Every sense slowly started to come back to me. I could hear the steady beat of my heart filling my ears. I felt the hard ground beneath my back, and my closed eyes that so badly wanted to open. Inhaling, I cringed at the dusty air, the air that smelled mostly of smoke. Those dirty particles danced inside my lungs, forcing me to let out a violent cough. Where was I?
I figured that question would never be answered if I didn't use my second to last sense that I had yet to try. With caution, I let my eyes flutter open, letting them adjust to my bright surroundings. After a few moments of getting used to, I realized that it wasn't as bright as I thought it was. The bright sun and blue sky I was expecting was replaced with a large cloud of thick smoke. That would explain the smell. I let my squinting eyes scan the whole sky. Some parts were less clouded than others, but everywhere there was a dusty grey coating over what should have been vibrant in color.
Eventually I had to move, so I slowly lifted my head up, propping myself onto my elbows with my legs stretched out in front of me. My eyes widened to the scene I saw before me. Everywhere I turned my head, piles of crumbled cement, burned bricks, and destroyed furniture. It looked like a bomb had hit this place. Strangely enough, I spotted a dying flame flitting on the surface of a half charred twig, but I watched as the slightest wind left it dead.
Watching that flame die made me realize hat amongst all the piles of destroyed buildings and what not, there were no humans, alive or dead. Bringing my hand up to rub that spot on my temple because of this new knowledge, the bottom of my palm grazed against the light stubble that had grown on the lower half of my face. How long had I been laying there?
Forcing my sore legs to bed, I pulled myself onto my feet and brushed off the dust and soot that clung to my clothing. I stood there in silence, turning my head slowly to both sides. My eyes were waiting for any kind of movement, but there was none. Not even the wind made noise, as it was far from strong enough to make any real impact on anything. Well, except for that flame.
So there was a fire. That was easy enough to figure out with the flames, and the smoke, and the burnt remains of what must have been a city, or at least a town of some sort. But that didn't answer my real question. Where were the people? It didn't make sense to have a town without any residents. It made even less sense that I was laying in the middle of it all without any recollection of how I got there, or what I was doing before I got there. The last thing I remember was kissing my wife goodbye before I left for work, but I didn't know if that was ten minutes ago, or ten days ago. What had happened after that point?
I looked down to also note that I wasn't in my work clothes or hardly any clothes at all. Just in a tattered pair of jeans and a watch on my left wrist. A watch...what time was it? Now that I thought of it, the time of day didn't really matter to me; it was the date I wanted to know. But, looking at my watch again I figured it was best to know as much as I could right now. The lens of the watch was completely clouded by dust and dirt, so I rubbed the layer of filth off with my thumb.
Immediately I gasped, my eyes locked ton the shiny golden timepiece around my wrist. Letting my free hand rake through my short, disheveled hair, I watched as the minute hand spun at an eerie speed, the hour hand lagging behind in speed. It was much too quick for real time, but its cycles were even and consistent, as if it were supposed to be doing that. Examining the watch with the slightest bit of fearful curiosity, I saw that the little button on the side was pulled out. Placing my thumb on the button, I stared at it for a moment before pushing it in with a small "click". And just like that the hands stopped spinning.
