We have not even started to find the stupid marble, but I want to give up already. The only good thing about our journey so far is that it is raining for the first time in ages. But then again, it is not a hard decision seeing as we only just left the Den. And I do not really want to admit it, but it might be easier without Florry here, considering she is a hyper-active three-year-old.

While Malik takes his anger out on the sky (his throat must really hurt by now), I look at Andy.

"What are we doing now?" I shout, still having to raise my voice over the sound of water cascading from the sky.

Andy shrugs carelessly at me, then turns to Malik. "Hey, Mal! Stop screaming at the sky like a lunatic and actually decide what to freaking do!"

Malik seems to only just notice us and, as I so rightfully predicted, his voice sounds croaky from all the yelling. "Sorry you two!"He tilts his head up for a moment. "Sorry sky! Anyways, follow me- we are going to find somewhere to hide until it stops."

"Okay!" Andy and I shout in unison.

Malik begins to jog away, and we follow him. Still covering our heads from the rain, we run through trees, next to benches and over discarded twigs. While I run, I can not help but think about what passers-by might make of us- three people attempting to avoid the rain and running like their lives depended on it. They will probably think we are all raving mad.

Not wrong.

Malik leads us to an old abandoned plant shop. Its windows have faded corners and the paint is peeling off the walls in long, narrow strips. As far as I can see, there is nobody inside, which is good- the fewer people who know what we are up to, the better.

We go in, and he shuts the door behind us. For a moment, we just stand there, trying to catch our breath. As I thought, this place is completely deserted, albeit a few mice and insects here and there.

"Right. We are going to stay here until the storm passes, and then we will be off. Any objections?"

We shake our heads.

"Good."

We sit on cardboard boxes (which are not as uncomfortable as you might think) and Malik dumps his bag on the ground. 

A few minutes of silence pass, and I attemt to to start a conversation.

"So... errr..... how long have you two been at the Den?"

Andy thinks for a moment. "I have been there for around a year now, going on two and I have enjoyed every moment of it. Mal?"

Malik replies almost immediately. "Well, considering me and Attie were the ones who first started this whole thing, I would say maybe.... two, three years. I forget."

I nod. "Nice. But does anyone notice your absenses? I thought the government has everyone filed."

Malik smiles. "Well, I'm here, so I'm not exactly filed, am I?" he takes on a more serious expression before continuing, "The government doesn't really notice because most people just stay here for around an hour a day, so no one knows they're even missing and the people who stay full time aren't really cared about- no offense to them though- because they're never around to be missing, are they?"

"O..kay." I say, slowly taking in the information. "So which of you do stay full-time?"

Malik laughs. "You sure ask a lot of questions! The people who stay are me, Attie, Orla, Andy and a few others."

"Cool." I say simply.

He looks outside and grins. "The rain's more or less stopped by now!" he declared happily.

I peer out the window and, sure enough, most of the rain has stopped and the sun is shining powerfully between the clouds. Oh well. It was good while it lasted.

"Come on." Andy says.

But just as we are about to leave, we hear a sudden shuffle in the darkness. I back away uncertainly, hoping it is not anyone bad.

"Hello?" Malik calls out.

Out of the shadows comes an old man, and I stifle a gasp. His face is misshapen and is covered in white and pink scar tissue; his eyes are gone, leaving empty black holes and his nose and ears seem to be brutally lopped off. He walks with a sluggish gait, and I can see his left leg is a lot shorter than his right one, causing him to limp. With chapped lips, he is smiling cheerfully at us and looks a bit demonic.

His voice comes out as a grinding croak. "Hello, young man. And your friends. And the mice. And the bugs. I hate the bugs. I don't like bugs.  What are they doing here? What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be with you parents?"

Because Malik is lost for words, I step in. "We were just going for a short walk in the park and then it began to rain extremely heavily but our street is too far away so we came here for a bit because no one was inside."

The man nods appreciatively. "Good. You've got confidence, boy- I like that. Now what are your names?"

Malik regards the man suspiciously. "Why do you want to know?"

The man does not seem offended. "Firstly, I'm going on seventy- what harm am I going to do you? Secondly, you're old enough to call the police if I do anything bad. Thirdly, I can't even see you. Fourthly and lastly, I'll tell you lot my name: Leo Oel*. Happy?"

Huh.

Leo is Oel backwards.

Cool.

Andy looks at Malik for permission and he gives her a silent nod of approval after looking the man up and down. She turns to face Leo. "Hi! I'm Andy, the older boy is Malik and the younger one is Luke."

He smiles. "Nice. Well, I guess I will see you around. If ever you want to talk to me, I will always be here, sharpening my knives..." And with that, he backed away into the darkness, still grinning like a complete madman.

After he goes, Malik looks at us. "O....kay, then. Maybe we should go."

I nod. "Yes."

The three of us begin to walk out, and I wonder if anyone else was like the man here. If so, this could get bad.

We walk out the door and I look back, wondering if the man was still watching us. As I step onto the wet grass, I see a sudden flash of gold being cast onto the ground.

"What is that?" I ask, alarmed.

To my surprise, Andy gives me a blank look. "What's what?"

I point at it, but it has gone almost as quickly as it had appeared. "It was there a moment ago. Like a flash of light or something."

Andy shrugs. "Meh. Probably just your imagination or your eyes playing tricks."

I pause. Could it just be an illusion? I turn to her. "Yes, maybe. Also, so we even know where we are going?"

Andy looks at Malik, but he shakes his head. "No. If we don't find it be looking around, then we're just going to walk around the city, looking like lunatics searching for a marble. Good by you?"

I nod. "Sure."

Andy thinks for a moment, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion. "Hang on a moment....." she mutters.

I look at her, puzzled. "What is it?"

"Okay, so you came here by a marble, right? That doesn't usually happen, so technically you came here for a reason, not just to get back."

I ponder this for a moment, before realising she had a point. "That makes sense. But what is the reason?"

Malik joins the conversation. "Well, start with describing where you live. It might have something to do with the future reality thing you came from."

I look at the wet ground, thinking about what to say. "What do I start with?"

Andy shrugs. "The weather and, like, the environment."

I nod slowly. "Okay. So, er, for the past eight months, we have had a non- stop heatwave, with no rain whatsoever, so it was nice when it rained earlier on today. There is not much nature- the park in our town is mostly artificial, albeit a few weeds here and there. Is that good?"

Malik takes out his notebook and begins to write down everything I have just said. "Right.... heatwave.... barely any plants..... no rain for eight months." He looks at me again. "Yeah, it's good. Now have you got anything about, like, big stuff? Like economical problems, wars, et cetera."

"Yes."

Malik gives a nod of approval. "Go on then."

"My father, along with all the other apt men above eighteen are in the army and have been participating in a war for the past thirteen years; basically my entire life. Also, because of something that happened twenty years back (that I do not yet know about), the entire world is really poor and the government collects a thousand pounds off everyone every week, no matter how much they need the money." As I say this, I think of my mom.

Malik writes everything down, muttering to himself. "That's good. Not really good, but you get the idea. Do you know who the war is against?"

This is easy to remember- it's all anyone talks about at school. "Yes. It is Britain, America and China against Russia, Australia and Italy**."

Malik turns back to his notebook, a smile slowly forming on his face. "Well, Luke, I think I've got a conclusion."

Word count: 1630

*A friend wanted me to name a character after him and make the surname the first name backwards lol and make him be really creepy.

** Look, whoever's reading this: don't be offended or anything like that about which countries I put on which side. Remember, this is the future- anything could happen so it doesn't matter what's going on now because stuff changes. Also, I kinda just randomly selected countries that I think would be rivals in the future so don't go all political on me.