2272011

Cataclysmic explosion reverberates like a powerful earthquake

Vibrations so violent human bodies and souls are eviscerated

Metals of all alloys are twisted and snapped like twigs

Solid concrete is pulverized, settling down like mist

Windows shattered: sending shards down at terminal velocity

The shockwave begins deafening an entire city

The structures disintegrate: crumbling quickly and collapsing

A plume of cancerous particles envelopes the blast radius

Too thick to conceive or witness the devastation

Wood splinters and shrapnel impalements are widespread

Unbeknownst to all the affected human pincushions

Small streams of crimson liquid trickle down the pedestrian walkways

Open your eyes and view this explicit daymare

Vision is punctuated with monochrome shapes

Regurgitating blood and your last meal, you slowly start to rise

Grasp your chest: concave with a massive contusion and shattered bones

Your lungs are filling slowly with mucus and blood

You cough only to make your wheezing worse and heavier

Choking and disgustingly dizzy, you can now lay your eyes on the rest

A thin film of an unknown fine powder has covered your world

Desperately struggling to breathe you take in a mouthful of dust and more blood

Violent seizures wrack and twist your body from the initial shock

Absolute feelings of nausea and numbing unbearable pain shoot up your spine

As needles are driven deeper and deeper you shriek with a slight gurgle

Your body spasm sending your arms and head flying backwards

Situated in front of you, something truly horrifying sends you reeling

A decapitated child: silent and saturated by a massive blood loss

Its overalls tell the story of the previous family outing

The maroon coating now tells another

Now just a mangled corpse with every last shred of life removed

The head placed behind it, its eyes, now devoid of life just stare right through you

Just another lifeless doll: another trophy for this megalomaniac

A solitary tear begins to slowly descend down the front of your warm bloodied cheek

A lone memory of your former life flashes inside your mind

Smiling face and close embrace, your lover bringing you flowers

You shake your head as much as your splitting headache will allow

Trying to focus there is an eerie silence

You feel your head swell and contract bits at a time

The view is unlike anything you could ever conceive

An arm torn from its shoulder socket sits a meter away from you

The flannel sleeve torn from the base of the shoulder

It twitches still: fading as its life force hastily evacuates

3 seconds of life now irreversibly gone

A fresh kill

You can smell the metallic scent of the warm blood pumping out

Through the haze is a very faint outline of ruins

Your first audial experience comes:

A few car alarms and wails in the immediate distance

This moment everlasting as you silently hope for an end

As the wails and screams advance closer, a woman grabs you

Her face like a china doll splattered with maroon and black substance

She shakes you violently and yells something indistinct

Her hair is also blood stained and caked with dust

Her brunette color barely showing through the mess

Realizing there is a piece of re-bar sticking out from her solar plexus

You struggle to make sense of it all

Mouthing words to her: she sobs loudly and continues to shake you

Her dark eyes are almost hollow now almost drained of desperation

Only a profound panic has kept her heart beating and her blood pumping

The striped pantsuit she wears is shredded heavily from the blast

You cannot quite make out the colors but the pattern looks somewhat familiar

The woman starts to grip you tighter and starts to break down

Reading what you can of her lips: it suggest she is seeking her husband

She repeats a name you cannot quite piece together from your current state

Bending at the middle to embrace you closer, she is oblivious to her injuries

She is bound to the blindness of her desperation

Her lower jaw ceases to gape as she has noticed the carnage encompassing her world

The shock has set and an agonizing distress has consumed her

The horror has resonated inside her and razed her foundations

While she begins to scream again, you look to a distance of 10 meters

The outlines of the ruins of the former shopping district has been drastically altered

The current state would easily echo a vision of the direct aftermath of Hiroshima

Pillars have been torn in half, Floors of buildings have been erased in seconds.

The sky is still grey filled with particles of flesh, dust and smoke

Infinite mounds of debris obscure all roadways and pedestrian walkways

Your voice begins to come around and become somewhat usable

“Wh- Wh What the fuck has happ- happened?” you slowly sputter

The woman who has been with you now for what seems like an eternity, speaks

Shocked at your speech and coherency she begs “Help me, help me please!!!”

A slight loosening of her posture suggests she has found partial relief in your speech

Turning to you with a gaze of profound momentary clarity She speaks

“We have to get the fuck out of here.” She says hastily with a shallow breath

Taking a quick self-evaluation of yourself you notice your left wrist is broken

However other than the pain that courses through your body in searing hot waves

There is no other grave injuries and you are mainly intact.

You stand up while anchoring your right side to her body

The pain of now being on your legs has brought you to another level

The endorphins and adrenaline from your panic restarts

Pain has temporarily ceased for the moment

A new feeling of intent to flee surges inside of you

“Anywhere but here, anywhere but here.” is what you tell yourself

The woman with you has ceased her urge to find her husband

Her survival instincts in tandem with your own have kicked in

Slowly limping and breathing heavily in excruciating pain

The numbness starts to take absolute effect and shut down nerves

She makes a recollection of a bensin station 1000 meters to the east

“If we can make it there without dying.” You add

“We c-c-can get help there.” She wheezes

This could be hours to your destination and your blood loss increases with movement

Suddenly a familiar city melody catches your ear

That undeniable noise means Emergency Response has been dispatched

However, to make it there through the carnage and debris, it could be many hours

Hobbling, the first 100 meters, you regurgitate some down the front of your shirt

Spackled by your last meal, it almost brings a creature comfort

A small token of a once benign and modest life

The bodies are truly everywhere, like a massive mannequin factory had exploded

You try and calculate how many kilograms of explosives were used

It must have been in the thousands if not more

Staggering past all those who did not survive this, you imagine they are all asleep

Viewing them out of your peripherals, too frightened and bewildered to look

Some who have survived are writhing in different degrees of pain

You dare not concern yourself with trivial matters now

There is no room between your new friend and your own escalating blood loss

Your survival is paramount to this day

Live or die trying to live

A true exercise in your own will to cling to this life

Defying the obstacles ahead of you

You take a quick survey of your new found difficulties

The terrain is quite uneven due to the debris, the wood, the concrete, the metal

Your companion kicks a severed leg out of your way

“How could this be happening?”

“Who did this?”

“Why am I a victim?”

Typical questions you ask yourself after such an event

The dark shapes no longer cloud your vision so much

Colors are becoming more vivid, but the smell of charred and torn flesh bothers you

200 hundred meters pass and your companion and you carry on

A cold sweat has trickled down your forehead and begins to burn your eyes

You wipe your brow slowly and carefully knowing of your head traumas

Still caressing your glass addled scalp, debris comes down like a mist in front of you

The sounds of gritting stones suggest an old building is shedding some weight

Taking a fleeting limp ahead at quicker pace saves the both of you

A man comes racing across the street wailing of “this impending apocalypse and how we are all a part!”

He trips over an upturned pavement stone and eats it hard with a thud

You let out a snicker as his once pristine suit is now totally ruined

At that same moment a chunk of the building behind you had collapsed

Collapsed and sent debris crashing down were you had been previously

“It happens to old structures.” You tell yourself nervously

It could have also have been a direct cause due to the magnitude of the blast

Realizing that you had just cheated death another time

A small smile develops across your face unavoidably

At least your central nervous system still recognizes feelings other than pain

Silly Christians and their always saying how their god has forsaken them

You start to examine the edifices of all the buildings around you

Looking for snipers but seeing no glimmers from their scopes.

Obviously this man has rattled your mind a bit

This is not a war zone but an isolated incident

You must absolutely be able to differentiate from the two

Keep walking and ignore those continually asinine thoughts

If you were meant to be dead by now you would have already been long deceased

However this is not a time to count your supposed blessings

Once your ocular scan has revealed nothing but raw paranoia

Another 100 meters has passed witnessing your still beating heart pumping with blood

The blood leaving your body is cause for alarm as well

300 meters down and 700 to go apparently

Still feeling the heat of 1.000 more fires all around and ash clouds slowly descending with embers

If someone took a snapshot now it would seem as if a volcano had erupted in an urban setting

Except without that strong haunting memory of so many innocent people snuffed out

There has been a tactically facilitated multiple bombing

No other way to be able to rationalize the destruction this far out

Repetitive screams catch your ear despite your partner’s lack of sudden incoherency

“Hjelp oss!!!” screams a person coming from you right 10 meters away

Slowly tilting your neck you see a woman cradling a child

In a fit of desperation this woman strikes the child on the face

More slaps reveal this certain child’s mortality

No response except a dull thud from the blood saturated light-haired child

Who glows almost bright red amongst the crimson and the encompassing fires

Lying lifeless and limp, she pounds on the child’s breast

“Prata Prata PRATA!!!!” she desperately pounds until her anger gives way to despair

This scene has you finding yourself in a conundrum again

Do you press on with your new confidant or possibly die trying to save this shattered soul?

You stop and stare starting to drool from your aching and broken mouth

Will you take on another passenger on your already damaged lifeboat?

It may take hours more to reach safety, in which you bleed out

Or will you try and escort another to safety and slowly die trying to accomplish such?

This is not game so all options spared: you will die

Or will you?

A snap and albeit strange epiphany comes and you find strength to move on

You turn your head and look at your mate

Staring into her eyes there is a tacit and yet tearful agreement to forge this path

One that will be forever locked in your mind as neither something good or bad

Just purely a moment captured of understood solidarity

Before your eyes close to blink a thought crosses your mind

What is this if not a charade to blind and confuse?

Your wrist trembles with excitement and the rebar continues to damage further

The rebar stays within your mind a source of tetanus

“Hva heter du?” you mumble as the omnipotent fires rage.

“Brenda med tre barna.” She gasps

Her lung is punctured and slowly filling with blood, expressing urgency

Her right knee begins to give out more and more as you slough through

“Medical attention will heal you Brenda.” You gasp as the wheezing becomes heavier

She has shuddered in the rejection and her former faith

“Okej, Vi må gå på veiens.”

‘’Gjennom helvete vi gå.” You slowly tag out with

Dazed and wary the odd couple staggers towards oblivion

10 more meters….

500 meters and closing in on possible relief

Pulses are slowing to 100 bpm

So urgency is of absolute top priority

The sidewalk ahead reveals some undamaged areas

Finding solace in the areas untouched by this overall insanity

Even if the is a fissure in the pavement

It resembles some piece of normalcy and peace

Inspiration came come sometimes from the most mundane of places

Finding and sustaining a will to live takes all the inspiration you can find

Pressing on now stepping carefully over piles of rubbish

In a brief reflection it seems as if the genesis of this journey was weeks ago

You imagine if you will be having a day off work tomorrow

You snicker a bit to yourself quietly

The shops all around you are empty but their fronts are lightly damaged

Only a few windows have been shattered

Some are only spider webbed with a few holes

Posters in the windows of a bank with a smiling family outside having dinner

Telling tales of special offers of savings and low mortgage rates

You stop and look at the mixed race couple and their beautiful daughter

She is grinning as they are having pasta for dinner

As you examine the sheer joy on their faces

You note your own reality and it angers you

“FAEN TA DEG!!!” you shout from your diaphragm

Tears are cascading down your face as you cannot suppress your emotions

You seethe with jealousy and you feel ashamed at the same moment

Brenda still clinging to you tightly but growing pale slowly moans angrily

“NNNEEEEIIIII!!!!” “NNNEEEIIIII!!!!” “FAEN TA DEG! FAEN TA DEG!’’

‘’VI DØ. Vi døøøø….” The trilling fades as she falls unconscious and flaccid

In your arms she manages to spark back snapping back into the world

You cannot really argue with that retort

Both of you are bound to this cruel twist of fate

All is lost from this day but construction must arrive from this destruction

As if this sudden burst had given her surge she begins to support herself more

No longer so tightly bound she loosens her tight grip on your arm

Her new inertia influences you to move at a quicker pace

Hearts now synchronized, this compels both of you

You will not die together, you will live to see your families

Moving now at twice the speed albeit while limping

A south-western wind howls ushering in a front of deep grey clouds

In your mind the beauty and the chaos coalesce into a new beast

Adversity: If you are already fucked, fuck it back

Make it wish it never was invited to this party

The rain starts gradually with a fine mist carried in from the sea

Salty but cold from the icy waters around the city

But then the skies open without unleashing a punishing torrent

Coming down in huge drops it is a is it has reversed coming from underneath you

This effect generates smoke from the area from around you

It curtails the flames but only slightly

Precipitation hits your skin revealing the sources of your contusions and secondary pain

Daring not to look down because there are too many to count

The sensations evokes certain memories caught in the rain

With lovers of days past, with friends, with the family you love

As you trudge through the downpour

The wind has kicked up a bit

Sending the rubbish flailing in the breeze before the weight of the rain suppresses it

One man across the street stares at you

While the pavement heaves rain from its underbelly

Your eyes meet and reveal another truly tortured soul

Complete with the 1.000 meter stare

His eyes are hollow but alas he has no reason to disrupt your personal quest

The face is rugged telling of better days at work

Longing for a better situation induces a quick nod of empathy

A quick and brief connection that lasts for just a moment

Meaningful in ways unlike those you have in your everyday life

However powerful in ways that are bred upon the day

As if it were a hurricane the excitement of the rush has broken him in

With an absolute quickness

His eyes dance with a glimmer

In a last minute reflection, he jerks forward

Without caring about the repercussions

Feeling a moment of solitude, his head creaks to your direction

A toothy grin with wrinkled and dust covered face abounds

A momentary glimpse into an ufortalt solidarity

As soon as it can be reciprocated, it falls

His grin and his pale dusted face go back to their respectful place

A slight nod is your chance to exit

The blood loss still affects you greatly

It directs your attention to the matters at hand

Brenda’s solar plexus has begun to spurt blood.

With a jazz-like rhythm it pulses and pumps out blood

Not so much as a spurt, but the tourniquet is leaking

Leaking not so much as to necessitate first aid

But it leaking like a slightly cauterized wound

Seeping as it will not stop

Blood loss is minimal at this point

Compared to the rest of these few moments

400 meters as she lifts her unbroken arm into the direction of the storm

2 fingers are erect as the other 3 just stay down

Like an obligatory gun they shoot out

No god to give any strength

Only left to survive in this fall out

400 meters means you can almost smell the sanitization of

Pouring over scenarios again and again

You have survived thus far, and that is what matters

Although the pain again builds with lactic acids

Your joints feel tampered, but it is no cause for alarm

Not so much as a time for reflection

Brenda seems beguiled, as her stamina has increased

Under the guise of hope, it’s fateful way begins to shine

Pale as much as you and her are, danger has come full force

The fate you share is another beast

Her solar plexus is almost bringing her to convulsions

The improvised bandage has begun to leak

Leaking slowly as you have done a solid job

It seeps a rather crimson liquid, something fierce

Not so alarming as the pulse of it’s shareholder

Brenda speaks as if she were flushing her soul

“Nesten til? Er vi….? She lazily resigns

The crossroads you spy is only 10 meters

Without immediate obstacle or reverence

Her eyes gravitate towards a new horizon of which cannot be understood

Fluctuating as if a seizure were present

Although no evidence reveals such activities

Reaching a perpendicular crossroads

Another pint of blood has been shed

200 meters without an incident

You have succeeded at the lottery it seems

A stray dog runs perpendicular to you 10 meters ahead

Running with only 3 legs

Clearly one of the legs has been a sacrifice

But the pace of its impaired owner suggests it was lost many minutes previous

Now the carnage has left you and your partner

A sublime tranquility has befallen

Pale with beads of sweat you try and focus

Looking at Brenda you see she is hanging on by a thread

All the damage and distress

It begins to very slowly fade

A sharp headache gives you a stabbing sensation behind your left eye

Examining yourself you find a new beauty in your disheveled self

Your clothing exists in fringe like bloodstained tatters

Like a vision from Aleppo

Dust and caked blood stained fabric

Although your observations confirm you pain

Still hobbling amongst the store fronts

Brenda’s weight has increased due to her dependency

She slumps like a cadaver

Knowing neither if she has passed or alive

Your head raises forward

As if it was an act of defiance

So long it has been since your day began

Shaking your head to free yourself of the unnecessary

Readjusting your focus

Your gaze redirects to the heavens

Looking to the sky the rain has come to drizzle

An uneasy calm has been reached however,

Remainders of the past linger and still present themselves proudly

A puff of smoke here

Distant screams in the distance

The violence has even travelled as far this

Shrapnel damage exists but is no longer a credible threat

Structures with pock-marked facades

The car alarms that tend to sing for anyone have begun to fade

This is still difficult as you have wholly accepted the chaos

Like one who has hallucinated for far too long

You feel as your life had been usurped and permanently altered

As your acceptance nears a completion

A sight you have never dreamt of confronts you in the distance

Clear as the rays emanating from the clouds

A vision of nirvana

Pulsing with the last burst of energy you can muster

Will it be worth it?

Brenda hangs like ragdoll sewn to your side

Limping terribly from your counter ballast

Giving no more fucks as your field is barren

This is the final stretch

Gladly pissing yourself with excitement

Your immediate world is rocked

Before a shockwave can occur

Vision goes white with an earth shattering reverberation

Half way to the ground

A grin spreads across your face

“Fuck det hele.”

Sove bra nå.