"Mister, when will the quakes stop?" the child spoke in a feeble voice as she rung my hand in anxiety. It wasn't until she did so that my attention was drawn to her.
Just like me and everyone else, she too had taken shelter for these so called "Earthquakes" that she spoke of. Certainly the shaking floor and the rubble falling from the dome would indicate so. But that was hardly the case.
"Soon... it's just a matter of time."
I turned towards her and meekly smiled. But perhaps it didn't sound so convincing to her as she immediately turned to another adult sitting beside her asking him the same question again. But thanks to the gossipy murmurs and the panic filled voices of other adults, her voice had no choice but to be suppressed and finally be ignored.
What was a child like her doing all alone in such a moment of crisis? Was she separated from her parents just like me?
Perhaps she was spirited away from another world and abandoned here just like me?
Was it? Maybe I am thinking too much, for that seems unlikely.
But I couldn't help but have my life flash across my mind as I watched the white and illuminous dome of the colony crack and shake under the constant bombardment.
The security measures should have demolished any invaders, but it seems that they have failed us this time. But from inside the dome, there was no way to know how good or bad the situation was. Will we even be able to live past today? That question haunted everyone and was also the topic of gossip.
BAM!!
Chunks of the dome that was holding till now finally fell apart. People who were careless had yet to find shelter got crushed under its weight in front of our very eyes.
It was but yesterday when we were living completely normal lives oblivious to all of this. It wasn't supposed to end this way, at least if one went by the rules. Our fort shouldn't have fallen so easily. But here we were, shaking in constant fear.
The sunlight shone through the ceiling. Much different that the artificial illumination, we saw it for the first time in years. It was different that what I had assumed it to be. The sky was murky with gasses, perhaps emissions from the munitions that were fired.
With such a powerful artillery and such a large hole in our ceiling it was only a matter of time before the entire dome crumbled to earth.
Everyone looked at each other in a last desperate in trying to figure out the next move. But the only answer that they received was that they would be better off dead.
That was half of my plan too.
I clenched the holster attacked to my belt. It had only one bullet. One was enough for me, not to kill the enemy but to kill myself a painless death.
But my hands shook as I felt the cold touch of the metallic holster. Even since I secured myself in a colony, I had never thought I would have to use this ever again, much less on myself.
Years of living in this forsaken world, and I had yet to grow a spine. I knew that no matter how hard I resolved myself to do it, I couldn't kill myself.
It had always been beyond me.
So what other options did I have? Get captured as a slave, or hope for some stray rubble or bullet to kill me? Actually the later sounds better but it would be like leaving things to luck and I don't like the sound of that.
I fiddled my way through the crowd as I got up from my crouching position.
"Food..."
Muttering so I ran towards the canteen. Laugh at me if you want, but if I am going to die anyway then I better have my belly full at the very least. The canteen receives raw food mostly the greenhouse and through shipment into the colony, both of which were in accessible to a small fry like me.
But in this situation probably no one would care about someone breaking the rules.
As I approached the canteen I was only greeted by a silence. Usually there are people who operate this place but quite reasonably there was no one there now.
Now the questions was where did they went?
Not all locations are accessible to every member of the colony. That is why, despite living here for years I don't necessarily have complete information as to where the shipment comes in from.
I had some intuitive guesses though thanks to years of probing. It was only through that probing was I able to find the exit but not before a frantic search.
My heart was beating twice the speed. Just the thought of the everything coming down crashing under my head was scary enough for me to fumble and fall twice already.
I wasn't the only one smart enough to guess about the exit though.
There were several people who had escaped far before I could have had the stroke of insight. Their footsteps were laden on the steps carving out a path for me to follow.
It was dark and the air had a deathly smell. Each step I took made a cranking noise, the narrow stairway wasn't giving me much room to dash down. But compared to the large bombardment of the dome it was but a feeble noise.
Finally reaching the dark basement I ran frantically avoiding every truck in sight only following the light at the end of the basement.
Normally the basement should have been tightly locked from outside and inside. And there should be no means of bypassing until you had some authority within the colony.
But those that had escaped before me had cleared the path before me. I didn't have the tools nor the technical know how to do any of this. Thankfully they had left the path open for me in their frantic attempt at escape from the raiders.
Does it make the already weakened defenses even weaker? Yes. Had the raiders figured out this escape route the colony would have fallen much faster than one would expect.
But I wasn't in a situation to complain. Considering they were still relying on artillery, they probably haven't.
The outside would was but a few meters ahead.
I should be happy that I was getting to escape the fate of slavery, but all I felt was conflict.
The colony was a safe abode and we have now lost it without being able to fight back.
I wasn't a resident here from the very start unlike some others so I have seen how the outside world is. And it was by no means welcoming.
How long will I live before I fall prey? That was a question I had no answer to.
Neither did I have a super human body boosted with serums. Nor did I have the wealth to make the latter lick my boots. How was I going to survive anyway? There were cliffs on either side of my path.
I was kind of moving with the flow but I should have come up with better plans. if I was going to live in the outside world I should have at least stole some supplies from the colony. After all the reason it was being raided right now was probably for the same.
Bam!!
But as if to mock at that thought of mine, another loud explosion threatened to tear down my ear drums. Actually that was tame, what happened after it caused my face to turn pale.
Stumbling again at the worst possible time at a frantic attempt at escape, I struggled to get up with a sprained ankle.
Alas, I could only staggered a few steps before the whole colony come crashing down.
