The two strangers walked down the middle of the once-busy street in a once-prosperous city, eyeing with disbelief the devastation before them. Everywhere they looked chaos reigned supreme: buildings were smoldering; cars were smashed to pieces as though some invisible fist from the sky had slammed down on top of them. The smell of death lingered in the air. Garbage and trash cans were haphazardly strewn about. Newspapers skipped along the ground in the breeze. Broken glass shards were embedded in telephone poles. There were no birds in the sky. A dog could be seen scurrying about in the distance. She reckoned it was quite possibly the only other living creature in their universe.

“Well,” she said. 

They stopped. She looked into the man’s eyes. Then she reached out and took his hand and held it in hers. 

“I’d say you and I are going to have to start things over. What’s your name again?”