Five was unaware whether Sam had been gone five minutes or five hours. The silence seemed to press upon her ears as she ran, fear throbbing through her veins once more. Perhaps it was better this way—perhaps it was better that Five could hear the surrounding area—but she found herself wishing for her radio controller to return. Whether he was a dangerous distraction or not, Five didn't care. If she were going to die tonight, she wanted to hear him one last time.

"Okay, hi," a voice popped in her ear, nearly making her heart jump through her throat. He was back. He hadn't abandoned her. "Right, so, yeah. Um… two things. A: Well, I was right. It was cake outside and ice cream inside." Five almost laughed. She had forgotten about Sam's ice cream rolls. "B: Apparently, checking this is not a good reason to wake Janine up in the middle of the night, okay? Yeah. Okay. Got it. So… um… where were we? Ah, yeah, right. Before. Wanna know what I did before this?"

Five picked up her pace, making her strides longer. Despite the consistency of their time together, Sam had never told her his story, and she had never shared hers. Perhaps she knew his favorite movies and music and flavors of jam, but they had been careful to avoid any stories that were too difficult to think about.

And yet, here they were. Thinking about the impossible.

"Well, I'm imagining you're brimming over with enthusiasm," Sam joked. "With… with these mad skills I expect you think I was a DJ or a radio host or something like that, don't you? Nuh uh. I was a student, man, fourth year. Engineering degree."

Engineering? Five wouldn't have expected Sam to be happy doing—

"I was, just for the record," Sam said, interrupting her thought. "Really, really, really terrible at it. I didn't even enjoy it, that's the sad part. I tried so hard, and—and my parents, they wanted me to be good at it so much. I… yeah, well… I guess at least they died not knowing I was probably going to fail the course."

He had never told her this. Never had he mentioned that his family was gone. Five gulped, keeping her eyes forward in the dark, just plodding south and listening. That was all she could do.

"My dad would have been so angry," he continued, seemingly lost in his story. "He was so angry when I failed French, and he didn't even care about French. He was Chinese. He was all, 'You have dishonored the family,' et cetera, et cetera. My mom wasn't angry. Just sad. You know what's really bad, Runner Five, y—you know what's really, really just… horrible?"

Five wondered what could possibly be more horrible than feeling inferior for the entirety of his life and then having his parents dead.

"This—what I'm doing right now—is what I wanted to do. I used to mess around at the radio station at uni. I—I wanted to talk on air, or work behind the scenes or something. I thought—I thought, maybe, if I failed my degree, my parents would let me go and do what I wanted, but…" He sighed. "Yeah. No, probably they wouldn't. What's really, really, bad, is… some days… some days, I'm grateful for all this."

Five's eyes widened as Sam laughed hollowly. "Because I—I don't have to get up in the morning and go to classes and pretend—pretend I care about engineering. I…"

Sam paused again, and Five almost had to stop running, horror-struck as she was. Sam—bright, cheerful, loyal Sam Yao—was grateful for the apocalypse.

"I'll be right back."

Five's heart swelled, and she blinked furiously. He felt guilty. He felt the guilt of being thankful for the horrible event that was slowly destroying humanity. Five choked a little on her breaths, struggling to remain composed.

Yes, his thoughts were terrible, but they were also human. Five wanted nothing more than to… than to be with him now. She wanted to hug him tightly and tell him everything was going to be all right.

But it wasn't.

She was probably miles away from Abel still. She couldn't hold him, much less speak to him.

Well. All the more reason for her to make it back. She didn't want to accept her fate out here now, damn it. She wanted to live. To… to see him again with her own eyes.

"Hey! Hey. Hi." His voice sounded husky as he returned. "I—I say, 'Hi'. Possibly, I mean, 'Damn you, fiend who has taken the body of Runner Five and is using it for its own horrifying purposes.' Or… possibly I mean… 'Sorry you're dead, Runner Five.'" As upsetting as that statement was, Five didn't allow herself to become distraught. He was still here. As long as he kept speaking, he still held some hope that she would return.

"That stuff's weird, isn't it?" he asked. "Other people you actually know are dead. I know my parents are dead because I… yeah, well, I—I know they're dead, and it was pretty horrible, but… my sister, no idea." He paused. Sister? Sam had a Sister? "She'd, uh, just started her first year at uni. Law. She was actually good at it. Liked it. Made my parents proud. No… besmirching family honor. Came home with top grades in the class after her first term. I remember that Christmas before …the fall of civilization. All the praise for her." His voice lowered bitterly. "Now, I was jealous, man. And then… the thing happened while she was staying with her boyfriend, and we couldn't get her on the phone, and—and she never knew our parents had… turned, and… Oh, I dunno. She's probably dead."

He sighed, and Five's fingers clenched tightly on the empty air as she ran. She needed to make it back to Abel now, if not for anything else but to give Sam the hug he desperately needed. That was all she wanted. If she could reassure Sam that he wasn't alone—that she was there for him—then she would be content.

I'm coming, Sam.