Dry, stale air gently brush her cheeks as Anne slowly walks down the dark concrete corridor. The dead silence only disturbed by the soft crackle of dried blood beneath her feet. 

A small frail boy closely following her trail. 

‘T…Tom?’

The boy lifts his head. His dark brown eyes staring blankly from under his muddied fringe. The smallest of smiles flashes across his face as he nods.

‘Where… are we? It’s all so dark.’

Tom shrugs and takes her hand as they look around, unable to distinguish anything but the long and seemingly endless corridor.

‘We have to get out of here.’

With a small nod Tom glances back into the darkness behind them before they carefully make their way further down the corridor. It was only after almost an hour of walking that doors and other corridors could be seen branching off the sides and into the distance, devoid of any movement or signs of life. Blood covering most of the floor and walls is the only evidence that anyone was there before. The now soppy blood pushing out between their toes in big clots. A slight lingering stench is making the journey nauseating, and breathing is becoming more difficult as they head further down the corridor.

Dread abruptly sweeps through Anne’s mind and grips at her senses when Tom looks up at the ceiling high above them. Deep gashes, like claw marks, are etched into the concrete. 

Anne quickly turns around and grabs him by the shoulders.

‘Look at me!’ she squeaks.

He lowers his gaze to meet her eyes, his face still strained with fear. She cups his face and presses her forehead against his.

‘It will be ok. We will be OK’ she whispers with a trembling voice. ‘I need you to be strong, ok? For both of us’

With soft sighs they press on. After what seems like forever, they pause in one of the many doorways barely visible in the looming darkness. A slight breeze blows through Anne’s hair, tugging a curly strand into her face. She tucks the stubborn lock behind her ear.

‘Over there!’ she points ahead and pulls Tom into a run. Hope bubbles up inside them as they near a big round hole in the wall from which the breeze seems to be originating. 

Tom slips just as they reach the hole, falling forward into the darkness and pulling Anne in with him. Moments later they hit the ground with a hard thud. 

‘That hurt.’ Was all Anne could mumble. Startled and slightly dazed, they jump up and look around them. Moonlight was casting a dim glow through the dead branches of a once-dense tree canopy. The cold dirt sticking to their blood-soaked feet.

‘We... we made it’ breathed Anne, brushing the dirt off the orange rags she was wearing. Tom replies by dropping down into a crouch and running his fingers through the dirt, digging up small rocks in the process. A warm, happy feeling flows from him and Anne shivers at the sensation.

They were in what looked like a forest, yet all the plants and trees are dead and stripped of all but a few lonesome dry leaves. The silence persisted even though they escaped their mysterious confines, and the landscape was bereft of any signs of life. Anne turns to the hole they fell through as the moonlight reveals the bent and ripped edges of steel plating and reinforcement protruding from the pale grey wall. Clearly something else also escaped this way.

‘Come on Tom. We can’t stay here. We need to find some place safe and… food. When was the last time we ate? I… I can’t remember’ Tom jumps up and holds out a small round pebble, clearly hoping it would make her feel better.

‘You keep it’ she said, ruffling Tom’s dirty hair.

She leads them a few steps away from the hole and onto a small outcrop. The dead forest stretching out before them.

‘Where are we?’ Anne says quietly. 

Tom stares down at his feet to fight the anxiety that has been building up, but to no avail, for the next question on their mind sends tears running down his cheeks and onto the ground.

‘…Who are we?’