D.R. Medlen

Time Goes By

Tick. Tick. Tick. Esmeralda Jones stopped and listened. Where was the ticking coming from? Nothing mechanical moved anymore, not since long before she took her first breath of the Earth’s dusty air. The world was quiet now. The wind and rustling leaves were the loudest things on most days. Her grandma told her it used to always be noisy, technology and motors gave society a constant background hum. When everything mechanical let out its last wheeze, people became dumbfounded by the sound of nothingness.