She sat silently. Completely alone. She buried her head in her hands, feeling the blanket of silence that muffled her feelings, muted her pain.
She could still feel the cold, draining feeling of despair that seemed to eat away at her bones, only serving to amplify the forlorn certainty that she was gone. They had lost. They had lost the battle where to emerge victorious would have meant the dawn of a new era— would have meant peace for all of them. Happy endings.
She laughed wryly. What a lovely dream.
There were still abandoned board games and 'pillow forts' strewn haphazardly around the room, cast aside mid-game. Deep down, she knew that they would never again be resumed.
She tried, unsuccessfully to push down the panic she felt rising up, but to no avail. She even tried scraping the fingernails of her hand painfully down the inside of her arm, but, try as she might, she didn't have the strength to fight it anymore, and soon enough, she felt the cool wetness of her escaping tears dampening her cheeks.
Her quiet weeping soon gave way to sobbing. She could hear the echoes of her raw grief and anguish resonating off the sides of the cavernous hall.
She sobbed, screamed, and clawed at her hair. She couldn't tell how long she sat there. She was in space, after all. She released a painful, bitter laugh, taking in the pieces of lives soon to be forgotten that seemed to jump out at her, the seemingly ordinary objects making her close her eyes— and still, they pressed in further, refusing to let her forget what could have been.
She let herself slowly slide down to the cold metal floor, her ratty, torn and faded turquoise tunic dragging on the ground.
The sudden icy feeling of the floor against her bare skin didn't startle her. She was completely numb. Maybe this meant she could finally voice what she had known to be true for a long time now.
"They're not coming back," she whispered, her voice breaking. "They're not coming back."
And with those four words, she let herself fall slowly back against the floor.
They had lost. This had been the final stand, and they had lost.
Nobody was coming back.
She was all alone.