Bah. I didn't want to post this so I wouldn't have to go looking for one (Lazy Karen, yes). But then I started digging and reading...
Anyway, this is the TE to Meredith's
All Stirred Up (link to TE).
And now... (Sorry it's so long, but it needed to be for the full effect)
The bunker had been hit by a chunk of melted debris.
It was buried.
He was buried.
Buried alive.
"No..."
He wasn't even aware that he was gibbering the denial, over and over as he frantically switched between monitors, hoping for a different view.
"No..."
He raised a fist and smashed it against the screens.
"No..."
He turned and began another, futile assault on the locked door. A door that would never open, buried as it was beneath debris.
"No..."
"No..."
His breath rose on a howl as he scrabbled uselessly at the metal and pounded on its surface.
"Nooooooooooo!!!!!!!!"
He thumped.
He hammered.
He screamed.
He cursed.
And, at last, his breath grew harsh in his throat and his words became a babble of terror and his voice the low, indeterminate growling of a trapped animal, as his fingers shredded themselves against the impervious plate of steel.
*********
Up on the surface, a small, shivering form approached the heavy metal door. The dog was more skin and bone than living animal, cadaverous as a living skeleton. It dropped to its haunches, staring sunken eyed and listless at the strange mound of debris, pricking nervous ears at the faint sounds of hammering coming from within.
Meat?
It craved meat.
It sniffed the air, half-heartedly. But there was no food smell coming from behind the metal plate.
It listened.
It waited.
After a time, it got bored. It scratched in an apathetic manner at one ragged, sore-covered ear before staggering painfully to its feet. It wandered over to the source of the sound and, cocking one leg, directed a thin, yellow stream of urine at the metal, before giving the resulting puddle a desultory sniff.
Then it trotted off into the ashes of the world, its nose twitching at the stench that permeated the soot-covered darkness.
