Bailey could only ever remember darkness. It wasn’t all that bad, though. She had hand crank flashlights and dozens of multicolored candles that burned in enchanting rainbow shades. As a kid, she never needed to worry about rainy days. Living underground was pretty nice in her opinion, though she’d never known any different. Miles of stalagmites were hers for the taking. But if Bailey was honest with herself? A part of her still wondered how the sun must feel on her face. When she was seven years old, her great grandmother, the last villager to have been born before the bombs came, passed away--and memories of the sky with her. Nobody remembered which way they had come in.

Since then, Bailey discovered more important things to concern herself with. She was sixteen and stupid, and she loved it. For the past few years she’d apprenticed for her blacksmith father and was able to deck every other teen in the cave system. (she’d only really fought three of them, because they were the only ones ballsy enough to try to argue with her.) As of late, however, Bailey had taken to a single passion. She and the scrawny boy down the block liked to venture out on their own together, with the sole purposes of causing problems and collecting glowing rocks.

Emry wasn’t entirely sure how he ended up friends with Bailey, the jock asshole. He wasn’t gonna complain, though. If they were trapped in a cave for the rest of their lives, he might as well have fun, right? Bailey was the epitome of irresponsible and it was absolutely intoxicating. He checked the torches in the middle of town - which served both as a compass and a constantly visible clock. Emry chuckled to himself and grabbed his bag. It was time for an evening adventure.

Eighteen torches were still lit in the cave’s center - Bailey had about six hours until her curfew. Which meant seven left to explore, naturally. After a LONG day working metal beams, she was quick to leave shop. She tore through the front door of her mud house and out the back in about thirty seconds, flashlight and snacks in hand.

“Hey, you’re late, moron!” Emry teased. Bailey shone her flashlight in his eyes.

“You won’t make it to seventeen, I promise!”

“I’d say you're as dense as these rocks, but I haven’t found lead down here yet.”

Bailey kicked Emry in the shin. She liked him.

***

“One hour until we gotta be home.”

“Nah, two. What’re they gonna do, ban us from rocks? We live in a cave.”

“You’re the worst.”

“Same time tomorrow?”

***

Bailey’s luminescent rock collection was confiscated. She stole it back within an hour. It would’ve taken her even less time, too, had her sister not snitched like a brat. But despite getting in trouble, they both managed to sneak away for another night of shenanigans.

“Hey Em, let’s head up to the tunnels on the other side of the town. We haven’t been up there yet, have we?”

“Nobody goes up there. It’s kind of dangerous, right? Easy to get lost. And people who head up there don’t come back. We’re specifically not allowed to use tunnels.”

“Pussy.”

“Oh, real mature. What a compelling argument.” He agreed anyways.

It was chilly in the Tunnels on the Other Side of Town. Icy drips kept slinking down stalactites and onto Bailey’s neck, but she wasn’t about to chicken out in front of Emry. Besides, there could be new crystals up there. Beams from their old flashlights slid over jagged stones, and Bailey could feel the hair on her back prickle. Something wasn’t right.

“I think we’re lost.”

“I think you’re a coward, Em.”

“No way! But we can’t check the time from over here. Maybe we should start heading back. We could get in even more trouble.”

A pebble fell on Bailey’s head and she cursed.

“Fine. You lead the way, then!”

“Ladies first.” Neither of them had the slightest clue where they were.

“We’re lost.”

“I told you!”

“Dammit. Okay. Where did we just come from? There’s a fork here.”

"What, you think I know? Bailey, this was your shitty idea, and now we’re going to painfully starve to death alone in these tunnels.” Bailey rolled her eyes. Emry was so dramatic. She usually found it kind of endearing, which was very frustrating, because Emry acting cute happened to be a major distraction. She was supposed to be focusing on rocks, not the softness of his voice or the way he fiddled with his hair. He was pretty from what she saw caught in candlelight. But she was given no time to reflect.

“Hey, Bailey, wait. Look, there’s a hole in your pretzel bag.”

“Sorry? Thought we had more to worry about than spilled snacks.”

“No. Look, you made a trail. We can follow it home!”

“Oh hey! My dumbassery saves the day. Who’s laughing now, smart guy? ACK! I stepped in a puddle or something, EWW. Watch out, I think there’s some water running along the way we were headed.”

Emry wasn’t moving.

“Oh my god...It’s a stream. Running water.”

“Yeah, and? Isn’t your mom already gonna kill you for getting back this late again? This sounds SO unlike me, but we can figure it out tomorrow.” Emry was acting so strange. Why’d he care so much?

“You gave up on getting out years ago. I never did, though. It’s running to the ocean, don’t you see? We might not find this again! I know it wasn’t safe before, and that’s why we came down here, but that was eighty years ago, right?”

“Are you sure about this, Em?”

“More than anything.”

They kept on in the same direction. Back in town, their parents started to worry as two more torches were put out for the night. Just as Bailey started reasoning with herself it wouldn’t be too bad to bail out now, Emry grabbed her hand.

“LIGHT!! BAILEY, LIGHT!” He started sprinting with her in tow, until what was once a distant twinkle glared in their eyes.

“Wait, isn’t it midnight?” Bailey asked, flabbergasted. “Did we screw up our clocks that badly?” But that wasn’t important, she supposed. She turned a corner, and could never have made sense of what she saw in a million years. Sunlight beat down on them, but she couldn’t make out its source: clouds of ash filled the sky. The world was gray and burning. She turned to look at Emry, confused.

“This isn’t right. Em, why is there no grass? They said there was grass…” Emry fell to the ground.

“The bombs went off so long ago. I thought…” But he never finished his sentence. Something was breathing behind him, alive, and hungry.

***

A massive creature with far too many eyes, mutated by decades of radiation, dragged its prey through the ash. Two bodies, both pale, both warm. A boy with beautiful eyes, and a girl who never told him she loved them.

Astrid pulled into an old dirt driveway with her headlights off, as slowly as she could. The only light she could see as she stepped out of her yellow Bug was her breath, caught in an old porch bulb that needed replacing. She stopped to listen before shutting the door. The house she crept up beside barely looked lived in from the outside; ivy crept up walls with chipped paint that would've been white a decade ago. For a minute, she struggled with the velcro of her cargo pants, hands numb, until she wrestled her phone away and checked her texts. Her eyes had barely adjusted before a face appeared in the attic window. She stumbled back, startled, and the girl above grinned.

"You came! You see the ladder, right? It's right by the shed, c'mon up!!"

This girl is manic, Astrid thought to herself. How did she end up here? At a stranger's house, one in the morning, on a school night, no less! But this was her idea anyways, so she chuckled and ran around back.

They had only known each other for a week, tops. Usually, girls their age make friends at parties, or school, or literally anything other than finding each other on Snapchat and realizing the same boy was dating the two of them. At the same time. Secretly. After days of crying and typing out iMessage essays, Astrid was absolutely sick of Brandon. An hour earlier, she had texted Isabelle "hey u up rn?" and here they were.

"Oh god, I'm falling. Grab my arm, grab my arm!!"

"Here, you just need to get your knee up to the windowsill--"

"No, no, this was a mistake, ok, I just need to," THUMP. Well, she was inside now.

Isabelle's room was a bizarre combination of warm and comforting...and the set of a 1980s horror movie. It smelled like cinnamon. Pink floral wallpaper, lace curtains, and tiny potted plants clashed intensely with "repurposed" halloween animatronics, the 6 foot clown or mummy or witch kind. Collecting them was a hobby of hers. Astrid eyed them suspiciously as she rubbed her hands together.

"Alright, you ready to go trash his place? I've got loads of TP in the back."

"Hehe." Isabelle smirked. "I've never managed to sneak out before. Let's do this more often, I think the two of us are going to get along wonderfully."

Astrid smiled. As strange as this girl was, she agreed.

"Also, watch out for the zombie guy William, his motion sensor is a teensy bit overactive!"

She named them??

I slammed my fist against a wall. He wasn't getting it.

"I told you, it's TOO DANGEROUS. Listen to me! Can't you see what you're going to do?"

"I need to go through with this! If you cannot see the benefit, the greater good, that is your loss and your failure. My discoveries will be revolutionary."

Both of us flinched as an alarm sounded.

"They'll have DEVASTATING consequences," I shot back. I couldn't believe what my partner had become. The tall, hulking figure before me had gone mad with power. Bags formed under eyes that used to smile so warmly, so sweetly. Now he was pale, and sickly, and dangerous. I no longer knew this monster.

We worked together for years, studying astrophysics and trying to unfold the universe's darkest secrets. The two of us wanted more than anything to understand how it tore space and time. But I never wanted to harness our research.

"With a power source of this magnitude, I can bend the fabric of existence to my will! We could visit other worlds, other times. I've checked my calculations religiously. This is what we've spent our lives working for! How could you back down now?"

"You've broken into a nuclear power plant! How on earth can you think this is acceptable?! And if you even manage to open the smallest window, how do you expect to contain it? It just isn't safe yet! This is a blatant legal and ethics violation. I can't allow you to abuse my findings like this. I'm done with you."

"Then you're a coward. You'll see soon enough."

My heart stopped.

"YOU CAN'T! DON'T PUSH THAT--"

I knew he'd try to stop me.

And I knew it was illegal, and risky, and would cost me everything if it didn't go just right. But after a decade of preparation, I couldn't wait a day longer and I couldn't afford to waste such an opportunity. If I could learn how to create these rifts reliably, and maintain a stable opening, the possibilities would be endless. Humanity would be saved, carbon emissions eliminated! Hunger, war, all solved! We could live in a utopia of a world. Or beyond that, connect with extraterrestrial civilizations. This technology would alter the fate of everything I have ever known. I just needed to breach a few protocols is all: simple obstacles to total peace.

Maybe I was angry, and careless, and he was hurt. But no friendship ever made was worth losing this for. Even the only man I ever really trusted. We could've gone so far together, but he clearly never trusted me.

"I'm done with you." There were tears in his eyes, and betrayal, and fear. How could he be afraid of me? I only ever wanted him by my side. But I knew what I needed to do. Red lights were flashing, footsteps echoing in the halls; I didn't have much time.

"Then you're a coward. You'll see soon enough."

"YOU CAN'T! DON'T PUSH THAT--"