What happened next was a blur for Flick, but he distinctly remembered the taste of metal flooding his mouth and his body growing cold. That, and the sight of the woman, who stared vacantly through him as he crumpled onto the floor.

  It was only in the back of a medical truck when he realised the amount of blood he had lost in the scuffle with the bomber. Hazy visions of red bags flooding him with life through small tubes, machines that shrilled every passing second. According to the paramedics it was practically a miracle that he was even awake let alone able to walk to the site of a destroyed building.

  He couldn’t remember if Simon was there with him or not, but he could clearly see the woman out of the corner of his eyes. Splayed out on a stretcher, same as him.

  Fluorescent lights, muffled voices behind masks, cheap sheet fabric. All of a sudden here he was, in the lobby of a hospital with a neatly bandaged neck, sat next to the mysterious zombie girl.

  She looked to be about Flick’s age, but that was about all that he could tell from a glance as the rest of her appearance was painfully plain. Her hair was cut short and bobbed, dirty brown with hints of yellow in the harsh white lights of the lobby. She barely moved, save for the rise and fall of her chest as she breathed, and her eyes seemed glazed over as though painted on her face like a doll.

  The silence between them was palpable, not awkward, but still unbearable to someone as easily bored as Flick. He attempted to introduce himself but quickly remembered his specific medical instructions to not talk for at least a day to let his wound heal. The dull pain in his neck reminded him that the advice was probably sound.

  Instead, he scrambled over the table in the middle of the room for a pen and paper. He swiped a magazine from the far corner and scribbled on a page that was mostly clean of ink. He wrote out a simple sentence, as clear as he could, introducing himself and asking what her name was. Grinning, satisfied with his own genius idea, Flick proudly presented the message.

  However, he realised an issue. The girl wouldn’t turn to face him.

  Too woozy? He thought to himself,

  Unsure on how to get her attention without talking, he prodded at her shoulder gently. Her whole body gradually swayed to one side, showing no signs of stopping.

  Way too woozy!

  Flick gasped and quickly grabbed her, setting her back into neutral position before she could fall completely off the chair. He hummed to himself pensively, before finally deciding to try another method of getting her attention.

  Simon walked into the lobby to see Flick, who was crouched down in front of the woman and frantically waving the magazine in her face, in an attempt to get a reaction.

  Simon sighed, “Dude stop, she’s not gonna respond”

  He seemed like a completely different person from the one just hours before. Completely calm and composed, like Simons usual self. The opposite of the traumatised mess that was huddling over of a box for comfort.

  “She won’t respond for a while actually.” He continued.

  Flick scribbled down on his magazine and flipped it around to face Simon.

  “Uh- my name’s Simon yeah, and?” his eyes widened suddenly, “Oh, shit! Did you get a concussion from the fight?!”

  Flick quickly looked back at the magazine he showed to him. realising it was the side he wrote on earlier; he twisted the page around and showed what he was actually asking.

  Why?

  “Oh, right.” Simon took a breath of relief, “Well, since she’s fresh out of cryo-sleep it’ll still take a while for parts of her brain to unfreeze. Especially since she didn’t exactly wake up naturally”

  How is it even possible for someone to survive with part of their brain frozen?

  “Well, I don’t mean that parts of her brain are literally frozen Flick, frozen is just the term we use to describe the process...”

  Flick cocked his head to the side like a confused dog prompting Simon to continue

  “We use a chemical to put the whole body into hibernation essentially. We just call it freezing because of the final step, freezing the body to keep it fresh.

  “Anyway, since the brain is the most complex organ so it takes longer for all the chemicals to fully... disperse?”

  Unsatisfied Flick showed him the magazine again.

  How is it even possible for someone to survive with part of their brain frozen?

  “I dunno,” he shrugged nonchalantly, avoiding the question entirely, “human bodies are weird huh?”

  Simon moved across the room and picked up three bags; one named ‘Flicker Torchwood’ another named ‘Simon Wright’ and a much smaller bag with ‘Samantha’ written in big bold lettering.

  “Alright, these ones should be our belongings. Let’s get going before staff notices we’re here”

  Flick begrudgingly followed behind Simon out of the hospital, surprisingly so did the woman who moved quietly to his side.

  The three of them walked out onto the streets of the eastern district, making it the first time that Flick had ever been this close to the ‘upper-class’ side of the pillar, and unsurprisingly was taken aback by the incredibly large buildings that towered over them. The floors could practically reflect someone like a still puddle did, and the people that walked by them were equally as mint clean, rimmed with little soft glows from the jewels fixed to their bodies. Each was dressed in finely tailored suits and dresses, that either shone in spectacular colour or drained light from around them like tall walking shadows. There was an energy about the buildings around that Flick picked up on, the faint buzz he craved from the pillar centre’s infectious energy only slightly more focused. Like the difference between a winding river and a flowing stream, this side just had that feeling of peace and elegance he wasn’t used to, and even though he liked the energy around him something about it felt off, fake.

  Flick suddenly noticed that everyone was looking right at the trio from every angle, with more and more bystanders freezing in place to gawk at them. A ragged scientist, a living corpse, and a man with blood-soaked clothes and bandages tied about his neck. If there were any group of people worth staring at, they were probably near the higher end of the list.

  Simon quickly pushed Flick and the woman along, muttering quietly under his breath, “Alright come on, we’ve gotta get back home”

  Where? Flick held up his paper, which was quickly running out of space,

  Simon looked at Flick with a mischievous grin, “Well your place obviously, the science office was where I-“he shot a glance at the shambling woman beside him “we lived, so the only place we can go is yours”.

  Flick thought about trying to convince Miss Witcherton to let two more degenerates live in her home and shuddered at the thought. He scribbled furiously into his paper, frequently glaring back at Simon to make sure he knew he wasn’t happy.

  Why not your parents place?

  Simon frowned, “I’m not going back there Flick, end of conversation”

  Before Flick could ask why, a hospital worker stormed out of the building and snatched the magazine away from him, scolding him for ‘attempting to steal it’. Realising he couldn’t respond or explain himself any more he hung his head in shame and fear as they made their way to the old school where he lived.

  All the while Simon chuckled to himself, “Relax, I’m sure she’ll be over the moon to see us!”

  She wasn’t. However, after many hours of back and forth with Flick and a lot of loose paper, Miss Witcherton finally caved to letting them stay for a while, with the exception that Flick would be paying board for all of them. The following morning started out as it usually did, with the nightmares jolting him out of deep sleep. Peculiarly though, Witcherton didn’t burst through the door to force him out of the house like she always did, (even though it was a weekend and Flick didn’t have to work, it was still something Witcherton took great pride in doing.) So, what was so different about today?

  Then it finally clicked in Flick’s mind and he couldn’t contain his excitement. Throwing on the nearest clothes he could find he rushed out of the door and sprinted into her bedroom to find… nothing. Then found the same in all the other rooms of the house, even the small library seemed entirely abandoned.

  Has it finally happened!? Did she-

  Not wanting to jinx himself he checked the only remaining room in the house, the main living room, closing his eyes and stepping inside carefully. Slowly opening his eyes he found, disappointingly, that she was still alive and well, something that almost immediately ruined Flick’s morning. But upon further inspection he found something truly terrifying. Not only was she still alive, but she was also smiling! Not just smiling… but laughing too!? This made no sense to Flick, just the night before he spent hours scribbling on loose clippings of receipts and scrapped tickets, convincing her to let Simon and the girl live with him. He barely managing to escape from the conversation with his life, let alone with two extra ones by his side. A smile was the absolute last thing Flick expected to see first thing in the morning. It was only when he noticed the enticing smell coming from the kitchen that he realised what was happening.

  “Oh! Mornin’ man!” Simon approached the table where Witcherton was sat at with a large dish filled with various breakfast delicacies, “Wanna try some?”

  He was draped in a kitchen apron lazily thrown over his lab coat, stained with small prints of spices and oil. It was clear that whatever was on the table Simon made himself and it looked, surprisingly, edible.

  “By the way I managed convince Miss to let me and Sam stay here a bit longer,” Simon continued, “also you should really take care of your elders man, they’ve done so much for you, y’know?”

  He smugly grinned at Flick, likely realising that he could have done this to begin with and avoid the hours that Flick wasted talking to her, and the future payments he’d have to save up for.

  “Exactly! Flick you better learn a thing or two from Simon, look at how well he turned out!”

  Simon sarcastically bowed as though being complemented by royalty

  She turned to Flick, and disgruntledly muttered to herself, “... and then there’s you.”

  Realising he could finally speak now that it’d been 24 hours Flick puffed out his chest “Well I don’t see him taking down a SMILE member, do you?”

  “Technically he got away” Simon quietly mumbled under his breath

  “Technically he RAN away, there’s a big difference.” Flick continued, “Well anyway, at least you have a home now, even if it’s just temporary.” He gestured between himself and Miss Witcherton, “Courtesy of me by the way! Oh wait a second, What about the girl?”

  Simon raised a brow before answering, “she’s in the garden…?”

  After waving Simon goodbye and exchanging glares with Miss Witcherton, Flick made his way around to the back of the school. Since he barely went to the garden he almost forgot how precarious the route was, thin wooden planks that jutted out from the walls barely enough for someone’s foot to step on. A tiny path that stretched around the school with only a small hand rail to grab for safety, spiralling up towards the roof. Even though the building was pointed at its tip it could fold out to reveal a small garden with bushels of blackthorn around the rim, far too large for the enclosure they were kept in.

  From what Flick remembered the blackthorn bushes were essentially the only plant up there besides a few small, Pinky sized starflowers here and there. It was pretty sometimes, whenever the roof opened in blooming season small white petals from the bushes would spill out and hover in the air for hours. Even back then though, no one ever went up to the garden, except for Witcherton.

  Flick somehow found a small sense of nostalgic comfort as he made his way up the summit of hazardous planks. Sure enough once he pushed past the overgrown branches there the girl was, looking at the rising fake sun from the single swing in the middle, hung by a small tree.

  “Uhm, excuse me-“ he timidly approached the back of the swing,

  She gasped, “Oh! Sorry I got lost in thought”

  “Don’t worry about it, I just wanted to apologise for almost knocking you over yesterday”

  Flick leant up against the tree as the woman waved away the apology quietly, seeming not to care

  “Oh, I’m Flick by the way” he continued,

  “I know, you were shoving it in my face so much I couldn’t exactly forget it,”

  Flick frowned, “Shit you could see that? the whole time?!”

  “Yeah obviously! I just couldn’t really do- well, anything”

  Before Flick could start apologising further she quickly cut him off with a handshake “I’m Samantha, everyone just calls me Sam though”

  Breathing a sigh of relief Flick returned the handshake as best as he could “Flick,”

  Sam raised an eyebrow, “... I know?”

  “Oh right!” he shyly chuckled back.

  He and Sam sat awkwardly looking in different directions.

  Suddenly Flick continued, “So… what brings you up to the old garden?”

  Not expecting the conversation to continue further than the introduction, Sam quickly thought up an explanation “I was just thinking about stuff… and things”

  “What kind of stuff and things?”

  “I’m just a little overwhelmed okay?” she sighed, “It feels like yesterday that I was still in my time, drinking with friends and... And now all of a sudden here I am! Accidentally awake two thousand years in the future-“

  Flick choked on the air, “TWO THOUSAND YEARS?!?” jumping up from his position up against the tree, he faced Sam with childlike excitement “You mean you’re from the first sun generation?”

  Puzzling over what ‘the first sun generation’ meant she silently nodded, figuring it meant the human beings from before the earth was flung from orbit.

  “Whoa,”

  He began to pace around the garden thinking about all the things he could ask someone from the past, but the distressed look on Sam’s face told him to limit any questions to just one.

  Flick took a deep breath and began, “Cool! so does that mean you could see the real sky?”

  Sam thought for a moment, then realised something, “Oh, yeah right, I guess you’ve never seen the earth’s sky huh?” she frowned, gazing off into the distant fake sunrise “This is nothing in comparison, the real thing is just gorgeous”

  “Well that’s because you haven’t seen the best angle!” Flick interrupted

  “H-Huh?”

  Flick span around in place, and pointed his finger to the giant synth-tree in the pillars centre, “That’s the best view in pillar 7,”

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  The conversation died once more.

  Flick thought to himself for a moment, then continued with a grin, “…and I’m gonna show it to you!”

  “Wait we can go there?” Sam cheerfully asked,

  She seemed a little happier, at least for the time being. The idea of climbing the giant tree in front of her being more than enough of a distraction from her current situation.

  “Obviously, and I’ll show you the wonders of the future as your very own tour guide on the way!” Flick got ready to leave but suddenly stopped after hearing Sam’s stomach growl loudly, “Oh, that reminds me, I haven’t had fast food for almost a whole day! we can swing by my favourite place on the way to the tree.”

  Sam tried to refuse Flick’s offer, but when she saw the giddy and excited expression on his face she couldn’t bring herself to fight any more. Besides, she did need someone to update her on the past two thousand years, and the walk might clear her head somewhat. The moment Sam nodded in agreement Flick energetically hopped back down the spire of disjointed wood and swung back into the school leaving behind Sam to process her decision. Once she eventually made her way back inside Flick was already stood at the door with fresh clothes on, taking off the old bandages tied around his neck from the night before.

  It was early in the morning and the air was still and near silent, bodies still wrapped in blankets, enjoying their days off behind closed doors. Flick and Sam drifted through the sparse streets of the pillars centre, occasionally taking small bites of cheap fast food from the few stalls that never closed.

  (Bought with money taken from Witcherton’s secret alcohol stash, of which Flick was definitely not supposed to know about.)

  For the most part they were both completely silent, neither one having the faintest clue of how to start a conversation with the other. Eventually, it was Sam that grew too impatient to stay quiet, and the first to think a topic worth talking about.

  “So you’ve never seen a proper sunset? Not even one from a passing star?” she asked earnestly,

  Caught off guard by the sudden interest, Flick choked, “U-Uh no actually, the last passing star was a hundred years ago… I think.” He frowned, then suddenly widened his eyes, “BUT! in a couple weeks, give or take, we should be close enough to a small star system to get some actual, real, sunlight!”

  “Oh that’s great!” Sam’s eyes drifted down the street in deep thought, “…So much is different now, I would’ve thought the pillar would be more… I don’t know, stable than this? Honestly…”

  Flick furrowed his brow, “Whys that?”

  “We built this thing to last longer, and much cleaner, than this,”

  Flick stopped suddenly in the middle of the emptied streets,

  “What?” he looked at her curiously, “what do you mean by ‘we built’?”

  Sam squinted at Flick, genuinely confused by the response, “uhm yeah? I mean, I am one of the founders-“

  “WHAT!?”

  “Yeah, why else did you think I was frozen?”

  Flick stammered to himself, “I-I don’t know I just never thought about it…”

  “Didn’t they teach you anything in history?”

  Flick shyly turned away “y-yeah I just…” he began to mumble to himself more,

  Sam drew herself close enough to hear a faint, “I just never listened or whatever” from her new companion,

  She giggled to herself,

  Flick’s face went flush with bright red, “H-Hey it’s not that bad, everyone fails school nowadays!”

  “Sure man, sure,” she said, smiling at his childish embarrassment.

  As they rounded the corner of the main street Flick normally walked down to get to work, Sam suddenly stopped in her tracks, speechless by the sight of the massive Synth-tree that towered over them in the distance. In the near empty street its shadow blanketed them like the clouds did, in her time. It was a sensation she didn’t know she missed until its cool dark touch washed over them, and for a moment it wasn’t hard to believe that this used to be her home, her earth.

  They stood for some time, simply enjoying the view, before Sam suddenly noted something in the nearby upper-class east district of the pillar. Particularly, a massive sign with a tall dark, suited businessman plastered all over it in bright lights, clearly visible even from where they were standing.

  “Who’s that?” Sam’s complexion changed, as if reminded of something she’d rather have forgotten about.

  “Oh! You don’t know about Skyman?” Flick replied, “That, my frozen friend, is Isaac Melbourne. Also known as the man who controls the sky within pillar 7!” He leant in closer to whisper something in her ear, “Personally, I just like to call him ‘Sky-saac’,”

  Sam, not amused by the pun, turned away from Flick, “Oh… is that it?”

  “Nope! He’s like an idol here; without him we wouldn’t have the sunset or sunrise option on the sky!

  “Can you even imagine a world without those things?! He implemented like fifty new colours into the screens just so it could be prettier!” He threw his arms wide as he talked,

  “Wow, so does everyone get as excited as you about this guy?”

  Flustered, realising he just nerd-gasmed all over the casual conversation, Flick quickly altered his attitude.

  “I-I mean not really, I just think he’s really cool. he even made the engine blades” he muttered,

  “Engine blades?”

  “Oh! Right I guess you weren’t around for that, kinda forgot engine blades were a recent thing…”

  Sam frowned “how recent?”

  “I think one hundred years back? It was during the pillar wars”

  Sam eyes widened out of shock, “Pillar wars?! Wait, wait hold on you said one hundred years ago?”

  “Yeah?”

  “… so he’s like a hundred-years-old?”

  Flick perked up again, “yeah! Rumour has it he has cybernetic implants or something.”

  “Jesus, I knew things would be different but this is insane!”

  Sensing Sam’s growing panic, Flick began to continue walking,

  “okay, okay,” he started, trying to calm Sam down as best as he could, “Let’s get moving. If were not quick enough we’ll miss the sunrise”

  “Wait hold on I have another question…” She asked, pulling on the cuff of Flick’s jacket to stop him,

  “What’s with your name?”

  “W-what?”

  Sam elaborated, “I mean your name is Flicker, right? how come that’s your name but people like Simon and Isaac have names that would be from my generation?”

  Flick realised that Sam didn’t know nearly as much as he thought she did and prepared himself to explain,

  “Oh, right yeah that’s because of the class system”

  Sam’s eyes seemed disappointed,

  He went on, “Okay, basically when the earth was originally flung out of orbit tons of children were left without parents to explain to them what the world was like before. Orphans that didn’t know that names had history,

  “Because of that when those kids grew up and had kids of their own they would name them after stuff they saw around them; sticks rocks glass, anything that rolled off the tongue nicely. Which is why my name is Flicker Torchwood. Does that make sense?”

  Sam nodded quietly “But what about the normal names then?”

  “Well those come from families that stayed intact after the earth went rogue, and nowadays they’re considered wayyyy more important than the rest of us. Its why they live in the east pillar where stuffs nicer”

  Sam couldn’t help but be worried about how nonchalant Flick was when talking about this, but then suddenly realised something she couldn’t ignore.

  “Wait so why is Simon living in the west pillar with you?”

  Flick looked away for a second, wondering if it was okay to talk about his friends life without his knowledge.

  Eventually he explained, “…He doesn’t really like the east side that much, Simons always preferred the west for some reason”

  Sam wasn’t content with the answer, shown clear enough by the disappointment on her face, but saw no point in pursuing the topic further.

  The remainder of the walk went much louder than when it had started. The two quickly became comfortable enough with each other to chat idly, and in no time at all they knew enough about each other to consider themselves friends, if only by loose terms. Sam was the polar opposite of how she was at the beginning of the day, laughing and smiling as though she was already comfortable. She only ever stopped occasionally, to flinch for a moment and wince at a pain in her temple, besides that it was as if all, or at least some, of her trouble was gone. Something about the walk seemed freeing and light, even Flick seemed to show a side of himself he rarely showed anyone, including Simon.

  “Wait, wait…so he really calls you Flicky?!” Sam held at her sides with hand and wiped away tears of laughter with the other,

  Flick tried not to let his embarrassment show, “Yeah but it’s not like I mind it or anything, it’s just a dumb nickname”

  Suddenly, Sam clutched her head in pain “God, is this headache gonna end?!”

  Flick turned back to look at Sam, a worried look plain on his face.

  “Sorry, I’ve had it all morning” she frowned, then walked up besides Flick,

  “I can ask Si when we get back if you want?” Flick responded, “…Simon I mean, he’s super good with science and stuff,”

  “Um, so am I? I was literally one of twenty-five people who made this pillar Flick,” she crossed her arms like she was offended. Half-sarcastically, Half-serious

  Flick paused, “So does that mean you know why you have a headache or…”

  She released her fake frustration and laughed to herself, “there’s not a scientific explanation for a headache…. Anyway! Where to now, ‘Flicky’?”

  Flick frowned, “We have to climb the tree, don’t worry it’s not that hard, just follow what I do ‘Zombie Girl’,”

  Before Sam could react to her new nickname Flick darted over to the base of the tree and clambered up onto one of its giant darkened roots. He made his way along the tiny ridge, wobbling here and there to keep balance, until he finally pressed himself up to the trunk. Then, in one swift motion, Flick leapt up and grabbed a thick looking branch to hang from, calling back to his new friend.

  “Come on, sunrise is almost over!”

  Sam quickly followed behind, struggling much more than Flick, who almost made it look easy as he flew between branches and footholds in the bark of the tree. She found herself grabbing onto the smooth, spiralling notches that littered the surface and slowly shuffling her way along them, trying as hard as she could not to look down.

  Flick wasn’t far from where he wanted to be, a particular branch high up near the canopy that had the perfect view. The harsh winds that the tree blocked, turning them into gentle breezes, the way the houses looked like wet glistening stones in the domes light. Even though he was only coming here to help cheer up Sam, a very big part of him simply missed being up this high. Eventually the branch showed itself, and Flick planted himself down to admire the view. Sam caught up with him much later, and with much more fatigue.

  “Jesus man,” she clung to the trunk for safety as she regained her breath, “How the fuck do you move like that?”

  Flick chuckled to himself, wiping the sweat from his brow, “I’m just that goo-“

  Before he could finish he lost balance and flailed to steady himself.

  Unsure as to whether or not he screamed in the process, he continued, “…Practice”

  Sam finally sat herself next to Flick on the branch and looked out at the Dome’s light-lit sky. The view didn’t even come close to a real sunset, just as she suspected, but it had its own special feeling that even Sam couldn’t deny.

  “So” she started, “was this legal?”

  “Hm?” Flick was too fascinated by the view to listen properly,

  “I asked if this was this legal?”

  “I mean…” He scratched at his chin in recollection, “…not technically no”

  “…is it okay for us to be up here? I don’t wanna be arrested on my first day awake”

  “Oh, don’t worry about that, the police barely do anything these days anyway.”

  Sam tilted her head curiously, “How come?”

  Unexpectedly, Flick responded almost instantly, “Lack of resources I think.” He sighed, “Trust me, I used to ask the same question myself. They just don’t do much, have to focus on the important stuff I guess,”

  “Like?”

  Flick thought for a moment, “Government buildings? Banks, post offices, the occasional home of a branch head or something,”

  Sam frowned, “So is there a lot of crime in pillar 7 then? It seems peaceful enough to me,”

  “For the most part it is,” he smiled reassuringly, “Just the occasional murder here and there, but honestly its to be expected, in an environment like this I mean,”

  Flick gestured around him. Sam figured he was referring to the general enclosure of the pillar, and how crammed together everyone was.

  She looked up at the dome sky above her, “ah,”

  Flick leant back, looking up too,

  “…except SMILE,” he finally spoke,

  “SMILE?”

  “Its a global terrorist organisation, or at least that what I heard… They only started showing up a couple years ago too.”

  Sam had a face of sudden revelation “You mean like… bombs and stuff?”

  Flick frowned, then nodded silently,

  “So were these SMILE guys the reason I woke up early?”

  “uh, I guess maybe…” Flick looked at Sam with a sceptical eye, curious as to where she was going with the topic,

  “I heard from Simon this morning that I woke up because of an explosion in the lab,”

  Flick hastily responded, “That doesn’t necessarily mean that they did it, for all you know it could’ve been a malfunction… or something”

  There was a plain look of anxiety across his face, Sam could feel there was something she wasn’t being told, “Yeah from my perspective it could’ve been anything. But you know what happen-“

  Flick cut her off, turning to her out of concern “why do you want to know so badly?”

  Understandably getting angry at Flicks interruption, Sam glared at him from the other end of the branch

  “And Why do you want to hide it so badly?!”

  “Because Sam, I’ve seen where this goes and I don’t think it’s a smart idea to pry into it, okay?”

  “what’s that supposed to mean??”

  “I’m a carbon cutter right? I’ve seen how the other workers got when SMILE was mentioned. They’ve hurt hundreds, and I have seen too many of those same, hurt, people wander outside the pillar searching for some kind of revenge alone.” Flick sighed out of frustration, “They NEVER return Sam,”

  Sam raised her voice, “Oh but its okay for you to hunt them down is it?”

  Flick went silent,

  “Yeah, I heard a couple things,” she continued, “About you chasing some guy down and getting hurt? That was a SMILE person wasn’t it?”

  Flick tried to find the words to respond but couldn’t,

  “What? Do you think I’m not as capable as you or something?”

  “No, no!” he finally said, “not that at all Sam, seriously! Its just… the guy I fought had a weapon, an engine blade,” Flick rubbed his neck anxiously, “If I knew that going in I wouldn’t dream of chasing them,”

  Upon seeing how worked up Flick was over this, she quickly calmed herself down.

  “well,” Sam started again, to Flick’s dismay, “What about if someone hunted them with more than one person?”

  Flick shot a cautious glance at Sam before responding plainly, “…They’d probably both die”

  “…What if they had a gun?”

  “What!?” Sam now had Flick’s full attention, “Guns have been outlawed for years man, most of them were destroyed in the pillar war once engine blades came around, how would you even-”

  “I could probably make a rudimentary one in like 30 minutes” Sam looked down at her hands, fully aware of Flick’s disbelief

  He shook his head, “Sam you can’t be serious, you cannot go hunting down SMILE-“

  “Yeah obviously, I had no intention of hunting them down, that was just a… a figure of speech!”

  Flick raised an eyebrow, unsure of what the term ‘figure of speech’ meant.

  She sighed, “I just want to find them… then report them”

  Flick still couldn’t believe what he was hearing “Then what about the-“

  “The gun’s just for safety,” she continued, “If we end up running into SMILE we’d need to run away, that’s why we would need a gun, right?

  “listen man, I’m not going to do this if you don’t want to. it’s just a thought I had is all” she suddenly got up from the branch and stretched before crouching down next to Flick “Don’t you want to do something though? I mean, SMILE has clearly been an issue for a while and they’re just gonna do this again later. I swear to you I’m not going to do anything stupid, I just want to help the community inside the pillar I helped make.”

  Flick thought long and hard, adding up the positives and negatives in his head. He thought about how, with his knowledge of the outside and Sam’s scientific know-how, he could actually do something for once. Maybe they could be the first people to finally find where SMILE were hiding, after all he did fight one of their bombers before, with enough prep he could realistically beat them in a one-on-one fight if it came down to it. Engine blades were strong, and scary, but the idea of having something like a gun nearby just in case made beating them seem somewhat plausible.

  And even then… They weren’t actually trying to fight them! If Sam and him played their cards right they could simply find whatever hole SMILE were huddled down in and… Leave! Just like that, without even a scratch to share between the two of them.

  The more Flick thought about the mission, the more excited he got. There was a confidence that surged through him, coaxing his mouth into a sly smile and urging him to take action. He turned back to Sam, nodded, shook her hand, and made peace with the fact that they were doing this together, no matter what happened.

  “Well then, Zombie girl,” he gripped her hand a little harder as he spoke, “I guess we should get going, right? We’ve got a bounty to hunt!”

  Peculiarly though, Flick noticed something off about Sam’s eyes as he spoke. He could’ve sworn that they were green before, but now they seemed slightly different. The closer he looked the more colourful they seemed to be, mostly shifting between blues, greens, browns and blacks. But sometimes, whenever the sun hit their surface in a particular way, there were other colours that appeared periodically too like reds and purples that stood out in the morning sun, almost seeming to glow.

  The colours looked like they were shifting rapidly, one to another and then back again. It was as mesmerising as it was strange and uncanny, but before Flick could question what he was seeing, she suddenly clutched her head out of pain. Once the strain had passed her eyes returned to normal and Flick thought nothing more of it, finally standing up next to her to get ready for what they were about to do.

  Before Flick could make his way down the tree, Sam called to him. “Hey, listen I’m sorry if I sounded forceful or anything. I’ve never been good at controlling my temper when I get… you know,”

  “Nah don’t be. It makes sense honestly, they did force you to live in a completely new world, it’s only natural to be pissed” He turned back to Sam with new look of determination, “Besides, I feel the same way. They’ve had it way too good for way too long, I just needed an excuse to do something stupid about it”

  “Oh by the way,” Sam continued, trying to avoid his gaze, “Can you try not to stare like that again? it was… well I’m sure you-“

  “Oh no, I didn’t…” Flick’s words were fumbling out of his mouth, “I’m sorry I wasn’t trying to stare or anything! I was just… uh…”

  He thought about how weird it would be to tell her the truth, that it looked like her eyes were changing colours, and decided against it, “y’know what, it doesn’t matter,”

  Sam nodded slightly, then began to make her way down with Flick following closely behind.