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I can\'t remember when we heard the sirens, those few short hours before the bombs ended the once prosperous reign of the United States of America. All I remember is running, hearing the banshee scream of our town\'s emergency system, and bolting out the door of my Chemistry class with the rest of the huddled masses. We were making the exodus to the fallout shelter, the tiny red brick post office on Main Street.

All I kept thinking was the politicians were right, they were right and I had doubted them. They had warned of the Soviet powers, warned of the Evil to the East. They had told us at any moment we would lose our lives in a full scale nuclear holocaust. A war that would decimate the entire population of the blue jewel of Earth. The human flame extinguished in seconds.

The bells pierced my ears as I ran, my legs burned with every pound of my sneakers on the black asphalt streets. The acrid sweat of nameless, faceless humans inundated my senses. Packed in the herd of fear, we made our way to the shelter at the heart of my town.

It may have taken an hour, it may have taken only minutes, to reach the sanctuary, the last place humans would set foot before the bombs fell. The bank had a cold metal chill to it. Its once white tile floors were tainted by the dirt falling from workmen, business people, and crying children. The pure, metallic scent of the air conditioning was masked by the sweat dripping from all the desperate survivors.

There was a man in a dark blue government shirt shouting orders to the huddled masses. His hand on the megaphone he ordered us downward, deeper and deeper into the bowls of the city. We were to hide like rodents in a cave of metal, hoping, praying for a better life to come.

Flight after flight we hurried down those steps. Just doing what we were ordered to do, we had no other thoughts. Nothing of material processions, nothing of what could have been, no thought of family or future. That was until the monstrous moan of the blast door echoed through the main chamber of the refuge.

Upon hearing that thunderous grown, I realized that I was for once finally alone. Never in my life was I ever truly isolated from my family, my friends. Even though I was a loner, I always had somebody. A friend to talk to. My mom and dad to provide warmth and comfort. My siblings to have my back. Never again, I was on my own.

A flood of emotions, emotions that despite my best efforts I couldn\'t suppress made their way to the surface. Fear, love, anger, confusion. What was I supposed to do? I was I to survive? To live? Where were the people I knew? Could I make it on my own?

My sweaty back against the plain, iron wall, I slid down to the floor. Hugging my knees I began to pray...