A Wake
3 days of waiting; 2 nights of crying-
Listless, lifeless drones, moving through their assigned tasks without any semblance of thought, feeling, or life. Sightless eyes stared straight ahead, unaware of the others moving around them, their movement a perfect dance of sequence.
And on the last night-
Deep inside their heads, away from everything else, hidden from the outside by thick walls of nothing, thoughts moved sluggishly. No words were spoken, but the thought was collective.
The world began to collapse-
Emotions stirred feebly, hidden for so long from the light that reflected from glossy eyes. The thoughts hidden from the world because the time demanded that it be so, demanded that slack mouths not move, for fear of disturbance.
Because it had been delivered-
Time, which had stood still for so long, began to move around them, sweeping up their bodies to carry the shells along, but in their hearts time was still a frozen crystal around that single, horrible moment.
The news and the thought as one had come together-
Despite the awakening and unknown emotions inside of them, they were tools, drones, worthless pieces of scrap that the Others employed. When they were useless, they would be discarded. It had happened before.
And the one needed the most would never come back-
It would happen again.
"He's gone…"
"I'm sorry."
"Gone…"