It was just past eleven thirty when Adan finally looked up from the latest distraction on his phone. It was the sound of Aura’s water bottle rolling away from her across the metal floor that had caused him to glance her way. The two were seated against opposite walls at the foot of the steel stairs, his phone being their primary source of light right then. Opposite the stairs was a thick steel door with a metal plate next to it, likely covering the computerized access to the bunker itself.

Aura had released the bottle from her white knuckled grip in order to move her hands to her face, trying to hide another sniffle as she wiped at her eyes behind the mussed black locks she often used to hide her face.

Sensing his dark eyes on her, though not looking up to meet them, she managed to find her voice. “It’s been two hours since my last text. They’re still not here and still not answering. Why did she say we had to get here if they weren’t planning to come here too? I don’t get it. Why can’t she even answer?” she repeated desperately.

Adan sighed sadly. It was eleven thirty and noon was supposedly the time they just had to get inside the bunker by. Though why was still something neither of them had managed to find out yet. “It is almost noon” he replied in a soft tone. Her only response was another sniffle. “I assume our phones won’t work in there” he gestured to the heavy door. “Call her one last time, just to see if she finally answers?”

“One last time” the words were choked in her throat.

“I didn’t mean...” though his voice trailed off. He doubted any way he ended that sentence would really matter at that point anyway.

Aura only let out another shaky breath and moved to call her mom’s number once more. Already prepared to hear it go to voice mail yet again, she was startled when her mother’s voice, broken though it was, greeted her.

“Why are you calling? It’s almost noon! Why aren’t you in the bunker?” her mother exclaimed hoarsely, the panic clear.

“Mom?” she swallowed hard, as Adan looked up, just as shocked that she had gotten through finally as well. “We’re here, right outside. But why aren’t you and dad here? You said we had to get here, but you’re not? Why did you tell us we had to come if you weren’t coming too?”

“We can’t” her mother’s words were more of a sob.

“What do you mean you can’t?” Aura asked as Adan leaned forward, only able to hear her side of the conversation, but that was worrying enough.

“It’s too late honey. Your father and I... It’s too late for us, but not for you. You have to get inside, now!” she repeated desperately.

“What the hell do you mean too late?” Aura bit back, her own fear hardening her tone.

“Please Aura. Get inside. We love you so...” and then the call cut out again, as more tears ran down Aura’s cheeks.

“What is it?” Adan asked desperately as he moved toward her.

“I don’t know. I don’t fucking know” Aura cried as he moved to place his hands on her now shaking shoulders. “She just kept telling me to get inside. Said it was too late for her and dad” she added through a sob of her own.

Adan swallowed hard as he looked up the steps toward the hatch above then back at the thick door next to them. “Then I guess we need to get inside” he whispered.

“You believe there’s really something about to happen now?”

“I don’t know either, Aura. But I know that they’re not here for some reason, so that kind of makes me not wanna risk not believing them anymore” he admitted as he helped her to her feet.

“You really wanna risk being trapped in there... with me? For who knows how long?”

Adan managed a small smile of disbelief that that was her question. “I’d rather risk that than whatever the hell your mom is so scared of.”

“You’re sure?” she asked as she looked up into his eyes at last.

“Eleven forty, Aura.”

She let out another deep shaky breath and took a step toward the metal plate next to the thick door. She then reached up to the key she had worn around her neck since her father gave it to her years ago. She gave Adan one more look and turned the key in the small lock above the metal plate. It slid downwards, revealing the computer screen Adan had only suspected it was hiding when they had first reached the bottom of the stairs earlier.

She then entered a code and stepped forward to allow the laser scanner to move over her face. “And you haven’t been here for years?” was all Adan could say as the green access light flashed.

“My father drilled how to get in into my head. Said only me or him or mom could get the door open” was her brief explanation as the door began to unseal for them.

“Well this is very sci-fi” Adan attempted lightness once more, despite how dire that phone call truly had sounded.

“It’s a bunker” Aura repeated with a failed attempt at a smile as the door slid open to allow them access and possibly save them from whatever her parents were convinced was coming, and keep them safe inside... for who knew how long.

As they passed through the heavy steel door it slid shut behind them, sealing itself back into place. They were now standing in a short well lit corridor. On either side of the entryway were large glass cases with various survival supplies from hazmat suits to weapons. Adan’s eyes widened as he took a step further inside, moving his eyes over the cases’ contents.

“Wow, your dad really was convinced of this doomsday thing” he stated absently, his eyes moving from the cases to the heavy steel doors at the other end of the corridor as well, then back to where Aura looked up at him. She had since slumped down into a seat on one of the steel benches in front of either case.

“Was?” she whispered, the word choked in her throat.

“Is. I meant is” Adan told her apologetically.

“If something horrible really is about to happen, your parents are out there too, Adan. And you’re stuck in here, with me. How can you be this calm?”

“There we are with the ‘stuck’ again” he shook his head. “I’ve chosen to be stuck with you since we were three, Aura. Get used to it” he attempted lightness again as he took a seat on the bench as well.

She just took another shaky breath, her eyes on the steel beneath their feet again. “And your parents?”

“The parents who were OK with their seventeen year old getting emancipated so he could have his own apartment and be on the set twenty hours a day?” he reminded her of his less than close relationship with his parents since he had decided that he wanted to control his own career. He still paid their bills for them, so they were surprisingly accepting of him making the move to gain his independence.

“Well they may be crazy parents too. But their crazy is what pushed you to all your success. And they’re still your parents. And they’re still out there. And...”

“And we still don’t even know what it is that we’re even hiding from. It can’t just be the virus. The whole world has been hiding from that for weeks. And they didn’t need bunkers to do it. So I guess I’m just waiting til I actually know what this catastrophe is before I let myself press my inner panic button” he told her with another attempt at a smile and a hopefully comforting hand on her shoulder.

As was always the case any time he shared even the most innocent of contact with her, Aura’s heart began racing even faster than her distress had already had it going. She silently cursed herself for that reaction to his touch. They had much bigger problems to think about right then, even if Adan wasn’t quite convinced of that fact just yet.

“My panic button is always pressed” she managed, though the words were a mumble.

“I’m aware” he smiled over at her as he gave her shoulder a squeeze which continued to do nothing to calm her.

“So you still think this could all just be my parents’ paranoia? Really?”

“I came inside, didn’t I?”

“Exactly. If you don’t believe there’s any real danger, why did you?” Aura returned. At this point she had to keep talking just to avoid thinking. Avoiding thinking was honestly the only way she ever got through any day, let alone this one.

“Better safe than sorry, right?” Adan shrugged, finally removing his hand from her shoulder, which barely put a dent in her anxiety levels at this point.

“Pretty sure that if there isn’t any actual danger you might be pretty sorry to be trapped in here” she sniffled again.

“Trapped?” he repeated, a bit of his worry finally breaking into his tone.

“It’s a bunker, Adan. It’s designed for nuclear fallout and who knows whatever else. Once that door sealed, we can’t just open it again after a few hours.”

Adan swallowed slightly as he looked back at the door in question. “So, when exactly can we open it again?”

“Fuck, Adan!” she said as she stood and buried her face in her hands again. “I told you to only come in if you really meant it!”

“That long, huh?” he swallowed again as he leaned back against the glass case behind him, his eyes somberly moving over the door again.

“Great, now you’re trapped in here with me, where you really don’t wanna be. That’s gonna make this go really well” she whimpered, more to herself. She was now nearly biting a hole in her lip, unable to look back to see the upset and disappointment that she was sure was on his gorgeous face right then.

“Aura calm down. We were already trapped in my apartment, right?”

She just scoffed. “We walked right out the door. I’d hardly call that trapped” she mumbled, the despair still obvious in her voice.

Adan sighed and looked around again. “I’m guessing you stopped taking your meds again?”

She finally turned back long enough to give him a look of disbelief. “And that so doesn’t make me sound like a crazy person” she scolded sarcastically.

“You know I mean your anxiety meds, come on” he stated apologetically.

“And you know why I quit taking them. The only way they make you stop feeling like this is to make you stop feeling everything. Might as well be dead” she added in a bitter whisper.

“Well good. And when you add in today, I guess we can officially say that you don’t actually want to be dead” he stated plainly.

“What?” she asked as she looked back at him in confusion.

“You always talk like you think being dead is the only way to fix your life, ironically. But if you wanted that, really, you wouldn’t care about feeling nothing. And you sure as hell wouldn’t have convinced me to come here with you to keep us from dying, right?”

“You really think I came here cause I was afraid of dying?”

Adan was the one with the perplexed look then. “Pretty sure that was the overarching theme of our little morning road trip, wasn’t it?”

She just shook her head, trying to find the words to clarify to him why she was so desperate to get him to bring her to this place, if there truly was some disaster about to occur. Only before she could find any of those words, the world shook as the sounds of explosions began all around them, out there.