by thedoctor
The creeping sensation that something wasn't right grabbed hold of Dirk Bell's thoughts. Nothing was acting normal. First, he had appeared on a space ship that he had abandoned several months ago. Then, when he abandoned it the second time, the whole ship just vanished right in front of him. Now, the stars and planets were gone, too. The pod was engulfed in a black void, seeming to be immobile.
Suddenly, it accelerated like an elevator down a shaft after the cables have been cut. The momentum was great. He tried to flip switches and push buttons to slow the descent. Not only would the controls not work, they wouldn't move. An unbearable heat filled the chamber. The window was covered in a bright red flame. Dirk felt as though he was going to be sick.
The entire pod shook violently, as though it had been struck by a freight train. When his head stopped spinning, he saw water through the glass. He had landed in an ocean. The control board came back to life as the emergency flotation buoys filled with air and pulled the pod to the surface.
A large wave slung the pod onto a beach. Dirk opened the hatch and stepped out. He recognized where he was. This beach was near a small town in South Carolina he used to visit as a kid. The gunslinger lit a cigar, which had been crushed and bent by the re-entry and landing, and walked toward town.
The feeling that everything was odd stayed with him. There had not yet been even one car or person to pass him on his walk. It was summertime. The beach should have been busy and full. Even as he approached the town, there was no sign of tourists or even locals.
The reasons became all too clear when Dirk finally arrived. The town's building were crumbled and burnt. Cars laid in the streets, half melted like plastic laid out in the sun on a hot July day. Light poles had been snapped and laid on the asphalt.
"What happened here?"
A newspaper machine was laying face down on the sidewalk. Dirk tipped it back up, picked up a metal pole that laid next to it, and crushed the front of it in with the pole. It might have been easier for him to simply shoot off the lock, but he hated these damn things, anyway. After tearing the door from its hinges, he reached inside and pulled out a paper to read.
"Christ! It happened! I knew it was coming. It all happened while I was away. Damnit! The one thing I put my all into, and I fucked up! The world went to hell. I fucked up! What's the use now? What's the point of fighting anymore? I couldn't stop it then. I sure as hell can't go back and stop the world from being destroyed now."