Fragments of survival

The city was hollowed out. What once stood as a monument of civilization had become an open grave, where the living staggered between the wreckage like ghosts too stubborn to leave. Fires still burned in the distance, their embers licking at the rain-heavy air, while the streets smelled of smoke, damp concrete, and something more sickly beneath it all.

Jaxon and Selene trudged forward, their boots kicking up soot and ash, the weight of hunger and exhaustion gnawing at their bodies. The sky had dimmed into an overcast void, the last traces of daylight bleeding into the horizon.

Selene kept glancing around, flinching at every distant sound. Jaxon walked ahead, his right arm—his new arm—still foreign to him. The smooth, artificial surface reflected the firelight in strange ways, and every time he moved it, there was a fraction of a second where his brain screamed that something was wrong.

"This place…" Selene's voice was barely above a whisper. "It doesn't feel real anymore."

Jaxon didn't answer. He knew what she meant. The city, the world—it had shattered. And the pieces left behind didn't fit together the same way.

They needed shelter.

Ahead, a half-collapsed building stood among the ruins. The top floors had crumbled, but the lower levels seemed intact enough. Jaxon led them toward it, his posture tense, eyes scanning for movement. He wasn't sure if they'd find safety or something worse inside.

The entrance had been blasted open, glass shards scattered across the floor like jagged teeth. Inside, the air was thick with dust and decay, but it was dry. That was enough.

"We can stay here," Jaxon said.

Selene exhaled shakily, nodding. "Yeah."

She dropped onto a broken couch, her arms wrapped around herself. Jaxon sat across from her, his back against the wall.

Silence settled between them, broken only by the distant crackling of fire and the occasional creak of the building settling.

Selene lifted her head after a long stretch of silence. "What do you feel about your parents?"

Jaxon stared at her.

It wasn't a question of grief. She wasn't asking if he missed them. She wanted to know what was really inside him.

He exhaled, tilting his head back against the wall.

"They weren't bad people," he started, voice low. "They just… didn't care about the same things I did."

Selene watched him closely.

"My dad never listened. Anytime I tried to talk about what was really happening in the world, he'd shut me down. Said I needed to focus on 'real' things, like school, like getting a stable job. And my mom… she never disagreed with him. She just brushed things off, laughed when I got too serious. They weren't cruel. They just…" He paused. "They weren't on my side."

Selene's eyes softened.

"Did you love them?"

Jaxon's jaw clenched. "I don't know."

It was the most honest answer he could give.

Selene looked down, her fingers gripping the fabric of her sleeves. "I get it," she whispered.

Jaxon turned to her. "Do you?"

She nodded. "I saw it. They never really saw you—just the version of you they expected. You were too much for them."

Jaxon's breath hitched slightly at that, but he didn't let it show. Instead, he just nodded.

Selene pulled her knees to her chest. "I wish I could say I'm sorry for your loss, but I don't think that's what you need to hear."

Jaxon huffed out something that almost resembled a laugh. "Yeah. Probably not."

For a moment, the silence felt lighter. Then Selene's breath hitched.

Jaxon turned to see her face crumple, her hands trembling as she pressed them against her forehead.

"They're really gone," she choked out.

Jaxon felt a sharp pull in his chest. He wasn't sure what hit him harder—the realization that she was mourning for his parents in a way he couldn't, or the raw pain in her voice.

Selene wrapped her arms around herself, rocking slightly. "I just— I thought maybe we'd wake up and this would all be a dream. That maybe… maybe it wasn't real."

Jaxon swallowed, his throat tight. He wasn't good at this. Comforting.

But she was breaking apart in front of him, and he couldn't just sit there.

Slowly, hesitantly, he moved closer. Selene didn't resist when he pulled her into him.

She clung to his shirt, her face buried in his shoulder, sobs wracking her body.

Jaxon held her.

He didn't say anything. He just let her cry.

Because for the first time in a long time, he understood that sometimes silence meant more than words ever could.

Selene's sobs eventually quieted, but she didn't move away. Her fingers were still curled into his shirt, like if she let go, she might fall apart again.

Jaxon had never been good at this—emotional vulnerability. He wasn't the type to open up, to let people in. It always felt like a risk, like an opening for someone to exploit.

But here, in the quiet ruins of a dead city, holding Selene as she trembled against him, something inside him cracked.

He exhaled, resting his chin lightly on top of her head.

"I never let myself think about it," he admitted.

Selene stirred slightly, her breath warm against his collarbone. "Think about what?"

"The fact that they're gone." His voice was almost too low to hear. "I don't know how I should feel about it. I don't know if I feel anything."

Selene pulled back just enough to look up at him, her red-rimmed eyes searching his face.

"You do," she murmured. "You just don't know what to do with it."

Jaxon held her gaze. Normally, he would have scoffed at something like that—brushed it off with sarcasm or a cynical remark. But right now, he felt too tired to fight it.

Instead, he let the truth slip out.

"I feel… empty," he admitted. "Like I lost something, but I don't even know if I wanted it in the first place."

Selene's expression softened, and before he could react, she reached up and placed her hand against his face.

Jaxon tensed instinctively, but she didn't move. She just held him there, her palm warm against his jaw, grounding him in a way he didn't know he needed.

"You don't have to figure it all out now," she said gently. "You just have to feel it."

Jaxon swallowed hard.

For the first time in a long time, he wasn't analyzing, wasn't calculating the next move. He wasn't thinking about survival, strategy, or the bigger picture.

He was just here.

And he let it happen.

He let himself drop his guard.

The wind howled through the broken city, slipping through shattered windows and rusted metal like a ghost searching for something lost.

Jaxon and Selene sat in silence for a long time after their conversation. The weight of everything pressed down on them, heavier than it had been before. But it wasn't suffocating. Not entirely.

Eventually, Jaxon let out a breath and pushed himself up. "We should sleep."

Selene nodded, but she hesitated before following him. Her face was still puffy from crying, her body sluggish with exhaustion. She looked at the crumbling walls around them, the flickering city lights in the distance, and then back at him.

"Do you think we're safe here?" she asked quietly.

Jaxon glanced at the doorway they had barricaded with whatever debris they could find. It wasn't much. If someone really wanted to get in, they would.

"No," he admitted. "But it's the best we've got."

Selene sighed and rubbed her arms. "Great."

Jaxon pulled off his jacket and tossed it to her. "Use that as a pillow."

She caught it and stared at him for a moment. Then, instead of lying down on her own, she moved closer—hesitant, but purposeful. "Is it weird if I—?"

He knew what she was asking before she even finished.

He just shook his head. "No."

Selene didn't say anything else. She just curled up beside him, using his shoulder as a pillow instead.

Jaxon leaned back against the cold floor, staring at the ceiling. His right arm—his new arm—felt strange, like it didn't quite belong to him. But Selene's warmth against his side was grounding, keeping his mind from drifting too far.

Neither of them spoke.

Neither of them needed to.

Sleep came slow, but it came.

***

Selene drifted into wakefulness slowly, the weight of exhaustion clinging to her limbs. Her eyelids fluttered before finally lifting, revealing the dim, grayish light that seeped through the cracks in the crumbling ceiling. For a moment, she just lay there, her mind sluggish, caught in the disorienting haze between sleep and reality.

Then, as awareness settled in, she turned her head slightly.

Jaxon lay beside her, his breath slow and steady, his face uncharacteristically relaxed. The usual sharp intensity he carried, the edge that made him seem like he was always calculating something, was absent. Asleep, he almost looked… peaceful. Almost.

She watched him in silence.

Outside, the remnants of a broken city murmured in the distance—faint sirens, the occasional rumble of something collapsing. But in this moment, inside this ruined shelter, there was nothing but the rhythmic rise and fall of Jaxon's chest.

Her fingers twitched as if debating something, but she didn't move. Didn't dare.

She just watched.

Jaxon stirred, his mind surfacing from the depths of sleep, the weight of exhaustion still clinging to him. The air was damp, the faint scent of rain lingering from the night before. His body ached—his right arm, the artificial one, felt strangely heavy, like a part of him still wasn't used to it.

His eyes cracked open.

The first thing he saw was Selene.

She was sitting nearby, watching him. Not in an obvious way—more like she had been lost in thought and just happened to be looking at him. But she wasn't startled when his gaze met hers. She didn't look away.

For a moment, neither of them spoke.

"Didn't know you were into watching people sleep."

Her shoulders tensed slightly. "I wasn't."

Jaxon exhaled through his nose, smirking as he stretched, wincing slightly at the stiffness in his body. "Right. Just making sure I was still breathing?"

Selene scoffed, crossing her arms. "Shut up."

Jaxon propped himself up on one elbow, giving her a lopsided grin. "Well, good news. Still alive."

She rolled her eyes, but he didn't miss the way her lips twitched, like she was fighting a smile.

His smirk faded slightly as he really looked at her—her face was drawn, dark circles under her eyes. She hadn't slept well. Not that he blamed her. They'd barely had a moment to breathe since everything happened.

"You okay?" he asked, voice quieter now.

Selene blinked, as if caught off guard by the question. Then she shrugged. "Yeah. You?"

Jaxon let out a dry chuckle. "Peachy."

Silence settled between them again, but it wasn't awkward. If anything, it was grounding. Like neither of them needed to fill the space with words.

Eventually, Selene sighed, rubbing her arms. "We should get moving soon. Find supplies."

Jaxon nodded, pushing himself fully upright. "Yeah. No telling what's left out there."

But he didn't move just yet. Neither did she.

For now, they just sat there, existing in the quiet.