Present:

The moment Sam's feet touched the ground she knew she was in a completely different world. The ground gave under her weight, it moved and she felt like she could feel each pebble under her shoes. It was nothing like the rigidity of the metal floors of the tower. Sam took a few tentative steps, watching her feet sink into the ground.  She was enthralled by the experience until Marco's small voice spoke up. "Hey, give me your phone."

Sam felt her heart squeeze, "My phone? Why?"

Marco gave her an incredulous look, "You don't know? That's how they track where you are. How they monitor you, and we can't have them knowing where we're going. It's probably how that guy knew where you were."

Sam didn't know that's what the phones were used for but she could believe it. *But, Robin...* "Ok, just let me call someone real fast."

"Better be quick, whoever that guy was is probably reporting us right now and they'll find us."

Sam got her phone and called Robin, it rang three times and Sam was worried she wasn't going to pick up. *Come on  Robin! Please!*

"Hello?" Said Robin, sounding like she was still sleeping. Sam let out a sigh of relief.

"Robin? Sorry to wake you up so early, but I need to tell you something."

There was groaning on the other side, "What is it? Do you need me to come down?" Robin said with a hint of worry.

"No, I just wanted to tell you I love you, and I'm safe. I'll try to see you again soon. "

A brief moment of silence fell before Robin responded, "Sam? What's going on?"

Marco was tugging on her arm, "We have to go!"

Sam looked up at the tower as the light of the first sun was starting to shine on the side. The windows reflect the sunrise and its beautiful array of colors. "I'm going away for a while, but I wanted to hear your voice first." Sam could feel her eyes start to sting as tears flooded her eyes and she started to take the phone away from her ear, hearing Robin call out her name.  

Giving the phone to Marco she tried to suck back in her feelings and shove them down her throat. Marco threw her phone at the tower and turned to Sam. "Ready?" He said with a touch of uncertainty himself.

Sam nodded and grabbed his hand, they ran in the direction of the dunes. The first sun was causing the fading of the stars and the red tinge of the sky to become more prominent and bright.  *Should be around 2 in the morning* While running she asked Marco with a huffed breath. "It's pretty early in the morning, will we be safe traveling to your home?"

Marco looked up at the sky too, heavily breathing. "Should be." Heavy exhale. "Most of the animals don't like being out in the heat of the sun."

They got to the top of the first dune and the sun was fully shining over the land. Bare trees and bushes were scattered along the desert and there were no rocks to be seen. The red sand was blowing off the tip of the dune they stood on, creating a red cloud that dissipated a few feet off. Sam bent over and coughed, her lungs were burning and she could feel the air getting hotter. Looking back at the tower, it still loomed over the land and she didn't feel all that far away from it.

*It's something else entirely from the outside*

Marco was bent over with his hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath as well. "I think we can stop running at least. We don't want to get too dehydrated." Sam mentioned as she reached for the pack on Marco's back. Opening it up she took out her water bottle and handed it to Marco. He took a couple of swigs and handed it back to Sam. Taking some water herself she put it back in the pack and took the whole thing from him.  

"My turn." She huffed as she put it on.

"Go right ahead," Marco groaned as he slid down the dune on his shoes. Sam followed and they continued to walk.

"So what can you tell me about your home?"

Marco thought about it for a second, "I guess I can tell you since you're coming too. It's a cave underground."

"Underground?" Sam repeated surprised.

"Yeah, it's pretty big and we have water."

"What about food?"

"We grow it."

"Grow it? How! This is a desert."

"Well, we do still get sunlight in some areas, it's a little deep underground which protects us from the heat. And we have water, basically what you need to grow things. "

Sam was trying to picture this place but couldn't. She had never even seen how her tower grew food.

"How many people are there?"

Marco didn't answer for a moment, "I don't know exactly, nowhere near the amount in Sulla. "

"How did you guys get out here?"

"We're taught that a man gathered a group of people who were done with the tyranny of Sulla and they just... left. "

"Just left? Tyranny?"

Marco sped up. "You should ask the grown-ups when we get there. I'm just a kid."

Sam didn't ask any more questions after that. She didn't feel like her home was that bad, much less tyrannical. Sure, she knew it had some flaws but so does every civilization. Stewing on what Marco told her, they walked in silence for a few hours until the sun got too hot and the second sun was starting to threaten to rise from 90 degrees from the first Sun.

Felix didn't have a magnetic field so we used the suns as a source of directions since they were up from 2 in the morning till 11 in the evening. They were also perfectly perpendicular, the first sun was a large red star that was slow as it crossed the sky. The second sun was a small white dwarf that provided most of the heat to Felix as it went blazing across the sky, it even set sooner, around 8 in the evening.

Marco spoke up first. "We should take a break, it's only going to get hotter when the second sun is up."

"How did you make this trek the first time?"

Marco only shrugged and looked down at the ground. "I was mad."

"What happened to make you that mad?"

"My parents killed my pet."

Sam sat on the ground for a bit and waited to see if Marco would tell his story. Marco looked back at Sam and fidgeted, "My pet was a dog, and she protected me from a bully. But no one else saw it that way and they took her away."

Sam saw how much this affected Marco, and even though she couldn't relate to having a pet. She could see that the dog meant a lot to Marco.

"I'm sorry, what was her name."

"She was named Rosa."

After a few awkward minutes, Sam stood up. "Ready to go?"

"Yeah," he responded.

They started walking together again and made some small talk along the way. "What are you going to do when we get back?"

"I don't know, But I do miss them."

Sam nodded and kept walking under the blazing suns. In combination with the heat and being sandblasted by the dunes. They were feeling pretty miserable as they continued. The suns slowly crept along the sky and the lack of sleep was starting to catch up with Sam.  She was dragging her feet and could feel herself swaying. *No, nope, no. please don't pass out again. please no.* Sam came to a stop and felt Marco bump into her with enough force to send her to her knees.

"Hey, are you OK Sam?"

Sam sat back on her knees focusing on her breathing and trying to clear the fog from her head. "Yeah, I just. I just need a moment."

Marco sat down beside Sam and leaned against her. "I'm tired and sore. Is there any water left?" Sam took off her pack and grabbed the water bottle, it felt empty. Handing it over the Marco, "I don't know if there's any left but you can finish it off."

Marco nodded and bent his head back as just a little bit was left in the bottle. "How close are we?" Sam asked as she checked out in the distance. Marco looked around, "We're getting close, we won't be able to miss it. It's right by a cliff."

Sam looked up at the sky, the second sun was starting to set. *Few hours left.* Standing up, she knew they needed to keep going. "Lead the way." Looking back Sam could still see the tower, but it was much smaller and almost seemed like a mirage, rippling in the heat waves. *I can't believe I once dreamed about walking out here, it's miserable.*

As the second sun left the sky it immediately started to cool down and the wind died down too. *Thank god.* The first sun was still up and shining but it was on its way down too. Walking, they were both exhausted but Marco stopped and looked around again. "We're here!" He explained happily. Sam looked around and a short distance away she could see where the land just dropped off. "The cliff?" she asked.

"Yeah so now we're looking for a small rock formation," Marco said.

Sam looked around and she could see a few taller rocks leaning over each other. Pointing to it she asked Marco "That it?"

"Yeah!" He said and took off running in that direction.  

"Wait for me!" She called out and tried jogging after him.  Feeling the adrenaline pump through her body. Sam had enough of a boost to follow Marco as the structure came more into her view the first sun had completely set.

*FWIP*

Sam froze as something flew by her face and disappeared in the sand behind her with a poof of sand.

"Stay back!" A loud male voice called out from the rock structure. Marco slowed down too and looked back at Sam with worry on his face.

"Marco! Get your ass in here. Stranger, get on the ground!" The voice yelled.

Sam nodded to Marco to go and she got on her knees. Marco turned away from Sam and started to walk away "Don't resist OK Sam? You'll be OK, I think." *I hope so too.*

Marco disappeared into the rock formation and several figures came out with guns pointed at Sam. Dressed from head to toe in baggy clothes with goggles on, Sam couldn't tell what anyone looked like.

"Hands in the air!" The male voice said again closer this time.

Sam put her arms above her head and responded. "Please, I don't mean any harm. Just trying to help the kid." She was hoping to plead her case as she was surrounded.

"Bullshit," A different, younger, man's voice responded. *Maybe this wasn't such a good idea* Sam thought just as the guy to the right of her raised his gun and hit her in the side of her head with the butt end.