Salt water does not destroy things like regular water does, you know.

Stains, unlike those from freshwater, the scent of the ocean that it leaves behind.

But kilometers inland, plants, houses, roads, and schools completely destroyed. This only saltwater could have done.

The man in uniform was not the only one searching through the area. Had he been the only one

trying to decide what to do or where to go next, he would have been paralyzed with the destruction all around him.

Fortunately, he had been assigned a specific area and very specific things to look for.

Signs of life.

Of that, there was many, think goodness.

People have a strange way of surviving. But just like the

heartbeats that surrounded him, hidden in the rubble, they themselves getting up and going forward,

some were warm and safe and solid. There were also others who had long been swallowed by the sea.

And so he made his way down another area that used to be a street, and passed by another

that used to be a playground.

Seaweed, where it should not have been, and the salty taste in the air, this time a bit too far from the shore.

He got in the vehicle, one of the few that had been assigned as his partner got on the passenger seat.

Two and a half hours had gone by and they had gotten their job done, but overall, there would be so much more work to do that others would have to carry on with.

And so they made their way closer to the coast, but away from what remained of the roads and houses as the engine powered on ahead.

They stopped scanning the area since there could impossibly anything out there, so far away.

It was then when the man on the passenger seat stretched out his hand in silence,

signaling the driver to pull over as he pointed out into the devastated areas.

Out in the distance, but not too far that she wasn't able to be seen, was a woman.

She wore a scarlet dress gracefully walking away,

...