The sky was painted a deep, dark red, misted by the grey haze that clouded the passing days that seemed like months. However, the intensity of the red in the sky was nothing terrible compared to the condition of the land below.

The land was a pile of wreck and bodies. Blood was splattered along destroyed walls; torn flags hung at every corner; buildings looked as if they had been eaten away by giant termites. The whole surrounding was eerily quiet, which gave it an uneasy atmosphere.

However, amongst the ruins, a tiny figure moved, leaving a trail of footprints in the pale brown sand. His small hands pushed away small pieces of rock and metal that crowded his path. With every step he took, tears would slowly trickle down his face and down onto his tattered clothes.

“Mama…” he managed in a dry, hoarse whisper. His eyes could not take in the horrible scene before him. As he slowly made his way across the rubble, he caught sight of a headless man, hanging limply from a steel pole.

He stumbled, covering his mouth. He felt terribly sick. Averting his eyes from the revolting sight, he headed towards a rock and slumped onto the ground. His breath came out in sharp, shallow gasps, as his mind flashbacked to the hours before the event occurred.

It was a bright, sunny day. Everyone was happy and laughing as he walked home from school. Everything seemed normal. Nothing out of the ordinary. He remembered his friends talking, his teachers chatting, his brothers and sisters playing and teasing each other, as usual. The sky was a bright, summer blue. Birds were singing as he passed the trees that stood around the park nearby. He could still hear his mother’s voice, asking him about school and all that.

It was really a wonderful day.

Until…

The immense blast blew him off his feet, sending him spinning round and round before finally slamming into something hard. As he did, screams and yells pierced his ears. He immediately felt sharp pain at his legs, chest and head. He lay there, unaware of his location, feeling an unknown, warm liquid gushing along his face, watching grey clouds of dust floating around him. There were some moments when his vision faded into black, and when he finally woke up, he could taste sand on his tongue and felt strange objects around him.

As he sat up, he realized that the objects weren’t just objects.

They were bodies.

Bodies of children younger than him. Their eyes were wide open. Some of them even had smiles plastered on their faces.

Their last smiles. It sickened him.

The boy snapped out of his trance when he felt his foot step on something hard. He looked down. What he saw startled him. He knelt down.

“Mama…” he cried, his tears falling onto the pale white hand that lay still and cold in front of him. He took the hand and gave it a squeeze. As he did, he gazed into the heavens above him.

Why? Why is God so cruel? “Why?” he screamed into the sky. “Why are you so cruel to me?”

However, all he heard was his own voice echoing back towards him. The orange-lined clouds in the sky merely floated, as if ignoring his cries.

The boy let out a cry of frustration, his own shriek blocking the wails of the police cars’s sirens behind him.

“WHY?”