“What the hell is going on out there?” Adan asked the question in both of their heads as the muffled sounds of distant gunfire, explosions, helicopters, jets and even more unrecognizable noises continued outside.

“Something...” Aura breathed, both their worried eyes locked to the door they now stood inside.

“Thanks” he said, his own fear sharpening the sarcasm of his response. He then shook his head and moved toward the computer screen on the inside of the door. “What’s the code?”

“What?” she asked as she gave him a worried look.

“To get the door open” he bit back.

“You can’t” she reminded.

“But you can. Come on, open it” he told her impatiently.

“You can’t be seriously thinking of going out there. Come on Adan.”

“We need to know what the fuck is going on. Like you said, our parents, and everyone else, they’re still out there!” he told her urgently.

“To answer your earlier question,” Aura tried to force calm into her voice, “yes there’s a TV in there.” She gestured to the doors behind them. “And I think we might wanna try turning it on before going back out there, even if we could” she added more quietly.

“You really can’t open the door?”

“You really don’t get that we shouldn’t, even if I actually could? Come on” she ordered with all the strength she could muster as she grabbed his wrist and led him back toward the doors to the actual bunker itself.

As they stepped inside, he couldn’t even allow himself a moment to take in their surroundings, extensive as they were. What was important now was figuring out what actually was going on. And taking note of how much like an actual home, and a nice one at that, the bunker looked like, was hardly a first priority.

Everything was white or black or metallic or glass. It looked look something out of modern architecture. Never mind the fact that they were nearly a hundred feet underground. But the awe of their new home would have to wait. Aura quickly turned on the television, and both turned their rapt attention to the screen in an attempt to understand any of what was going on outside right at that very moment.

It was nearly midnight when the news coverage cut out, only to be replaced by the looping emergency broadcast message. Her mother had said that the virus was only the beginning and it had been true. Once it was discovered that the virus was a manufactured weapon specifically used to thin the herd, so to speak, the retaliatory attack was scheduled for noon that day. Or more precisely, the war.

And it wasn’t any war. It was global. And it wasn’t one country fighting another. Their enemy was something completely different, and something completely superior. By the time the news signal was lost, almost nothing was left up there for them, anywhere. Their world was outmatched, entirely. Extinction nearly assured, and all but confirmed.

Adan and Aura sat there on the sofa inside their bunker: Their home now. They clenched each other’s hands, staring in horror at the message flashing across the screen, reflecting off the tears running down both their faces now.

“I guess they weren’t crazy after all” were the only words Adan could manage then, though they came out as a choked whisper.

Aura blinked back more tears as there was now no reason to correct his use of the past tense when referring to her parents this time. But she couldn’t form any more thoughts than that right then. The shock was too great, and no words would even matter at that moment, even if any could be found.

Having long since reached, and passed, their mental breaking points for the day, Aura’s and Adan’s exhaustion didn’t take a lot longer to cause them to fall into a fitful sleep. There they were again, asleep together on another sofa, in another place, but in a world that was no longer their own. If it could even be called a world anymore at all now.

At one side of the main living area of the bunker were the steel double doors they had entered through. At the other side were a set of glass doors that led to a long, narrow hall and the other rooms of their new home. Directly across that hall from the main living area was a dining area. To the right of the dining area was the kitchen, pantry and freezer. Further down the hall from that were the hydroponic gardens and the room which controlled such things as water and air supply for the bunker, which was meant to be able to support a small family for years if need be.

To the left of the dining area were the bathroom and bedrooms. There were two bedrooms, as the place had been designed for only sustaining a family of three or four until the world would be safe for them again. However long that would even be, as all they could do when designing the place was guess at what tragedy might send them into it.

Once the two were safely asleep, he appeared in the hallway between the living and dining areas. He stepped through the glass doors and into the living area silently, not seeming to disturb either of the teens, despite how fitful their sleep seemed to be. He moved toward the sofa and looked down at them for a long moment, almost studying them. After a time, he leaned closer, as if trying to see inside their very minds as they slept. Several more minutes of observing them and he moved away, once again disappearing through the glass doors, silently.

With the same stealth and silence he moved into the bathroom. He stopped in front of the mirror for a long moment, concentrating deeply. Finally, dark brown eyes looked up at his own reflection, taking it in.

Like Adan, he had deep brown eyes and long black locks. He appeared to be only slightly older than his sleeping companions in the other room. His body was toned, his clothing a simple black button down shirt and matching jeans and boots. Also like Adan, he had the slightly darker complexion that made one wonder if he had Native American blood in him, which Adan did, though rather diluted by his generation. Though the presence of it was still obvious to the trained eye.

He took an unsure breath as his eyes studied his own reflection almost as intently as he had studied the sleeping teenagers moments earlier. Now all that was left was to decide how to make his presence known to either of them, and when. Though that prospect would be more than a bit of a difficult one, considering their current situation and the state of this world they were all now possibly among the last inhabitants of.

Aura was the first to wake the next morning. Her overactive brain usually never let her get more than a couple hours of sleep at a time. Due to that fact, she wasn’t sure it even was morning. And it wasn’t like she could just look out a window to find out. She’d never do that again. She then glanced in the direction of a desk in the corner of the room with a computer and multiple monitors. There were hidden cameras outside the bunker, or at least there used to be. So she could technically find out if it was indeed morning now. Though she honestly wasn’t sure she was ready to see what was outside, if anything even still was.

This time she and Adan had fallen asleep over opposite arms of the sofa. So at least she would be saved from having to try to scamper away from him before he awoke to avoid having to apologize for any subconscious cuddling this time. On that thought, she sniffled again, her guilt inching its way into the swirling mess of anxiety, despair and hopelessness that had already taken up permanent residence inside her brain.

“We fell asleep in front of the TV again” Adan mumbled as he woke a few moments later. He once again wiped sleep from his eyes and glared at the emergency broadcast message that was still the only thing displayed on the screen. With more force than necessary, he clicked the off button on the remote and tossed it aside. “Guess nothing has changed after all” he mumbled with bitter sarcasm.

“I’m sorry, again” were all the words she could come up with right then.

“For what this time? Did you end the world?” he sighed as his eyes moved to the floor, where her gaze had already been locked.

“You know what” she whispered back.

“Are you seriously apologizing for keeping me from dying?” Adan returned as he looked over at her.

“No, I just... I know you didn’t wanna get...”

“Stop, Aura. We’re way past any of that. We’re way past everything. Literally” he finished with another somber sigh as his eyes moved back to the steel doors.

“I just don’t know what to say” she whispered apologetically.

“Who would? I sure as hell don’t. No script this time” he shook his head as he finally allowed his dark eyes to move around the room and take in their surroundings at last.

Another long moment passed before Aura forced herself to attempt to find any more words. “We haven’t eaten for like, a whole day. We should probably do that at some point, right?”

“Not really hungry” he mumbled as he stood and took another look around the room. “I think I just wanna take a long, cold shower, and hope it wakes me up. Cause this can’t fuckin be real. Any of it” he stated, still not meeting her eyes as his mind had now fully moved into denial mode.

“Adan...”

“Please tell me this place has running water, or any damn water?” he asked, finally allowing the briefest look back at where she still curled her knees to her chest at the end of the sofa.

“Of course it does, there’s enough water for...” she swallowed again, “a long time. And even if it runs out, then there’s a sort of recycling system that kicks in to make more.”

“Water recycled from what?” he asked. He then paused a moment. “Never mind. I doubt I want to know.” He then simply shook his head again, the denial and hopelessness having a dogfight inside his beautiful head.

He then looked around once more, as if searching for something. “The bathroom is through there” she offered, gesturing to the glass doors. “First door on the left.”

After Adan had gone in search of the bathroom, Aura made herself get to her booted feet as well. She sighed heavily and shuffled through the glass doors, heading for the kitchen to ponder what their meals would even be like from this point on. She honestly didn’t feel like eating either, despite the ache in her empty stomach, But she just couldn’t think clearly enough to come up with any other plan for the day. The first day of many endless days. Unless of course another tragedy occurred and the bunker was breached and their days came to an end as well. Just like everyone else’s had.

Just as she reached for what she hoped would be a not terribly unpleasant breakfast, Adan yelled for her from down the hall, inside the bathroom. She furrowed her brow, dropped her prepackaged meal to the table and headed down the hall toward his voice.

As the bathroom door opened, she swallowed hard as Adan was now standing in the tiny shower stall, door still open, fiddling angrily with the faucets, and now loosely holding a towel around his waist to cover only his midsection.

“I thought you said there was water” he stated, still not moving his attention from the unsuccessful turning of the faucets long enough to see how much trouble Aura was then having breathing, or pulling her eyes from his nearly naked body.

“What?” she choked on the word, painfully dragging her eyes back to his face.

“There’s no water!” he stated worriedly as he gestured to the faucets after giving them another unsuccessful turn. Only then did he look up to see her current state of distraction written all over her face. “You OK?” he asked as he narrowed his eyes at her.

“Uh... um...” she swallowed again trying to beat her brain into submission and remember the English language. “You have to activate it first. From that panel. There’s a timer after you do. It’s a conservation thing” she managed to explain in a stammer, drawing on every bit of willpower to call all her father’s instructions from years earlier back into her brain. And that task was beyond difficult at that very moment.

“A computerized shower?” He blinked with further disbelief at this new reality of theirs.

Adan shook his head as he stepped out of the stall to stand in front of the panel she had shakily indicated earlier. He looked it over a moment, still using one hand to hold the towel around his waist, then glanced back at where Aura had lost the fight to keep her eyes above his shoulders. Not that staring at his face would have any chance of calming her either. It never did.

Despite everything, Adan couldn’t help biting back a small smile as he noted her eyes moving over him as she had appeared to have forgotten how to breathe yet again. “A little help here?” he stated after biting back the smile and gesturing to the panel.

“What?” she choked again, her cheeks reddening as she yanked her eyes back up at the sound of his voice. “Oh it’s the button with the wavy blue lines. Aquarius, the water bearer, your sign” she fumbled through the explanation.

“That’s a lotta words” he teased as he bit back another smirk and moved his eyes back to find the button in question. “You sure you’re feeling alright, Aura?” he asked as he looked back at her again.

“Well pardon me for finding it uncomfortable to have a conversation with someone when they’re nearly naked” she stated defensively, looking down at the floor in a futile attempt to hide her reddened cheeks.

“I’ve done movie and TV scenes pretty much dressed just like this. You’ve seen them all I believe. Didn’t think it would really matter now.”

“Shut up. That’s way different.”

“It is?” he asked with a raised brow.

“Just take your damn shower!” was the only response she could find as she turned on her heel and fled from the tiny room and that smirk he was trying to hide. She was the one who needed to hide right then.