The sky was thick, dark, and purple.  Not the kind of purple you see during sunrise or sun-fall behind a mountain in New Mexico, no this was a wicked purple.  Most likely from the rampant amount of nuclear and chemical weapons that were used in the shortest war of these modern times.  The aftermath of an exchange humans were never supposed to have.

The rain was slowly becoming more and more hazardous as the months passed by.  Rumors were spreading that in Europe the acid rain was already crippling people to the point of full paralysis. 

Standing at her door, he pleaded for her to come with him to search for better place to live.  She refused to leave her family behind and returned his pleas with her own for him to stay.  On the slow, depressing, dreadful walk from her door step to the bus stop, it started raining.  It wasn’t long before old ladies and children started falling to their knees in anguish.  Finally, it occurred to him that the rain was numbing his nerves.  With nothing to cover, he had to make a choice as to which building he would make for.  The restaurant he used to enjoy burgers and fries at appeared to be closer.  Every step he made in the rain required every ounce of will and strength he could manage to foster.

A walk that should have taken about a minute was actually three.  When he opened the door he was saddened to see people inside still getting wet.  The acid rain was slowly seeping through the ceiling.

“Get under the tables!”

Minutes or hours passed holding conversations with people under the surrounding makeshift fortresses:

“Project Underlog…”  The old homeless man two tables up was rambling about a failed military project code named underlog.  “It was to blame for this hell we were living in…”

A young lady with two children was staring at him with eyes of a faithless wanderer. To snap her out of the discouraging death stare, they asked, “What can we use for umbrellas?”

“That’s just the thing,  traditional umbrellas cumbust after just a few minutes in that damned rain fall.”  Holding up her charred umbrella in frustration.

It was after all the chatter had died down and only the sound of sizzling rain dripping all around and pounding louder on the weakening roof above that he really started to think.  Reaching for the small jewelry box in his pocket that his life long love had given him two hours earlier, he wondered what’s inside? He left in a hurry to avoid letting more tears escape both of their eyes. He hesitated to open it and closed his eyes to allow a flush of memories to roll by.  Carefully pealing away the scotch tape holding the lid down, he glanced up to see the young lady anxiously awaiting to see what was inside with a nod and a smile.  Better that than the empty gaze she wore before.