When the world ended, who was I? I didn't think I'd ever quite grasp that understanding, for the world, as we knew it, was on the brink of collapse. My eyes drifted up toward the stars that littered the sky like annoying pests; a small chuckle escaped my throat.

"Tom, Jen, Noah - hell - even Malcolm is dead. Who would have thought the government were evil, corrupt, dickbags?" A small stream of tears flowed down my right eye, my curly eyelashes sticking together. "Is there even a point anymore? What use is fighting when literal Gods toy with our lives?"

"Shut it, Lu! Some of us are trying to keep up the good fight. Just because everyone you knew and loved are dead, doesn't mean you can quit on us." A woman with short stature, maybe 5'6", kicked me in my calf. "I don't get how 'humanity's strongest soldier' can just give up this easily."

I bit my lip, a shout of every curse I knew filtered through my mind. "Shut the fuck up, K; if you really cared about me - or anyone else on the front lines - you wouldn't be such a bitch."

What looked like anger burst through her Silver eyes which contrasted with her tan skin. "Lu, I don't care what you feel; you can't just go around acting like you're the only one who's lost something in this fight! Pull this crap again and I'll kick your ass - consequences be damned."

I turned on the balcony, smoke pouring out my mouth, the rough taste of nicotine lilting up my throat. "Why do you even care? It's not like you've lost anyone. Oh, is the posh rich girl trying to fit in where she doesn't belong? Tuff luck trying to be one of us when the most your life ever amounted to was spending daddy's money."

My jaw clenched, ready for any punch she threw towards me, yet nothing came. It was almost as if everything froze, and I would have believed as such if a gust of wind didn't waft through the glistening moonlight, shoving away the woman's wavy hair.

I eyed her still form. "What, the cat got the spoiled girl's tongue. Maybe, just maybe, you'll get it through that thick skull of yours: we don't need you here. Hell, everyone in this squad knows you're only here for your dad to keep face. If he really ca-"

A dull pain shot through my face as I slowly twisted my face back towards K; the metallic taste of blood, I'd become all too accustomed to, flooded through my mouth. "If you don't shut. The. Fuck. UP…" Her words hung though the air as my eyes watched her, wide.

It was at that moment that the troops I had spent my entire "New-life" with exploded out the door they hid behind, yet I paid that no mind as Kala glared at me with a ferocity that sent tremors through my spine; her eyes filled with something indescribable - not quite angry despair, but something just as earth shattering.

"If I ever hear you say shit like that again, I won't stop at just a punch." With that, she spun around, her body almost absorbing the moonlight. "It doesn't matter if you just lost someone on that battlefield; you hold no right saying what you did." With that, she began her trek into the foyer we called home.

It was almost funny - in a sense, both me and her were cut from the same cloth, we both held a distinct advantage that the surviving humans deemed gifts. If one were to take into account my gift basically allowing to cheat this apocalyptic mess, maybe we were one in the same - her money allowing that same advantage-, yet that was nowhere near the case. At the end of the day, everything she ever had was given to her of a golden platter; I had to work and die for what I held.

"Come on, Lu. Why are you like this? All you're doing is pushing her away." A boy - 19 - sighed. "What's the point with all this meaningless bickering?"

My nose scrunched. "Maybe you'll understand it someday, private, but there is a point to it. She thinks she can come in here on her father's dime and boss us around when she hasn't even taken a life: She's an inexperienced, disillusioned, little girl."

The private's eyes wrinkled as a frown became evident on his face. "I don't think you hold the right to judge others solely based on your innate biases; I could care less about any beef you and K have, but I don't think you can go out and push the woman's buttons like that. I respect you, Lu, but what you're doing isn't right."

I bit my lip. "What do you know about right and wrong? Not like any of this will matter, anyways; it's not like you, or anyone else, will remember this by the end of the day."

The young man held back what I could only assume to be anger. "I didn't believe a single word anyone had said about you, yet I can't tell the difference between their stories and the real you anymore. Good night, captain; I hope you can live with everything you've said after we kill those bastards."

Watching the priva- no - Thomas' back turn, I shook my head; I wasn't lying when I said that none of this would matter. It made no difference, anyway. "Huu, is this how it'll always be? I go though a repeated loop until I fail to reach perfection?" My hands clenched the railing to the left of me, the gentle breeze flowing past the metal picnic tables. "What's the fucking point!"

With that, the world paused, it was almost as if time, the thing I was all too familiar with, had stopped. The dead birds that somehow continued to soar through the sky just froze mid-flight, and the sound of the howling night halted.

"Is this, really, how you choose to see my power?" Complete and utter silence broke through the soft, serein voice that seemed to calm my soul. "A simple blight on your person that you can't escape? A curse?"

I gulped. "I don't know what the fuck your talking about, but I do know this. This power I have is nothing but a siren's call; it tempts you with lulls and promises, only to drown you when the tide moves in. It is utter insanity."

A soft, loving sigh ran through the field. "You speak as if the world is black and white; power is more than a way to protect and destroy, just like the power of repetition is more than a curse or boon: it is a responsibility that people like you burden."

My hands began shaking - it was as if my body had began to catch up with the reality: this was a God. "You don't seem to understand: in any given situation, anyone with this power will fall to the weight. In simple terminology, I am Atlas carrying the world, and it'll be the same for anyone else, no matter the different slots one pieces into the distorted puzzle."

For a brief second, a thought entered my mind: Why was I speaking like some philosophy major? "If you really think that is the case, my child, why don't we propose a bet?"

"Oh, and what would that be," the sarcasm seemed to ooze out of my mouth. "Oh So Great-One!"

The being beyond my comprehension smirked. "I bet that, someone with a guide to this power could help change the course of your "conclusion"."

A click left my mouth. "Ha, you really think you can make such an absurd statement and expect me to believe it? For all I know, I'm already dead, and this is just my mind's way of copping with that fact - creating an all-knowing being to BS with me."

"Will you quit your insufferable whining?!" The groan was crystal clear. "You say this and that, but let me ask you a question: So - fucking - what? Let's take for a moment you are dead, and you somehow forgot the moment's leading up towards your death - so? You act like any of this would matter in the possibility that this is death. You'd be dead, and thus, in no hurry to leave off toward where the reaper shall take you. What's the worst that could happen: I'm right?"

I spat towards this being's foot, it's image nothing but a blank vestige that felt all to complex to understand. "Fine, I'll accept your bet, but in the case of me winning, I wish for you to throw me back to the beginning once more with the power to actually change everything, not some far fetched, bogus curse."

Even though I couldn't comprehend this being, I could almost feel the sadistic smile. "Good, I can't wait for me to be proven right, and you find yourself in extinction. Have fun, for if you don't attempt to be the mentor, I will annihilate everyone you've ever known and make you watch as I do so. Have fun sitting on the sidelines as someone else does what you could never: win."

With that, everything went dark, and it was almost as if existence was warping in on itself...