She is Fatal to Death (Standalone Story)

Chapter 39 (Tomb)

Diamond

She hit the bottom of the can, scraping the last pit of mandarin orange stuck in a small crevice almost invisible to the eye, but her constantly cramping stomach allowed her to have a keen eye. She licked the spoon clean, savoring the citrus intermingled with the metallic taste of the utensil.

Diamond sighed and rose from her seat. She stretched in her white tank top and green cargo pants, the only style of clothes she'd worn in the last three months. As she passed by the ever-pensive Rocio, she also scooped up her can and spoon, which she finished sooner than Diamond.

"I could have done that," she muttered, though made no movement whatsoever in her chair.

Diamond shook her head, not bothering to entertain the comment Rocio must have said a thousand times, and continued on her path toward the kitchen sink. She placed the empty cans off to the side and quickly washed the two spoons.

She eyed the door which led to the pantry, and the selfish part of her said another can wouldn't hurt, just for tonight. But it would.

After Renata and Balam and Keone and Tahoma disappeared, after the attack that left several more dead, some of Balam's guards understandably jumped ship, seeking refuge somewhere, anywhere away from here. By the end of it all, only five others remained, two of them being Balam's most loyal guards, and three of them having nowhere else to go. After sitting down, surveying the damage and remaining supplies of the bunker, they had another two years

By then, they were mostly accustomed to their light meals. This can-of-fruit dinner ensured, among other precautions, that the seven of them could hide in this bunker for the next five years.

Five years.

Diamond stopped beside Rocio, leaned over and wrapped her arms around her. She placed a kiss on her brown, pronounced cheek. "You're quiet. Is it your leg?"

"No! Well, yes." She leaned her head against Diamond and embraced her back as much as she could from her position. "It's been too long."

Diamond crouched and began massaging Rocio's tense neck. "I know."

Rocio didn't say anything for a long time. "Where did they go?"

"I wish I had answers." They'd had this conversation a thousand times. "But they're alive."

"How do you know?"

"I just do."

"I don't know, Blue, it's been too long." She hiccuped. "I miss Tahoma. I miss my sister."

Diamond's heart broke when she heard the name she avoided at all costs. Her own throat tightened with devastation. "I miss her too. It's going to be okay, we're going to get through this, and we're going to see them again."

"I've been trying to think about how we can find them," her voice turned frustrated, "but I don't even know where to start. How can someone just disappear like that? Where the hell did they go?"

"I wish I knew. I just hope they're fixing this all." Wherever they were, Diamond had a sneaking suspicion they were in grave danger.

"It doesn't matter," Rocio argued. "The world's fucked. It won't ever be the same." Her shoulders slumped in defeat.

Diamond paused, enjoying the warmth of Rocio's skin, using it as her own comfort, her own opportunituty to calm down from her own more concerning thoughts. "Maybe it's not supposed to be." It wasn't a good enough or satisfying response and they both knew it.