thought I would come across in a lifetime. All of them were charred and burned. Some of them were even unrecognizable, the limbs having burnt off in the blast. I could only vaguely guess as to what they used to be.

I trip, and I fall face-first onto the ground. I grunt and push myself off the ground. Something groans. I turn to look at what it was. I probably won't forget what I saw for the rest of my life.

A pony, or at least something that used to be a pony, feebly moans as it lies on the ground. Its skin is charcoal black. A stump, probably where a leg used to be, twitches slightly as the creature shallowly breathes in and out. A piece of metal juts out of its stomach, blood dripping off of the eerily shiny surface. There's a huge gash where the blade had pierced the skin. Blood and what I assume to be intestines are strewn across the ground. The creature coughs. More red viscera pour out of the opening, ignoring the feeble hoof pressed against the wound. The charred life turns its head towards me. Its eyes are completely white with their irises missing. It opens its mouth. I turn tail and scamper away as fast as I could.

After a while, I stop and catch my breath. The air hitches in my throat, and I empty my stomach onto the ground. Minutes of dry heaving, and I finally recover enough to continue moving, now covered in a sheen of sweat.

In the distance, I see a figure slowly stumbling across the landscape. A pony. "Hey!" I call out to them. They turn towards me, then slowly begins to approach me. I walk towards them.

A strange clanking noise reaches my ears. It grows as the pony approaches me. I swivel my ears to pinpoint the source, but I could only tell that the pony was the source of the sound. Are they chained up or something? I quicken my pace towards them.

As I near them, another horror meets my eyes. Their coat was burnt off, leaving only red, raw skin exposed. All over their body were pieces of glass, probably fragments from a large window. Their horn is lit up, the unicorn trying to blindly pull the glass out and only driving them deeper into the flesh. A pair of empty eye sockets stare back at me with what I can only assume to be vitreous fluid trickling down the unicorn's cheeks.

I blindly stumble backward, falling onto the ground. My eyes are transfixed onto the pony slowly marching towards me like a zombie, and my body locks up, too afraid to run away.

The pony opens its mouth, and from the opening comes a hoarse "Help..."

I come to my senses. I bolt to my hooves. Once again, I turn around and run away.

I don’t know how long I have been walking. I’ve been walking ever since I ran from the pony with all the… all the glass…

I shake my head. I have to keep walking. Get to somewhere where there isn’t devastation. Then everything would be okay.

It’s hot around me. The wind blowing in towards the mushroom cloud in the distance burns. I walk against the wind. The dust blows into my eyes. I keep blinking, and tears trickle down my face. I don’t stop, though. I can’t stop. I have to get to somewhere safe.

Through the somewhat intact alleys and buildings, I swerve and hobble away.

I’m thirsty. How long has it been since I drank? It’s so dry, so hot. There’s no water. Everything I see is just rubble and destruction.

As if the sky heard my thoughts, something falls onto my head. I look up, and another falls onto my cheek. I hold up a hoof. A droplet falls onto it. Another falls onto the ground next to me. Then another. Then another.

It’s raining.

Something isn’t right. The water is black. The rain is black. I look up into the sky. Droplets fall onto my face. The cool water washes the heat off of my body.

I open my mouth. The raindrops land inside. My tongue revels in the feeling of the first moisture in hours.

I taste lead. I tilt my head. It’s as if I bit down on a piece of metal and licked it. But I certainly do not have silverware in my mouth, nor am I bleeding in my mouth. Eh, whatever. It’s probably the ash mixed in the rain. I open my mouth again, letting the lead-flavored water into my throat. I want to cherish the water given from the heavens.

After all, this rain is the only simple thing that hasn’t changed from before the bomb fell. Might as well enjoy it.

Author's Note

Day of Creation: February 9th, 2022
Prompt: Fallout

Comment: …that’s the most I have written for a Kalvinburma entry, I think.
(For those who don’t know, tasting lead is one of the major symptoms of excessive exposure to radiation. If you’re in an area near an atomic bomb detonation or a nuclear accident and you taste lead, well… it’s probably best that you take the easy way out.)