Chapter Text
“This is President Ellis speaking. Incoming ballistic missile threat to Residential and Commercial Sectors 1, 2, 15, 18. Please seek immediate shelter. ”
“I repeat. Please seek immediate shelter. This is President Ellis sp…”
A blond-haired woman turned to the man at her side, her shadowed face only illuminated by the faint glow of the television in the background- the president’s face, still on repeat, asking his citizens to search for a safety that none of them had.
“Fifteen. That’s Luca’s sector, isn’t it?” The woman asked, and the man took her hand on one side, twining their fingers with one another, his other hand already reaching for the phone to call their friend. A force of habit, the motion practiced from doing it so, so many times before.
This was a story reread a thousand times over. This was not the first time, or the last.
For the past 6 years Annie Lester had watched the world crumple within itself, cities under weighted skies turned into ash and grey. They all had. Her one constant was her husband beside her throughout it all. Her wonderful, fierce, loving Ganji. Annie wasn’t brave, and she’d seen tougher people– former veterans, explorers– lose themselves fighting alone, only through having another light to fight for was she able to weather through this bitter war with her heart intact.
And maybe that was a good thing, maybe that was bad.
Because while so many people had changed, turning to killing and apathy, Annie had never lost the part of her that cared– for the little girl, orphaned and injured, begging by the sidewalk, the boy that sat in front of the department store down the street asking if anyone had seen his sister. She’d seen the other side, the young brunette woman that had set fire to her apartment building, the gravekeeper who began robbing the corpses of the dead. She hadn’t become one of those people. Not yet. But maybe she was better off not having her heart left, because that meant that every time she lost someone else, it always hurt so damn much.
The phone rang on standby. It wasn’t going through yet– sometimes it didn’t, sometimes people had living family members left– more important people to call in their last moments. Sometimes they wanted to be alone. It was the fact that they called that always mattered, because sometimes, people had nobody. And no one wanted to disappear alone.
The call went through. Annie didn’t think it would. She heard the sobbing at the other end and her heart ached a little more, so much that she couldn't find the words. Ganji, composed, stars bless him, was there to speak for both of them.
“I’m so sorry Luca.”
It’s an echo of words Luca had heard too many times before.
“I’m sorry, Luca.” Was the first thing that they said to the young inventor when mother had left him back when they were all in middle school, preparing for senior high, uttered in the embrace of tearful hugs and promises that they’d be there for him whenever he needed.
“I’m sorry Luca.” Was the ringing echo when his father, Alva Lorenz had died, in the first days of the war, when the science labs were destroyed first, before the conflict became aggressive enough to target residential sectors. More of their friends had been there then. A condolence spoken over a cold, winter grave and wildflowers– those were all gone now, the wildflowers, not the bitter winters. The ash from fires– too many to put out– smoke and carnage in the air were so thick that only the most brambliest pioneer plants could grow in rare sunlight as grey coated the skies.
“I’m sorry Luca.” Were the final words when his girlfriend passed away a year ago. Sweet, gentle Tracy, too pure for such a ruined world, had whispered the words, once his comfort, now his curse, underneath the muffle of air sirens and scent of sickness.
Fitting that it would be the last words he would hear– the weight of his life finally coming to crush him whole, so suffocating that Luca couldn’t speak, until at last, he forced something out between his terrified tears and his thumping heart.
“It’s okay.”
And then.
“Could…you guys stay with me? Just until…”
“Of course we will, Luca.” Annie felt Ganji clutch her hand more tightly. She squeezed his fingers back.
“Thank you.” The inventor laughs shakily. “You guys are real ones.”
Seconds like hours flew by, the clock ticked silently in the background and the tv still buzzed in the background. They could hear their friend’s shaky breathing on the other end of the line.
“Hey Luca, remember that time you broke the 7th grader’s microwaves?” Annie asked, leaning against the wall. There was a bit of a pause in the receiver, before Luca spoke, a smirk in his voice.
“I just wanted to see what would happen if you tried to pop pre-popped popcorn. ”
“Everyone had cold lunches for weeks afterwards.” Ganji teases.
Luca laughed. “ Yeah, Ms.Yidhra was furious. But no-”
With a shudder, a series of explosions shook the air and the line went silent.
Annie looked out the window towards Sector 15, fire flickered in the distant sky.