Teresa

It has been three months since Teresa started her watch in the cell tower, replacing her fellow technician.

For the first two weeks on duty, things were running smooth as usual, just like each six-week long stints she had in her years of experience as a cell tower technician.

She would talk to the leader of her settlement every two days to inform him of her situation or her leader asking if she needs materials for repairs in case something broke down in the tower.

Her settlement currently owns and operates five cell towers.

From cell tower 0, which is at the settlement center, are two towers extending to the west, namely towers 1 and 3, and two towers extending to the east, namely towers 2 and 4.

These towers, having a signal range of 50 kilometers, are therefore spaced at 50 kilometers apart.

She is currently at cell tower 2, which is the nearest eastern tower, and is 50 kilometers from the settlement tower, and the next eastern tower, tower 4, is 100 kilometers away from the settlement.

These two towers are the pathway of the settlement to communicate to the neighboring settlement to the east.

One day in her third week of duty, she received a call from her leader, which informed her of a monster attack on the settlement. From what she could surmise from her leader's voice, the monster attack was much more serious than usual.

Unfortunately, before she could have a whole picture of the situation, something happened that caused her leader to end the call prematurely.

She had not heard from her leader, or anyone else from her camp ever since.

She thought that she would soon receive a call informing her that the crisis is over, but after two weeks, at the day she was supposed to be replaced in the tower, she still did not receive a single call.

It is not only her that was worried, as she received calls from tower 4's technician multiple times a day asking updates about the situation.

She was prevented to assume the worst when she could still see activity in the control room, meaning that there are still one or two people in her settlement using cellphones; exchanging calls and messages with the eastern neighbors.

Thankful and guilty that she was cooped up in a safe place, unlike her fellow settlers fighting for their lives, she decided to stick it out for as long as possible and concentrate on her job and send continuous distress signals and calls to the eastern neighbors.

There was still plenty of supplies too, especially when she decided to immediately cut down her consumption after the phone call with her leader.

One more month passed by however without a rescue, a supply delivery, a visit, a call, or even a text message.

The optimism she held was running thin.

Her fellow technician she had been communicating with has also stopped calling, and her calls to him became unanswered.

The activity in the cell tower too had dramatically decreased and the communication was no longer two-sided. The calls from her and her settlement were no longer reciprocated by their neighbor camps.

This made her fear one thing.

Tower 4 had gone dark.

She refused to believe that tower 4's technician abandoned his important post at such critical time which led her to believe that her fellow technician, who was cooped up longer than she did in her own tower, has died; resulting to the loss of communication between the settlement and the eastern neighbors.

This also meant something else.

Her keeping the tower working has lost some of its meaning, its purpose became limited to provide phone signal within only 50 kilometers of her tower's radius.

One more month had passed, and during it, she had lost all hope.

The cell activity from her settlement had all but disappeared.

The fuel powering the tower have also run out, and she had no choice but to resort to her electricity ability to maintain the power.

Her power however was not without cost.

She had to finally increase her food and water consumption once again to in turn fuel her electric ability.

It did not take long before her food and drinking water ran out.

Due to starvation and thirst, she could only spend most of her time sleeping and would only wake up when the tower loses power.

Her starvation and thirst also started messing with her mind.

Every once in a while, she would dream, or even hallucinate that the tower phone was ringing and the alarms sounding.

That would make her excited, then immediately disappointed that it was all a product of her imagination.

She had quickly adapted to the dreams and hallucinations and learned to ignore them until they passed.

Today however, is different.

She heard the phone ring, and when it did not pass, hope and excitement she had lost all comes rushing back.

She pushes herself off her sleeping mat and rushes to the telephone and "Hello?!", excitedly picks up the handset.

"Hello. Who am I speaking to?" A weak voice answers.

"Teresa! Teresa Hill! Who am I speaking to?" She asks, her grip on the phone tightening.

"Oh… Teresa. It's Shaun." Shaun informs.

While his friendly tone has become friendlier, there is still a lack of energy in his voice.

"Shaun!" Teresa exclaims, pleasantly surprised.

Shaun after all, is her fellow cell tower technician.

"I-." She is about to ask something, but Shaun interrupts her.

"Teresa… Everyone's dead."

"Wha…" Teresa deflates at the news.

"Yeah…" Shaun sighs.

"I-I see…" Teresa weakly says, slowly collapsing to her knees, and leaning to the wall.

"…" Shaun, hearing the tremble in Teresa's voice, sympathizes and gives the woman the time to process.

Teresa tries her best not burst in to tears.

The worry she held for over two months finally being addressed with the worst news she could possibly imagine, makes her efforts painful.

Ultimately, after composing herself for a minute, she succeeds holding back her tears and puts a lid on her emotions with a deep breath.

"How are you still alive?" She manages to ask Shaun.

"No offense." She adds.

"I was on my duty at tower 1, Teresa…" Shaun starts telling her of his situation.

Just like Teresa, Shaun too, was cooped up in his tower for three months. When he ran out of fuel to power his tower, and food and water to sustain himself, he forced himself to go back to the settlement, only to find it destroyed.

"I got lucky making it back from my tower alone, but... I wasn't lucky enough." Shaun continues.

"What do you mean, Shaun?" Teresa asks in worry.

"On the way, I had to fight a few monsters, and got some injuries in the process. I was hoping that a doctor was still alive, but… you know… Anyway, I don't think I'll last a few more days untreated like this." He informs her.

"…" Teresa is speechless, and the final threads of hope in returning home draining away.

"I'm sorry, Teresa. Even if I'm healthy, the east of the settlement is more dangerous than the west, so I don't think I would make it to where you are.

"I also saw bodies, or what's left of them, the people sent by New Hope. They dropped by my tower on the way to the camp. I didn't think that was the first and the last time I saw them alive. I don't think I can look for anyone for help." He manages to apologize while attempting to express himself.

"What now?" Teresa does not know what else to say, her voice trembling in defeat.

"I don't know, Teresa. While there is food and water still left here, the place is overrun with monsters. Giant uhh, mountain lion monsters the size of fuckin pick-up trucks. It's a wonder that our settlement lasted more than a few days." Shaun says.

"So, you're telling me not to go back?" Teresa asks.

"Yeah. You know my power, right? But even then, I don't think I'll be able to sneak myself out of here." Shaun bitterly says.

"And. Trust me, Teresa…" Teresa hears his voice waver.

"You'd better off not see whatever is left here." He concludes.

"…" Teresa shakes her head, her mind imagining the worst.

"You've probably resorted to your powers to keep the tower on?" Shaun asks, distracting Teresa from her thoughts.

"Y-yeah." Teresa confirms.

"After this call, turn off your tower. If you want to survive, you'll need the energy." Shaun can only advise.

"Okay…" Teresa deeply sighs, not sure anymore if she wants to live, or just starve herself to death.

She has never believed in after life, but after everything that happened, she is tempted to believe in it. She is tempted to think that her family and friends have moved on in the afterlife, and she wants to follow them. After all, she no longer has a home to go back to.

"Teresa, you still there?" Shaun pulls her out of her thoughts once again.

"Yes. Sorry. I just don't know what else to do." Teresa answers.