The first thing I notice is the heat.

     But my hands haven't even begun to thaw when a glowdark lunges at me. I dive to the left and hear my shoulder crack as I slam into something hard. A cloud of dust and sand forms around me, choking me. I scramble to my feet and start running before the glowdark has another go at me.

     Darting through the ruined desert village, I glance around for any sign of the others. I dive for cover into one of the dilapidated mudbrick houses, out of the sweltering heat. I catch my breath in the shade beneath the half caved-in roof. Something stirs in the shadows by the pantry. Another glowdark. I guess the manmade structures rule that Comma mentioned doesn't apply if there's a gaping hole in the ceiling.

     I climb onto the window sill and roll out onto ground; the glowdark zooms past me. Swallowing another mouthful of sand, I make a dash for the next mudbrick house, but that one's been reduced to a pile of rubble. Another glowdark shoots up from the debris. Perfect.

     "This way!" Gail waves at me from a couple houses over.

     I leap over a waist-high mudbrick wall and hurry over to her, the glowdarks hot in pursuit. I trip and try to grab onto something for balance, but I end up peeling away the air in front of me. A hole back into the nothing. I roll out of the way as a third glowdark erupts from the hole.

     "Careful—this world's already been through The End, so try not to peel through!" Gail shouts at me. "Least not 'till we find a rip that actually leads somewhere!" I get back up and keep running. Gail meets me halfway. We round the corner and sprint down another block. Wherever we go, the glowdarks have already razed the houses to the ground.

     "Have you seen the others?" I ask, struggling to keep up with her.

     "Nuh-uh. But I can feel them out if you can buy me some time."

     "Feel them out? How's that again?" To be fair, that transmitting stuff I did back in the last world ought to dispel whatever doubts I have about the existence of psychic phenomena. Makes more sense than glowing shadows and invisible beasts, anyway. "I've got an idea."

     I skid to a halt and spin around. Gail's eyes widen. The glowdarks torpedo towards me. I wait until the very last second... and then peel away the space directly in front of me. The glowdarks spill through the rip and back into the nothing.

     "Well?" I glance back over my shoulder.

     Gail presses the tips of her fingers to her temples.

     "Hurry!" Peering through into the nothing, I watch the glowdarks reorient themselves and come barrelling back in my direction. They flicker in and out of focus. I begin to back away, clamping my jaw shut instinctively.

     "Got it! Follow me." Gail takes off in the opposite direction of the vermillion-coloured sun, which has begun to sink beneath the sand dunes off in the horizon. I chase after her, throwing a glance back over my shoulder just in time to see the glowdarks emerge from the rip. They don't remain disoriented for long; within seconds, they've caught up with us.

     We veer off down an alleyway, hoping to shake them loose, but that only buys us another ten seconds or so. Another turn and we hit a dead end. The glowdarks have us cornered now.

     "Told ya I wasn't ready," Gail mutters, her forehead glistening with sweat.

     "Where are the others?" I can hardly breathe in this heat.

     "Up here." Comma smirks at us from the rooftops.

     "Where'd you get the bandolier?" Gail asks, noticing the belt of grenades Comma wears like a sash.

     Comma winks at us and then adjusts her toque. Locking her eyes on the approaching glowdarks, she bites the pin off of one of the grenades and lobs it at them. The grenade bounces once, twice, and then detonates. The glowdarks vanish, leaving behind only their shadows, burnt into the ground.

     "So grenades work on glowdarks," I say. "Good to know."

     Gail shakes her head. "They ain't dead. Just afraid of the light from the blast."

     "Then we better hustle before they come back," Comma insists. She tosses down a rope ladder for us. We venture through the heart of the village, leaping from rooftop to rooftop. A temple stands erect in the centre of the village. No wonder the glowdarks have avoided this place—the roof is coated in some sort of reflective residue that makes the whole thing blinding to look at.

     The three of us enter the temple. Our footsteps echo against the stone floor. "Topher!" Gail throws her arms around her brother, whose stump has been bandaged up. The same linen cloth hides the scarred half of Crawford's face. He sits with his back against an altar, gnawing on a stick of jerky.

     "Big score, huh?" Comma elbows me. Various stockpiled goods lay scattered about the interior of the temple: assault rifles, hand grenades, linen cloths, stale loaves of bread, camel-skin canteens, and other assorted goodies.

     I pat Topher on the shoulder. "Glad to see you pulled through."

     "A real miracle," says Topher. "Woke up with a bad case of the tingles. Strange taste in my mouth. To be honest, I thought I was a goner."

     "Don't you say that," Gail snaps, flashing Topher a stern look.

     "Got any water?" I rasp, my throat parched.

     "Not a drop," says Crawford. He shakes one of the canteens. "Empty. Every last one."

     "We'll have to do something about that sooner or later."

     Comma shakes her head. "Maybe not." She pulls the clockwork device out of her pocket and studies it. I try to sneak a peak, but she pushes me away. With her free hand, she activates the touch-screen gadget clipped to her belt. "Damn it. We're even further off-path than I thought." Her gaze wanders back and forth between the two devices. After a while, she pockets the clockwork device and clips the touch-screen gadget back to her belt. "Our best bet is to rip back through to the nothing. There'll be less glowdarks there than there are here."

     "That's crap!" says Crawford. "You said we'd be swarmed when we got here. I counted no more than six glowdarks on our way to the temple."

     Six glowdarks? Apparently Gail and I got off easy.

     Comma growls. "I've had enough of you, neckbeard."

     "Guys, relax." Topher massages his brow. "You're giving me a headache."

     "Are you siding with her now too?"

     "We'd be dead if it wasn't for Comma," Topher points out.

     Crawford throws his arms up in resignation. "Great. Freakin' perfect."

     Eager to change the subject, I walk over to the weapons pile and pick up an assault rifle. "So. Anyone know how to shoot one of these?"

     "I'm a pretty good shot," says Topher. He pauses and glances at his stump. "Well I was a pretty good shot, anyway."

     "Gimme," says Gail. I toss her the rifle. "I used to shoot me some varmint back home."

     "Not with an AK-47, I'll bet," Crawford mutters.

     Gail trains the barrel on him. "Like you've ever shot one."

     "As a matter of fact—"

     "Your computer games don't count."

     Crawford frowns. "Says who?"

     Comma watches us, chewing on a stick of jerky. I can't tell what she's thinking. And it's not until that evening that I find out. Most of the group hold out until dusk before conking out. As usual, Comma crawls over to me when everyone else is asleep. I pocket my cell phone before she notices it.

     "What's up?" I ask.

     "We need to have a little chat. Walk with me."

     I follow her back outside the temple. We don't stray too far from it; the glowdarks have already begun to draw nearer now that the sun's begun to set. The reflective surface on the roof of the temple has dimmed somewhat.

     "So what's this about?"

     Comma unclips the touch-screen thingy from her belt. "I think it's time I let you in on something."

     "Don't go spoiling things now. The fact that you're an enigma is your greatest appeal."

     "Shut up." Comma activates the touch-screen device. "I've been out here longer than the rest of you. For me, it's already been seven years since The End."

     That hits me like a brick to the face. "Seven years? How is that even...?"

     "You remember what Gail said about time discrepancies in the nothing?"

     "Yeah, but seven years..." I get this sinking feeling inside, as if I'm plummeting through the sky. What if it's been seven years for Olivia well? Invisible tendrils tighten around my heart. What if it's been longer?

     "So anyway, after about a year of running and hiding, I joined up with this group of survivors. I can't tell you much about them, but I can tell you this: they're good at one thing, and that's staying alive. They've also got neat little gadgets like these."

     "What does it do?"

     "Maps interdimensional trajectories, for one." She shakes her head when I start to move my mouth. "Don't ask. There are others who can explain stuff like that much better than I can. What I want to tell you is what I was doing out in the nothing when I found you."

     "When you found me?"

     Comma nods. "I, along with some other members of my group, was out on a scouting mission. See, every once in a while we go looking for individuals who... might be of use to us. If we find anyone who fits the profile, we take them back to wherever our current base is and make them one of our own. And it just so happens that you fit the profile."

     "Because I'm a ripper?"

     She nods.

     "And to get back to your group, we have to pass through the nothing again?"

     "That's right."

     I shake my head. "Good luck convincing the others—"

     "The others aren't coming with us." We freeze. We've wandered a little too far from the temple. A glowdark stirs in the alleyway opposite us. "Gail maybe. But the other two are dead weight. And they wouldn't be allowed to join anyway."

     "You're joking, right? If Topher and the others hadn't taken us in, we'd be dead right now."

     "If they hadn't taken us in, so would they," she countered. "But that's not the point; this isn't about what's right. I may be a scout, but I don't get the final say as to who joins the group. And the higher-ups are pretty strict about keeping our location a secret. So bringing the others with us would only put them in more danger."

     I start to head back to the temple.

     "Aren't you going to give this some thought?" Comma asks, catching up with me.

     "You only want me because I'm a ripper. How do I know your people won't just hold me hostage? Make me their slave."

     "We wouldn't do that. But there are people out there who would. That's why you need us; we can protect you."

     "And I'm supposed to just take your word for it? How do I know I can trust you?"

     There, I said it. Comma stops walking. I turn around. She stares at me, broken somehow. Then she holds up the gadget for me to see. It's displaying some kind of countdown timer. "When the timer hits zero, they leave. Whether we've made it to the rendezvous point or not. I'm not asking you to trust me. Look, just think it over, okay? I'm only trying to—"

     Our conversation is interrupted by the sound of a gunshot. We dash back to the temple and storm through the doors.

     A man, roughly Topher's age, spins around. He stares at us over the barrel of his rifle. "Hands in the air, now!" Behind him, Gail creeps behind the altar, where she's set down the assault rifle. Before she can even take aim, the man spins around and shoots the weapon right out of her hands. Comma lunges at him, but he's too fast; he twirls around and whacks her in the head with the butt of the rifle. "Okay then," he says, aiming the barrel right between my eyes. "Somebody want to tell me what the hell you're all doing in my temple?"

Author's Note:

Our heroes just can't catch a break, can they? So, have you got any theories on what these mysterious glowdarks are yet?

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