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They approached the ruined farm. Shards of wood cracked underfoot as her escort scurried ahead. They fanned out as they closed the distance to the smouldering rubble. Nothing larger than the scorched blades of grass moved.
One of her escorts disappeared into a hole in the ground, springing down into a storm shelter that had once had the farmhouse above it. She watched on its camera as it checked for survivors. The nearest things to living creatures were the still-warm corpses of a few rats.
The baked earth gave way to ceramcrete as they joined a major road leading into the city. The buildings rose straight out of the savannah, with very little in the way of suburbs. This road ran through a park before entering a retail district. Or it used to. Now, the trees that she remembered were blackened skeletons, the flower beds scattered across the yellowing lawns.
One tree in particular caught her attention. Broken over a branch was the naked body of a man, one shoe still adorning a foot.
A telltale lit on the periphery of her vision. She split her awareness. One part of her mind continued to look around for signs of life, whilst another part streamed away to the gunship that had called her. She gazed down on regimented rows of foundations, as the aircraft descended rapidly to touch down on an expanse of crushed yellow-green glass that had once been sand. The nuke had detonated directly over the Academy’s central parade square; there could be no mistaking this for an accidental strike.
They actually went through with it!
She rode the shoulder of one of the men who jumped out of the gunship. He ran, rifle held alert, until he reached the first bit of cover, a couple of stone steps that had flowed slightly in a few liquid moments. The gunship flew over him, nose down, its fans whining as it strained to put on speed.
The noise of the aircraft receded. Nothing replaced it. He stood slowly, scanning with his weapon. Around him the others did the same. They started to walk, the only sound the crunch of glass beneath their feet. Nothing was left standing. The offices, classrooms and dormitories all gone. Nothing for them to do but document and move on.
As her consciousness recombined, bringing her fully back to her body, she took her first step into the city proper. Two storeys of shops rose above her, a quarter of their original height. Their wares filled the streets, jumbled up with rubble.
And bodies. Here a mangled, charred remnant of a human being. There a young woman who could almost have been asleep, faint trickles of blood from her ears the only sign of damage. Most bore the scars of shrapnel, the glass shopfronts turned against the shoppers.
The sun was gone, blotted out by high altitude clouds of dust. Despite the flat grey light, bold shadows stood out starkly on the pale walls. Unmoving shadows of people now departed, bleached into the plaster by the flash.
She felt one of her escorts flinch as something hit it from above. The impact wasn't enough to register as a threat, but it was confused. They all ducked for cover. There was no sign of the projectile. She looked up at the low buildings surrounding them, hoping for a clue.
Something hit a piece of metal sheet in the debris with ting. Then something kicked up a tiny puff of dust on the street beside her.
A smell managed to find its way through the filters on her mask. A smell she knew. A smell that, despite the desolation surrounding her, brought back happy memories. She held out her hand, palm upwards and waited.
Another impact.
And another.
In the middle of a near-desert, it began to rain. Thick, black rain that slicked the streets. She allowed herself a flicker of a smile, then hastily squashed it when the radiation meter built into her suit began to screech. Hotspots flared yellow in her vision, overlaying where the water had run together to form puddles. She clenched her fist and brought it down with a clang on a metal beam.