He lost track of time after drinking the glass of water that Ariana had brought him. The rhythm of metal against earth became hypnotic: lift, push, throw, breathe. The sun had crept higher, cooking the back of his neck, and he'd shed his shirt hours ago, tossing it over a rock nearby. His palms had blistered under the shovel's handle, painting it red just a little, the stings dulled only by dirt and sweat.
"Levi!"
The call snapped him out of his trance. He looked up, wiping his brow with the back of his arm, smearing more dirt on his face. Donna stood a few meters away, hands on her hips, her expression a mix of disbelief and annoyance. She wore her jacket loosely over her shoulders, her hair messy, just like the rest of the people in this place. Except Ariana's family.
Her dad was bald, so there was nothing there to keep clean and neat. But her mother and she, well, they at least hadn't abandoned that part of their life.
"You've been at this since sunrise," she said, stepping closer. "Khutri said you were building… what? A second bunker?"
"Something like that," Levi answered without stopping. His shovel hit the ground again with a dull thud. "A backup. With more exits." He finished with a groan. Donna exhaled slowly, crouching at the edge of the hole to get a better look.
"Why?" She asked.
"I just told-"
"No," She interrupted him, making him stop. "Why are you doing this? Give me the real reason." She insisted and Levi sighed. Getting out of the pit, he looked to the street to see the same man from his talk with Khutri walking aimlessly. "Look at him." Levi pointed.
Donna turned and did as he said, confused as to where he was going with this. "What?" She asked when Levi didn't say anything. Instead, "Look at her." He pointed again, but this time, to a young woman, just a little bit older than Levi and Ariana himself. Her posture, her eyes, hair, and clothes, all of it as if they were homeless.
"What are they doing?" He asked, and before Donna could say something. "Nothing. Nothing at all. The only differences between them and zombies are, one has a beating heart and blood flowing through their veins, and the other has none of that. Yet they behave the exact same way."
Something in Donna snapped, and as she was about to lash out at him, "Why aren't you the same as them?" He asked, and she went silent. "I'll tell you why."
"Because you gave yourself a purpose. You told yourself that you had to be there for the rest of them. Every morning, you go around and check up on everyone. The same goes for Father Khutri." He told her, walking up to the edge, that she had crouched.
"I'm not going to be one of them," Levi told her.
"I'm going to try every single thing that keeps me busy. I'll give my blood, tears, and sweat in this place for as long as I'm alive. I'm going to kill every single one of those creepy, smily creatures." He promised, and Donna scoffed.
"They can take a shotgun to the head, and the only thing that'll do is widen their smiles. What can you do?!" She shot back, and Levi grinned savagely. "Fine," he said, voice low and dangerous, the kind that didn't need to rise to be heard.
"If I can't kill all of them. I'll kill one of them. If I can't kill even one of them, I'll be the most annoying pest that they'll ever face in the history of this creepy, disgusting town. I'll wipe the smiles off their face. I can promise you that"
For a heartbeat, the air between them was brittle enough to snap. Donna's jaw worked. Her hands curled into fists at her sides. She looked like she might spit on the ground and walk away, angry, tired, and ready to maybe clock him on the head.
Then something small shifted in her face. Not forgiveness. Not even pity. Just recognition. She exhaled, hard enough to fog the little space between them.
"You think being loud and busy will stop the town from dying inside?" she asked, quieter now. "Maybe it'll work for a day. Maybe for a week." She stepped back a pace and folded her arms, not softening but not attacking either. "But you can't be the whole town, Levi. You trying to be a one-man army? That ends badly. For you."
Levi leaned the shovel against his shoulder and met her eyes. The flash of stubbornness in him was the same stubbornness she'd admired in her sister when she was alive. "Then so be it," he said. "I'll do what I have to do."
She watched him for a long second, letting the heat of the day find the sweat in the hollow between his collarbones. "You want volunteers?" she asked finally. "You want a pile of people to drag themselves through dirt when they haven't got the strength to strap on their boots?"
He swallowed hard what little of saliva he had. "No… You're right that they don't have the strength, so…" He grinned. "I'll show them with action. I'll give them strength. All they'll have to do is watch me."
Donna rubbed her forehead, the movement almost painfully maternal. "You give people a reason, Levi, and they ask you for more. They'll lean on you until you break." Her voice cracked a little at the edges. She was tired of breaking, too.
"If you're going to dig, you do it right. You don't go in and make a hole and hope it becomes salvation. You plan. You map. You pick the weakest soil and the least obvious path, and you make sure when you dig, it's something we can expand."
"Already have something like that planned out," Levi answered, and Donna nodded.
"Good, make sure the entrance can't be seen from the road, make a false mound of dirt to hide the excess. Use planks to shore up the sides so it doesn't collapse if someone walks on top of it during the day." She continued, and Levi nodded.
"You'll help?" He asked, hopefully. If he had another pair of hands, it would be much better and much faster. She shrugged, though her face softened in a way that was almost like acceptance. "I've got to make sure people don't off themselves. But when I get the time. Yes, I'll help. And I'll get a rotation together, two people a day to move dirt around to hide the dug site. You and I can't do it all alone," She straightened, folding her arms again. "On one condition."
"What?"
"You don't promise miracles. You don't tell people you'll save them. You start telling them what needs doing, and you ask for help. No bravado. No speeches."
Levi laughed, short, surprised, and then softer. "That sounds boring."
"Good," she snapped, but there was warmth in it now. "The world's terrifying. But boring is survivable."
A pair of footsteps crunched on the street as Khutri came toward them, carrying a small tarp and a roll of twine. He bent to look into the pit and gave a slow nod. "This will help keep it tidy and hidden," he said. "And some planks from the old shed will shore the walls at the corners."
"Good, I'll come and fetch it tomorrow," Levi told him. Khutri nodded, continuing, "Donna's right: we do this carefully, or it's useless."
Khutri passed Levi the tarp and the twine. "Start with a small chamber," he advised. "Not a house, something men can crawl through. If it holds, expand it. If it collapses, at least nobody dies trying to rescue someone."
With a nod, Levi continued digging, taking Khutri's help every half an hour, eating a protein bar and water to replenish whatever energy he had lost. But it wasn't just that; every time Khutri or Donna dug, Levi took a nap, then woke up on his turn.
For hours, they dug, until it was past 4 o'clock. The sun began to dip, and a small shadow crossed his field of vision.
"You're still at it."
Levi blinked up through strands of damp hair. Ariana stood there again, holding a canteen and a cloth. Her voice was lighter this time, but her eyes were searching until it went to his dried shit on a rock, then she glanced at him. Shirtless, dirty, and soaked in sweat. Her face turned into disgust just a little before Levi could catch her.
"Couldn't stop," he said with a small, tired smile. "It's either this or… well, nothing."
"Here." She presented another glass of water first, and he gulped it down like a very starved and thirsty man. Which he was. The cool water spilled down his chin just a little- "Here," came her voice again, exchanging the glass with a cloth.
"Thanks," Levi muttered, wiping his face as clean as he could, only to see dried blood on it. That's when his body reminded him of the pain and aches everywhere. Ariana, seeing the blood and the pain on his face, decided on something.
"Let's clean that up before it gets infected." She voiced, and Levi wiped on his pants, making her frown. "It's fine-"
"It's not fine. Come on." She insisted, not budging even a little, as Levi remained stubborn. But finally, he decided to accept her help. "Fine."