The room had fallen into uncertain silence. The thunderous boom of the bunker doors, they had been the very last of any noise. As the girls fell to be seated on the ground, they felt anything but relaxed.

The words of their mother flashed in their minds.

"...you have to stay here, and you have to stay quiet…"

It became a joke; a cruel mockery of something that seemed utterly impossible. While they had been confined less than feet between each other, only it could have been minutes ago had their mother left, and all they could see was black; it was bleak.

In a moment they finally seemed not bombarded by their thoughts of a plan of action, when their mother asked for them to hide.

Now they all sat still… almost all of them.

While the setting seemed eerie enough, it seemed Amoly was having the most trouble fitting with their surroundings.

As she still squirmed, Amoly whined softly. She began to reach out, only for the darkness to become a hinder for what she was looking for, yet eventually she felt a bulge on the left wall of the metal bunker.

Just as quickly as she turned it on, was it turned off.

She shook, before letting go a persistent whisper. "What?! Please can we leave the light on."

"Amy, I.. I don't know if it's a good idea! I.." Venus began but was interrupted.

"But what if the light won't show through the floor?! Please, please, can we just.."

"Amy.." Talena spoke gently. "We don't know that it won't! What if it could show and we could be seen."

At a tense moment, Amoly's voice fell… and cracked with mixed fears. "I..I know, but Mama told us about it. And…" She used any ounce of persuasion, more than she knew she had, and she pleaded. "Just, I…! Please!"

Venus said nothing more and took in a sharp breath, but it trembled; she bit her lip. She looked up as if it was one of her last resorts to keep herself together. As she refused to let her internal barrier be broken, her eyes stung.

Any amount of as much control Venus thought she could have ever had, she needed more. She felt unnaturally panicked. While her breathing had to be the most controlled out of all of them, she felt close to hyperventilating.

She was unlike herself. She couldn't find the control she desperately wished for. She couldn't breathe as steady as she always had been able to. Her hands trembled as they never had. She was confined to herself, more than the four of them were in the bunker.

Venus looked over, and only could differentiate the silhouettes of her three sisters from her adjusted eyes. Even in the utmost darkness, she saw they trembled. The darkness concealed nothing, of what they felt. The sheer silence of the moment was an open book for the brokenness in the voices that were spoken.

Her sisters sounded so… so…

She shook her head violently. Not even in her thoughts, she couldn't say it. She wouldn't say it.

Soon the unnatural quiet was gone again, and Amoly swallowed the lumps swelling in her throat, yet her voice still waivered.

"Guys, I…I…I'm scare–"

"Lara, can you please turn the light back on?" Talena didn't dare to argue more, and flung a frantic arm around her little sister seated beside her. Her strategic mind meant nothing to her right now as she heard her sister's voice. Touch never seemed as simple to her, but she tried, and her touch was her attempt; to ground her sister, to support her, she didn't care at the moment which it might be. She just wanted to help.

Larota cleared her throat in a silent exhale, it sounded more fragile than they could have known from her. She had so far refused to speak, yet did as asked.

With a split moment of blinding the darkness with the LEDs, the girls blinked, and with a 'Click' they could see.

The warm glow of the light lit their bunker, and seemed so unfitting. The darkness left in their sights, but festered in their bodies. Being able to see was practical, yet it didn't help with anything.

Venus spoke no words as she saw her three sisters. Talena had her arm still around Amoly and seemed reluctant to let go, while the baby sister leaned in for any comfort available.

Larota refused to speak still, she only looked down while her right hand held onto Talena's left. Venus' concern grew more, as she observed her.

Venus sighed and still said nothing, but placed a firm grip on Larota's shoulder. A prompt to be met, Larota reluctantly turned her gaze up to meet her big sister's eyes.

Venus saw too many things in her sister, yet she knew all of them. Larota's stare held an unorthodox icy fire, that burned to the very back of her mind. The frigid flames inside her could kill, and send anyone miles underground to their grave with one single look. It was toneless, and deadly. Her glare was aligned with a razored crinkle in the bitter scaley expression. Angry was an ignorant understatement.

Larota's eyes clashed with Venus' in the same way water did with fire, and yet neither of them said a word. But in her sister's eyes, Venus could see through. The solid barrier rougher than a slab of stone rock that was masking her sister, shielding her from any uncertainty, Venus saw through as if it was glass. It was the anger, the bitterness, and the cold-hearted nature to appear to anyone beyond them, was nothing more than her source of security.

In a silent and delicate act of reassurance, the corners of Venus' mouth rose, and she smiled in pain. And staring at her sister, soon, Larota's barrier, had cracked. Her barrier seemed as far to breaking as ever, but Venus found the fracture; she saw it in every sense.

As Larota's chest seemed to choke her, she blinked, and Venus brought her hand, and brushed away the smallest tear above her sister's cheek. As soon as it had appeared, it was gone. There was no reminisce left of wetness below Larota's eyes, and Venus welcomed it as her sister sighed and rested her head atop her shoulder.

Her smile had flattened shortly after, but the struggle in her face in a moment of her inner pain had been worth it. She let her sister rest as she seemed to be catching her breath, and looked again at the youngests.

Amoly's eyes were closed, but was far from asleep, as Talena had pulled her into a sideways hug. Venus met Talena's eyes quickly, but just as soon did Talena turn away. Venus gently took her hand when she reached out.

Unconsciously, Talena returned her gaze. To Venus her younger sister's eyes seemed more of a window to peer into the turning gears of her mind, that now seemed somehow rusted and unmovable.

She gently squeezed Talena's hand, and Talena responded with a silent thank you, while her lips moved but made no sound.

Venus smiled again, while she spoke in only the smallest whisper.

"It'll be okay."

For now she chose to believe that would be true, as she herself felt reassured when she heard three distinct hums of acknowledgement.

For now, they sat together in the quiet that had resumed. She leaned her head back and her smile fell again. She tried to steady her breathing and silence it, and in a moment unlike herself, she crossed her fingers and wished she hadn't lied.

(Buzzz…)

A vibrative hum of their small light inside, it wasn't silent. Their hyper gasps of air intake, in an attempt to stay calm, were constant, and consistently heavy.

(BOOM)

As it happened again, the ground shook in anger, and each of the sisters flinched. The explosions had only gotten louder, more constant. Again and again, did their ears ring the same, and their hearts thumped feverishly.

(BANG BANG) (BANG BANG)

Encouraged with the explosive rumbles, came the incessant addition of gunfire. The sisters flinched all the same. It was never in pattern. One would come, then leave. One would leave and then come again before being accompanied by the next, but it was never in a pattern. It only made it harder.

Harder to hide; harder to feel as if their whole world could be being tarnished and torched above and yet all they could do was sit still. Someone wanted into their home, and their thoughts feasted on their minds as they could do nothing more than wonder who.

Venus held her breath, and released it in an attempt for a silent gasp that wasn't quiet. It seemed as if it was all she could do, breathe in, and breathe out, the matter of how she did it by this point she cared nothing of, as long as she could keep breathing, it kept her from sobbing.

Less of which she knew could be said of her youngest sister. Amoly seemed to have lost against her own internal battle, and reduced herself to heavy tears in the midst of her quiet crying. After the first set of bullets had been heard, Amoly seemed to have succumbed to her fears.

Talena had been trying to reassure her sister in the most impossible circumstance, and Venus was ever grateful she never let go of the youngest.

"Shhh, it'll be ok. We're all going to be ok. Shhh, you're fine, we're fine." Talena spoke only whisps, of anything she could ever come up with. She could feel the tenseness in her chest as her body trembled in coherence with Amoly's cries.

"I'm fine…" Talena's glossy eyes finally leaked, and the broken tears fell from her cheeks. She felt Amoly tighten their hug, and she responded the same.

As Venus saw she offered comfort, it seemed as if she couldn't believe her own words.

Venus turned her head again, and couldn't take in the sight more. She breathed in through her nostrils in an aggressive haste and was honestly glad they hadn't bled.

(BANG)

Venus turned back, as she saw Larota crumbled into her knees. The pounding she had done against her toned legs, had not held enough volume to pass beyond their bunker, but it worried her just as much. Venus felt empathetic eyes fall to her immediate younger sister, and she quickly grabbed her hand within her own. Whether to comfort her or take the blunt form of the strength of her sorrow, Venus didn't care, but she knew now she wouldn't let go.

When Larota's head came from her knees, and lunged back against the wall with agony, Venus gripped tighter. Her sister let out a rigid gasp, but seemed to have settled ever so slightly from her movements. Venus was grateful for which. Her sister was forever one prone to be put into action by others, or herself, and never worked well in still restraint. Her many workout heavy bags took some of the worst blows from her moments in her years of anger and rage, and the dented walls of their metal bunker seemed to have taken only some.

Venus' mind flashed in an instant of how Larota, had nearly broken the covering to the mounted light in their bunker in a hasted strike, only to feel immense regret when Amoly panicked about losing the only literal warmth in their confinement. As that happened, Amoly had cried, and Talena quickly covered her mouth in a split second of immediate fear, while Larota leaned back with remorse.

Venus was pulled to her forefront, and observed her sisters again, and saw that what happened in that one moment, seemed to be a defining picture of the painful times as they sat by, but not watched.

Venus hated it. Her sisters seemed in shambles, and Venus knew if she had any stability left in herself, it was thinning like hairs she didn't have.

It was all wrong. They weren't supposed to be like this, they weren't supposed to act this way, she wasn't supposed to act this way, nor sit back and watch as her sisters shattered from the inside out in front of her.

It wasn't right. They had a plan. A plan that must have almost nearly been forgotten, but one that seemed it would have held true to its purpose, had it been given a chance.

Their mother wasn't supposed to leave them.

They were never meant to be apart from her, as their evacuation plan had been as clear as if it was print, that they shouldn't separate. But Venus knew their mother only thought of in their best interests. She made it clear in her own ways that she seemed to be forming a different plan. Venus became worried more as she realized that thought.

She had never felt so unmovable, but so ready to spring up on a second's notice, all at the same time.

(BOOM)

(BANG) (BANG)

(BANG BANG BANG) (BANG BANG BANG)

"Move around the perimeter! Destroy every last thing here if you must!"

That was the first time they heard a voice. It was female, but not their mother's. This voice held an unsettling power behind it, a force strong, but ill-willed. But as the very time they heard the shout, they could hear it in that callose voice. Fear? A fear of failure, as if nothing could be done unless it was done correctly. A smallest hint of worry in the voice of a failure, to perhaps a higher power?

"Do as you will, but he wants them alive!"

A whimper had escaped from Amoly in abundance, and Talena in the quiet. Larota's grip in Venus' hand only reaffirmed and tightened.

Them…

It was a haunting word. One that brought the sisters nothing but horrible thoughts as they realized what "them" would have meant.

(BANG BANG) (BANG BANG)

"Ahh! Bitch!"

"Karai, there's someone here!"

They were jagged male voices the sisters couldn't help but hear. It was obvious they were screaming.

"Ahh!"

(BANG)

"Urghh!"

(BANG BANG)

"AHHH!"

(BANG)

(BANG)

"Ahh!"

That last voice…

The sisters simultaneously clenched, as a panicked choke of air escaped them all. Their mother, that was her voice. Something was happening.

(BANG BANG)

Something horrible, dangerous, frightening, and… deadly.

In almost as if it was a final moment, one of the sisters jumped up to move towards the bunker doors.

Venus caught her sister around her torso and pulled her back. "Lara, NO!"

"No Vee! Larota, had lost any remaining patience. "There's gunfire, there's explosions, there's screams of pain happening, out there! We can't just sit here! I'm not gonna just sit here and wait for one of those cries of agony to be Mama's!"

"We promised her!" Venus heard the desperation in Larota's voice, but remembered the begging pain in her mother's seemingly long before.

"I will be back, but girls, please you have to stay here and you have to stay quiet. Please, please trust me. Please promise me you'll stay here."

"No!"

Venus focused again on her argumentative sister.

"We can't just sit on our useless asses!" Larota had to wear down her sister. "We can get out, protect each other, AND Mama! What, what if she's…" She silenced herself and didn't dare even finish that thought.

Venus had sniffled again, and begged her hardest to her inner self to not let her tears slide.

"Vee!" Amoly had choked back enough of her pained tears, to put herself in their conversation. "PLEASE!"

Venus let out a broken breath, and despised the tear on her cheek. "I… I can't! We promised her!" Venus had forever been fateful in their mother, just as her sisters, but her crushing desire to see her unharmed, had begun to take its toll.

"Please, please trust me."

They did trust her. She trusted her… but…

(BANG BANG)

"We just nodded! And I'm sure she would understand!" Talena couldn't take the suffocation of the unknown.

(BANG)

(BOOM)

(BANG BANG BANG)

"PLEASE!"

"FIVE MINUTES!" Venus couldn't take it. "Please, we're all very upset right now, going out right now wouldn't do us or Mama any good! Please, just give it five minutes!"

Her three sisters stared at Venus. They realized she had been festering in her own mind for too long. She looked broken, and they felt they could do nothing real to help her. She was scared.

But, without any further argument, they agreed.

Larota squeezed her sister's hand, but for her this time. "Five."

Talena and Amoly had scooted as close as their large bodies and bulky shells would let them, and came to their sister. "Five." "We'll be ready in five."

Venus let out the breath she was holding in her tight chest, as two more tears trickled down her cheeks, before she used her free hand and pushed them away. She tried to think through her breathing again, and tried to focus herself.

Larota, Talena, and Amoly, held her. One way or another, they came into contact with their big sister, and used their touch for consoling, as what they could hope for now was their mother's complete understanding of the choice they were about to make.

It was for Venus' sake.