Three days later—
The dim light of the moon penetrated through the lush yet barely alive branches of leaves of the forest, casting cold, silver beams over the sisters. Olivia's frail form was hunched over Krista, her hands trembling as they clutched her sister's lifelessly cold one.
For days now, Olivia had been on the edge of desperation, each passing hour draining more of her strength and resolve.
The duffle bag lay discarded nearby, its contents long consumed. Three bags of MREs had provided only fleeting relief from the gnawing hunger, their tasteless, chalky remnants hardly enough to sustain her. Two bottles of water had been rationed with precision, each sip a small rebellion against the encroaching desert of her throat. But precision hadn't been enough—not against days of helpless waiting.
Now, there was nothing left.
Olivia cradled Krista's head in her lap, her own body weak, shaking, and on the verge of collapse. Her stomach churned with painful, hollow cramps that twisted like coiled snakes, while her head throbbed incessantly, as though her skull were being squeezed in a vice. Her vision blurred and darkened at the edges, and every breath felt like dragging air through shards of glass.
Her lips cracked and bled when she whispered Krista's name. "Please… Please wake up…"
Krista, who had always been invincible in Olivia's eyes, looked anything but now. Her face was pale to the point of translucency, her lips tinged with a faint blue hue.
Her chest barely rose and fell, her breath shallow and erratic. The stab wound in her abdomen had slowed its bleeding days ago, but it wasn't healing. Olivia knew it wasn't healing.
Every day that Krista clung to life only deepened Olivia's torment. Watching her sister suffer, unable to die yet unable to truly live, was a slow, soul-rending torture.
"I… I can't do this, sis," Olivia whispered, her voice cracking under the weight of her anguish. Tears streaked down her sunken cheeks as she rocked Krista gently, her fingers brushing over her sister's sweat-matted hair. "I can't keep watching you like this… It hurts so much. Why won't you wake up?"
Her sobs filled the room, echoing off the empty walls like a haunting melody of despair. Olivia was no stranger to hopelessness—she had lived with it since the accident that robbed her of her legs. But this… This was a new level of helplessness. A new level of pain.
Her body screamed for sustenance. Her throat was so dry she could no longer cry out, and the hunger gnawed at her insides like a relentless predator.
The dizziness had become a constant companion, her head spinning even as she sat still. And yet, she refused to let go of Krista.
By the fifth day, Olivia's resolve began to crumble. The world around her was a blurry, unfocused haze, and the sound of her own heartbeat thudded loud and erratic in her ears.
She stared at Krista's face, still beautiful even in its broken state, and wondered how much longer she could hold on.
"How…" Olivia croaked, her voice barely audible. She leaned forward, her forehead resting against Krista's cold cheek. "How are you still alive? Why are you still fighting when I… I can't even—" Her breath hitched, and she pulled back, her tears falling onto Krista's unmoving face. "I don't want to lose you…"
But the cruelty of reality was relentless. On the sixth day, the hunger and thirst reached a crescendo.
Olivia's body felt like a hollow shell, her muscles trembling with every strained movement. She tried to slow her breathing, desperate to conserve what little strength remained. Every inhale felt like her last, her chest tightening as she fought the overwhelming urge to give in.
"I can't… I can't do this anymore…" she murmured, her voice cracking like brittle glass. Her hands clutched at Krista's shirt, her knuckles white as her tears dried on her cheeks. "I'm sorry, Krista. I tried. I really tried…"
As night fell, the cold seeped into her bones, robbing her of even the faintest warmth. Olivia's body finally gave out, her head lolling forward as unconsciousness claimed her. She slumped over Krista, her frail form collapsing onto her sister's bloodied chest.
Krista's eyelids fluttered open hours later, her vision swimming in and out of focus. The world around her was a blur of muted colors and shapes, her mind foggy and disoriented.
Her body screamed in protest as she tried to move, every nerve aflame with pain.
Her gaze fell on Olivia, who was still slumped over her. The sight of her sister's lifeless form sent a jolt of panic through Krista's sluggish mind.
She strained to lift her arm, her fingers brushing weakly against Olivia's face.
"L-Liv…" Krista's voice was barely more than a whisper, raspy and broken.
She tried to speak again, but her strength failed her, and her arm fell limply back to her side.
Her mind raced, desperate to understand what was happening. Olivia's cheeks were hollow, her skin ashen, her body unnervingly still.
Krista's heart ached with a deep, primal fear—a fear she hadn't felt since the day of the accident that had taken Olivia's legs.
"Don't you die on me…" Krista wanted to scream, but the words wouldn't come.
Her body refused to obey her, and darkness crept back into the edges of her vision. She blinked slowly, her tears mingling with the blood and grime on her face.
As consciousness slipped away once more, Krista's last thought was of Olivia. The sister she had fought so hard to protect. The sister she had failed.
And in the cold, suffocating silence of the seventh day, the only sound was the faint, uneven rhythm of two hearts fighting against the inevitable.
Three days later—
The world was a spinning, incoherent blur of darkness and light. Krista's body ached, her head throbbed with relentless pain, and her throat was so parched it felt as if it had been scoured by sandpaper.
She lay sprawled in Olivia's lap, her limbs limp and unresponsive. Her thoughts moved sluggishly, like molasses, but one desperate need pierced through the fog: water.
Her lips cracked as they moved soundlessly, her mind screaming the word she couldn't muster the strength to say. Water. It consumed her thoughts entirely, a singular obsession born of survival and agony.
Her eyes fluttered open and shut, the dim light around her flickering like a faulty bulb as she drifted in and out of consciousness.
Her vision blurred into shapes and colors that she couldn't focus on. Then, suddenly, something shifted.
Krista's mind filled with an absurd image—a search bar floating in front of her eyes, the stark white text field beckoning her. Without hesitation, her mind conjured the word: water.
Instantly, the search bar populated with images. Rows upon rows of bottled water, pristine and glistening as though pulled straight from an advertisement. The brands felt familiar—Aquafina, Dasani, Evian—each presented with a crisp, perfect label.
It was absurd, impossible, and yet her desperation allowed her to indulge in the fantasy. Her vision panned downward as if she could scroll through the page, and to her astonishment, she could.
Her thumb twitched against her limp hand, and the motion mirrored itself in her hallucination. The page scrolled, revealing more bottles, more brands, more salvation.
A weak, delirious chuckle escaped her dry, cracked lips. It was all so ridiculous—this phantom online store taunting her with the very thing she needed to survive.
"This can't be real…" she rasped, her voice barely audible.
But even as she doubted, her mind clung to the image of a large bottle of Aquafina. Her vision hovered over it, and her delirious brain mimicked the motion of clicking "purchase." She didn't question how or why this was happening. Her thoughts were too scattered to make sense of it, and her body was too weak to resist.
As the Aquafina bottle disappeared, a new image took its place: a box of Quest protein bars. Her stomach growled faintly, a sharp pain twisting in her gut.
It was as if her body, deprived and nearing collapse, had found its cruel way of entertaining her—a last show before the curtains fell. Her lips twitched into a faint smile as she stared at the product image. "Sure… why not…" she murmured.
Then her vision dimmed, and her head slumped to the side as she sank into unconsciousness once again.
…
It couldn't have been more than a few seconds before Krista jolted awake, a sharp pressure against her skin pulling her from the void.
Her breath hitched as her eyes fluttered open, and there it was: the same large bottle of Aquafina from her hallucination, cool and solid against her arm.
Her mind reeled, struggling to comprehend. "No… no way…" she whispered, her voice hoarse and cracked.
Trembling, she reached out to grab the bottle. Her fingers closed around it, and the sensation was too vivid, too real. The cold plastic, the faint condensation on its surface—it wasn't a mirage. It couldn't be.
Her shaking hands fumbled with the cap, twisting it open with weak, uneven jerks. The moment it came loose, Krista brought the bottle to her lips, tilting it upward in a frantic gulp.
The water was icy, crisp, and more refreshing than anything she'd ever experienced. It slid down her throat, quenching the fire within her.
The relief brought tears to her eyes, though she was too weak to sob. Her body screamed for more, but something else demanded her attention. Olivia.
Krista turned her gaze to her sister, whose face was pale and still. She gently tilted Olivia's head back, pried her lips open, and poured a small stream of water into her mouth.
When Olivia didn't react immediately, panic gripped Krista's chest. "Come on… come on…" she whispered, her voice shaky.
A faint movement—a swallow. Then another. Slowly, Olivia's eyes fluttered open, though they barely managed to focus. Relief coursed through Krista as she offered her sister another sip.
"It's okay… just drink…" Krista murmured, though she wasn't sure if she was reassuring Olivia or herself.
As she shifted to better support Olivia's head, her hand brushed against something. A box. She glanced down, her breath hitching in disbelief. There it was: the Quest protein bars from her hallucination, tangible and undeniably real.
Krista stared at the box, her mind struggling to reconcile reality with the impossibility before her. How…?
Her stomach growled again, pulling her out of her daze. With a shaking hand, she tore the box open, pulled out a bar, and unwrapped it. The faint smell of chocolate wafted up to her nose, too vivid to be anything but real. She broke off a small piece and brought it to Olivia's lips. "Eat, Liv… please…"
Olivia's lips moved sluggishly, her teeth barely managing to chew, but she swallowed the morsel with visible effort. Krista gave her more, bit by bit, until Olivia's faint strength began to return.
Then Krista hesitated, her curiosity overcoming her hunger. She unwrapped a bar for herself, biting into it cautiously. The taste exploded on her tongue—rich, sweet, and unmistakably real.
"This… this is real…" she whispered, tears spilling from her eyes as she devoured the bar with frantic hunger.
The sisters consumed the entire box, alternating bites, their bodies greedily taking in the nourishment they had been starved of for days. They passed the water bottle back and forth until it was empty, leaving them both sated and trembling with relief.
As exhaustion claimed them once more, Krista laid her head against Olivia's shoulder, her mind spinning with confusion and gratitude. For the first time in days, they slept—not in fear or despair, but with the faint hope that they might live to see another day.