They lied… That’s what the report wanted to say. They lied to us.

I shutter my disbelief, hands trembling as I try to hold my grip. The dark, the oh-so-dark void was my world; my mind.

There’s always a lie; always a ruse.

I was born into it within this pit. To say I hadn’t suspected it would be to pull the wool over my eyes once again.

Yet for it to take this opposite form… what one would say? 

For a hundred years, we’ve blissfully lived in ignorance. For a hundred years, we’ve— I’ve spared loved ones the cruelty of this world so they could forever dream of a better tomorrow.

Now, what do I do?

After all I’ve done. After all I’ve failed to give.

What do I say? That they were right?

That she was right?

Perhaps this was punishment. Perhaps I’ve lived so long for this one moment; to see my punishment fulfilled. A divine gag scorning long-believed superstitions.

But what could I have done?

Whereas those in the other make-believe bunkers would be rushing out and blaming whoever forced this twisted farce onto us, I had nothing to do and no one to blame; not with what I’ve done.

It was only one shot… one life to save.

No matter what I do. No matter what I say. There’s nothing to atone for these sins. These sins that reduced the sins of those who lied to nothing.

So, at the end of my long-lived life, I grasp for the dirt beneath my feet and rest beside her. She was still here.

Long gone she might have been, but she was still beside me. I wonder what would she think now after all this time.

But what does it all matter to now?

I bury these thoughts and sleep, alone in this tomb that was my home; my world.