Link to article: Smoke.
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[[include :scp-wiki:component:info-ayers |lang=en[!-- EN/RU/KO/CN/FR/PL/ES/TH/JP/DE/IT/UA/PTBR --] |page=smoke[!-- url of your page on the scp wiki --] |authorPage=http://www.scp-wiki.net/djkaktus[!-- link to your author page --] |comments= = **//Smoke//** ]] [[>]] [[module rate]] [[/>]] [[=]] [[size 120%]]Smoke[[/size]] ----- @@@@ @@@@ ⍍ A week ago, [[[twistedgears-kaktus-proposal|the earth shook beneath our feet.]]] I told mama not to be worried - that sometimes these things happened. They say the earth moves when mountains collide under the water but we know the truth. The earth moves to settle in for winter like turning over to sleep. @@@@ @@@@ ⍍ Five days ago, a man stumbled into our town his face was dark with ash and soot and he could not speak only mumble. He stared through us, as if we were not there at all. He looked at me and I saw nothing in his eyes. He said "fire", and "death", and "smoke". I offered to let him stay at our house (though mama threw such a fit about his cleanliness!) but he was gone by the morning. They said he walked south. @@@@ @@@@ ⍍ Three days ago, the earth trembled again and a group of miners from the hills said they saw something burning over the mountains, to the north. "Are the forests burning?" we asked though it was late in the season for them to do so. They said no. They said that it was not burning wood but something else. They said that up in the hills, they could hear sounds sounds of machines and grinding metal faint, but growing closer. And they said that they saw smoke thick and black and dense not from burning trees but something else. @@@@ @@@@ ⍍ Two days ago a group of men came to our town from the south. They rode in a motor vehicle and wore helmets like soldiers. The earth had shaken again in the night, and now we could feel tremors every few hours. Mama was growing anxious. She wanted us to go to the hills, where tía Elaina and the cousins live. I told her that was silly, that someone needs to watch the farm and the house. I told her I would ask the soldiers about the tremors and the smoke. When I spoke to them, they said very little. They looked at me like an adult might look at a lost child and they said that many others were heading south to La Paz. I mentioned the farm, and the house and the soldier just shook his head and said that other were heading south to La Paz, and then they drove away. @@@@ @@@@ ⍍ Yesterday, the sun did not rise. I sent mama and little Felicia to the hills where tía Elaina and the cousins live. I said I would stay and watch the farm and the house and that they could come back after the fires had burned out. There is a haze that has settled over our town sometimes it rolls in like waves off the sea choking the countryside. The air is thick with it. I could not even watch mama and Felicia and the other leave town because the smoke was so thick. More have come from the north their faces black with soot and their eyes bloodstained. They do not speak. They do not see. They do not hear. They barely breathe. They take slow steps towards the south. They mouth wordless curses and choke on the haze. I do not think they care about the smoke. Sometimes I think they are made of it themselves. But the fires will burn out and mama and Felicia will come down from the hills. @@@@ @@@@ ⍍ Last night I heard guns and cannons and the sound of men screaming from far away. I woke up and came outside, and the smoke was so thick it felt like I was swimming through it. I saw one of the soldiers from before only he was covered in oil and missing an arm. He walked into town from the north and looked to be heading to the well near the square. I asked him if he needed water but he said nothing to me just mouthed wordless curses. By the time I had gotten back he was dead. His uniform was soaked with blood and soot. The gunfire continued throughout the night but after a while, the only sound I could hear was grinding iron and screaming steel. I saw through the smoke, in the distance, a mountain of fire and machinery. Every so often you could see an explosion as another shell broke on its hide but another piece moved in to replace the broken one and the mountain moved on unimpeded. I saw something like an arm reach out and grab a vehicle full of soldiers who could do nothing but stare and hold on to the frame as they were lifted a mile into the air and dropped into the fire. I wanted to go and help - so many now were crawling towards the sea, towards water. But the smoke was thick and I could not breathe, and darkness took me. @@@@ @@@@ ⍔ Today, I awoke to silence. One of my neighbors, Maria, had found me in the street and pulled me into her home. The haze is gone they say the wind carried it south with the mountain of fire towards La Paz. I walk now but do not see nor do I hear nor can I speak. The hills where tía Elaina and the cousins live are gone. The mountain crawled over them and left nothing in its wake but fires and smoke. Nobody is crawling towards the sea now. All the corpses have stopped moving. Maria tells me that maybe mama and Felicia escaped that they were perhaps late in arriving at tía Elaina's house. She says perhaps they are coming home now. But she did not see the mountain of fire. She did not see the engines of damnation. She did not look into the eyes of death and feel the heat off its screaming mechanisms. @@@@ @@@@ @@@@ I know mama and Felicia are not coming home. I know how they spent their final moments - praying burning choking suffocating. They did not escape the mountain of fire because nothing escaped the mountain of fire. @@@@ @@@@ @@@@ @@@@ As for me? @@@@ @@@@ @@@@ @@@@ I will tend to the farm and the house. [[/=]] [[include :scp-wiki:component:djk]] @@ @@ [[include :scp-wiki:component:license-box]] [!-- N/A (No Images) --] [[include :scp-wiki:component:license-box-end]]