Hour 7, Prompt 15, Year 2021

It was a dark winter night
The scientist stood in the middle of the woods
Staring at the portal his gun had just created
Beyond, awaited another world
A world just like the one he was in
With towns and cities and McDonalds and sun and rain
But it was not this world where he now stood
Not this world that will soon to turn to nought
Like the many before it
The many before it that he had traveled through
Each world, each civilization, great and grand
Till one day, they were nothing but dust
Dust – natural, nuclear, probably both
He had never turned back to look
But this time, as he walked towards the portal
He made an exception

Back he looked at this world
Which didn’t just have towns and cities and McDonalds and the likes
But had so much more
He saw her again
Not frail like when the cancer had spread
But young, vital, happy
Before the radiation took it all away
And turned her to dust

If he left, he would still exist in another world
But she would not
No, of that he was certain
He looked at the ground, and he saw her in the dust
He was tired
He was sad
He was ready
He stopped

At sunrise, the skies blazed a deep orange
Deeper than he had ever seen
A massive ball of fire moving closer and closer
He had never stayed for this part before
He had never realized how beautiful it was
The last sunrise of this great civilization
And the last thing he would ever see
There was nothing else he wanted or needed
He had been through many worlds
But this one was home

As he closed his eyes, the sadness lifted
As he melted into the ground, he was grateful
He couldn’t have asked for a better end