𝗧𝗼𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗿𝗼𝘄'𝘀 𝗟𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗕𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗵 | an apocalyptic novel ©

Chapter 100

Stuck with you

2035

Valencia

"Get up."

These words tear me out of my sleep.

I open my eyes to see Aidan bend down to look at me.

"We need to act fast."

I frown, the words he says are slurring into a line I can't decipher. "Wh-what's going on?" I ask groggily. He has his ways of waking me when I do not need it.

The bunker is quiet, only the third fluorescent light on the ceiling alight. Aidan just hands me a stack of fabric - towels, clothes, even the sheets from the bed.

And I understand, without any words necessary.

We are stuck.

I see him walking over the ground, water dripping with him doing so.

Water. Here. In the oh-so-protective bunker.

I struggle up from my slumped position, noticing that my jeans are wet. Then, I notice the real problem - about half an inch of water is in the bunker, on the ground. There is a leak somewhere. Taking it from Aidan climbing up the ladder and returning with a bitter expression, it is coming from the hatch.

I spot my backpack standing in the flooding on the ground and curse when I pick it up. Shouldering it, I turn to Aidan. "What should I do?"

He looks at me as if he's saying "I don't know it either."

"We could seal it or... leave?"

Aidan shakes his head while pacing back and forth through the bunker. "Leaving is not an option."

I wet my lips. "Well, we will drown if we stay down he-"

"Let's not hope that," he interrupts me. I look after him walking to the back of the bunker with his backpack, to the three shelves. He grabs some contents out of the shelves and drops them into it.

"So, then should I squeeze them into the gap the leak is coming from?" I suggest with the pile of cloth in my arms.

"Anything would be helpful!" he calls back to me.

Okay then. I look up at the ladder we came down from earlier and see the issue. A steady trickle of water pours through the silicone seal of the hatch door. How that works when I remember how heavily it fell shut, I'm not sure, and it makes me suggest the upstairs looks even worse. I climb up the rungs until I am right underneath the pour and take one of the towels to stuff into the seal. It takes me effort, but I manage to stop the trickle from pouring down into the bunker as fast as it did before. As I stuff in the seal, I notice that the water isn't burning - it isn't acidic, which is a huge relief. I don't dare to look down from the ladder, instead, I climb back down each rung with my eyes directed to the top, until my now soaked shoes are on solid ground again.

This sucks, most definitely.

"I managed," I say and proudly hold up one thumb into the air, smiling wide.

"Good. I don't know where this is coming from, I don't know what is happening outside," Aidan replies, a bitter tone in his voice.

My wide smile drops immediately. That's enough.

"Hey, you fucking idiot! I might have just saved your ass!" I suddenly yell at him already pacing back and forth through the bunker again.

He whirls around to face me. "You bought us time, okay? Time. That's all. So far, no one of us is safe."

Something sparks up in his eyes. I instantly recognize it. Regret.

Aidan starts to wildly motion with his hands to the downpour, his voice does not sound one bit calmer. "Alright? We have to stay here until I find a solution."

"We have to leave or else we're about to drown, like I did in my nightmares. We can't escape it," I try to prove my point.

Aidan furrows his brows. "No, we won't. Stop making this about you!" I narrow my eyes at him, he does the same in return. Are we going to leave or not? I am very very confused.

I part my lips. "What is going on? With you? With us?"

These words ground him. He turns away and swears under his breath. "I'm sorry."

I frown. "For what?"

We lock eyes. He clears his voice. "We are stuck, yes, we fucking are. And in case we might not make it, I'm sorry for this."

I open my mouth.

"For wh-"

But I get interrupted by his lips on mine. I don't pull back, oddly enough. But he does, after a brief moment.

"This. I am sorry for this. But you should know that what we had - what we have - isn't over. At least not for me. And it's not that we couldn't, it's because we wanted but never did!"

My ears ring.

At least not for me.

Wanted to but never did.

I inhale.

"Are you serious?" I start, glancing right into his dark eyes. Aidan doesn't reply. I can almost tell he seems to regret his words.

"Are you really?" my voice goes over to a whisper. "Because it isn't for me either, idiot."

We look at each other, breathless from our argument.

"Fuck it," I whisper as he cups my face. Our eyes are practically glued to each other.

And I close the gap, our lips meet. We kiss, in the flooded bunker - because it was wanted by the odds.

Finally.