"Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." - Macbeth
The day the world went dark. Quinn thought that her life was genuinely over. She could hear the screams of the neighbors as the sirens got louder, as if they were trying to pierce her eardrums. Her hands went over to Baker, pulling him close as he whined and growled at the impending doom. "This is it... It's all over.. Everything I worked for.. If I'm ever born in the next life.. I hope it's better than this...", Quinn whispered to herself, her voice going slightly hoarse as she tried to hold back her tears.
Soon it'll all be over.
She squeezed her eyes shut as the ground trembled, dust drifting from the low ceiling. Someone was praying in the corner. Someone else was screaming. Baker pressed his face into her chest, shaking. And all Quinn could think was how unfair it was that the world was ending before she ever really got to live in it.
Why is the world we live in so unfair?
Quinn didn't even realize she was shaking until Baker nudged her chin with his cold, wet nose. Her breath hitched as she held back her tears. The bunker lights flickered again, once, twice, then held. A woman across from her muttered a prayer so fast it collapsed into a single desperate sound.
Quinn swallowed. "..I'm not ready..", she whispered. Not ready to die. Not ready to disappear. Not ready to leave the world without even making a dent in it.
For a moment, she let herself imagine sunlight—real sunlight, not the harsh fluorescents that hummed above them. The warmth on her face. The grass under her shoes. Baker running circles in some park they'd never see again.
Then, it happened. She heard it. Everyone in the bunker did, someone had set the Midway off. Everyone had seemed to have just... Given up. The families were holding each other close, couples were saying their last goodbyes, Quinn had realized, she had no one except for Baker.
"But who needs a partner when you have a dog!.. Heh.. Right?..", Quinn thought to herself as she held Baker closer, she could feel his heartbeat pounding against her arm. Her mind, desperate to run from the fear, wandered somewhere safer—somewhere warm, well.. It tried to anyway. It was so long ago that the memory felt foggy. She could remember laughter of her and them, the way they would laugh and play with Baker under the sun while Quinn watched and painted them. They were her muse. They fueled most of Quinn's art! Quinn remembered the stolen kisses under the moonlight, the cuddles on the couch before it all disappeared from her mind. She didn't want to remember anymore.
It suddenly felt hot and her head was pounding, it felt like her skin could quite literally tear off, she could feel the pressure in her ears building, as if they could implode and create a bloody mess. Then it all went black. She could hear the seemingly endless ringing in her ear before it went silent.
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✨A Few Moments Later✨
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Quinn woke up in a coughing fit, she could feel Baker tucked under her left arm, his warm fur a comforting thing as she tried to address her surroundings. Her eyes fluttered open, her hand coming up to her face to wipe away some dried tears and soot off her cheeks.
"What the-... What the hell?..", Quinn muttered to herself, her tone curious as she looked around. The bunker they were originally in was completely destroyed, along with her mind at this moment. Quinn was distraught. She couldn't believe it.. She had survived!
She then quickly turned to Baker, shaking him, hoping that he too was alive.
Baker didn't respond at first. His body was warm, limp against her arm. Quinn's heart plummeted into her stomach.
"Baker—Baker, come on, please—", Her voice cracked, raw and broken. She pressed her forehead to his, hands trembling as she tried to steady her breathing.
A beat.
Then another.
Then—
A soft whine.
Quinn let out a sob she hadn't even realized she was holding. Baker's tail thumped weakly against the ground, his ears twitching as he lifted his head just enough to nuzzle her chin.
"Good boy... my good boy...", she whispered, burying her face in his fur as relief crashed over her like a tidal wave.
When she finally pulled away, she took in the destruction around them. The bunker ceiling had collapsed in jagged slabs of concrete. Exposed rebar curled like metal ribs. Dust floated in thick, glittering beams of dim, unnatural light.
That light—
It wasn't from the bunker, how could it be? The bunker was destroyed.
It pulsed faintly from a crack in the floor, a soft bluish glow that made her skin tingle. Like static. Like it was watching. Quinn swallowed hard. "What the hell happened...?", she asked, trying to stand up but finding it extremely difficult.
Her legs felt a bit numb, she had to lean against some of the rubble of the bunker before finally being able to stand up on her own fully. Baker whined slightly as he saw Quinn struggle to move and walked over to her to just stand by her.
Quinn smiled slightly as she patted Baker's head before walking off to the strange light. There she saw a girl. A weird ass girl with... What the fuck, she has a minigun?!
ns216.73.216.141da2
and then Add to home screen.