The Shelter

Part 1 - The Vision

xx-xx

"Hello?" Karma sat up immediately. She recognised that voice.

"Panda? That you?" Karma rushed to the balcony and to her relief there stood Pandora, hair dishevelled, Helmet lost, and suit ripped in some places, but alive.

"Karma? Are the others here?" Karma could hear her sobbing of relief. "I'm so glad I found you guys."

"Guys, Panda's here," She went back to shake them awake before rushing back to the balcony.

Karma motioned at Pandora to come over, before noticing her limp and red spot on one of her legs and instead immediately going to help her.

"What happened?" She rushed out as soon as she got close to her. She scanned her face for signs of any bad head injury and brought her arm around the injured girl, taking some of her weight off her leg.

"I'm okay," Pandora spoke in a tight voice. "Is Hail here?"

"I thought he was with you?" Karma's mood was dramatically dampened.

Pandora buried her face in one of her hands, hiding in shame.

"We got separated."

Karma shushed her softly, holding her a bit tighter.

"It's okay, let's get you fixed up first, we'll find him don't worry."

It was a struggle going up the stairs, but Spencer was there to help lift Pandora. Once she was on the couch and was being bandaged with the minimal first aid kit brought by Flair, Karma decided it was a good time to start piecing a couple of events together.

"What happened?" Okay, so maybe it wasn't the best question to ask, but its vagueness made it possible for Pandora to choose what she wanted to tell them and made sure Karma wasn't taking on a sensitive subject.

"I followed Hail and we both went into side streets, not stopping until we reached this rubble. He crawled under and I tried to follow but..." she stopped, swallowing loudly. "I tripped and broke my Helmet. That's how I injured my leg. I was so scared of the X that I just hid behind the closest wall. The X almost saw me but Hail, he-" she cut herself off, tears trickling out of her eyes.

Karma went to comfort her, but she slapped her outstretched hand away.

"Hail grabbed the X's attention!" she was full-on crying now. "He distracted it and put himself in danger because I was weak, pathetic, and tripped!"

Everyone was quiet except for the heart-wrenching sobs fighting their way out of Pandora. Karma grabbed Pandora, tucking her in her neck, partly to muffle the sounds, partly for comfort.

"Whilst he was running away, he kept screaming 'THE LIBRARY, THE LIBRARY' before-" A hiccup. "And then I couldn't hear him anymore. I tried to find him, I did! But he was gone before I could catch up."

Karma was lost, she didn't know what to do. How could you comfort a girl who had just lost her only blood link left alive?

"I didn't know what to do. I stumbled across the library whilst searching for Hail," Karma hadn't realised that now the tears were changing to ones of relief. "I'm so glad I found you guys, I was so scared-"

She was cut off when Flair suddenly joined the hug. It took Pandora a while to process but once she did, she was hugging Flair back just as hard. The others joined in as well, and they stayed silent for a second, just breathing. Just existing.

"I thought you guys might've left without me," Karma caught her mumbling to Flair.

Rage encased her. Who put a fifteen-year-old in this situation, fighting for her life, scared to death? She cursed the government for these killer machines, these monsters roaming the streets. She cursed Oberon for making them search Ghost towns when he knew the danger, cursed him for putting an already traumatised girl on the search team.