illphated
“I Was Ready for This”
by Illphated
[illphated.com – August 8, 2025]
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The sun bled low over the Texas desert, painting the sky in bruised shades of orange and crimson. A hot wind whispered across the sand, carrying the scent of scorched earth and something stranger—something final.
She stood there, boots planted firm in the dust, the last cowgirl.
Her name was Cassidy Cross, born under the shadow of an oil derrick, raised by coyotes and cowhands. Her blonde hair caught the fading sunlight like wildfire, and her green eyes saw through everything—lies, storms, men, even the future.
Behind her, the sky cracked open.
The mushroom cloud bloomed silently, like a terrible flower, rising high over the horizon. Cities had fallen. Satellites blinked out. The codes had been punched in, somewhere far away, by someone with cold hands and colder blood. But Cassidy? She didn’t flinch. She had seen it coming.
Years ago, before the politicians choked on their own greed and the cities ate themselves, Cassidy had started preparing. Not with bunkers or canned beans, but with resolve. She trained horses to ignore sirens. She taught women in ghost towns how to load rifles. She read ancient texts, hacked military servers, watched the sky, and listened to old-timers mutter warnings under their breath.
They called her paranoid. Dramatic. Dangerous.
Turns out, she was just early.
When the blast came, Cassidy didn’t run. She holstered her revolver—custom-forged from repurposed pipeline steel—and adjusted the scarf around her neck. Her duster coat fluttered like a war flag in the rising heat.
Someone had to stand tall. Someone had to be the symbol, the myth, the poster the next survivors would find buried in the sand and whisper about in the dark.
Cassidy Cross wasn’t just a cowgirl. She was the last message this country sent before silence.
“I was ready for this,” the poster said.
And she was.
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