April 16th, 2086. 4:06pm.

Light crept through the shattered ceiling, refracting across the surface of shallow water and broken glass. From the roof of the building, moss grew from rafters as if draped there long ago. Trees and brush spiraled upwards and clung to the walls for support. For something so broken, it was beautiful--almost as if it had once again become grand in its demise. It was quiet save for the sound of a lone set of footsteps, making their way across the long-eroded floor and hopping over train tracks. 

The footsteps meticulously making their way through the abandoned train station belonged to a nineteen-year-old girl with solitary and focused eyes. Her wild black hair was tied back by a rubber band, and over her shoulders she carried a massive sun-bleached backpack with all manner of things strapped to it. A maroon beanie, unravelling at the edges, was crammed over her head and the very top of her diligently maintained gas mask. Her shoes did not match--one a boot and the other an old sneaker--but, when asked, she insisted that this was a personal choice rather than the result of misplacement. She wore three layers: a dirty grey t-shirt, a sweater, and a rather unfortunate brown and navy vest-jacket combination that was, to her dismay, the warmest thing she owned. A number of scars upon her cheek, mostly concealed by the mask, told the endings of many stories no one dared ask for the rest of. 

Tough and still enduring, Cassidy Lance echoed the world around her. They had both known loss and triumph, both a sense of purposelessness and hope. Cassidy was alone in the station, scrambling over collapsed barriers and torn remains of tickets. The world, too, exhaled a sense of loneliness like all those who dwelled there. 

Amidst the wreckage, Cassidy’s curious gaze scanned the interior of the station. She’d been here many times before. Zone 39’s perimeter extended just beyond the building, but the knowledge that she wasn’t breaking the law brought her no ease nor apprehension. She wasn’t here to abide by curfew or take her designated rations. She was, technically speaking, a thief, though used the term “scavenger” whenever questioned. No one would be coming back for their things, anyway. They were practically public property. Tightening the straps on her mask, Cassidy vaulted down into the center of the station to the train tracks’ level. Air quality was “Extremely Hazardous” for the eight hundred and fifty-first day in a row, and most of Zone 39’s two hundred or so residents were staying home. Cassidy couldn’t afford to spend another day inside the stuffy apartment complex. It almost felt like she could breathe out here although the air was poison. 

As she walked along the tracks, her socks grew damp from trudging through stagnant water. Flooding wasn’t so bad in this part of the city, and it wasn’t as if Cassidy minded. She kept walking, slowly scanning the ground and occasionally stopping to get a better look, when a bit of sunlight glinted off of something a few feet away. It was such a quick spark of light that an untrained eye would’ve missed it, but Cassidy’s livelihood depended upon noticing such sparks. Crouching down, she pushed rubble and cigarette butts out of the way. Underneath a thin layer of broken stone and wet earth was a necklace with an elegant silver chain and jade pendant. She lifted it up for a better look. The clasp was broken, but it was nothing a bit of tinkering couldn’t fix. Carefully tucking it in a pocket, she stood up and readjusted her grip on the backpack.

< < <

August 20th, 2085. 10:47pm.

Evening was fading into night as Cassidy sat at her desk, air purifier whirring rhythmically beside her. Her ears hurt from having had the mask on all day, but her focus was elsewhere. The golden watch she’d found a number of hours prior would certainly be worth a pretty penny if she could get it working again. Fiddling with her tools, Cassidy gritted her teeth and kept working on the tiny gears that kept the watch running.

Not fifteen minutes later, the door to her room slammed open and in walked Renn, Cassidy’s closest friend for as long as either of them could remember. He wore a dark blue zip-up sweatshirt with a massive emblem on the back: two stylized ravens facing opposite directions, a star between them. Neither he nor Cassidy could remember exactly where or what it came from, but this only added to his aesthetic. Renn’s dark, messy hair and kind smile evidenced his personality before he so much as spoke. He was smart without being self-conscious, confident yet down to earth. As Cassidy jumped at the sound of the door opening abruptly, Renn strode in with a goofy grin and a plastic shopping bag in hand.

“Alright, tinkering time’s over.” Renn said, closing the door behind him after making his entrance. “Put the wrench thing away.”

“It’s a screwdriver.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“Come back in an hour. I haven’t fixed this thing yet.”

Leaning over the table, Renn blocked the light from Cassidy’s desk lamp before being chided and moving to the side. “Well,” he said, swinging the bag a bit and gently setting it on a nearby chair, “guess I’ll just be chillin’ here till you’re done.”

“Don’t you have things to do?” asked Cassidy, who then lost her grip on a tool and knocked some of the gears out of place. “Shit.”

“Nope.” Renn jumped up into the bed and made himself comfortable. “Literally nothing. Wake me up when you break that.”

Cassidy gave Renn a side-eye before both of them, unable to hold a straight face, started laughing. Renn leaned into the pillow and closed his eyes while Cassidy picked up her tools, continuing to mess with the gears in the broken watch.

Nearly two hours and a lot of colorful language later, something clicked into place and the tiny clock hand that counts the minutes started ticking again. Cassidy leapt out of her chair in triumph, holding the watch aloft. Renn, woken by the sudden display, almost fell out of the bed.

“HAH!” Cassidy said, marvelling at the rhythmic ticking of the miniature clock. “Fixed the bastard.”

“Fantastic.” Renn replied, rubbing his eyes and grinning a bit. “And now, we commence the very important celebration of the night.”

Cassidy furrowed her brow and laughed. “What?”

“You heard me. It’s an important day, Cassidy Lance.”

“You’re losing it.”

Renn reached over, picked up the shopping bag, and gestured for Cassidy to join him on the bed. As she begrudgingly made her way over, Renn tossed the single grey pillow out of the way so she’d have space to sit.

“So,” he said, reaching into the bag, “I do believe gifts are in order.”

“My birthday is in a month.”

“Yeah, right.”

Cassidy didn’t protest any further. “Did you get peanut butter?”

“I wish.” Renn instead reached into the bag and pulled out a half-empty bottle. “On the bright side, though: look what I found out by the stacks today.”

“Damn.” Cassidy took it from him, unscrewing the cap and sniffing it. “What is it? It smells terrible.”

“I have no idea. It’s strong, though.”

“Sweet.” Cassidy tilted the bottle back, taking a small sip before grimacing. “Burns a little.”

Renn smirked and reached into the bag again. This time, he pulled out a dirty, partially torn piece of paper. Cassidy, halfway through her second sip, laughed and nearly spat out the clear liquid. “Did you get me a kid’s menu? Think the maze is already filled out.”

“No, dumbass.” Renn said, unfolding the paper so she could get a better look. On its aged surface was a tourist map with markings upon markings in red pen. Notes were scrawled in between buildings, most in a familiar handwriting. “I made it for you. Figured we could do a bit of exploring outside the Zone--y’know, looking for stuff to sell and all that. It wouldn’t be a birthday if we didn’t break some rules. And the curfew, likely multiple times. We can go wherever whenever, I just picked out some highlights. Sightseeing. We can pretend we’re tourists.”

Cassidy looked down at the map. More than a dozen locations were circled in red pen, with various notes detailing the journey there and designated viewpoint. “Thanks, Renn.”

“Of course.”

A couple moments passed in silence before Cassidy looked up at him, a glint in her eyes. “So is this a list of all the places you want to check out, disguised as a scavenger hunt birthday gift?”

“It’s a healthy balance.” Renn leaned back against the headboard, swiping the bottle from Cassidy’s hand and pointing towards a building labelled ‘L1’ on the map. “Thoughts on visiting the mall?”

“Yeah, that sounds nice.” Cassidy shifted and leaned her head against Renn’s shoulder, playing with the watch on her hand. “We can go tomorrow.”

> > >

November 4th, 2086. 8:31pm.

It was cold, and not the chilly winter weather type of cold. This was a bare-walls, still air, oppressive type of cold. The world felt fragile--as if a single inch of movement or sound would break it into a thousand frozen pieces. Cassidy crept through the quiet, moving like a lone dancer on a bare stage. The ground was covered in a thin sheet of ice, and there was nothing left behind by her footsteps. She was reaching the outskirts of Zone 39, passing by broken-down buildings and long shuttered storefronts. Above her, not a single cloud was in the sky. Everything was still and in waiting.

Cassidy could see a tall metal fence topped with barbed wire just ahead of her, partially concealed by storage units. A few people, grey and red gas masks tightly secured to their heads, passed in front of the containers, barely acknowledging Cassidy as they went by. It was difficult to recognize people on the street. Once they moved out of view, Cassidy slipped behind a blue, rusty storage container that rested against the wire fence. According to the handwritten notes on her map, the bottom of the fence here had been torn out of the ground, and a glance downwards confirmed this.

Crouching down, Cassidy got a better look at the gap. It was probably big enough for her to climb through, but not with her pack. She tentatively slipped the massive grey backpack off of her shoulders and maneuvered through the hole, her clothes briefly catching on the remnants of wire. Then she reached for her pack and yanked it through.

She was beyond the Zone now--not an uncommon occurrence, but a dangerous one. No maintenance was done on buildings or roads out here, and commonly respected rules such as “don’t steal”and “don’t kill” held little weight. Cassidy didn’t care. People talked about the area beyond like it was more hazardous than the air itself. She was old enough to know nothing was more dangerous than the illusion of safety, and nothing more enticing than the potential for danger. The Zone was to be treated with just as much caution, and areas outside of it with significantly more curiosity and reverence.

Cassidy ventured into the ruined city beyond, approaching the outskirts with every step. She was twenty minutes into her journey when, from the distance, she heard a familiar static crackle and robotic, feminine voice.

Greetings, citizens of Zone 39. The present air quality index is: 522. Time is now 9:10pm. Curfew begins in fifteen minutes. Please report to your designated place of residence promptly. Stay safe, remain vigilant, and thank you for your continued cooperation.

Cassidy snorted. Anyone who dared utter the words “stay safe, remain vigilant, and thank you for your continued cooperation” in her presence would receive a fist straight to the face. Remaining vigilant meant nothing in a world where the improbable and the inevitable reigned over all. After hearing nineteen year’s worth of the same speech--hazardous air, curfew time, and inspirational phrase--she paid it no heed. Her ‘continued cooperation’ took her further and further away from the Zone, making her way west until the streets of the city gave way to dirt and rock. She clicked on the flashlight attached to her backpack strap and, out of the corner of her eye, could see the highway leading out of the city. It was a goliath of a structure, held twenty feet aloft by massive stone pillars spaced along the ground. Cassidy’s plan was simple: climb up onto the highway and walk. And as the moon and the north star rose into the sky, the single moving shadow of a girl passed through the night like a well-kept secret.

< < <

August 21st, 2085. 12:44pm.

“You coming?” Renn offered his hand to Cassidy, who had nearly made it to the first floor. A portion of the mall’s ceiling had caved in, and the ensuing rubble created a climbing path for anyone foolish and confident enough to climb it. Cassidy grabbed onto his forearm and pulled herself up.

Once at the top, she readjusted her backpack and looked around. Sunlight poured in from the long broken roof of the mall. Near the doors and windows, moss and weeds snuck into the building and had gradually grown up part of the walls. Broken air purification systems, installed years ago and compromised due to an unfortunate manufacturing issue, sat useless and dusty. The mall was abandoned, just as most things outside of the Zone were, and had been for some time.

Shop fronts with colorful ads slowly peeling off their walls dotted the area, and a number of decorative plants sagged and wilted in their planters. Brown leaves spread across the floor, and Renn kicked a few as he walked by. “So, what are you feeling? McDonald’s, Apple, Walker’s? Think there’s supposed to be a toy shop around here somewhere.”

“We came all the way here for expired, mediocre, GMO hamburgers?”

“Hell yeah we did.”

Cassidy smirked. “And here I thought this was a birthday gift for me. But if hamburgers take priority?”

Renn flipped around, walking backwards so he could face her. “I’m messing with you. Toy store it is.”

It took three minutes and an unreasonable amount of backtracking before they managed to find their destination. The toy store was in the eastern wing of the mall and on the nearly unreachable first floor, which would’ve been completely unreachable if not for the flooding.

The east-most wing of the shopping mall had been barricaded off about ten years back. A substantial leak in the parking garage, combined with the nearby water shed, meant that earth had eroded and, subsequently, the entire lower floor and most of the first one were completely submerged. Algae and trash littered the surface, and a bit of water was trickling off of the area surrounding the stairway down. Cassidy and Renn stared at the sight, taking it all in before glancing at each other in both apprehension and excitement.

“Race you?” Cassidy asked, eyes focused on the toy shop on the other side of the water.
“We’re choosing autumnal bear plunge over GMO hamburgers? Do you know how cold that’s gonna be?”

Cassidy smirked and slipped off her backpack. “Freezing, I’m sure. Leave your bag.”

Renn laughed and copied her, tucking his backpack under a nearby bench. As he did so, Cassidy tightened the straps on her gas mask. It rubbed against her face and sealed even more tightly. The two walked to the pool’s edge, goosebumps already dotting their skin in anticipation of the cold.

“So do we think this counts as staying safe and remaining vigilant?” Cassidy said, voice dripping with sarcasm. When he laughed, her teasing gaze hardened into a competitive one. 

“Ready?”

Cassidy nodded, and Renn began counting down from five. She didn’t wait until he got to one before jumping in.

> > >

November 5th, 2086. 4:22am.

It was cold, and it was dark. Hours had passed since Cassidy first stepped onto the highway, but hours had faded into what felt like both seconds and days. Her exhausted feet dragged along the cement, occasionally knocking into a stone or chunk of glass. She was too tired to look for anything of worth. Not even the occasional broken-down car made her heart skip a beat. All she thought of was walking, and she felt she might be walking forever.

The highway trekked on, rising up into the night as limitless and unending as the path to the end of the rainbow. But no light lingered in the sky, and the lone glow of Cassidy’s flashlight was the only bright thing left. She thought of stopping, of turning back and of giving up and of simply closing her eyes and waiting. But she had somewhere to be, and she would not stop until she arrived. 

So Cassidy kept walking. Later, as her flashlight began to flicker out and the moon began its descent, she could see a herd of deer, cloaked in shadow and wandering through the grass below. She leaned over the edge of the highway to get a better view. Deer rarely made it close to the city, and Cassidy watched in fascination as their mostly concealed bodies wove back and forth below her. When at last they travelled beyond her vision, Cassidy rested her head on the cement edge and closed her eyes. Her breath was shallow, whistling through her gas mask in a discordant melody. A couple hours of rest would do her some good.

< < <

August 21st, 2085. 1:36pm.

Cassidy’s soaking wet pockets were stuffed to the brim with trinkets: little gears and wind up toys and cords from behind the cash register she thought might be useful. The toy store was full of tinkering potential, and her excited hands and curious eyes were determined to find and consider all of it. Meanwhile, Renn stood next to the large case full of children’s books, most fallen or partially destroyed. At present, he was flipping through one with a grandiose magenta-and-blue color scheme. The illustrations depicted a superhero--young, with thick curly hair and a massive smile--soaring through the sky, a blue cape on their back. He held it aloft, yelling to Cassidy from across the store.

“Yo Cass! Pick a superpower. Go.”

“Sleeping.”

“Pft.” Renn pulled the book back down, filing it away on the shelf. “Lame.”

“What, you want me to say flying or some shit? Flying.” Cassidy had found a cabinet behind the counter and was jimmying it open.

When Cassidy said nothing for the next few seconds, busying rifling through the various gadgets left behind, Renn piped up again. “I’d manipulate probability. Change the odds to be-”

“-ever in our favor?”

“I was gonna say manipulate-able so, we’ll go with that.” 

Twenty minutes passed as Cassidy rifled through the store. Renn passed the time leisurely leaning against various walls, flipping through picture books and bothering Cassidy at every given opportunity. They left the little run down toy shop with nearly every piece of technology contained within its walls, and Cassidy was practically glowing as they reached the water again.

Renn zipped up his drenched hoodie, water droplets scattering on the ground as he did. He stared out across the pool before turning to look at Cassidy, who grinned. “Ready to lose again? I’ll even give you a headstart.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Renn replied.

With a smug smile that almost tread into sympathy, Cassidy crossed her arms and waited as Renn leapt into the cool water below, holding aloft a plastic bag full of the most fragile items they’d found so they wouldn’t suffer damage from the water. 

Renn had nearly reached the other side of the pool by the time Cassidy jumped in. She swam quickly, but he was nearly in reach of the metal staircase before she’d even made it halfway. Renn grabbed a hold of its brass, rusted edges, and pulled.

It happened fast.

A creak, then a louder one. 

A long-broken staircase half submerged in water descending deeper, quickly.

And the sound of shattering glass as a falling piece of metal hit his mask.

> > >

November 5th, 2086. 7:08am.

She’d made it. Hours and hours of relentless travel and a barely two-hour long nap had nearly brought Cassidy to her destination. She was back in a city made of brick and cloth, ivy growing up the walls and shattered window panes around every corner. This was a city much smaller than the one she’d come from. While Zone 39 barely had enough supplies, the people here had never been given any at all. They’d moved or met a worse fate by the time the air quality index scale had to be extended.

Cassidy’s hands ached, calluses tearing open from her partial climb up the fire escape. This building in particular was one of the shorter ones on the outskirts of the city. She would not stop climbing until she made it to the top.

< < <

August 21st, 2085. 1:58pm.

Fifty-nine. She felt her throat go hoarse from shouting, mouth filling with water as she swam forward. Her finger pushed aside shards of glass, which spread across the surface before slipping beneath.

“RENN!”

Fifty-five. Water everywhere and splashing. Her hands, holding on. His, beginning to let go.

“No, no, no, no…”

Fifty-one. She made a choice in half an instant: stay, or leave and try to retrieve the backpacks and the spare masks and the world she knew in time. She would never be sure of her decision to remain by his side and imagine it a thousand times, again and again and again, while falling asleep. Instead, a promise that would never be accepted.

“Take mine.”

Forty-eight. A flicker of hope that both knew was hopeless. A clock ticking atop her forehead that she could not silence: one minute, perhaps less. One minute left for a lifetime of stories and goodbyes.

“Take my mask, Renn.”

Forty-seven. Right hand removing the only barrier between life and certain demise. Red marks upon his face from where it was. The other hand moving up to hold hers on. A gentle look of both acceptance and futility in his eyes.

“Cass.”

Forty-two. She could feel the fury and tears and guilt welling up inside her, boundless and deep and unwilling to accept odds that were never in their favor. An anger so fierce and fathomless that she could walk through fire and not feel a burn; anger at a world that would never stop taking and shattering life as she knew it, and leave her to pick up the pieces. Treading water, not daring to sink.

“Please. Please take it, please, I can’t-”

Thirty-nine. A firm hand on her shoulder. His forehead leaning into hers. Breath becoming shallow, fragile.

“No. It’s okay. It’s gonna be okay, I promise.”

Thirty-six. Fifty-nine seconds that should have been fifty-nine years, that, in their drawn-out hopelessness, felt like a century spent frozen in ice, ticking by. The two of them, holding on tightly to their world.

Thirty-five, thirty-four, thirty-three, thirty-two… 

“Just stay.”

> > >

November 5th, 2086. 7:23am.

From the top of the apartment building, Cassidy Lance gazed out at the world. A morning fog blanketed the ground and rose up between buildings, dancing around trees and overgrowth. Wisps of cloud stretched across the still-grey sky. Everything was quiet. Not even Cassidy, eyes wide and staring, made a sound. The world harmonized with her solitude and silence.

After a minute, she knelt down and brushed off the dirty concrete where she stood. Moss and brush were uprooted as she made a small, clean circle near the edge of the building. She took off her pack, the golden watch on her wrist shifting as she did. Unzipping the side pocket, she pulled out an old, dirty piece of paper that she wished had been a kids’ menu and a nearly dry blue pen. On the paper’s surface were red markings, circles, and instructions. A blue checkmark rested next to nearly each label. L1, the shopping mall. L6, the old cathedral. L9 and L10, two different spots in the local aquarium. So on and so forth until L18, labelled “Zone 40 Viewpoint”. L18 was the only one yet to be checked off, and Cassidy tentatively rectified the matter as she stood amid the sleeping city.

She waited for a moment, staring down at the map and tracing the old handwriting with her finger. Then she took it and laid it down in the small clearing she’d made. Her breath caught suddenly, and she felt a deep weight in her chest almost sink lower.

“Renn.” She started, then felt a twinge of embarrassment. She was no stranger to funerals, but long speeches weren’t her speed. Instead, Cassidy hastily unclasped her watch and laid it atop the map, just beside the L1 marking and sloppy circle.

She thought about leaving. Instead she sat staring, gaze shifting between the map and the last place it’d brought her to. When finally her breath slowed, she began talking--nearly a whisper, and audible to none but the wind--and almost caught herself by surprise. She stopped and started a few times, words catching in her throat. Eventually, something flickered in her memory.

“So, if I had a superpower, huh?” Cassidy said, looking down at the map. “I’m a damn good tinkerer. Not a bad thief, either.”

The wind whistled in response. Above, the chirping of a previously silent sparrow would’ve startled Cassidy had she been paying attention.

“I’d mess with time. Make it… manipulate-able. Take back minutes and give others away. A time thief.”

A longing and a gentle nostalgia filled her and memories, years worth of memories she’d painstakingly recounted, flashed across her mind. There were countless wonderings and “if”’s without thens: if she could take away the race and head start, if she had never said to leave the backpacks, if it didn’t as much take time to reach the backpacks, if she could’ve swam faster, if he had had longer, and if and if and if. She looked down at the map once more, eyes shifting from location to location she was never meant to see alone.

“I’d steal time, and I’d give it all back to you.”

Cassidy stood. She looked down at the map and the watch, at the last remnants of the world she knew in a world she could never understand. And for a reason she couldn’t place, a soft, sad smile played across her lips.

When she turned, the oranges and reds and warm yellows of the sun rose in greeting. The dawn light spread across her face, shattered into fragments by shadow but still present and glowing. She had no bounds, no obligations. All of her trinkets had been pawned off, each thing she’d taken repaired. Nothing had remained but Renn’s map and now nothing remained but her. She did not have to return. She could walk forever along the path to the end of the rainbow just to see where it took her. Or she could make her way home. The world felt a bit bigger now, a bit less heavy. As she looked out at the rising sun, Cassidy Lance, scavenger, thief of time, and girl who endured by holding on to shards of hope, could then feel at her fingertips the tiniest fragment of possibility. She would find this moment of wonder again in herds of deer and flickering fireflies and sunsets and constellations and memories of a friendship she would carry with her forever, in defiance of time and despite any odds. And, eventually, that would be enough.

> > >