Thankfully she was back within the hour. But it had been the longest hour he'd ever experienced. It hadn't occurred to Sam until moments after she'd left to ask what would happen if she didn't return. The answer was obvious. Her dad would come into the room and one or both of them would have surely ended up dead.

Her smile was genuine as she approached him, only the second time he'd actually seen her smile. "I didn't even get to the edge of the Sector. I was stopped by Sector Patrol, I know the guy and went to school with his younger brother. He told me there'd been an incident, asked me if I had seen anything unusual when leaving work last night then sent me back home, saying I could be called up for further questioning but he didn't think it would be necessary."

The relief he felt was immeasurable. It wasn't like him to worry about another person, but this was the girl he owed his life to. "I'm glad you're okay." He said the words softly, as shocked to be saying them as she was to hear them. She simply looked him hard in the eyes and said nothing.

"I'm going out again. Dad's taking me to the store. We're low on food and stuff. Then he's going to work and I'll be working from here."

"I thought the diner was your job!"

"The diner is one of my jobs. Was one of my jobs... I'm also a seamstress which I do from home. It's a job that's far more acceptable for me to have than the diner. Not many people knew about that one anyway. Dad hates me going into the Transit Sector but he learned a long time ago that he can't stop me."

"Why didn't I see you enter the diner yesterday?"

She frowned at him.

"I was watching. Five staff went in and five staff went out. Then your crooked employer got paid to conveniently forgot to lock the front door."

The frown deepened. "You suspect me of something? You were watching the diner?"

"I knew what was going to go down and thought I'd made sure that everyone had cleared out first. I wouldn't have done anything if I knew anyone innocent was still in the building."

She didn't look like she'd believed him. "I did a double shift. The ones you saw come and go were the afternoon crew that I'm usually part of. Pedro was shot staffed so I started early. I was already there before they arrived and I was on trash duty. Whoever takes out the trash goes out the back door and locks it behind them."

He knew she was speaking the truth and hated that she thought he suspected her. "I thought I'd made a mistake, that I'd missed something. I wasn't implying your involvement in any way."

Her lips thinned and he could still see her displeasure.

"I'm not trying to give you the third degree, I'm just trying to understand. I have questions about you and this whole travelling through Sectors thing."

"I know. And I'll answer them when I come back."

Again he was left behind, but this time he was relaxed enough to catch up on a little sleep knowing that the house was empty and he was locked in the room.

She returned in a jovial mood. "I love shopping. It's something I'm really going to miss." Handing him a candy bar that she'd stashed in her pocket she lowered herself onto the floor next to him and before unwrapping one of her own. "I'll answer some of your questions now and some later when I've done some work. What's your first question?"

He didn't even know where to start, there were so many. "The Plan?"

Mercedes shook her head. "Too complicated. Save that question for later. Ask something else."

"Tell me about Outside. I still don't really understand it." Sam hated admitting his ignorance, especially to this girl who should be the one to be far more ignorant than him.

She nibbled on her chocolate. "It's simple. Outside is the place between Sectors. And when I say between Sectors I'm including the Transit Sectors in that." She grinned, "I'm about to blow your mind with this simple truth… Not all the Sectors are completely joined together along all their edges! We're all taught that there are Sectors and Transit Sectors between them. What nobody ever talks about is the fact that there are also sections of Outside, that run between the Sectors and Transit Sectors like seams. They're patches of untouched land, sometimes small like the one I cut across and sometimes vast spaces encompassing hills and mountains and valleys, but all land in its natural untouched state. Where we were with the grass and the trees, that was Outside. I've been using it as a shortcut for years to get between here and the Transit Sector. It's like stepping across a small river instead of walking along the shore to find a bridge then doubling back on yourself along the other side."

Mindblowing!

"So how come I didn't know about Outside?" Being a man, it definitely made him uncomfortable that this girl knew about things that he didn't.

"Most people don't know. All we know are Sectors. All we're told of is of Sectors. We're taught that all that exists between Sectors are Transit Sectors. For the average person going about their life there's no need to know about anything more than that. But I'm not your average person."

"Yeah. I noticed. So come you know about Outside?"

She smiled the smile of someone remembering. "I found it. I saw the gate one day and I went through it."

"Right! I needed to ask you that. How do you do the whole passing through thing? Knowing there was a fence at the end of a dead ended alley and seemingly passing through a brick wall to get into this Sector?"

She smiled. "I'm special. I have Perception."

"Perception?"

"The entrances to Outside. They've always been there, in full view of everybody but nobody chooses to see them because they're not looking for them. If you don't know what Outside is, why go looking for it?"

"But you were looking?"

"Like I said, I'm different. Ever since I was a child I knew that there had to be something more. This Sector stifled me and I didn't feel like I belonged. Everyone walks around wearing blinkers and nobody has the desire to explore. I struck up a friendship with Quinn. She was the daughter of the spirit family I told you about. They weren't very well liked and she was pretty much my only friend. She used to tell me about life in her Sector 6 and how it was so different to here. Her family had travelled through many Sectors as she grew up and she'd seen many things. She showed me a gate to Outside and I immediately went through it. She was stunned, said that most people she'd shown couldn't even see the entrance right in front of them. It's because they have no desire to see so their eyes do not register it. A few managed to see it but had no desire to investigate. I was the first and only one to go straight through. We used to play on the grass together and run between the trees. Once I'd seen one entrance suddenly I could see all the others. It was like a cloud had been lifted. Everything made sense to me. Places people walked past every day were suddenly entrances to another world and everybody was just blindly walking past them! Quinn was the one who told me about The Sea. She said she didn't remember it but she was born there and they travelled from there while she was still a small baby. Her description of it made me decide that I wanted to see it for myself and that my life's mission would be to see the Sea."

The word meant nothing to him. "What's the Sea?"

She stared at him hard. "You've never heard of it?"

Not wanting to sound even more ignorant if front of the girl he immediately went on the defensive. "Of course I've heard the word, just not the explanation!"

"The Sea is a body of water." She smiled again as she spoke and he knew that whatever the hell it was, it had to be something that made her happy. "It's bigger than a river and bigger than a lake."

He had never seen a body of water bigger than a lake before. "Just how big are we talking about?"

"Huge. It stretches farther than they eye can see. It stretches for days and weeks and months. And the water is different. It's full of salt and it moves all the time. Not like rivers which flow in one direction, it travels back and forth along the edge of the land but it never actually goes anywhere."

"I don't get that."

"Neither do I! I'm told it's something you have to see to understand. It's called a Tide and it's controlled by the moon. There's so much to learn and I want to see it for myself. I want to swim in it. I want to watch the sun rise over it in the morning and set over it in the evening."

"And your friend, she was sure about this place?"

"Oh yes. Her parents spoke of it, and through the years I've met people in the Transit Sector who've seen it."

Sam nodded, not really sure what to believe. "So what happened to Quinn?"

"I don't know. One day her whole family were gone. I looked everywhere but there was no sign of them. My dad said they'd appeared suddenly so it didn't surprise him that they disappeared like that too. I knew that they would have travelled again but was sad at not having the opportunity to say goodbye. The next time I went Outside I saw something next to our favorite tree. It was a gift and a note." She reached under her pillow and showed him a small round item. He'd never seen anything like it before. It had an arrow that span around and four letters equally spaced around the edge like a clock face: N, E, S and W.

She handed it to him and he ran his fingers over it. "What is it?"

"It's called a compass. It tells you what direction you're going. The sun rises in the East and sets in the West. The Snow falls in the North and the Sea is at the furthest point when you head South."

"So you're going to follow this to find the Sea?"

She looked at him and his disbelief incredulously. "It's basic geography Sam! I know you might think it, but I'm not basing my life's dream on a myth. Land has to end somewhere and I want to get to the place where the land stops and the Sea starts."

"And what do you plan to do when you get there?"

"Live out the rest of my days looking out at the sea and knowing that I had the courage to achieve my dream." For all her craziness he couldn't fault her determination.

"And where do I fit into all of this?"

"You?" She took to compass from him and played with it between her fingers. "You're going to help me. I don't want to do this trip on my own. I can't do it on my own. Quinn was safe because she had her family with her. My family, they aren't like me. Like most they're happy here, they have their lives here and they'll die here. They have no desire to leave. And they would never let me go on my own."

"So why don't you just run away?"

"Because I don't want to hurt them or bring shame on them. In this Sector a girl will only leave home if she's married. There is no other valid reason. And I have no intention of getting married. To do that would tie me here forever! Unfortunately remaining unmarried is a huge shame too and I cannot break my father's heart by shaming him. The third option is to have to run away and get married. It's the kind of thing that'll end up happening to the likes of Rachel who we came across Outside. To be 'with child' while unmarried means that you'll be sent away or have to run away. There is no place in this society for unwed mothers, but unlike other places, the life of the unborn is treasured so the mother is given the chance to make a go of her life elsewhere as long as she promises never to return and bring shame on her family. It means saying goodbye to your family and community, but holds greater respect here because it does not involve taking an innocent life and the knowledge that you're doing the right thing."

"That's strange."

"I know. But that's the way it is. It's supposed to be a form of punishment but many have used it as a form of escape. It's easier to ask for forgiveness than it is to ask for permission, and this sector is pretty big on forgiveness. The life of an unborn child is more important than the mother and there is no sin greater than taking the life off an innocent. Anything done and any sacrifice made to prevent that from happening is seen as an honourable thing to do."

Sam felt uncomfortable. Even though the lives he'd taken were not in any way innocent, he was still conscious that he was now in a community that held life as far more sacred than he did and it was something that he was eventually going to be at odds with. Worse than that, he was starting to see how this girl's plans were starting to come together and by the sounds of it she was needing him to play some kind of fake baby daddy as an excuse to run away! "So that time when we were outside and you kissed me..."

"It was all part of the Plan. Rachel has a big mouth. It's only a matter of time before she says something to my dad about me being seen. I'm too much of a good girl for him to believe it from me, it has to come from somebody else. Somebody who would be in the position to catch me and feel that I should be reported."

"This Rachel sounds awful!"

"Not awful. Just deluded. We used to be good friends until she decided that she was better than me. She used to do everything she could to be the most popular but that wasn't my thing. I always kept my head down and behaved well. I didn't want to be first all the time, I just wanted to be a good Citizen and I guess that eventually wound her up. She loved the idea of setting herself up as my competition but the sad thing is that I was never in competition with her. She has her life and I have mine. I avoid attention while she craves it. We're different people and that's all. She just wants to dent my reputation but I don't resent her for it because ultimately she'll unwittingly play a part in helping to realize my dream."

Suddenly he felt his frustration start to grow. This was the stupidest thing he'd ever heard! "You're forgetting one important detail in your plan!"

"What's that?"

"Me!"

She frowned. "What about you?"

"What happens if I say no? What happens if I refuse to do this?"

She shot him a cold hard stare. "Then you can go and fend for yourself. The key for my plan to work is to find somebody equally as desperate with nothing to lose. You fit the bill. You're also just about young enough to pass convincingly as someone who could get me into trouble."

"So you just want me for my looks!" Despite himself he grinned at the sheer craziness of what she'd just said.

"I don't care about your looks. It's not as if this is all for real! Don't flatter yourself on that front. I just need you because you look strong and I need someone to carry a water filter for us to use while we travel! We wouldn't last long without one."

Something about his terse reply made him stop short. She really had been giving thought to this plan. This crazy stupid plan. "And what about your dad? What if he tries to kill me for allegedly getting his daughter pregnant?"

She looked at him as if he was crazy. "Yet again, not everybody is you. Not everybody uses killing people as a solution!"

It was starting to annoy him. "You act as if what I did was a hobby, something I did for fun! It was my job and only my job. Underneath it all, surprisingly I am not a psychopath! If I was then you wouldn't still be here discussing your crazy plan. You'd be six foot under!"

"Oh so I'm crazy am I!"

"Yep. Definitely! Have you actually listened to your crazy half-baked Plan?"

Her eyes lit up with anger. "Oh so you think you can do better than this 'stupid' idea do you? Well please, do go ahead! I'm all ears!"

It shouldn't be that difficult to come up with something! How hard could it be?

He didn't get a chance to reply because she'd left the room in a huff, leaving him to his thoughts.