4338.206 · July 25, 2018 AD
Everything You Have
The reversing truck brings cement and hope in equal measure — the first real evidence that building something here might be possible. Then Luke extends his hand and asks for everything. Paul's instinct is to comply. Then he thinks of Claire counting coins, of Mack needing new boots, of Rose's dance lessons. His hand pulls back. Some surrenders cost more than survival.
The sound is impossible — a vehicle reversing through a Portal that opens in someone's study wall. But impossibility has become routine, and when Luke's truck emerges loaded with cement and tools and everything on Paul's carefully considered list, the Drop Zone suddenly feels less like lines in the dirt and more like the foundation of something real.
Then comes the request that shatters the moment. Wallets. Bank details. Everything.
Jamie surrenders his without argument — what use is money in a world without shops? But Paul's hand closes around his wallet with a protectiveness that surprises even him. Those accounts still connect to Claire. That money still feeds his children. Handing it over feels less like practicality and more like severing the last thread that makes him a father rather than an exile.
He watches Luke and Jamie kiss like the world is ending. He watches Luke step through the Portal and vanish. He watches Jamie walk away with grief written across every line of his body. Then, alone in the silence, Paul begins unloading cement bags with the careful precision of a man building a future he isn't sure will arrive. When, not if. He corrects himself. When.
