The Death of Feeling [AoS]

Sunlight poured in through a broken, dusty window. It splashed on the face of a small, red-headed girl. It seeped into the dusty mass of blankets that she had wrapped herself in, on the dusty mattress that she had managed to salvage. Morning had arrived, and it cried out for the girl to acknowledge this.

She couldn't. She didn't want to. She rolled over in bed, turning her head away from that infernal light. Maybe if she ignored it, it would go away.

Some time passed. Her stomach growled.

Slowly, she opened her eyes, blinking heavily as they adjusted to the brightness of her surroundings. Her mattress was in the back of a wrecked suburban, which currently lay on its side. The mattress was surrounded by a number of plastic bags and cardboard boxes, all full of food and water that she'd managed to salvage from a nearby supermarket. She was lucky to find that supermarket; it had fared surprisingly well, considering...

Kaitlyn's memory came back to her. Five days ago, she had destroyed New York City.

It still felt like a dream. It couldn't be anything other than a dream. Soon, she felt, she could wake up soon and find herself back in the girls' room back at Future Sight, and everything would be okay.

The former Orderling managed to avoid thinking about the truth most of the time, if for nothing else but to help her survive. Still, every once in a while, the reality of her situation would hit her like a freight train. Everyone the girl had ever known was probably dead. All the Sanctuary residents? Dead. Other Order members? Deceased. The Oracle kids? Gone forever. Lori, the woman who'd taken her off the streets and given her a home? Lenna, the coolest adapted she'd ever known, whom Kaitlyn had idolized?

She would probably never see any of them, ever again. Every single one of them was dead, now, and it was all her fault.

Just when she thought she'd run out of tears, it turned out that she still had a few more left to shed. She let the tears flow freely. She cried for her guilt. She cried for her loneliness. She cried for Lori, for Lenna, and for all the other people who used to live in the home she helped destroy. She cried so hard that she didn't even notice when somebody opened the back door of her new home.

"Hey..." a male voice tried tentatively to reassure her. Kaitlyn opened her eyes, blinking a few times to dispel some of the tears. A large form was leaning in through the opening in the back of her car, silhouetted against the sun. She saw what appeared to be a shotgun in one of his hands.

Her eyes widened. She started to panic. The reassuring voice tried to continue, but it only got about as far as "It's--" before a deafening thunderclap cut him short.