Darkness. There was no sound nor light. Just unescapable darkness.

  A pull.

  A pull so forceful that it would split your body in two if you resisted for long enough. So much, too much.

  This pull wasn’t affecting everything, just her shrivelled lungs, Pulling anything it can out of them with titanic strength. With every open orifice of her body, the pull grew stronger, and with it so too did the tremendous pain. She could feel everything so clearly, the lining of her insides tempting to give in to the pull, the cold, the pain.

  But the pain was a sign. It flooded her brain with a neon light, one that screamed at her to do something, but at least there was light.

  She was still alive.

  Against all odds, she was still alive.

  Her person refused to move for quite some time. Only the soul shattering chill smothering every inch of her reminded her that she could still feel, and therefore move in theory.

  Eventually, once enough time had passed for her corpse of a body to adjust to the environment, she clambered to her feet amidst the void-black room she found herself collapsed within.

  She wasn’t breathing, that much she could tell for certain. The pull made her lungs flat and any attempt to fill them seemed vain at best, the void had claimed them for good. Even so she could feel something happening within her body, blood moving independently through her veins as though it were alive. Her heart was beating, though she couldn’t understand why.

  Skin tearing, then repairing within an instant and without hesitation. When she looked down at the tear in herclothes she could see it in real time, her skin separating then coming back. It was as hypnotic as it was terrifying. And above all, despite her lack of breathing she was somehow still conscious.

  It was an impossibility of basic human nature that her brain struggled to find an answer for. Almost as if her body was changing itself, mending itself, to suit the environment she found herself in. Like her body had a bitter disdain for the rules of nature at play.

  She recognised where she was standing now, the ruins of where she and Flick ran into SMILE.

  What had happened back then? All she could remember was a sharp sting in her side and then… nothingness. The phantom pain still lingered, but when her frozen-numb hand drifted to the source of the wound there was nothing. Just tattered cloth and exposed skin like she saw before.

  Choosing not to dwell on herself she instead turned her attention to her surroundings, in the vain hope to find an answer she didn’t know existed yet. Oddly enough, nothing was as she remembered it; the rubble encrusted floor was constantly moving, as was everything around her and surfaces looked like they were made up of sand or dust. Although, this was only as often as she lost focus, which at this moment was almost constant.

  It took her a few minutes to realise that her eyes weren’t actually seeing anything!There was no light nearby so how could they? Instead everything took on a vague outline of what it was or must have been, briefly fading like smoke only to snap back into itself when she strained her eyes.

  Weird,

  She thought to herself a thought simple and benign. The silence was near enough dead that it was driving her even more mad than she was, thinking to herself was Sam’s way of filling the air.

  Despite the unreliability of her own senses, she knew where she was. It wasn’t precise, but she could detect what things and places were around her, almost as if they were telling Sam where they were by signalling to her. With this strange instinct she eventually noticed the large, fleshy lump that was resting up her against her leg. At first she thought nothing much of it, considering it as residue of her own body from when she was attacked. But as she focused more on her surroundings the lump became more defined, eventually snaking its figure into something much more recognisable.

  A human corpse.

  It was hard to tell whether it was her attacker or not, only its small frame lay strewn across the floor like a toy tossed to the ground, oversized mask still attached and all. Noticing her own cracked helmet she lowered herself down to harvest the somewhat intact one on the body’s person.

  She wrenched it from its place, the melted flesh from their face sticking to the helmets inside like frozen glue. Even in her dazed state she flinched at the tearing sensation holding the helmet in place, afraid of what it would look like in better lighting, before it finally gave way. However when she took it close to her face it became eerily apparent that it wouldn’t fit her, it was much too small for any adult to be able to wear comfortably. Sam bent down to look at the body more clearly, then looked back at the helmet in her hands, and came to one conclusion.

  A child.

  They must’ve been in their early teens at the most, and now they lay crumpled lifelessly on the floor before her. The thought was enough to make her vomit, although the void outside made it virtually impossible to do so. Her stomach clenched itself tight trying desperately to flush out something in replacement of her memory, of her new discovery, but regardless of how hard she tried the world around her kept its soul-rending hold on her.

  She didn’t even bother to check the second corpse despite her curiosity screaming at her to investigate. Right now she only had enough strength to stomach one heart-breaking discovery at a time, a second one might actually turn her stomach inside out. In her current, mind-boggling, state it wouldn’t surprise her if it did.

  Could Flick be here somewhere?

  She couldn’t tell, there was only one other body on this floor, but he very well could’ve been on another one. Sam didn’t want to think about it.

  The cold continued to cling to her very being, magnetising her towards the ground as if it was goading her into the death she was supposed to have.

  Or perhaps... She was dead?

  She couldn’t even tell if she was thinking or not anyway, so maybe she was. All she knew was that her body refused to keel over and die such a pointless death, it didn’t mean that she was alive, just that her body was moving.

  Before long she found herself outside, she could sense the vast open plains that stretched out around her, although she couldn’t remember exactly how she got there. She was thinking about the differences between being alive and simply moving, and suddenly she was out here.

  Had she walked? Time seemed non-existent, almost dreamlike in its fragility to Sam, as was everything around her.

  It was as if everything was smoke. A smoke that she could brush her hand through and change the wispy shape of, effortlessly.

  The ground beneath her feet, the space that surrounded her, even her own body. It all felt flimsy, like if you looked away for a split second it would become something else the instant you looked back.

  At this point, Sam was convinced that this wasn’t real. It couldn’t possibly have been real.

  Every time she lost track of herself she ended up in a different place. She couldn’t remember the last time she was in the ruins, everything around her was just snow and ice. Sam wasn’t even sure that she was in the city any more, but whenever her mind lingered on the thought she seemed to appear somewhere else.

  But even still she could tell she was going to different places; the snow was a dead giveaway. Whenever she regained some semblance of consciousness, the first thing she would note would be the snow around her. Primarily, how the snow pattern would change. The particles themselves would be in different positions, sometimes denser than before and sometimes lighter, but always different.

  This she thought this one has…

  Sam strained her eyes and made out a pattern of X’s and V’s to her right, she made sure to note them in her mind.

  V shapes… right side…

  She had no idea how she could tell these things however, only that these thoughts would flow to her like long lost memories. Although, these memory-like senses would also be followed by a painful singeing sensation in her brain. A headache that only grew worse the more she concentrated on one thing for too long. Even with these strange senses she still couldn’t tell how much time had passed, or if time was passing at all. Everything just seemed to pass around her and within due time her brain became wracked with hollow despair.

  What is this? Hell? Purgatory?

  Her mind was soon filled with thoughts of different afterlives, trying to accompany one to her current situation. She remembered being taught about certain religions beliefs in a “cold” hell, maybe it was dark too? It was possible this was something new altogether, something unknown by human history. Sam doubted anyone could come up with something this painful and gruesome. It was the only thing that she could focus on, the different hells, considering how every other second things seemed to change around her.

  She paused, then looked back down to her right.

  V shapes… right si-

  But they weren’t there, instead the particles looked more like numbers than letter this time, and they seemed to arrange themselves in two’s and three’s.

  Shit

  Sam had moved again without realising.

  After about an eternity of wandering she finally recognised something other than snow, and this thing finally stayed still, unlike everything she saw before. It seemed to tower over her entirely, it was as if it was affixed in the sky itself and simply touched the ground out of courtesy, deeming the land lonely without it. It took her a couple of seconds before she realised what it was that stood before her, the vague outline of something familiar.

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  The entrance to a Pillar.

  Could it be that she somehow made her way back? Against all the odds, had she just stumbled upon the one place she needed more than anything else? It didn’t even seem real, and yet here it was. Even in Sam’s weird state she could tell that it was there, not just some hallucination made by her dying mind.

  However, she still couldn’t tell how far away she was from its presence, just a vague hint of where it could’ve been. She wandered towards it, unsure when she would arrive, until suddenly she was just inches away from its surface. When she focused the strange particles told her it was miles off yet, but somehow it was right in front of her. The tassels of her coat grazed against its surface and made the tiniest of noises, like the sound of a gentle wave, and she knew it was there.

  Sam rested her hand on the base of the pillar, feeling around for any keypad she could use to open the doors like she did at the beginning of her journey. There was nothing there at first, just smoothened metal with no grooves or imperfections, but at some point in her hands search something changed in the wall and it suddenly became soft, malleable.

  So soft in fact that with just a little bit pressure Sam could move her hand further inside of the wall.

  Suddenly she wasn’t so sure it was a Pillar any more. The surface was metal but… far too soft for it to be anything she could identify.

  Maybe… a new metal? She thought to herself,

  It had been a long time since she was on earth, humanity could’ve made some new advancement that Flick forgot to mention. A new metal that was softer than anything else she had touched before, even though Sam couldn’t believe that possible.

  The more she pushed the more the wall seemed to move away from her until, like the surface of a bubble, her arm popped into its metallic lining. With the cold biting at her nerves it was hard for her to tell exactly what she was feeling, but the closest thing that came to mind was sand. The wall was like sand, moving around her, and soon her whole body seemed to be pushing though the metal just like her arm was.

  Sam was no longer outside, that much she could tell by the gentle warmth passing through her, but she wasn’t inside either. The ‘sand’ persisted and kept its hold on her, but never slowed her down and allowed her to move further inside. It was… strange, but more than welcome in contrast to the hell from before.

  After a time, there was a sudden relief, She could feel it on her outstretched arms, there was no more of this sand like material just a few steps ahead of her. For the first time in what seemed like eternity she regained some semblance of touch, and sure enough as she took four more steps forward her whole body was set free from the wall and basked in a blinding white light.

  It took her eyes a moment to adjust, after being drowned in pitch black darkness the sun would’ve been a kinder face to them. In just a minute of squinting and wincing at the painful light, she could finally see the room before normally. A hangar, a Pillar hangar, complete with all the bits and pieces that could be found there. However something immediately wasn’t right, nothing was in the places she remembered them being in, and everything around her seemed to be of a different craft from what she was used to. Not unrecognisable, but definitely different. It was only when she looked up at the wall she came from that Sam realised exactly where she was.

  012

  The number adorned every wall in huge lettering, which only meant one thing. She had somehow wandered into a different pillar from her own.

  H-how did I…

  Sam’s thoughts were cut short, the numbing cold blanketing her body was finally fading and, like thawing water, her skin was starting to expand and tear. She hadn’t realised how loud she was screaming, until she heard the cacophony of footsteps heading in direction. Sam bit the thenar of her hand to quit her voice of any harsh tones and buried into a corner, the pain still thrashing in her mind.

  She hid behind a ring of metal drums as she attempted to numb her pain. Even within the somehow comforting confides of storage, the discomfort persisted, sticking to her body as though she was being bathed in it. Sam felt her skin pulling again, she felt the warmth of blood leaking from the cracks but when her hand investigated there was no trace of its presence. It would take a while, a long while, for her body to warm up properly which meant this pain would not stop, not now.

  Sam decided to drown the feeling out until it decided to leave her be, she patted her body down until a bump in her jacket pocket caught her attention. Flick’s music player. Whether it was sheer luck or not Sam couldn’t tell, but somehow the small device still played! As her only source of relief it wasn’t much, but some songs she still recognised from when she was younger and the nostalgic comfort was more than enough. For first time in what felt like hours, she rested her head on the somehow soft wall behind her, drifted herself to sleep.

  At first Sam didn’t even realise she was being watched; it was only after an albums worth of songs that she noticed her own humming, and opened her eyes to see someone staring back at her curiously.

  “Uhm,” the woman uttered, almost in a whisper, “Excuse me miss? Are you okay?”

  Sam yelped, shooting upright against clattering empty drums and fumbling the headphones away from her ears.

  Through laboured breathing Sam finally replied, “Oh my god! Couldn’t you have at least said something first!?”

  “Well I’m not exactly at any liberty to do something for a random woman hiding behind the bins, So maybe you should identify yourself?” she nodded in an accusatory manner towards Sam, “After that maybe I’ll feel like ‘saying something’ ”

  The worker crossed their arms and waited for a response. It was clear by their figure they were a worker of some kind, and a frail one at that. Her thin arms and weathered face looked almost malnourished, but were still toughened by sparse places of thin muscle gained from labour. Sam guessed that food wasn’t as abundant here, either that or there was too much work and not enough time for a decent meal.

  Whoever this was, she clearly toiled herself to the bone, which meant it’d be even harder for Sam to convince her that she belonged here with her.

  “Uhhhhh….”

  Sam, fully knowing there was no way to talk her way out of the situation, bawled her hand into a fist. Ready to throw a punch and run, her whole arm tensed up anticipating the impact.

  The worker kept her arms steadfastly crossed, even in the face of Sam’s clear intention to harm. There was something strange about this person, something she wouldn’t let get past her so easily.

  Then, the worker looked down at Sam’s feet and the helmet loosely resting nearby. Her eyes widened the moment she recognised the tipped ears and sharp face of its appearance, a small gasp escaped her as she began to speak up.

  “Holy shit, I am so so sorry ma’am!” the worker stood to attention “I-I didn’t realise that a captain was on site yet I swear!”

  Quickly picking up on what was happening, Sam tried as best as she could to imitate a figure of authority.

  “W-well don’t worry about it! I just noticed some issues and came over here to check... that’s all,” Sam puffed her chest out as she talked,

  “I apologise ma-am! Is there anything you need help with at all?”

  Sam began to think of all the things she could ask for, with the first thing coming to mind being food. Her mouth began to water with the prospect of free food, the empty space in her stomach suddenly becoming very noticeable.

  “Wait,” The worker continued, throwing Sam out of her hunger induced stupor, “That helmet design isn’t from 12… Oh my god!”

  Sam tensed up again.

  “...Did the other pillars finally get our request for help?!”

  “U-uhhhh, Yes! We heard your request and came as fast as we could” Sam frowned at the prospect of helping complete strangers, given her condition right now, but considering how she wouldn’t forgive herself for not doing anything meant this was the best, if not the only, option.

  The woman’s eyes lit up for a second, before immediately reverting back to concern when she realised the state of Sam’s helmet.

  “Oh is that broken ma’am? Let me have a look at it for you”

  Without waiting for her response, the woman scooped the helmet in her hands.

  Her face grew pale at the sight of the shattered glass and scuffed metal rims, “You, uh, must’ve fell hard huh? And is this from pillar 7?! I had no idea pillar 7 would be helping us!”

  Not stopping to breathe at all the woman swivelled to meet Sam’s gaze, finishing her assessment in only a brief glance.

  “I’m sorry ma’am, but there’s no way we have the pieces to fix equipment of this high quality right now, but we can give you one of ours if you want? I’m sure you must have equipment outside you need to bring it in too…?”

  Sam took a moment to breathe for the poor woman before responding, “No that’s okay actually, I am a… scout! For now just let me see the problems and ill relay it back at base as soon as I’ve seen enough, okay?”

  The woman nodded, then saluted, then began walking further into the pillar.

  Assuming that she was supposed to follow, Sam quickened her pace to walk beside her

  “Oh” Sam started, “And stop the formality thing, we don’t do that much in pillar 7”

  “Really?” she scratched her head curiously, “Okay, well what am I supposed to address you as then?”

  “Sam, just Sam will do”

  The woman’s eyes widened as if witnessing a miracle before her “A-a noble?!”

  Sam flinched at the inclination, having carelessly forgotten the ‘name rule’ Flick told her about before.

  “Don’t think too much about it, right now I’m just a scout on a mission. And you are my guide.”

  The woman suddenly went quiet, most likely unsure how to react in the given she was in the presence of noblewoman of all things. She stiffly turned about herself and continued down the walkway, slowing down enough to say one more thing back to Sam.

  “…My name is Twist by the way, in case you wanted to know”

  Sam smiled and steadied her pace by Twist’s side, walking down the seemingly endless yet barren hallways. It was strangely comforting to Sam, the feeling of ease one gets when walking next to someone was a feeling she sorely missed. It was a far cry from the icy hell she was trapped in. For that brief moment she finally got a chance to relax, to be human again despite all that had happened outside. She slid her hands into her pockets and let her mind wander idly for the first time in hours, barely registering when Twist was calling her.

  “So, Sam, you came here alone? How?”

  “uh, a Geobike. Its parked outside if you’re wondering”

  This seemed to brighten Twist’s mood even more “Oh wow! Really?” she touched her finger to her chin in thought, “Maybe you might actually be able to help us then... I-I mean if you want to that is, I know you’re only a scout, but we really need the help ma’am.”

  “Of course I’ll try and help! In pillar 7 we always help whenever there’s trouble,”

  Twist seemed somewhat surprised by this, her face flittingbetween confusion and acceptance, “Huh… I guess pillar 7 really changed its viewpoint recently… Well that’s great for us then!”

  Sam’s mind froze for a second, pondering what Twist meant by them having ‘changed viewpoints’. She couldn’t reach a conclusion in time however, as a giant elevator, not too dissimilar to the one at her home pillar, began to appear in the distance alongside the noise of drill bits and angle grinders. It was clear that this one had seen more use than the one she saw before, barely being held up by the cable meant to lift it and being bloated with decaying orange steel. Sam saw a screw fall from one of its panels on the side and suddenly missed the shaky platform Flick and her went down earlier.

  Nevertheless they both stood firmly in its centre as it began its rickety ascent.

  “Okay so any minute now we should be reaching the main problem here.”

  Sam looked at Twist with astonishment, “Wow we’re already near the top?

  “No? I thought we told you about what happened?” her face scrunched up with disappointment, “With the recent outbreak, basically everyone’s infected so barely anyone lives at the top... And even if you did we’re having problems with heat regulation right now, so it’s not the best conditions.”

  Before Sam got a chance to inquire further she quickly discovered the scope of what was happening here.

  The elevator shaft above her seemed to open up through a massive crack in its side that peeled outwards, as if done so by rust or explosives. What this crack provided however, was a view to the gaping underside of pillar 12. From one end of the pillar to the other, rows and rows of hastily made tin shelters and quarantine tents blanketed industrial pipes and girders meant for anything but occupation. Cloaked figures hovered along small branches of wood and taut cloth between homes, and every so often Sam could see one slip and fall a level lower.

  From what she could tell, it was the only way to traverse between the patches of residency. The eery silence said it all, what life lied here was but a mere whisper. The ghost light of a city now reduced to dying embers.