Nothing Left

The cities, once towering monuments to human achievement, were now crumbling ruins. Skyscrapers that had once glittered with glass and steel now stood as jagged skeletons, their windows shattered, their frames twisted. Vines crawled up their facades, reclaiming the structures for nature, while the streets below were choked with debris—abandoned vehicles, rubble, and the remnants of lives once lived. The only sounds that filled the air were the howling wind and the occasional scurrying of vermin.

What remained of humanity were scattered bands of scavengers, huddling in the shadows, constantly on the move. Life had become a desperate scramble for the most basic of needs—food, water, shelter. Each day was a battle, and each night brought a new set of dangers. The people had grown thin, their faces gaunt, their eyes hollowed by hunger and hopelessness. Their skin was weathered by the harsh elements, their clothes tattered beyond recognition. They scavenged through the wreckage of a world that had long forgotten them, searching for anything of use—a can of spoiled food, a scrap of cloth, a weapon to defend themselves with.

Trust was a luxury no one could afford. Survival meant keeping to yourself, always watching your back, for the next person you met might just as easily kill you for a drop of water as offer you a helping hand. Even the faintest flicker of light at night would invite disaster. There were no communities anymore, no real sense of society. Civilization had died long before the last skyscraper crumbled.

The sun, hidden most days behind a thick veil of ash and clouds, barely gave light, casting a perpetual gray over the landscape. Nights were even worse, the darkness absolute, save for the occasional distant glow of fires where the few remaining survivors burned whatever they could find to stave off the cold. And in that darkness, predators—both human and otherwise—prowled.

These were the final days of humanity. Everyone knew it, but no one spoke of it. They were ghosts, wandering the ashes of a world they had once ruled, haunted by memories of what had been, knowing that soon, there would be nothing left of them at all.