I am surprisingly upbeat. As upbeat as I can be on a day like this. I’m going home early; there are all the other things I have to worry about, but I am home early. It’s been years since I’ve come home before the second whistle. I swing the door open to the house and to say that the immediate mood shift is jarring would be an understatement, as I am greeted by the frustrated face of Jane. Well, that lasted as long as I thought it would. I guess I really didn’t think to tell her when I would be back. To be fair, I wasn’t entirely sure when I was going to be back home.

  She greets me in a less than polite manner. “Can you take me to the Market now?” Simple and absolutely filled with urgency. Understandable urgency, since I also want her gone as soon as possible. As I walk past her I can feel that she’s looking down at me. Not in a ‘I think I’m better than you.’ kind of way, more in a ‘I know I’m better than you.’ which I’ve been getting a lot of lately. What a weird day.

  I walk over to the loose brick where I had hidden the boots and gun the day before. “Of course. I just need to get some things to trade with.” I pull out Charlie’s boots and throw them to her. Without a moment of surprise she catches them and then looks down at them.

  Her eyes turn a crimson red as she shoots me a look that could kill. “These are Charlie’s boots. You’re going to use these to trade. Why don’t you just spit on his dead body while you're at it?” The already smoldering room suddenly starts to feel like an oven as heat seems to radiate off of Jane’s body. In some ways, I understand where she’s coming from, but in others, I don’t. The difference between us is like a chasm, I need to get rid of her before that chasm becomes my coffin.

  I take a second to feel the radiating heat enveloping my body. I take a deep breath in and close my eyes to focus. This is the reason I don’t like Sand Scorchers; always so hot. “Listen. If you want those electronic parts, you’re going to need something to trade. Unless you’ve been hiding some exceptionally valuable things to trade, we have no choice. You don’t walk into the market without something to buy or sell.” I can see the signature anger of a Sand Scorcher flare up again and then subside. The room slowly cools from an absolute hellscape to a bearable hellscape. I wipe away the sweat that has formed at my brow. I then look at her perfectly dry skin. Sand Scorchers.

  I take the gun and hand it to her. “I don’t really know how to use it. So, it’s better off in your hands than mine. If any problems come up in the Market, don’t use any flames. I don’t want the whole town to think we’re getting raided.” She takes the gun and holsters it away from sight. I also hand her a raggedy set of clothes. “This is an old set of clothes that we use during Sandstorms. It would be best if you tried to keep yourself out of sight. We don’t want anyone getting curious about you.” I give her entire look a general wave.

  She takes them and manages to hide herself below the layers of wraps and the goggles. I also do the same. If things go south, I don’t want anyone remembering my face. As soon as I finish up, she looks over at me. “So, this Market. Are you sure we’ll be able to find what I’m looking for?” She fidgets at the edges of her sleeves as she makes some final size adjustments.

  I go over and open the door, letting the heat of the outside burst in. “Whatever you need will either be at the Market, or you're never going to find what you're looking for.” She gives a frustrated glare and then follows me out into the street.

  Whoever built this city and all the other Well cities was a sadist. Well, they could’ve been incompetent. Actually, why limit them? They were both incompetent and a sadist. You see, when the outer residential district was created, they noticed they had a problem. Too many people, too few houses. Instead of building more houses, they started Project Anthill. Apparently, a committee in Last Bastion that was designated for housing and development determined that individual housing lacked the efficiency they desired. So, what Project Anthill proposed was communal underground housing. This housing would connect directly to the factory district via tunnels and would contain all necessities. The idea was that you would never have to brave the Sun again. That went over as well as any common person would think. Each city had four bunkers in their outer residential districts. Well #10 was no exception. From what I heard through the old storytellers, it didn’t take long for cabin fever to set in. So many people were trapped in a coffin underground, with only the promise that all their necessities would be provided. All it took was one delayed shipment of food, and then the violence started. Mass rioting, hoarding, and looting. Gangs started to hold large parts of the bunkers and tunnels. Three Days. That’s how long the violence lasted. Once it started to affect the efficiency of the work being provided, Last Bastion took care of the problem. One Hour. That’s how long it took Last Bastion to neutralize the problem. All Bunkers on The Sand side neutralized in one hour. And as luck would have it, the subsequent bodies were used to solve the fertilizer problem that the food Wells were having; it also solved the housing problem. Nowadays they are used as a communal gathering spot. The market, brothels, bars, food stalls, gambling dens, and more can be found down in the Bunkers. Hell, a good majority of the people also live down there. In a way, Project Anthill was a success.

  We make our way to the curtained entrance of the Bunker. Jane has been shooting me a worried look as we descend the six flights of stairs. She still thinks this is all one big elaborate trick, I would be happy if it was. I pull the curtain back and reveal the bustling interior of the Bunker. The first thing that hits me is the smell. The smell of so many people stuffed into an enclosed space mixed with the smell of freshly cooked Sand Mole. Then, there are the dull blue walls that are supposed to symbolize the sky. The drawings of animals that no longer exist are accompanied by the crudely drawn Sand Moles that some of the kids have drawn. Laughter can be heard as friends eat by the food stalls, curses and cheers line the air as people gamble with food rations, and then there's the spattering of stalls that make up the Market. You can feel the thick and hot air that stagnates down here. I’m not the biggest fan of this place. Especially not today.

  I lean over to Jane. “Keep your eyes peeled for what you’re looking for, and don’t let the kids fool you. They’ll steal your things just the same as everyone else. I’ll find you later. I have to talk to an acquaintance.” My words fall flat as she is already making her way to the market. She's going to get me killed. I walk over to a separate part of the bunker, further away from the hustle and bustle of the crowd. It is a dim corridor with only a smattering of dim purple crystals splattering the hall. As I walk, I try to keep my eyes focused on the path in front of me rather than the open rooms that have people lying in a fugue state. Horizon. A drug that allows you to relive happy memories as if you were there again. Fools trying to escape their reality. So many fools. The rooms never seem to end. Neither do the people.

  I eventually make it to the area I am looking for. A small section of the tunnel that has been refurbished to house those who prefer the shadow rather than the light. Through the squalor, I find the tent I was looking for. A simple patchwork tent made of old clothes and sand mole leather. Unassuming, just the way she wants it. I enter the tent and am immediately greeted with a dagger to my throat. I stop and sigh. “Dani, you know it’s me. You don’t have to put a dagger to my throat every time.” I look over to see Dani. She is a young woman with dark black skin and purple curly hair that she keeps short. She wears dark baggy clothes that fit in well down in the bunker. Then there's the grotesque smiling scar that goes across her neck. I shift my attention to the rest of the room.

  She tilts her head and lowers the dagger back down to her side. “How would I know it’s you if you're wearing that?” She points with the dagger up to the wraps. A bold-faced lie. If it wasn’t someone she knew walking through this entrance, they would already be bleeding out on the floor.

  I shrug off her crude attempt at humor and sit down in the nearest seat. The room is mostly empty, with only a pair of chairs and a table. Further into the room there's a curtain that separates the tent in half. “Is Kesha in?” I say it in a loud enough voice so that Kesha can hear me in the back.

  Dani points past the curtain, and then I hear rustling as the curtain pulls back to reveal an older woman. She has ashen black skin, spindly graying hair, and cloudy white eyes. Her skin is cracked from years of exposure and I’m surprised that she isn’t literally falling apart as she walks out. She wears ratty clothes and holds a crooked cane in one hand. “Dani, I’ve told you not to bother our customers. Especially Mr. Brooks. His family has a long-standing contract with me.” Kesha twists her fingers in a crooked manner towards me. Dani scoffs as if she hasn’t had this conversation with Kesha before. I’ve heard this conversation before. Many times before. Dani has tried to gut me many times over the years, ever since I first came here with my father.

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  I look over at Kesha, who somehow meets my eyes. She’s blind, but she is still eerily perceptive. You’ll find many like Kesha on The Edge, blind from the sun's exposure and useless to Last Bastion. “Do you have anything for me, Kesha?” Her smile thins into a line, and she reaches into her ratty cloak.

  Kesha pulls out a small envelope with a wax seal. The white wax seal has an eight-pointed star with a singular point in the middle. The symbol of the Order of Balance. The Order that my family has belonged to for generations. It is also the Order that my family has sacrificed for. The last time I got a letter was when my parents had died. It was short but to the point ‘Continue operations. You are the new Section Leader.’ My hand shakes below the table. Ten years without a letter, not a single word. Now this. I settle my nerves and grab the letter. “Thank You, Kesha. When did this come in?” I carefully place the letter into my pocket. Dani visibly glares at me from the corner of the room.

  Kesha slowly rises and leans on her cane. She moves her way over to the curtained door and pushes her hand past it. From the unknown room, she pulls out another letter with a blue seal. “Three days ago. It arrived not long after this one did.” My heart starts to race as I gently take the other letter from her. Two letters? My mind starts to race at the possible contents, but I snap back to reality and pocket it. Later.

  I rise from my chair. My voice remains calm as I start to speak. “Again, Thank You, Kesha. I’ll be taking my leave now.”

  As I start to make my way out of the tent, Dani’s voice stops me. “Should we be worried?”

  My thoughts race at the possibilities of what danger these letters may bring. Thankfully, Kesha’s voice rings with a mixture of annoyance and anger, snapping me out of the spiral of thought. “Dani, we do not ask questions of our clients. You know this. I apologize for her indiscretion, Mr. Brooks.” Dani’s mood shifts from anger to frustration and then finally to acceptance. Without a word, I give Dani a look. Her eyes meet mine, and for a moment, I remember the old days. I can’t keep her gaze for long, but she seems to understand what I am trying to tell her. The answer to the question, the answer she already knew.

  Walking back through the rows of Horizon users is the worst part of my weekly trip. At least it should be, but the letters in my pocket seem to have topped the walk. Lost in thought, I am jolted out of my mind as someone pulls me into one of the open rooms. The immediate fear from the physical touch almost sends me reeling, but I manage not to scream. I’m not entirely sure if that was even a good idea. Maybe I should scream? What lunatic pulls someone into an open room like this? “What’s wrong with you, son? You look worse than usual.” Leon’s dry, cranky voice answers my question.

  I look over to him and see his clay-splattered clothes. I let out a sigh as my fear starts to disappear. “I’m feeling a little under the weather, but that’s beside the point. How did you know it was me?” I take a quick look around at the dark and empty room.

  Leon looks up into my covered face and stares hard past the goggles. “Ash, my neck cracks every time I have to look up at you, and you walk like a beaten Sand Mole. It’d be weirder if I didn’t recognize you. What are you doing down here so early?”

  I give a brief sigh. “I’m working on the water reclamation system. They’ve sent me down to check on it.”

  He looks me up and down for a second. “Alrighty. I just wanted to make sure you weren’t going back on old habits. Wouldn’t want to have to deal with some pissed off folks again.”

  A small smile cracks as I rub at my neck. “Don’t worry, Leon. Those old habits are buried and dead; we both know that.” I think of Jane and realize maybe I am going to give Leon something to worry about. Better yet. She’s going to give me something to worry about. “Listen Leon, I’m in a hurry. We’ll catch up later, alright?” I walk out of the room and feel this weird sting in my heart that doesn’t hurt but feels dull.

  It isn’t until I get to the market that I snap out of it. I guess it was either the sudden crash or the sight of Jane running past me that jolted me back to reality. In front of me, chaos seems to have descended. The Sand Mole stall has been flipped over, a stocky tan man seems to have been thrown through the tailor's stall, and then there are the five men who are definitely running right towards me. Jane runs past me, carrying a satchel of who knows what and yells back towards me. “Stop gawking and run, you big oafing tree!”

  I swear, she’s going to get me killed. I push the boxes next to me over into the path where the chasing men are and burst into a sprint behind her. I’m not fast compared to most people on The Edge, but it certainly seems like she could take that title. It takes everything I have just to keep her in sight. She moves through the crowd of people and stalls like an expert thief. I, on the other hand, give up on trying to wade and weave my way through and instead take a slightly less crowded route. I hop onto the stall tables and burst into a controlled sprint across the tables as items are tossed in every direction. The group of men behind us push and shove their way through the crowd at a slower pace. I make one final leap and manage to reach Jane as we converge onto the intersection that we first entered from. The exit is clear in sight, but I instead grab her elbow and pull her into one of the side hallways. A small shock is felt as I grab her, but I press on. She glares back at me through the goggles but still follows me as we duck and weave into deserted hallways. We enter a room with a grey door at the end of the hallway, and I slam it shut behind us.

  The group of men can still be heard shouting and cursing beyond the door as they look for us. Jane looks visibly annoyed as she looks around the room at the seemingly simple storage closet with only one way in and out. “You’ve led us into a dead end, you big tree.” I walk past her and start to move some boxes, revealing a hatch.

  I give her a crooked smile. “After you.” She immediately starts to climb down the ladder and I follow shortly after. I make sure to cover the hatch with a tarp before I close it. The funny thing about being a technician in the city is that you know all the maintenance hatch entrances to the water reclamation system. I’ve been down here plenty of times to fix up the filtration system. The first time I came down here, I threw up my rations and came home stinking so much that Maple wouldn’t let me in until I cleaned up. I’ve gotten used to the stink and grime, but Jane sure hasn’t. I should probably warn her, but she did almost get me killed. So, oops, I forgot. What a shame that she has to rely on a big oafing tree like me.

  As we get closer to the source of the smell, I quickly let Jane know something. “By the way, I wouldn’t use any flames down here. Wouldn’t want you blowing us up.”

  She looks a bit confused and begins to answer. “Why would that …” Her sentence is cut off as we finally enter the water reclamation system. The smell is an immediate assault on the senses. It feels like an affront to nature, but I’m used to it; Jane, on the other hand, isn’t. She immediately starts to heave as she almost loses her rations in a corner.

  Small, cramped, damp, and stinky. That describes the tunnels that run all along the bottom of this city. Now, it’s also adorned with Jane heaving in the corner. I give her a pat on the back, which I quickly regret as a tinge of pain goes up my hand. “Let’s go. It won’t take long for whoever you pissed off to find out that we are down here. We have to get to street level soon.” She gives yet another annoyed look. I guess she realized I could have warned her beforehand about the smell, but she relents and starts to follow me through the maze of tunnels.

  We walk in silence for quite some time as the slight glow from the luminescent bricks that make up the tunnels light the way. “Did you find what you were looking for?” I nod to the new satchel that she is carrying.

  She sighs and tries not to breathe through her nose as she speaks. “I did. I traded the boots for the parts, it was a simple exchange. It wasn’t until those thugs started to hound me for a protection fee that things started to go off the rails. I told them no, and they kept insisting, so when they tried to take the satchel, I did the reasonable thing. I threw him into the nearest stall and ran. I would have shot him, but I thought that would make a bigger commotion, so I compromised.” She gives her neck a sickly pop, and I let out a sigh.

  “Those were probably members of the Drake gang. They run protection rackets on big money purchases; if you pay the fee, they won’t rob you. Real simple. Well, at least you didn’t use any flames.” I guide us through the tunnels via memory, and we eventually find a hatch that will lead us out into one of the back alleys.

  We climb out into the scorching Sun and blinding light. I look over at Jane. “We’re going to have to clean up in the Sand dunes or else we aren’t getting rid of this smell.” I gesture over to one of the dunes.

  She looks over at the dune and then back at me and then back at the dune. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”