silence.nothing but silence yet my eyes told me that there should be a cacophony of noise going on around me. i lay, stunned, on the ground, eyes wide, blood pouring from the left side of my head. silence. fires blazed in front of me. my car now a wrinkled mass of american steel sat atop a little old laidies.......well.....what used to be her head and upper torso. the smells were still there, oh yeah! blood soaked the air in its coppery aroma. burnt human flesh has it's own smell that is unexplainable to someone who hasn't experienced it. gasoline, radiator coolant, burnt rubber all present and accounted for.

touching the left side of my head was a bad idea. not only did it awaken the till then sleeping pain receptors it also allowed me to know that the flesh was gone from the top of my skull down to where my neck joins. bare bone exposed to the world, wonderful. sitting up was a chore and another mistake. pain racked my body and my vision doubled then trebled and i was sure i was losing consciousness. in my head a small demon laughed and said "no respite from the pain for you, my lovely!" and another shock of that now familiar pain rolled through me. i fell back again, wincing. a man ran by me completely engulfed in flames.

still the silence remained. total complete chaos reigned in front of me and yet silence pierced my eardrums with it's nothingness. a child, maybe 5 or 6, stood crying beside a decapitated woman i presumed to be his mother. i couldnt understand why i couldnt feel my feet until i positioned my body just so. they were gone. bright white cartilage spooled out of my legs and onto the hot asphalt. thats gonna halt my marathon days, i thought hysterically. i laughed out loud i think. i say i think because all there was was......silence.

where were the firemen, the heros? where were the paramedics? my breathing is becoming hard. smoke filled the air and burned my eyes. the suv i was behind lay on it's side in front of me about 30 yards away, it's gas tank punctured and glub glubbing the two dollar and seventy five cent gas onto the highway. the puddle steadily growing, growing. the running flaming man had stopped his macabre sprint and had collapsed right next to this growing patch of americas go juice. liquid meat ran from his body onto the ground. the puddle grew and grew and grew. i knew what would happen next.

as the puddle lit and the fire raced to the punctured tank i screamed. all i heard was silence.