"Attempting to escape," Scion scoffed as the boy ran. "A futile ruse. Should I eliminate it?"

"No!" Sam yelled. "The other side's locked and the only other way out is behind us. C'mon – he's just scared. We all are."

"Hardly," Scion acquiesced.

"Lily, stay here with Scion," Sam told her companion. "I'll smooth things over. I don't want you to get hurt if he's wild or something."

Of course, that means you'll be the one getting hurt, Sam thought. Ah well.

Without bothering to catch Lily's reaction, Sam sprinted off down the coffin-lined hallway after the boy. The running warded off the chilly environment, even if Sam's breath still steamed out of her mouth like a wispy ghost. The blur of a boy in front of her came to the final hallway's end after a minute of chase, screeching to a halt and slamming a cold fist onto frozen metal. Sam pulled up behind him, giving him space. She knew all too well from her time in District 10 what happened when a frightened animal was cornered.

"Wait!" Sam held her hands out and wide. "Wait – I'm not going to hurt you. I'm lost. I just want to ask you for help."

"Help?" the boy's voice was higher and softer than Sam had expected as he rounded on her, his eyes torn between confusion and an adrenaline rush. "Help? No one down here asks for help unless they're dead or trying to kill you! I don't believe you. I don't believe you!"

"I'm not like them!" Sam pleaded. "I'm not even from here. I'm…new."

Something flickered in the boy's eyes with Sam's words. He tilted his head to the side, pausing just a brief moment: "Bullshit."

"I'm from…the surface, not here," Sam didn't even know where to start. "My friends and I got stuck here. We're trying to get out…escape…but we don't know how. I woke you up because I need someone to help me. Please – please, I just want to go home, to get away from all this. That's all I'm asking from you."

"If you're from above," the boy hissed, his eyes turning dark. "Why's the Curator with you and that other girl?"

"The what?"

"The drone," he pointed ambiguously off from the direction they'd come, his words demanding an answer. "The Curator. Maybe it calls itself 'Scion' and added a Biblical quote to its name, but that thing's a killer. Why are you walking around with it?"

"I…" Sam hesitated, stumbling over words. Scion had helped her out of at least one sticky situation already – and clearly the drone had intimate knowledge of the station, even in its rambling way. Sure, it could kill – but it wasn't as if she was any more innocent of that specific crime. "It's the only thing that's helped me so far. Please. I'm just trying to get away from all this. I'm not asking for anything else."

The boy looked Sam up and down, the cold blue-white lights of the crypt etching sharp shadows across his curved features. He wasn't much taller than her up close – certainly not the threatening sort, even if he oozed suspicion of her intent. But why was he so paranoid over Scion?

"Alright," the boy said. "You want my help? Here's the deal – you can even keep that drone around for now, although I'm warning you, it's going to end up killing you at some point. You want me, you're going to have to take me with you?"

"What?" Sam didn't understand.

"I've lived my whole life in this crumbling dump," the boy looked around the crypt with a toothy grin. "Never seen the sun. Never seen nothin' but people killing each other. I'd like that to change. You take me with you, you have a deal. Can't be any worse for me than whatever else is waiting, I guess."

Well, it's not all that different with the killing thing up top… Sam though. Why spoil that, however?

"Deal," Sam agreed. "I'm Sam, by the way."

"David," the boy replied curtly, looking off into space down the long halls of the crypt. "Where are you trying to get to, anyway?"

"The – Scion, said we could release the controls that are holding up the submersible we came in somewhere in the center of this…city, I guess," Sam said vaguely. "So we could take it back out and leave."

David gave her an odd expression, his gray eyes lingering on her face –looking past her face – for a moment: "If you say so."

"Um…what were…you doing in this morgue, anyway?" Sam got to the question she'd been meaning to ask as the two began walking back down the crypt's long halls again. "I mean – how old are you?"

"Sixteen," David grunted. "Wasn't exactly my choice. If you noticed, I'm not a raving, foaming-at-the-mouth lunatic like most people in Lazarus are. They tend not to like that."

"Why pick you out, then?"

"Oh, they didn't single me out," David laughed coldly. "Most people I lived with in a slum near the city center were also interned here. I guess they're all dead from power failure or something. I s'pose I should be thanking whatever idol the Brotherhood worships, huh?"

Sam didn't reply. The thought was horrible – being locked away in a coffin, condemned to a freezing death. David's fate was even worse: Being the only one of all those people to still be alive. No wonder he'd reacted with such hostility and fear upon first waking up.

David laughed upon being introduced to Lily – not a laugh of joy or happiness, but one of exhaustion: The kind of laughter that only came out because one had no other answer to give.

"Great," he sighed. "Three teenagers – you're not even a teen then, Lily, huh? – and this drone romping right into the middle of a den of murderous, xenophobic nuts. No weapons. This'll go well. How the hell did you all even end up here? Does whoever runs the surface now make a habit of sending kids to go explore?"

"We couldn't help it," Lily squeaked.

"Our hovercraft – er, something that flies in the air –"

"I know what an airplane is, Sam."

"Yeah…well, it crashed on an island, which led us here. We didn't really have much of a choice."

"Excellent," David slumped his shoulders. "I'm optimistic about this plan already."

"We can figure that out later," Sam pressed. "Do you know a way out of here?"

"In a tomb?" David laughed. "Are you kidding? I know the inner city fine, but I can't even tell you where at all we are right now. Ask the drone. Once we get to the fields, I can start finding my way around."

"The what?"

"It's where we grow food, make oxygen," he explained. "If the drone can get us that far, I can take over."

"Splendid!" Scion had listened in the whole time, fiddling with the door control via its extendable arm. "An underwater passage links the Medical Pavillion to the Ceres Fields block."

"Underwater?" Lily didn't sound thrilled by the prospect.

"Enclosed, of course," Scion quipped. "Humans are far too fragile for aquatic navigation."

"Really?" David said. "Why don't you take an 'aquatic navigation' of your own once we get to the fields?"

"How dramatic humans have become in the urban corridors," Scion sniffed. "I assure you, sir, I know these blocks to the column inch from my internal data-"

"Stop!" Sam shouted. "Stop! Fighting's just going to hurt us…and we need to leave. We need to get moving. Where does this underwater tunnel go?"

"To the Government Sector, of course," Scion turned to her, his row of lights flashing. "And the military barracks. I am afraid they are a total loss – completely vacant. Power died in the sector three days ago."

"Can you take us there?"

"Naturally."

"Then let's do it," Sam said.

At first glance, waking up a guide looked like exactly the wrong thing to do. Sam had blissfully trusted Scion to lead the way earlier – now her newest companion had brought all sorts of questions regarding the drone to the forefront of her mind. Where did it really come from? And with the killing power she'd seen it use, did Scion have a dark side it was hiding? Of course, she couldn't just blindly trust David then, either – what agenda did he have against Scion? Was he being truthful…or concealing some painful secret?

Sam didn't want to deal with the questions. She already had to find Firth and the others, all while keeping Lily safe. Furthermore, she had her own secret – she wasn't just trying to get out, no; not until she discovered the truth about this thing Nihlus had wanted so badly.

All these secrets would have to come bubbling up eventually. When they did…Sam could only hope their revealing wouldn't bring about more loss. This place had seen enough of that.