The Bomb Shelter (GxG)

Chapter 9

   We stopped keeping track of the days a while ago. I wasn't sure how much time has passed since the first year and a half, but we knew our time here was slowly coming to an end.

   We had enough food for another month or two at the most. The running water gave out a few days ago. We were getting so thin, our pants barely stayed up on their own anymore.

   We were running out of time and there was nothing we could do about that.

   Our safe haven was slowly crumbling around us...

   "Ok, let's skip a meal today." Kimberly said.

   I looked up at her. "Kim, c'mon, you skipped the last two."

   She sat down next to me on the couch, taking a small sip from her water bottle. "I know... But, we have to preserve this stuff for as long as we can... We don't know what it's like up there... I don't know if I want to know either..."

   I wrapped my arm around her shoulder. "I know... I'm scared to... But, starving yourself isn't gonna make it any easier. It's something we're gonna have to face eventually. We knew that."

   She leaned her head on my shoulder, letting out a long breath. "I know, I know... Alright, let's eat."

   I smiled as I stood, picking our meal for the day...

   Days seemed to merge together as our supply's dwindled. Our new life was becoming more hopeless every day that passed. Scarier, harder... Useless...

   I sat at my dads desk, his gun laid out in front of me.

   Kimberly passed out a while ago. But, as usual, I couldn't sleep. My mind raced every night, a million different thoughts at once. Surrounding me, suffocating me.

   We forced ourselves to live in confinement, we were malnourished, tired, beaten. And all of that was for nothing. We couldn't stop the inevitable, only postpone it.

   One day soon, we were gonna have to make a choice: face the outside world... Or wither away inside this place. This prison we've built for ourselves.

   My fingers grazed the grip of the pistol. 'Why put it off?' I thought.

   'Why continue to postpone it, it was coming one way or the other. Why continue to suffer for just a few more pointless weeks in this hellhole?'

   I found myself picking the gun up, studying it in my hand. 'Why continue this useless existence? There was nothing for us out there and soon, there wouldn't be anything for us in here...'

   After a long minute, staring down at the gun, I felt tears starting to run down my cheeks. Those thoughts circling around my mind once again. My inner voice telling me to quit. Just give up and accept the inevitable, welcome it with open arms...

   I slammed the gun down as I quickly stood, exiting the room and slamming the door shut.

   Kimberly startled awake as I collapsed to my knees. "Jade? What's wrong?" She asked, kneeling down next to me.

   "I can't do this anymore... All this waiting around to fucking die is driving me insane..." I said through my cry's.

   She wrapped me in a tight embrace. "We're not gonna die, Jade."

   I scoffed. "Bullshit. What are we supposed to do when we run out of food? What're we supposed to do when the outside world is completely destroyed? What, Kimberly!?"

   She backed up from me a little, tears of her own leaking down her cheeks. "We make the best of it... We spend whatever time we have left with each other... We embrace the fact that we got to live for this long-"

   "You call this living? We're not living, we've just been dying slowly. Starving ourselves just for a few more days in this worthless shithole! What's the fucking point..."

   I rubbed my eyes as Kimberly approached me once again, tilting my chin up with her finger. "It's worth it, because I get to spend my last days with you. The woman I love. The woman who gives me courage, a meaning... I don't know what comes next but, as long as I'm with you, I'll welcome any fate... If that means dying in your arms, then so be it..."

   I leaned in, pressing a long kiss to her lips. "I love you."

   "I love you to." She replied...

   My breakdown really opened my eyes. I was bottling up my emotions for so long that I finally snapped. I let these walls get to me. The fear of impending doom push me around.

   Kimberly was right, we didn't know what was next for us, but that didn't matter. As long as we had each other, we were home... We were at peace...

   I counted the cans on the shelve, realizing that we only had a weeks worth left at the most.

   Kimberly took my hand in hers. "C'mon, let's not think about that for today."

   I just nodded, letting her lead me to the kitchen table.

   As she continued her drawing, I fiddled with the radio dial.

   I haven't heard anything since I found the thing. Not so much as a voice. But, I couldn't lose all hope, at least not yet...

   As the crackle of the speakers filled the quiet room, I heard a flicker of something else.

   I stopped the dial, Kimberly and I locking eyes.

   "What was that..?" She asked.

   "I don't know..." I replied as I slowly turned the dial back the other way, trying to find that sound again. 

   Kimberly raised the antenna, moving it in a million different directions, trying to find the signal.

   Then, we heard it.

   "We are calling any survivors- Food and water, shelter- anybody out there?"

   We froze as the scratchy transmission continued to play on a loop.

   "Do you... Do you think it's real..?" She asked.

   I looked from the radio to her, then to the handful of cans sitting on the baron shelf. "It has to be... I know it is..."

   Kimberly sat down across from me, taking my hands in hers. "Are you sure?"

   I finally locked eyes with her. "Yes."

   She smiled wide. "We're saved!"

   I smiled as well, a feeling of relief washing over me. Like a giant weight had been lifted. Like, for once, everything might just be ok...