The sound came first, like thunder rolling from the heavens, but harsher, mechanical, not of nature. Then came the firestorms and the crashes that shattered their tiny world.
Ellendorf, once a bustling border town alive with spice markets and children's laughter, now lay broken. It was a jaw smashed to pieces, its teeth jagged rubble jutting into a gray sky. Buildings gaped open with wounds in their walls, exposing rooms that had become tombs for abandoned furniture. Shattered windows stared like blind eyes, and doors dangled crooked from broken hinges like teeth ready to fall out. Everything was smothered in a thick coat of brown-gray dust, the same dust that clogged the air, choked lungs, and clung to every surface.
