Everyone fell silent. All eyes turned to the one person who was out of place. He was small, maybe around five or six winters old, and wearing a straw hat over a mess of blond hair. In the darkness, that was all Blake could make out. "Please don't hurt me." The child mumbled. "I just wanted to get away from the voices." He was visibly shaking. Blake felt pity for him, but decided this probably wouldn't be the best time to show her softer side. "Who are you?" Blake asked, trying to keep her voice in a single tone so as not to give away her true feelings. The kid squealed, and pulled his hat down over his face. "Pip." He murmured, now Blake was sure he was crying. Time to drop the act. She moved forward and dropped to her knees. "We're not going to hurt you. We're just passing through." She assured him. Pip looked up, his big blue eyes full of innocence and tears. "Ok..." Pip agreed, although he still didn't seem sure. Blake offered him her hand and he took it. She lead him over to where Laura stood next to the horse. His eyes lit up. "Horsey!" He whooped in delight, running forward and hugging it's neck. Blake couldn't help but smile. Even in this world of terror sometimes someone would remain innocent to the ways of the world.

"What did he mean by voices?" Isaac whispered as they walked towards their old hangout. "Don't know" Blake responded, turning to look back at Pip. He seemed completely comfortable now, skipping around Laura and babbling random nonsense all while petting the horse. Laura laughed at something he said and smiled. "Probably just a kid making stuff up." She said, shrugging her shoulders. They were almost there now, Blake recognised the change in the wall design. In certain areas of the underground the walls were made of flat stone, in other parts they were just tunnels held up by wooden beams and in other places it had been rebuilt and changed to stop the tunnels collapsing in on themselves. Now, the walls had changed from flat stone to bricks, the only part of the underground built from bricks were the few tunnels connecting to the huge room Blake, Narisa and Isaac had made into their base. She walked up to what looked like a brick wall and fumbled around in the dark for a few minutes trying to find the handle. At last she succeeded, dragging across the hidden door and entering the dark room. Benny was the next in, using his match to light a few oil lamps which were scattered around the floor. In took a few minutes to get everyone inside and sitting in a circle on the floor. The only person who wasn't was Narisa, who was struggling to drag a large wooden chest over to the group. At last she managed it, throwing its lid open with a smile on her face. Blake couldn't see it's contents, but she had a pretty good idea of what was inside. As if on cue Narisa held up a knife and a bow. "Ok, listen up. If we want to protect ourselves then you'll each need one of these." She told them, passing each of them either and knife or a short sword. Blake took hers, a long knife that looked like it was made of silver. Blake turned to look back at Narisa, who was occupied with a quiver. Of course she had kept the bow. Blake remember the first time she had met Narisa. The first thing she had done was aim that bow at Blake's head. The second thing she had done was apologise. And just like that they had become friends (well, as close to a friend as you could allow yourself the luxury of in the outskirts.) She smiled at the memory, before shaking her head. They had bigger things to think about.

Blake stood polishing her knife on her shirt. After convincing Laura to change out of her dress there hadn't been much to do. The only thing Blake had even thought about doing was trying to convince everyone to head back to the inner city and find out what had happened. So far every response she had got was something along the lines of "are you insane?" Even now Blake didn't give up. She had pointed out that eventually they would have to go out and find food and water, but she was beginning to doubt that anyone except Isaac and Narisa were even listening. She knew that something was going on. It was obvious. Blake sighed and slipped her knife into a pouch on her belt. Maybe she should just go by herself, it wouldn't affect anyone if she was killed. She began to walk over to the exit when Pip ran over to her, grabbing her hand. "Are you going outside? I want to go outside!" He squealed, jumping up and down. Blake shook her head. "No Pip, I'm not going outside." She told him, letting go of his hand and striding away as quickly as she could. There was no point in putting Pip in danger.

Laura turned just in time to see Pip disappearing down a tunnel. She turned to see if anyone was going to follow him, or if anyone had even noticed. As she looked around Laura realised with a start that Blake was also missing. In a split second Laura had made her decision. Grabbing the knife she had been given, she followed Pip into the seemingly endless darkness.