Previously:

    Sam and Robin spent another hour talking to each other and catching up before finally heading back up to the Living Quarters. Robin was a few floors above Sam, so once they got to Sam's floor they hugged and separated. Robin gave Sam a stern look before letting her walk through the door " You better message me first thing in the morning, in fact I want a text every morning for two weeks to make sure you don't go off and disappear again."

Sam laughed and replied, "I promise mom."

Present: (3 months later)

*BANG*

*BANG BANG*

     Curses flew from Sam’s mouth as she was hitting an engine with a hammer. How familiar this feeling is? Sam laughed to herself and thought back to that fateful day that in reality… didn’t lead to that much change in her life. She went to work every day and got all caught up on the mess that took weeks to fix; she kept up with Robin every morning, sending a good morning text which usually included a quirky message of not being dead… yet. Sam never felt like she was being watched by Don or Annie and never saw those two again since those days. Don kept in touch for a few weeks afterward but that eventually came to an end, and Sam fell back into her old routine. The illness was still going around, food prices were going up and things were normal. One thing that did change for Sam was how much more she noticed Ghost of Archimedes activity. About once every couple weeks a new incident occurred that ranged from robbery to assault on officers. Nothing as big as murder though and we have a new representative that is staying in hiding for now.

     The mechanical fight she went through on a daily basis was something she didn’t mind so much anymore. Feeling healthier and going through the experience that she did, added a weird sense of being happy to alive. Checking her workplace app on her phone Sam needed a break from this particular bastard of a machine. Looking at all the green sections on her screen brought a smile to her face. Scrolling down Sam noticed that one of the engines was turned off and no longer running. It was in one of the dark sections of her area, so Sam grabbed her flashlight and headed in the direction of the turned off engine. Walking down the hallway there was a wall of darkness that separated the area where the LED floodlights were on and where they turned off. Good thing I’m not scared of the dark. Turning on her flashlight Sam continued down the hall and climbed down a ladder to get to the lower area.

     Still in the dark Sam reached the turned off engine, it was still warm to the touch. Giving it a brief look over she couldn’t see anything wrong with it. Shrugging to herself Sam tried turning it on via a button on the side of it and immediately it started right up. “Odd.” Not thinking too much into it Sam returned back to her stubborn engine and the rest of the day went on without any issue.

     Over the next few weeks Sam noticed more and more strange little things, like air duct vents not being on properly and if she left food out, on more than one occasion it would disappear while her back was turned. Originally Sam thought nothing of it, chalking it up to rats. But things got more suspicious when she intentionally put her food in a lunch box and the whole tin box disappeared. This pissed Sam off, lunch boxes were pretty expensive. Spending the day fuming about the fact of someone stealing her food she later found the lunch box empty on her toolbox later.

     Robin was no help, after telling her about her problem Robin just shrugged and told her she should’ve gotten a locking lunchbox. Sam scoffed my friend she says. Back in her room and about to go to sleep Sam was thinking of a plan to catch her thief.

     The next day Sam had her phone hidden under some rags with her camera taking video pointed at her lunch in hopes of catching whoever was doing this. Going about her usual work it was about halfway through the day when Sam opened the lunchbox and sure enough her bread and cheese sandwich was gone. Now time to see who’s been doing this for weeks. Sam hummed a tune to herself as she went over to her phone to see that it was still recording and stopped the video. Starting from the beginning and fast-forwarding through the video Sam felt her mouth drop as she paused the video and saw a kid, a little boy, pop out of nowhere while Sam was a away and opened her box slowly to take the food and run off somewhere else in the engine room. The fuck?! A million and one questions ran threw Sam’s head and she was at a loss on what to do.

     Parentless kids were supposed to be reported to the officials immediately then they would pick up the kid and take them to the lower floors never to be seen again. I wonder where he’s hiding… Thinking back to Juda, Sam didn’t want to report the incident, but it wasn’t safe for the kid to be staying in the engine room. He’s probably staying in the air vents, that’s why they’ve been out of place recently Sam got her daily work done and afterward rummaging through some old drawers Sam found something that might help the kid sleep better. A wool blanket that Sam had kept down here in emergency Sam left it out in the open hoping the boy would take it. Taking her phone out Sam sent a quick message to Robin

Hey, want to meet up in the market place today? I need some advice.

     Walking down the floors, she was halfway down when she got a chime from her phone and got a reply from Robin.

Sure, I’ll be down in an hour or so. I’ll let you know when I’m on my way.

     Sam got to the Market Place and got some food to replace her lunch. Finding a nice place near a window on the outskirts of the marketplace Sam looked out among the planet while waiting for Robin. Felix was a Red planet, covered in red sand, it resembled a desert with dead trees sprinkled about. You were taught as a kid that it was extremely dangerous on the planet surface. While the air was breathable, there was life here before we came along. Mostly animals that were carnivorous and plant life that was poisonous. No one went out there, but it was pretty to look at. We would often get sandstorms that looked like waves of blood swirling around the tower and they would last for days sometimes. Today was a clear day with the red sand and the red-ish black sky. Even with the two suns up the sky was mostly black and you could see the stars of the galaxy.

    Sam sent her location to Robin and just stared out the window thinking what to do. She didn’t even her phone chime as she was so lost in thought. She actually jumped in surprise when Robin suddenly sat in front of her and waved a hand in front of her face.

“Hello, Felix to Sam. You alive in there?”

‘Shit, sorry Robin was lost in my own world again.”

Robin smirked at her and took out her water bottle. “I see that, want a drink.”

Sam shook her head “No thanks, So I found out who’s been messing with me the last few weeks.”

“Oh yeah, who?”

     Sam looked around and saw that they were alone with the closest people being more than 30 meters away. Leaning in close to Robin she spoke in barely over a whisper. “It’s a little boy. Parentless it looks like.” Robin’s eyes widen in surprise.

“You’re going to report it right?”

“What?! No way, you’ve seen what happens to those kids. They never return.”

     “No, I haven’t seen what happens to the kids and neither have you. All we know is that they get transferred to a lower floor where they’re probably under someone’s protection. Which is a whole lot better than being stuck here starving and alone.”

Sam kept quiet as Robin scrutinized her. “Please Sam, the boy isn’t your problem. Don’t go looking for problems. Please.”

“I won’t…”

     After that, the topic of the boy ended and they talked about their usual things for the rest of the night. Things were a little awkward between the two though, as Sam’s heart wasn’t in the conversation and was still thinking about what to do with the kid. She couldn’t leave him alone and turning him in didn’t seem like the right answer either.

“Alright Sam well they’re about to close the floor and I’m tired. Ready to go up?”

“Yeah sure.”

     Following Robin up the floors they got to Sam’s floor and she gave her hugs goodbye and headed to her room. In her room Sam had made up her mind to try and find the kid to see what was going on with him. Grabbing a pillow and another blanket She was going to break one of her own rules and sleep in her section. The walk there was pretty empty as most people were falling asleep everywhere. Whether it be against a wall or under a bench. Reaching her floor Sam noticed that the blanket she had left out was indeed gone. She was determined to find the kid and walked along her section looking for a vent that was out of place or maybe he was sleeping in a corner. Trying to keep quiet she tip-toed around and found a vent in the dark section that was missing its cover. Sneaking up she bent down and looked in to see a small boy, had to be younger than 12, curled up under the blanket Sam had left. He had shaggy brown hair with freckles that splashed a crossed his nose.

You must be so scared, what happened to you?

     Sam put her pillow down on the ground and turned her flashlight off. Wrapping her blanket around her she hoped they were both hidden enough to avoid detection and laid on the floor, too worked up to sleep she stared in the dark vent where the boy was wondering where he came from. Tomorrow we’ll figure out what to do together yeah?

     She didn’t sleep a wink and all hell broke loose when her alarm, which she forgot to silent, went off the next morning.