The Shelter

Part 5 - The Last Laugh

xx-xx

August 28th, a portal opened in the same place as a year earlier, where Karma's momma met her end.

They decided they would leave three days after it opened. Gather all the supplies, make sure everyone was prepared, say goodbye to those who wouldn't follow them.

Oberon locked himself in the deepest floor of the building, as far away from X's as he could get. He turned on his System, broadcasting a message to every other System in the country that he could broadcast to about the portal. And when he resurfaced a few minutes after, he was immediately ambushed by Martha fussing over him.

"Nothing happened," he promised her. "Let's see if this message reaches anyone. I told them to come in three days, so we can all leave together. I'm hoping some other survivors can make it before then from further away."

It was a chaotic mess but Karma was finally feeling hope that tiny butterfly fluttering in her heart, for the first time in a long, long while. She cried when she heard the news, from relief, that she'd be far gone from all this terror in three days, from sadness, for those who would stay to live out the rest of their days here for many reasons, from guilt, for those who'd never get saved, those who would stay rotting in their open graves around the city.

Just survive for three more days.

xx-xx

Karma packed her bags the next day. It wasn't as if she had millions of belongings.

She trained with Dalton as well, wanting to be prepared in case she encountered X's. When he tackled her onto the mat for the first time since they started sparring together, she wasn't even mad. When his eyes sparkled with their watercolour blue shade, and he leaned down to kiss her with such tenderness, her heart soared higher than ever before.

She didn't even mind it when Pandora teased her later on when they held hands under the table.

She couldn't care. They were going to get out of this hell hole. After two years, they were finally going to escape.

That night, everyone pushed their beds together into one big puppy pile, even Dalton and his sister joined them, and they slept soundly, bodies tangled, neck in awkward positions, but all safe and happy with each other.

Just survive for two more days.

xx-xx

Karma helped Martha pack the infirmary. They had many supplies and would need a lot of backpacks to carry it all. A team had gone out to raid some supermarket for their cheap bags and Karma had opted to stay back and organise everything.

She talked with the older woman, telling her excitedly about all the things she was going to do when they went through the portal. About painting on a black canvas, about renting an apartment with Dalton, about taking a warm shower for two hours. Karma promised her that she would buy her favourite candy the second she had any money. Martha laughed, her eyes crinkled around the edges.

"Thank you, love, but I'm staying here."

And Karma's rose-tinted vision crumbled.

"You're not coming?"

Martha's face told her everything.

She hugged the woman as tightly as possible, making her promise to keep some of the stuff and not let them take all of it, for the people who were staying. She tried to convince the woman who'd become her substitute mother to come with her, Karma couldn't bear the thought of such a kind-hearted being staying in the midst of this destruction and despair. Why did she have to stay back?

"Someone needs to take care of Jeanine and the elderlies," Martha explained. "I'm old. I can stay back and make sure they're okay, as well as anyone who's afraid of going through the portal and would rather stay here. We'll be as okay as we can be."

Karma's heart ripped in half at that moment. Martha would keep surviving for the rest of her life, no rest, no reprieve. She'd never be able to hear the bumbling city again, see something else than blood and bruises.

Just survive for one more day.

xx-xx

There was something in the air. Electric and nervous at the same time. Happy and scared mingling.

Everyone was buzzing with energy, double-checking the Shelter for anything that they could possibly forget. Oberon let everyone say their curtain-call goodbyes. He himself hugged Martha and parted with the old grandma who had managed to make it up the stairs to watch them leave. The others that were being left behind were still sleeping underground.

"Next time the portal opens, you're free to join us."

Martha nodded. It took a while for her to be free, but eventually, Karma got her chance at hugging the woman and in her ear, the woman whispered.

"Take care of the others for me."

Karma laid a hand on her heart, curling her two remaining fingers into a fist, and staring right into her eyes with fierce determination she replied in a clear voice.

"With my life."

She swiped her tears and walked towards the exit, head high, her stride steady.

"We're going to have to split it up in different groups. Stay silent, avoid X's, and see you at the portal. Once you're there, go immediately in."

Twenty-two people nodded.

Twenty-two people would be leaving for a better life, beyond the apocalypse.

Karma wished it could be so much more. But it was already good enough.

As Karma turned her back to the Shelter after one last lingering look at the building that had nurtured her for two impossible years, her broken hand in Pandora's, the other in Dalton, she heard Jeanine let out one last resonating, mocking laugh.