Obie stood at the end of the world with a tired expression in his eyes. It had been a long time since those eyes saw anything besides the ransacked office that Obie called home, or the pock-marked door that guarded it…  

It began with a thrumming which filled the air, somehow sounding everywhere all at once. Before the thrumming there had been silence, save for the wind and whatever it stirred; but now thrumming filled the air, for the first time in 365 days…