subject 13 // h.s. au

chapter two.

The crackling of my fire echoed amongst the dead trees, half of them broken roughly at the top, gnarled and black, hollow. I shifted my foot in the dark, nudging my backpack to make sure it was still there and scoffed. 

Of course it's there you idiot there's nothing else out here, I thought to myself. 

Radiation will do that I suppose. Quickly, slowly, it doesn't matter, nuclear fallout doesn't discriminate, it just kills.

Most of my brothers and sisters died instantly, racing to gather their supplies as the hallway caved in from the blast, crushing them on impact. The Doctors' were already dead at that point, killing themselves the second Dr. One returned to them.

 I felt a pain in my throat reflecting on that day eight years ago, but pushed it down. Dr. Seven always said that feelings were a waste of time.

After the initial blast only 5, 12, and I remained. We had sat frozen in our seats as we heard the hallway cave in, still too petrified to move after Dr. One exited the room. 

When the rumbling stopped, and the silence began, we still couldn't move. We knew our brothers and sisters couldn't have survived the tons of concrete that poured on to them just fifty feet from us. I'm still not sure if we sat there for minutes or hours, but 5 was the first to speak.

"We should secure the room," she whispered softly, her eyes still wide.

I looked over at 12 and we both nodded, still in shock from what had just happened. We all knew "Judgement Day" would come, but never expected it to come so soon.

The three of us worked for weeks digging through the rubble in the adjacent rooms. Our bedrooms were destroyed, the treatment rooms were destroyed, the classrooms were destroyed. 

The only stable structures remaining were the classroom we were in, the food stores, and the main airlock, which wasn't doing much good anyways considering the rest of the bunker was in shambles, letting in the air that we all knew was toxic. 

We worked and ate in silence, only occasionally whispering about what needed to be done next. There were protocols to be followed.

For a year we assumed the treatments had worked. None of us had radiation sickness or were ill, and it wasn't spoken about. Occasionally one of us would cough or sniffle, and the other two would whip their heads around in concern, but we were fine. Apparently, the years of constant IV treatment, injections, tests, and needle pokes had been successful. 

Or so we thought until 12 found 5 in the food pantry, dead, foam dripping from her mouth. Wordlessly, we had placed her body with our brothers and sisters in the hallway and shut the door once again.

I looked back up at the trees and shook my head, anger building in my chest.

Don't think about 12. Don't think about 12. Don't think about 12. Don't think about 12.

My eyes squinted shut, bringing my head down to rest in between my knees. Pieces of my brown hair drifted on to my neck and legs as I sat in silence. I looked at a strand of hair dancing in the cool wind between my knees. 

I didn't know what I looked like. None of us did. The Docters never gave us mirrors, the only reflective surface in the large bunker being the steel table which distorted your appearance to the point where you couldn't even piece together your features if you tried, and believe me, I tried.

The fire still crackled around me and I looked up to the moon shrouded by either clouds, or dust and ash, I wasn't sure.

"Hi moon," I whispered.

I had only ever heard about the moon during lessons, but it intrigued me. I wondered if the astronauts from eight years ago were still up in space, unable to communicate. Maybe they had set up shop on the moon, staring out at a demolished earth. Maybe, they too, were alone.

Strangely enough, this thought comforted me, that maybe I wasn't the only one who was alone. I closed my eyes and laid down on my blanket hoping to get some sleep. I would have to find food and water soon, and the prospects of finding either were slim. 

I let the crackling fire lull me to sleep, drifting off as 12's face made its way into my mind. 

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im sorry but y'all gotta wait for harry