This is the way it end

This is my life begins

If this the way it ends

Nothing is meaningless

There'll be no compromise

We fall in we too shall rise again

This is the way it ends

-This is the way it ends by Landon Pigg

Kate made her way across the factory floor. One of her duties in the lab was to pick up bomb sets for testing. Today's assigned bomb set just happened to be next to Betty's station. It was her old station. Kate took this as a sign. Yesterday, she had been so hopeful that things were getting better. Then Betty found out her big secret and things went downhill quickly.

She had stayed up the whole night going over their argument in her head. Replaying word for word and blow by blow. She had regretted her words. She knew her friend wasn't keen on taking handouts and her pride had been battered enough over the last year, so the idea of anyone paying on her dream house when she couldn't manage to do it herself would have felt like one more slap she couldn't bare. She should have been more sensitive to that, instead she had said awful things and made things worse between them. And killed her newfound hope in the process.

She wondered if Betty regretted any of the things she had said. Kate had to admit that Betty's words had rumbled through her head throughout the night as well. Her statement that indicated that she didn't love her anymore had been a blow she didn't expect. She couldn't stop thinking about it. How did things get this far out of hand? Did Betty really feel this way? And why did it make her feel so… empty?

She had to do something. She didn't want to feel like this anymore. She wanted her hope back, not this hollow shell her life had become since Betty had turned herself in for her. She had to make things right again.

"Betty?" She said timidly, walking up to her amatol pouring station- to the place where Betty had given her a second chance. Where it had all begun.

The blonde looked up, her expression unreadable. Kate bit her lip nervously at the task before her.

"I'm sorry for what happened last night and for everything that's happened really…" Kate began, her hands fretting with the cuffed sleeves of her coveralls.

"A little late for that, don't you think?" Betty interrupted, her jaw tight as she poured the amatol into the bombshells in front of her.

Kate blinked hard at the cold edge in her once best friend's voice.

"You're just cruisin' for a bruisin', aren't you?" Arlene's voice barked out as she walked up behind Betty. "You here to stir up more trouble for Betty?"

"No, of course not," Kate said, shaking her head desperately. "It's the last thing that I want to do."

"Forgive me if I don't believe what you're preaching considering your track record," Arlene shot back.

Kate looked back at Betty who kept her focus on the task in front of her.

"Arlene, I just want to talk Betty for a moment. And this doesn't really involve you, so if you could please kindly give us a moment…"

"A moment? So you can, what? Call her another lazy drunk? Hurt her some more? Don't you think you've done enough already?"

"That's enough." Betty gritted out, turning back to Arlene behind her. "I've got this."

Arlene looked down at her and reached out to place her hand on Betty's shoulder. "I'm just trying to look out for you."

"It's okay," Betty pulled her shoulder away from her touch. "Go finish your bomb set out."

"Fine," Arlene rolled her eyes as she turned away. "Just don't come crying to me when she breaks your heart again."

Kate watched the other girl walk back to her bomb set on the table behind Betty and swallowed hard at the other girl's implication.

"Betty," Her voice pleaded. "I am sorry for everything… I just want to make things right again."

"Can we not do this now?"

Kate had to get it out though. It had waited long enough.

"I just want to say though that I never meant to hurt you by paying on your loan. I just didn't want your dream home to default because of me. Or for you to loose your room while you were… away."

"I wasn't away at some sleep camp, Kate." Betty gritted out, shaking her head as she wiped amatol away from the shell casings.

"I know," Kate whispered.

"So you what? Decided to take pity on me so you wouldn't feel so guilty?" Betty looked up briefly, her eyes blazing with anger. "Next time do us both a favor and please spare me the trouble. I don't need your pity."

"That's not what I meant… my words always come out all jumbled. It's just… I want you to get that home one day. You deserve that home or a warm room in the safety of the boarding house until you're ready for that home. You deserve so much more than what you've been given lately."

"How about you not tell me what I deserve? You have no idea what it took to survive in there. What you have to do to get you through the day in that place. My mistake was thinking that it would stop once I was free. That doesn't make me a lazy drunk, it makes me human."

Kate nodded as a wave of sadness washed over her from the sound of Betty's desperate voice. "I regret what I said last night. I didn't mean to make you feel like that… I regret so much."

"Well, that makes two of us. I regret not popping Donald in the mouth this morning for his usual numbskull wisecracks, or for believing Gladys when she said it would get better eventually, and some days, I regret giving people second chances after they almost blow us all up on their first day."

Kate felt like she had been struck. Betty's words left its mark as she took them in with a shaky breath. Kate's eyes flickered over to her old spot on the line right by Betty, the station where she had almost blown them up on her first day at the factory. The spot where Betty had spared her from a firing and instead helped guide her uneasy hands to a better way of pouring, to a better life.

"Careful kid, you might actually show an emotion," Arlene's voice broke in once again.

Kate looked to the other girl, who was holding out her finished bomb set for her to take. It was what had brought her over here with hope, now it was what would take her away with such heartache.

Wordlessly, Kate reached out and took the tray and turned to walk back to the lab.

Betty's hands shook as she poured the amatol in front of her, causing the liquid to dribble out and onto the side of the canister of the bombshell.

"Damn it," She grumbled under her breath. Why had she just said those things to Kate? Why did everything inside her hurt all the time making her feel like she could scream? And why did her mouth have to always shoot off when she felt cornered?

Closing her eyes, she set the canister down and breathed in slowly. All she could see was Kate's expression as she had thrown those hurtful words at her. Was that how she looked when her father use to do such awful things? Like she had just taken a blow to the face? Maybe to the heart even?

She opened her eyes and watched Kate walk away. The sight made her heart ache once more, a feeling she should be use to by now, but it somehow felt fresh every single time. She thought of calling out to her friend, to call her back, take her hand, and apologize… it use to be so easy. She'd say she was a clot, Kate would give her those eyes that made her knees go weak, and all would be swell, but the words caught in her throat now.

She gritted her teeth as she picked up her canister once more and watched Kate's slow stagger disappear behind the lab's double doors without looking back.

"She's got some nerve," Arlene griped beside her. "After what all she said to you last night… "

"Don't." Betty warned, holding up her hand to the other girl. "Just, can you not do that?"

Arlene rolled her eyes. "Boy, you're in a splendid mood."

Kate slipped through the double doors of the lab's corridor and made her way into the lab. Reggie was already there writing down measurements of the deadly fluid in front of her.

"Hey Red," the younger girl greeted without looking up. "Will you be working at the Jewel Box tonight? I hear they have a jazz band coming from my old neck of the woods…"

She looked up when she noticed the lack of response from her friend and found Kate looking pale and near tears as she placed her crate down on the table between them.

"What's wrong?"

Kate shook her head, trying to shake away her unusual show of emotions. "Just a rough morning is all. I'll be fine."

"Was it that Arlene again?" Reggie asked, annoyance filling her voice. "I swear that kook has some nerve."

Kate looked down, trying unsuccessfully to rain in her emotions. "No, I think I've just come to the conclusion that some cuts may be too deep to ever heal properly."

Reggie's brow furrowed in confusion, but she knew enough to not ask for more. Instead she took the case Kate placed down and slid it down to the end of the table, the canisters clinking along the way.

"You should probably go gather yourself before the Warden makes his appearance," Reggie said, going back to her clipboard.

They both knew their cantankerous new supervisor, Henry Jenkins, would not put up with anyone standing around threating to burst into tears. He was a nice enough man, but he was no Lorna Corbett. Kate knew any sign of emotions from the women of the factory would only affirm the belief they didn't belong there.

"I'll take care of your casing," Reggie assured as Kate nodded her thanks and slipped out of the room just as Donald and Henry walked into the lab pushing dollies of bomb crates.

She leaned against the wall in the small corridor between the lab and the factory floor and willed herself not to let the tears fall. She learned long ago that she could hold her emotions in check when her life depended on it, but as Betty's words rang out in her head once again, the tears fell anyways.

She was foolish to think she could offer a peace offering to make things better. Too much had happened. Her mistakes had caused too much damage. Her worst fears were true. Betty hated her. Why did the world feel like it was ending?

"I don't know why you're so hung up on what she thinks," Arlene said from her spot by Betty's station. "This whole rigmarole dance you two seem to be endlessly trapped in is getting old. I mean, what's the point?"

"Look," Annoyed, Betty heavily sat her amatol canister on the table behind them before turning back to the other girl. "I just..."

She didn't get to finish her sentence because the world exploded in front them. It was the loudest noise Betty had ever heard before. So loud, so powerful, she felt the concussion as the wave swept across the room, throwing bricks, empty bomb shelling, and workers across the room.

For Betty, it felt like the whole factory lifted right off the ground as the world erupted violently around her and she was blown backwards with rocks and dirt following her path. It all happened so fast, yet Betty felt like she was slowly freefalling as she fell heavily to floor.

The wind was knocked out from her lungs as she slid backwards, glass and rocks grinding into her arms as she skidded across the floor. When she stopped and opened her eyes again, she was lying on the floor, dust and smoke enveloping the factory floor like a thick, smothering blanket. For a moment, there was a strange, unfamiliar silence.

Betty's mind was still reeling from the powerful wave that threw her backwards, but movement beside her caught her attention as she looked over and saw Arlene sitting up on the floor beside her… she looked terrified. She was screaming about something, but Betty couldn't hear anything coming from her mouth. The other girl's blue bandana was askew on her head from the impact and she briefly thought about how would not pass Mrs. Corbett's dress inspection with it like that.

She blinked several times and noticed Arlene was yelling something at her again, but still no sound was coming from her mouth. She fleetingly wondered if she'd gone deaf, but then suddenly, as if on cue, a low ringing began to rise in her ears, until it was so loud, it reverberated against her eardrums.

She jumped when Edith ran up behind her and grabbed her arms, pulling her from her shocked stupor. Betty shook her head, trying to clear the confusion and the damn ringing in her ears. Edith was also yelling something to them both. This time her voice sounded distant like she was in a hole, the ringing was still so loud in her ears.

"We gotta…" She heard Edith's frantic voice say as it came in and out. "….Gonna Blow!"

Betty realized the ringing wasn't just her ears though – it was also the sound from the factory's alarm system.

…Alarm system.

Gonna Blow….

The words settled in the pit of her stomach as Betty felt the terrifying realization roll through her. She shakily sat up, grabbing desperately onto Edith as she turns, hoping to not see what she thinks has happened. The noises and smell begin to invade her senses.

She looks across the factory she knows like the back of her hand and yet, she doesn't recognize the sight before her. Her ears begin to clear as she hears other girls crying and coughing while the smoke and dust floated heavily in the large room. She watched as Margaret and Janet stumbled towards the factory's back door… its emergency exit. Betty looked past the fleeing workers though; desperately searching for a sight she was looking towards only seconds ago.

Through the thick smoke, she searches for where the lab doors should be… Where were they? It didn't make sense, the noises, the sulfur taste in the air, the feel of the rocks and glass grinding into her hands as she crawled to her knees, desperately searching for the doors she had seen Kate walk through only moments ago… She had to find those doors…

The doors leading to the canteen were still there. The stairs leading to the administrative offices were badly warped, swaying from side to side, but they were still there. But the lab doors… just to the right of the stairs… where were they?

"Oh, God." Betty croaked out, now on her feet and stumbling towards where the doors should be. "Oh, God."

She heard both Edith and Arlene call out behind her, but she was already on her way towards the area with the thickest smoke. She was going against the current, bumping into fleeing workers as she tried to get past them. They were just as frantic and desperate in movement as she was, but they were going the opposite direction.

She finally made her way to the spot she last saw Kate and looked in despair. The wall had fallen down. The roof was caved in and where once stood the entrance to the lab, only laid a labyrinth of twisted metal and broken bricks. It seemed like a mountain to her.

Marco was already there. Pulling bricks off the large mound of debris. Without a word spoken, she joined him, desperately pulling off large blocks of concrete from the pile.

"Please, be okay, please," she began repeating.

"You two!" Lorna yelled, running up beside them and coughing as the dust began to settle more. "You know the protocol. We must exit the building now!"

Marco stopped briefly, looking up at her as he threw another brick away. "There are people in there!"

Betty never let up as she scrambled up the pile and began pulling bolder size pieces of the wall away.

"We wont do them any good if we do something to ignite another explosion!" Lorna exclaimed, trying to yell above the alarms while watching Betty's desperate attempt. As hard as Betty was working to clear the pile, she wasn't even making a dent in the debris, leading Lorna to wonder if the younger girl had even heard a word she had said.

"I'm not leaving them behind," Marco said, turning towards the pile behind him. Lorna grabbed him by the arm, catching his attention as he looked down and saw the desperation in her eyes.

"I can't do my job with the two of you here. Once we're outside, we can assess the situation and get the proper help to them."

He set his jaw and looked ready to turn towards the pile again when Lorna's grip tightened on his arm, pulling his attention back to her pleading expression.

"Please."

"Fine," He relented. "Betty, we'll come back when it's safe!"

Betty never stopped, pulling with all her might on a large piece of metal that was twisted around chunks of fallen wall.

"Please be okay. Please be okay."

Lorna and Marco looked at each other, both knowing what had to be done.

Marco cautiously made his way up the unstable debris and took Betty by the arm to lead her back down, but she flailed away, causing her to stumble and fall onto the twisted web of destruction. She sat up trying to pull more bricks away, but Marco hauled her to her feet, pulling her away from the debris once more. He grunted as she began to yell and buck drastically against his tight grip around her arms while dragging her backwards.

"Noo! Kate!" She screamed, trying to break loose, causing Marco to stumble. "Nooo!"

Lorna ran up and grabbed the free arm that Betty had managed to wrench from Marco's hold and helped pull her backwards. With Marco on one side and Lorna on the other, they hauled Betty away from the destruction as her feet skidded wildly across the floor, desperately trying to get back to where the lab doors should be.

"Kate!" Her deep sob echoed across the factory as Marco and Lorna doggedly pulled her towards safety. She watched as the carnage of the lab disappeared into the fog of smoke and dust once again.

"…Kate…"