"Did you hear something?"
"Are you hearing shit now too?"
"No, no seriously I think someone's above us."
"Who would it be? We're all here…"
"Is it Terezi do you think?"
"She's only been gone a week."
"If it was here she wouldn't been down here already."
"What else would someone want with us? All that's up there is broken mannequins and shit."
"Someone should go check."
Jade groaned, sitting up slowly. The room swooped and tilted as she pulled herself to her feet with a shaking arm.
"Be right back," she gasped, wincing as a jolt of pain stabbed through her stomach. Leaving heavily on the wall, she crossed the room, past the barely-conscious forms of John, Kanaya and Sollux.
The space from the doorway to the ladder seemed to multiply by ten as she struggled along the wall, willing herself not to pass out.
A minute later she reached the ladder, hands shaking so hard she was sure she wouldn't be able to make it up. The trapdoor opened to the dark interior of the store. A dark shape tumbled down, hitting Jade on the head and knocking her to the floor. Two more shapes followed, smacking down on either side of her, then the trapdoor was slammed shut. Jade groaned. The ground around her was littered with objects of various sizes and shapes, spilling from the bags. She reached for the nearest one, a small cylinder, and held it up, peering at the writing on it.
Chicken Noodle Soup.
"Oh my god," She whispered, sitting up and staring around her. It was food, the ground was littered with packages and boxes and cans. None of them had eaten in over a week.
"Guys!" She called, tearing open a package of crackers and shoving them in her mouth as quickly as possible. "GUYS!"
"There's a note attached, look!" John said, after they'd finally all eaten their full and put the rest carefully in the cupboards. He lay sprawled out on the couch next to Sollux.
"Read it, then" Sollux grumbled. John cleared his throat and read the writing aloud
"Hello! It's Terezi! Expect a package of food every week from here on out. It's the least I could do, but now you guys don't have to be worried about this. I'm afraid that I'm going to have to stay here a little while longer, so don't expect me back too soon, but I promise that I'll come soon enough, probably a month or two. Stay safe, love Terezi."
"Every week?" Sollux asked in disbelief. John's face split into a wide grin. They were safe! From starvation at least, but better than nothing. Jade started laughing, a high pitched giggle, and then Kanaya joined in, and Sollux and then John. They were properly full, for the first time in months, and would stay that way. Everything, at that moment, seemed pretty okay.
A month passed. Then two, then three, then four. Three bags of food were dropped through the trapdoor every week per Terezi's instruction, but she herself hadn't appeared. Sweaters were traded for tee shirts which in turn were traded for no shirts.
Five months. With hardly anything better to do, John sat long periods of times on top of buildings, staring off into the West, looking for a glimpse of red.
Six months. Kanaya started re-mapping the entire East side of the city, often taking off for days at a time.
Eight months. Jade began sprouting horns, which were triangular shaped, sort of like animal ears. John called her a furry and Jade smacked his head.
Eleven months. Sollux noticed he was running out of breath quicker than before. He kept it to himself.
One year later, John sat on the roof, wrapped in several sweaters to fend off the wind and stared down at the picture Terezi had given him. He glanced off to the West, the jagged skyline filling him with a sense of unease. She was still there, he knew it. The food, though decreasing in amount, was delivered with the same frequency. There had been one more note, about a month back that simply said "Miss you. Stay safe. -T."
Most of the others had lost hope, he could tell, but John knew that Terezi would come home soon. He glanced up at the sky, a few wispy clouds lingered around the yellow winter moon. His breath came out in streams of fog.
They had long given up trying to keep track of the days, but winter meant that spring was coming, and with that would be his next birthday. He hadn't done anything last year, everyone still fairly shell-shocked from Karkat. How old was he turning again? 15? It didn't feel like it. He felt he had aged considerably more in the past two years than most people did in twenty. He was an adult now, whether he looked it or not.
The city was chock full of inhabitants a year ago, but now it resembled nothing more than a ghost town. Occasionally John would see a tower of smoke, remnants of something, hopefully not people, burning.
Terezi was gone sixteen months. It was spring, the desert sun beginning to return earlier each day, forcing everyone inside for longer hours. Jade woke at dusk, exiting the Bunker to check for new packages.
The sky outside was still pink and purple, but the sun was down so there wasn't harm in going outside. The shreds of light that remained cast the street into gray gloom. She stepped outside, a slight breeze rippling through her waist-length, tangled hair. A drop of something splashed on the top of her cheek.
She wiped it off, confused. The sky was clear. She looked down at her finger. A teal smudge sat on top of the grey. And all at once, her heart seized seemed to drop to below her feet. Another drop fell on the top of her head, she shrieked and stumbled backwards, falling hard on the rough pavement.
Her eyes raised, staring upwards at the figure strung over the door. Terezi's throat was slit, teal blood pouring down her front, dripping off the tips of her dangling red boots. Her head was tilted forward and she hung by a rope wrapped around her neck, coming from the second floor window.
Her breath came quicker, her entire body shuddering. She couldn't let out more than a squeak, and couldn't tear her eyes away fromt the body, slightly bobbing from the wind. She heard a noise from inside and looked down to see John's head emerging from the trapdoor. He looked out, saw Jade and then waved. She shook her head violently, trying to find her voice, he couldn't come out here-couldn't see-he was the only one who thought she was still alive.
John's smile faded into a look of concern as he started towards Jade. But he was taller, much taller and the tip of her boot hung down too low. It brushed the tip of John's horn and he looked up.
There was a brief pause in which everything collapsed.
John screamed, he ran backwards into Jade. He was on the ground, grabbing her shoulders.
"No, no no no…" He was saying softly, shaking his head, eyes fixated on her. Jade turned and puked onto the cracked pavement.
Kanaya came, quickly. She took a glance at the figure and her jaw set, eyes flickered. She walked over quickly, pulling Jade and John to their feet, leading them back inside.
"Stay here." Her words were blunt, but her voice wavered. "I'll get her down."