Fire and smoke filled the premises. Buildings toppled over, the remains blown up twice. The air pierced the lungs of small rodents and wildlife. Grocery stores and once open shops, now tattered and broken down, the shelves empty and the streets lifeless. The children hiding away in their houses, already beaten to the ground by another force nobody could sustain. 

Has it ended yet? 

Have the troops left the people alone? 

Nobody is willing to exit their safe space to check the area, all seems to be lost at the moment.

The large piles of rusted metal shifted, with something poking its head out, managing to wiggle its way through the fallen apart building slowly but surely. A small dog, no taller than a foot, stepped onto the ruptured road, holes blown into it violently by something powerful. Injured but still content, the dog looked around at its surroundings, looking up ahead past the destroyed road to a village, sunny and covered in luscious greenery. 

The pavement around the dog was, though subtle in areas, cracked and broken up. 

The grass and trees wither away from the smoke and chemicals in the air, their leaves gray and disintegrating by the second. 

The smell of fire still extant, the canine’s lungs almost wanting to tear themselves apart. 

Though already withering away from the radiation coming from whatever nuke was released onto the city, the small dog took a step forward, still eyeing the small village ahead. 

After a short pause another step forward, then another, and another. 

The dog began its slow walk towards the village up the road, moving on from this place and life, leaving the past behind to start fresh.