He'd been surviving off of what he could find in the remains of flats and storefronts. In constant search, he drifted through the empty destruction looking for anything to quell the gnawing that pierced his gut. Alfred still couldn't believe what had happened the past couple of nights.

This bombing was different. It wasn't over with when sunrise came. He was polishing an officer's boot when he first heard the air-raid sirens go off. The officer jumped from the chair and ran off with his sentry, not leaving any change, but that was of little difference to Alfred, who also had started to run in search of shelter. The bombing lasted for hours, well past the night and into the morning. After a while, the sirens stopped altogether and all that was heard was the dark hum of hundreds of Allied bombers mixed in with whistling bombs and falling buildings. There was no screaming this time, no crying. Just sitting with pale faces and pale thoughts, hoping that the next bomb wasn't for them. The only man in the shelter stood and said, "I think they're done. We should go out now and look for survivors."

He'd been surviving off of what he could find in the remains of flats and storefronts. In constant search, he drifted through the empty destruction looking for anything to quell the gnawing that pierced his gut. Alfred still couldn't believe what had happened the past couple of nights.

This bombing was different. It wasn't over with when sunrise came. He was polishing an officer's boot when he first heard the air-raid sirens go off. The officer jumped from the chair and ran off with his sentry, not leaving any change, but that was of little difference to Alfred, who also had started to run in search of shelter. The bombing lasted for hours, well past the night and into the morning. After a while, the sirens stopped altogether and all that was heard was the dark hum of hundreds of Allied bombers mixed in with whistling bombs and falling buildings. There was no screaming this time, no crying. Just sitting with pale faces and pale thoughts, hoping that the next bomb wasn't for them. The only man in the shelter stood and said, "I think they're done. We should go out now and look for survivors."

"But the all clear hasn't been given yet!" Alfred watched an old, German women argue with the man. Neither would budge and the man finally left on his own accord. He never came back. The silence that replaced the humming bombers was equally haunting. In the distance Alfred could hear a sound, like a far-off radio station trying to come in.

"Greta, do you hear that?" one of the girls in the shelter asked the older German.

"Yes. I don't know what that is," she said as she bobbed her head through a crack in the floorboards running above. What seemed like hours passed as the buzz became a hiss, the hiss became a crackle, and finally the crackle became a roar. The roar led to screams.

The whole city was burning. From east to west, north to south. Fire crews were trapped, as were the militia and civilians. As the flames ate away at Dresden's buildings, chaos overcame the minds of its citizens. Alfred hid and watched as darkness overcame the sky and little flakes of ash began to blow through the street alleys. He kept moving. Kept going from room to room. Running from the flames and anarchy.

It wasn't until two days later that the fires stopped. There was no rain, nor did any fire brigades triumphantly come in to save the city. The fire had simply ran out of fuel and had left in its wake a labyrinth of concrete and soot.

Alfred walked through the entryway in a blackened storefront. A dark cupboard hung slanted on the wall with a door missing from one of its hinges. He walked towards it to check its contents. Inside was a tin can, the label had long since been burned away. He grabbed it and left black fingerprints as he rotated the can around to its opening. There were remnants of beans, the heat had boiled the can last night and burst the lid open. The little shoe-shiner hands scooped what beans could be reached and dived his face into them. His body shivered as his dry throat felt the mixture of ash and cooked beans choke down his throat. For a moment, he sat on a slab from some wall and basked in the joy of having a wonderfully cooked meal. He thought maybe he'd try and find someone, maybe he could get to the river for water. Or maybe he'd go look for a dog he thought he heard barking. His thoughts were interrupted when he heard a sound that became a hum, and then a roar, and then a whistle. This time, there were no sirens.