“There’s still a chance to live through this thing, right?”

“Not us, no. But perhaps our children, or our children’s children. They may see the end of this pandemic if humanity can survive for that long.”

–Dr Ava Sherman. Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado, 2 Months After.

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Just a little further now.

Liam scanned the tunnel of the secondary bunker. The walls were made of rough granite, and a series of fluorescent bulbs had been strung along its sides. Off in the distance, another door had been constructed, this one with a scanner nearby.

Liam took out his radio. “Leah, it’s me. Are you still there?”

“Yes,” she said, now exhausted.

He started to move. “Hades is dead and I’ve gotten inside the door. It appears to be some kind of airlock.”

“Say ag–” she sputtered. “You’re br–– up.”

Liam took a few steps back, and her static cleared.

He grunted. “Ugh… There must be some kind of interference with the granite, I’ll lose you if I go any deeper.”

“Figures.”

“Any chance you can get to me?”

“Afraid not. I’m stuck until the hollows go back to sleep.”

The radio’s battery beeped, and Liam realized how little time they had left. “So this is it, then?” He hardly believed the words himself.

“This is it,” Leah said. “Don’t think you’ll be hearing from me again.”

Liam shook his head. What a sordid affair this was. “I don’t know what to say…”

“‘Thanks for saving my life, Leah,’ would be a start.”

He chuckled. “You still owe me a shower. You know that, right?”

“Oh yeah? Well you still owe me a cure, so I guess we’re even.”

Liam didn’t need to see her face to hear the bitterness beneath her sarcasm, even if she couldn’t notice it from herself. He could almost picture her out there, stuck in some hole in the wall, miserable and alone.

“Do me a favor,” Liam ordered. “Whatever happens to me, however this ends, I need you to do something for me.”

She paused. “What is it?”

“I want you to live.”

“Piss off.”

“I mean it, Leah. If I’ve learned anything from our time together, it’s that being alive is more than just having a working heart. It’s embracing each moment for what it is. Not like Hades and his nihilism, but for the purpose that we can each find for ourselves. That’s what separates those who live from those who only survive. The meaning that we give ourselves.

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“Take it from me. I was a millionaire before all this. I got to travel the world and had more fame than I knew what to do with, but I never truly let myself live. I’d simply chased after small pleasures while ignoring the deeper meaning behind it all. I don’t think I ever mentioned this before, but Nelly was going to divorce me, Leah. That was our final conversation together, and that was what had driven me here. I wanted to repair the damage I’d created to my own life, even after it was far too late.”

He leaned into the radio. “And in a certain sense, that’s okay too. Because I see now that even in losing my future with her, I never lost the time we had together. Life isn’t a zero-sum game of how long you survive, and there are no permanent choices. All we can ever do is try our best.”

He laughed. “It took this nightmare for me to see that. I might’ve lost my family, but I gained another. I got to see the world one last time, and I got to understand life in a way that I’d shunned before.” He paused. “And it’s all thanks to you. You’re beautiful, Leah. And I don’t mean that in some cringy, necrophiliac way. I mean inside. You’ve struggled so long and so hard to survive in this world too, and you’ve forgotten the very reason for why you did it. It was to feel that same meaning inside.” He sighed. “So do me this favor, and remember that when you get the hell out of here, yeah?”

“You fucking asshole…” she said with a grunt. “Really? You’re going to lay down that heavy shit now?”

Liam shrugged. “Can’t exactly do it in person, love.”

For a moment, there was nothing but silence. Liam watched the radio and tried to imagine what she looked like on the other side.

“Just don’t forget me, okay?” Leah said at last. Her voice was so soft, so feminine, and so vulnerable, in a way he’d never heard before. “I don’t want my story to end with me.”

“I won’t,” Liam promised. “From this day until my last, I’ll never forget what you’ve done.”

She sobbed. “Goodbye, Liam.”

He blinked through his own tears. “Goodbye, Leah.”

Liam put down the radio, and watched the light fade out.

* * *

Liam limped to the next door, his mind adrift in an ocean of raw emotion. As he drew near, a speaker activated.

“Warning,” Mother’s electronic voice announced. “Intruder, detected. Infected biomatter, detected. Defenses, activating.”

A visor slid out above the door, exposing a pair of turrets. Red beams locked onto his head as their barrels took aim.

Oh, shit. Leave it to Mother to not tell him about some fucking automated turrets!

“You have ten seconds to confirm uninfected status. Ten… Nine…”

What the hell was he supposed to do? Sing the bloody anthem!?

“Seven… Six… Five…”

Liam spotted the eye scanner station again and made a lunge for it. The light twinkled against his brown eyes.

“Three…” It paused. “Uninfected status, confirmed. Defenses, deactivating.”

The visor retracted and the next door unlatched. Liam let out a sigh of relief. If there was another door after this, he was definitely turning around.

Liam stepped inside, and the moment became surreal. Where the rest of the cavern was dimly lit and deteriorated after years of neglect, this part of the bunker looked like a luxury hotel. The concrete floor was carpeted, and the walls had been lined with faux pine. There were plants scattered throughout, with bright, luminous bulbs shining more light than the sun. There was even a “fireplace” with an LCD screen playing video of an active fire as a replacement for the real version.

“Freeze!” someone ordered.

Liam instinctively threw his hands in the air and stared. The figure hid beneath a matching hazmat suit and armed itself with an assault rifle. Its face was obscured behind an opaque visor, and its shape was androgynous against all the plastic layers.

“Are you Liam?” the figure asked, its voice distorted.

“Yes,” he said.

It lowered its rifle. “So you’re the one who’ll save the world with me.”

The figure removed its helmet, and Liam gasped. There’s a unique resource here, Mother had said. Black hair fell over tanned skin. Only you will know what to do with it. Lips pursed free as fresh air was breathed in. The past might be gone, but the future can still be saved. The eyes caught his attention most. They were brown and without the slightest trace of red.

She was a woman. Living, breathing, and free of the Hollowing’s curse. Just like him.

“Hello, Liam,” she said with a smile. “My name’s Evelyn.”