It feels like a large boom that bursts out of the mutiny of daily life, it pulses and aches, leaving behind trails of bloodshed.
That's pretty much why she stops, stumbles in the sudden quiet after the large explosion of sorts rocked them; instinct tells her that it isn't the bomb that they've been preparing for, and then she's off running before the ground shakes and throws her, leaving her a bundled up heap on hard ground.
She nearly cries as she begins to shake like a leaf lost in a Summer breeze, not falling, but a continuous shaking that won't let up when it feels like too much.
Her body's became a live wire of emotion and of pain; she's crying before she knows it, but she can't feel or focus on the pain.
All that she can hear around her is chaos, and she can't focus on it as if she's staring into a microscope and the zooming, clearing, feature won't look, keeping everything a foggy mess.
She wonders if her hearing's gone in the brief moment when she can think before there's a blast of something over head, and her body's suddenly aching worse than before as a burning sensation crawls up and along her skin.
Her breath comes in almost foggy breaths despite it feeling much too hot in this place, and before she can stop herself, she's pulling off her clothes, too hot, too hot, too hot.
Daina can't breathe, barely can, and finds herself realizing that she's shedding the thin, protective armor of her clothes, but she still can't stop her nervous, fumbling hands from removing them.
It suddenly doesn't matter that she's in public though her eyes ache, and she wouldn't be surprised if they were bleeding by the sound of a piercing yell that is not her own; she can't scream, can't breathe, but it sounds like someone is dying, so she turns her head, determined to crawl over and help though her skin goes cold despite the heat around her when she does.
Her neighbor, her best friend at one point, is lying not too far away, closer to the road though, her arm's half off among the blood, and her blue eyes are squinted up at the sky as she screams as if her life depends on every ounce of breath, of scream, that she can release.
Daina finally wills herself enough to move and crawls over, accidentally dragging her clothes along by her mostly stiff legs, and sits beside Amelia.
Bringing a hand to rest over her heart, hoping that it soothes the screams, and then Daina realizes that her skin is burning and stares down at her own legs, shrapnel, burning hot, metal shrapnel clings to her skin though while it hurts and sends Daina half back into a daze, it's nowhere near as bad as Amelia has it.
She grabs her shirt in a sudden train of thought and ties it around Amelia's arm, hoping that it stops the blood flow at the very least, though she wonders whether it will at all save the young woman's arm if she can get through this.
When Amelia stops screaming, she can barely pull in raspy breaths, so Daina leans down to share air with her, breathing in and out, and it's simple, almost like any other friendship based gesture from the past that doesn't mean life or death.
Daina pulls back when Amelia's face calms down from it's scrunched up state, and she's dimly surprised that she doesn't start screaming right away or any time at all.
Her blue eyes are wild and not quite focused, but they turn to Daina, and she smiles.
"I-I'm glad that you're here, Daina, and fine. You were the best friend that I ever had. You understood." Amelia kisses her and while it's platonic, quick, and chaste, Daina leans into it, knowing that Amelia needs it more than she perhaps does.
"O-Okay." Daina takes a deep breath and hates that all she can taste is almost stale tasting air, from the second blast, and blood that clings to her lips and tongue.
She barely realizes that Amelia's crying tears of joy and wraps her arms around Daina to pull her close, almost like protective armor.
Daina's relieved when the next blast that shakes the earth beneath them comes from a distance as she settles down to sleep.
The next morning, she's weak but alive and so is Amelia to her relief.
She's warm under Daina's touch, and Daina barely manages to crawl off of her and away to hunt for clean water and clean food.
When she returns, Amelia's awake and staring out over the distance that looks remarkably dark compared to yesterday, buildings are torn down, falling apart, in shambles, and bodies lay, some with heartbeats and uneven breaths too, others without, and all of them lay crippled and bloodied, bodies hurting like the landscape around them.
"My arm's numb, doesn't move right." Amelia mutters as if in reply of the scene around her instead of the other woman's presence.
"I don't have a knife." Is all that Daina can think to say, because she definitely doesn't, doesn't know how to amputate an arm either without somehow severing a major artery, and she can't imagine her last companion dying on her from that, that nearly makes her go numb.
"Okay." Amelia mutters but scoots closer, looping an arm around her waist for comfort and yet never taking her eyes off of the land before her.
"I think we've went numb." Daina mutters sadly, because glancing around her leaves a dull ache, but mostly makes her relieved to be breathing and loss doesn't register quite as well.
Daina doesn't think of family and friends at all, not of the world that they've lost and left behind, just thinks of Amelia as she leans closer to her to share food and water.
When she breaks down crying, it isn't with the potential loss of all that she holds dear, and it isn't quite shock, it's gratitude to have a good companion to survive with, to talk to, to love like the family that they've probably both lost, and she cries for the joy of a friend by her side.
It's weak, the tears don't stay steady, and she doesn't cry for long as survival instincts long forgotten suddenly kick in, but it's enough to sit here and cry with a good companion as they cry for the good of what they have, too numb to cry for what they've lost.
It's enough, and Daina remains strong afterwards for Amelia's sake and that determination carries over with the way that Amelia tries to stay strong for her as well.
It's easier to stay strong when you have someone to stay strong with after all, and they can't go lonely and mute, forget how to speak, if they have someone to always talk to until whatever inevitably ends them as well.