He stumbled over the clock in the dark. The face read exactly 7:03, same as every other clock that had been working at the time of impact. He was just a child when the meteor storm hit nearly twenty-five years ago. It was the largest the earth had ever seen, with over twenty giant meteors hitting various places nearly simultaneously.
Besides the massive damage to the impact sites, the meteors also created a worldwide EMP, knocking out power and shutting down all electronic devices. In a matter of days the looting and rioting started. In weeks people fought over the food and water. With no communication system, anarchy reined.
Millions were presumed to have died in the first few years as the dust clouds blocked the sun. Plants started dying. Without the plants, animals died off as well. Cities could not support their populations, so those who could fled to the country. However, without shelter and readily available food and water, many perished.
Most people had never had to hunt or farm or forage for food. Only a slim few survived, most who had already been living close to the land. He had been lucky. His mother was living in a city, but had went to stay with her parents when the news of the asteroids had first broken.
He shook himself out of memories of the past. The wind was whistling strangely though the skeleton of the tall building he was standing in. None of the buildings had any windows left, not after twenty-five years of riots, gangs, and turf wars. Nothing was standing in the wind’s path tonight.
He had returned to the city, always a dangerous task, to retrieve a photograph for his mother. It was her dying wish to see her long lost husband just once more. He promised to get it even while he neglected to mention just how dangerous retrieving it would be.
The city was eerie at night but it was safer to travel under the cover of darkness. The city was viciously guarded by whichever gang was currently winning the war. He only had vague memories and even more vague directions from his mother to guide him to the right apartment. It was going to be a long night.
Writing prompts: wind, meteor, clock