Volume 3 – Chapter 23: What We Owe Each Other

Date: August 24

Days Left: 37

It was just past dawn on the day when Kaito entered the central hall of the shelter, its low ceiling and cold stone walls casting long shadows under the dim emergency lights. Others were gathering and being drawn in by the message he and Rika had pleased the cop to sell yesterday.

Rika stood behind him with their fingers laced together. There was silence. Just footsteps, heavy, some half-hearted, along with lots of tired eyes.

Jun was somewhere across the corner kneeling down with arms crossed over his chest, doubtful but listening. Near the doorway was Aya, biting her lower lip with concern building up in her furrowed brow. Even Rei came in, her arms hugging herself like she was concealing something.

It was not all that many - they were a mere ten. It was everything that formed their unit, the last trace of something near community.

Kaito cleared his throat.

"I won't take much of your time," he started, a little less quietly than he meant it. "But you deserve to know it all. Not just the missions. Not just the outcomes. The truth."

A few looks were exchanged. No one interrupted.

He continued.

"You all know what we're doing. Scouting. Gathering intel. Making plans out of what we've been told. What we've believed." He glanced at Rika. She gave him a small nod. "But that belief has been built on something that's...changed. Perhaps broken."

He talked about the silence from central command. About inconsistencies in data. About offline stations that were supposed to be operational. He talked about glitching satellite links and communication anomalies. That there were signs--awful unmistakable signs--that told the outside world outside was failing faster than they had been made to believe.

Some flinched. Some just stared.

Rika took a step ahead.

"But that's not all," she continued, voice soft but firm. "We're not here to panic you, or make you give up; we're doing it because we believe it is right. Because you deserve to choose what happens next with open eyes."

Aya raised a hand. "Are you saying... it's already lost? That we're just—delaying the inevitable?"

Kaito shook his head slowly. "I am saying the inevitable might be closer than we thought. Yet that does not stop living. It does not make it any more okay to give up on each other."

Jun stood, arms unfolding. "So what? We sit around and wait to die? Is that what you're telling us?"

"No," Kaito said. "I'm saying maybe we stop pretending like survival is just about strategy and weapons. Maybe we ask ourselves why we're still here. Who we're still here for."

There was silence now. Not angry. Not even scared. Just... thoughtful.

Rei, who had not spoken a single word until now, finally gave a whisper, "What do we do with this? What do we become if we stop fighting the way we used to?"

Rika looked at each of them. "Maybe we become human again."

---

Some were left, some went and sat alone and thought, and others cried. Some did not.

Kaito sat with Rei on a haphazard bench outside the comms room, while she gazed up towards the clouds.

“Everything used to be able to be rebuilt,” she whispered. “Cities. The sky. The future. Now... I don’t know if there is anything left to mend.”

Maybe we build whatever we can with each other, one moment at a time," he stated and nodded slowly.

She gazed at him, her eyes a little softer. “That’s pretty terrible.”

“Yeah,” he said. “But it’s true.”

---

That night, lying in bed, Rika whispered, “Do you think they’ll stay?”

“I think they’ll try,” Kaito said.

She was quiet for a long time while she thought. “That’s enough for me.”

And for the first time in a long time, with the lights going out, the darkness did not feel so lonely.