The city was worse than Carlos had thought. The thick fog reminded him of a game he'd played, Tyrant Mill, where the protagonist returns to his childhood village only to find the entire place had been abandoned due to an underground coal fire. Ashes hung heavy in the air and clung to all the buildings and roads. Everything was reduced to snow sculptures. Trees resembled cotton candy, lining the smooth untouched streets. The sun hid behind several layers of grey clouds.

The strangest thing was the fact that no snow actually fell. The city was covered to the eyeballs with it and yet all that hovered in the air was the slight mist and clouds from their breaths. In fact, the sloping path leading to the front gates that opened to the top of the main street was devoid of snow. Frost glistened on the concrete beneath the main doors.

Those ice giants ambled about, their movements sluggish and lacking purpose. They appeared to just be patrolling the streets, their backs hunched and eyes unseeing. The tops of their heads poked over the tops of buildings in the far distance. Even to the hills at the outskirts of town where the hospital was Carlos could see lumps moving.

"Ross... I don't think there are any humans left."

He expected some sort of sarcastic, cutting remark, possibly relating to him stating the obvious, but there was nothing.

She sat with her legs swinging through the cannon hole in the wall, her head rested in her arms on the beam above. After they'd scavenged some left overs in the café kitchen and rummaged for something warm and dry in the souvenir shop, they'd spent the best of an hour looking out at the desolation.

Her lips were downturned. Her eyes couldn't be seen, covered by a low set thick woolly tartan hat. Her fingers were tucked into the overlarge sleeves. In the subtle winter light, she looked unusually fragile. Even though he was a good few inches taller than her, she'd never seem so small before.

"Ross..."

"If everyone is dead, what's the point of staying here?"

She stared ahead, barely acknowledging Carlos's presence. He opened and closed his mouth several times, but no sound came out.

"Our lives were to protect humans." Her voice was little above a whisper now. "Now we have no humans, no Seekers. Why do we stay alive?"

"Because we are alive."

"What's the point?"

"Why are you saying all this?"

She was quiet for so long he wondered if she'd even heard him.

"Death is an unavoidable outcome."

"Well, yeah, for everyone."

She didn't even crack a smile.

"We fight to survive another day, and then what? They're everywhere. We've nobody to protect. We're just delaying the inevitable."

"We'll find our way."

"We won't!" she burst out, whipping around and glaring at him. Tears threatened to spill. She rubbed her eyes with a fist. "This isn't one of your stupid dramas, Carlos. The good guys don't get to go home. There is no fabled land or shelter or light at the end of the tunnel. There's no deux ex machina to safe our ass. There isn't some miracle stone to bring back the dead. There is no-one to lead us and no-one to save us. This is it: the end. Finito."

She sniffed and turned back to face the scenes again.

"I can tell the difference between TV and reality," Carlos said, indignant. He rested his chin in his left hand and drummed his right fingers on the post. "I know there's no next plot point. I know there are no directors telling us what to do or 'in the next episode' screening, but that's why we have to carve our own paths! We're still alive, we can make decisions, and we can make something out of this!"

"People thought that in the past, shortly before they got smothered by volcano ash, or their plane exploded, or a bomb dropped on their heads."

The pessimism drove Carlos crazy. He struggled not to sigh, knowing it wouldn't help. What he'd give for some of Damien's wisdom. The thought of Damien made his chest tight; he pushed aside the thought. Grieving would have to come later. At the rate Ross was spiralling, he would have one more to grieve soon.

"You don't get it, Ross—"

"No, you don't get it!" she half-shouted. "There is nothing left in this world and we're stuck here. Give up with your optimism and bright thoughts already. It's a waste of time. There's nothing to live for."

"The old Ross wouldn't have said that."

"The old Ross?" She laughed, shrill. "The old Ross was head over heels in love with Markl, who saw him as the perfect leader he fooled us all with. The old Ross asked, 'How high?' when asked to jump. The old Ross died when Markl betrayed us all. I only wish he'd the guts to finish off his bloody work."

The gleam in her eyes was almost manic. It was then it hit Carlos. Ross never lived for herself. That was why she thrived being a Seeker. She must have lived for her parents before joining the Seekers, and then she lived for the humans and the team. That was why she had such dedication for training and getting stronger. That was why she took Tora's real identity so hard.

And why she'd rather be dead after Markl's betrayal.

"If you were dead, I wouldn't be here."

She shrugged, nonchalant.

"After all that's happened, I owe my life to you, Ross. That's gotta mean something, right?"

He might as well have spoken about the weather for all the impact he had on her.

"By this time tomorrow, we will be dead."

"Wh-why?" Carlos's heart skipped a beat.

She jerked her head without turning. Carlos peered over his shoulder. The world remained frozen and white, just like twenty seconds ago.

"I'm not sure what I'm meant to be looking at."

"The ice."

He squinted. Ice covered the end of the slope from the main castle gates, but there was nothing out of the ordinary. Just thick ice coming up to about a third of the way.

Wait a minute. Was the ice that far up the path earlier...?

"The ice..."

"It's growing. With every minute, the ice and snow creep closer. By this time tomorrow we'll be smothered in snow. Within a month, there'll be nothing left of this country."

"We can—"

"—fight those giants?" She snickered. "Don't be stupid, Carlos. Those things are beyond monsters."

"No, not that." He took a deep breath. "We can go for the Artefact."

Ross stared at him like he'd grown an extra head. At least he got her attention.

"I think we can do it." He shrugged.

"I think you've actually got brain damage from that bullet!" Her eyes almost popped out.

"No, think about it." He spread his hands before him, leaning in. Ross remained aghast. "Survival isn't going to bring us anything. We can't just, I don't know, give up here. Maybe there's more waiting for us."

"By going to the source of these enormous demon conflicts? Are you nuts?!"

"Humans are gone. We can't stay here; it's too dangerous. Markl and Tora said there are other worlds out there. Maybe there's one for us. If they're all going for the Artefact, maybe we can just find a rip and get out of there. Or maybe we can help out Tora's side, or something. I know Damien wouldn't want us to go all 'avenge me brother', but at least we're not sitting around eating stale butter beans."

She ogled at him for several seconds before pinching her nose, closing her eyes with a sigh. She shook her head.

"You really are nuts." She lowered her hand. "Let's just imagine I'm also deluded. How do we even begin to find this Artefact? It could be anywhere. Plenty of high security research centres, labs, things like that. We can't go searching through them all, even when on a normal day."

"I have a hunch." His eyes glittered. His excitement appeared to have no effect on Ross, who still looked unimpressed. "See, what humans need for the Artefact is somewhere secure, where no commoner will stumble across it, right?"

Ross remained stony-faced.

"So: secure, inconspicuous. But then they also have to do research on it and they don't know what it is, so it has to be somewhere safe so if it goes off like a bomb, the damage won't be too much. And also it has to be protected in case someone storms it, so there has to be plenty of firepower and men nearby."

"So..."

"So if you combine the three, what do you get?"

Ross raised an eyebrow, pursing her lips.

"The army base! Don't you see?" He leaned forward, grinning from ear to ear. It was such a genius idea. He couldn't believe Ross didn't get it before him. "They're surrounded by barracks, plenty of soldiers sworn to secrecy on site, lots of national secretive experiments conducted there every year, heavy security getting in and out, and nobody would dare to go into an army base just for fun."

"Let me guess: this is all from your video gaming experience."

He puffed out his chest. "Of course!"

"We'll never survive it."

"Well, we're not surviving this ice age of the millennium anyway. If we're going out, might as well do it with a bang. Literally."

She narrowed her eyes at him.

"I'm not buying it. This city owns the crown jewels. The human royal family stays here during holiday time. We have marches and celebrations and a multicultural festival that people around the world travel to see. You're seriously saying the only secure place for a weapon of mass destruction in this entire area is the army barracks? And you're willing to bet both of our lives on it?"

"Well..." He fidgeted. She stared him down. His shoulders sagged.

"Fine. I saw Markl researching that place."

She straightened up, her jaw tightening.

"When?"

"Ages back. I didn't think much of it at the time... I needed the toilet and didn't fancy putting clothes on – you know I like the breeze when I sleep naked—"

"Skip."

"—Okay, okay. Well, I went downstairs, invisible and naked, and I saw Markl on the computer. Now, it was like three in the morning and I know Markl doesn't sleep very often but it was just weird. He was so concentrated on Damien's computer and I thought he heard me. He was acting very tight and stuff, like he didn't want to be seen. Figured I'd scram after that – it'd be awkward and stuff if I went and peed then."

"And you're sure he was researching our army barracks."

"It's the same photo and everything."

"And he never told us anything about it."

"Well, it's not exactly the first time it's happened now, is it?"

She sighed.

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