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Description
The train ride took us through the city, weaving between the ruined buildings, rushing underneath the yellow-tinged sky. This was similar to the city I called home, but there were subtle differences, like the tall walls along the city’s edge. Seeing my home town in ruin was disturbing, but even more so was the graffiti that was spray-painted in red on nearly every surface. There were only two varieties of it: the words Edaniel Materas, as well as an eye. They both ranged from quickly scrawled to elaborately painted, yet always painted with a bright red that provided an unsettling contrast to the colorless scenery.
We all gaped at the ruined city, yet this new girl was totally unfazed by it, humming softly to herself. “Hey,” she said after a few minutes, “Where did you guys come from? I’ve never seen you in the city before…” Her eyes widened in amazement. “You didn’t come from outside, did you?”
“Uh, you could say that.” I gave her a quick rundown of our story: how we were searching for the Scythe of Life, how we barely escaped from Samaiel, and how we used P.ENE.LO.P.E. to escape from the Materas Laboratories. She listened carefully and intently, staring at me as I told the story.
“Cool…” she murmured when I finished. “Man… I’d do anything to get out of this place. We’ve looked into using P.ENE.LO.P.E. to get out of here and into another world, but Dad fixed that instability problem ages ago. Now it’s the most efficient source of energy ever created…” She laughed with a tinge of sarcasm. “Like we need it. Most of the city doesn’t get power in the first place, and even less of it has any working electronics. The only good P.ENE.LO.P.E. does is to power the Labs.”
“So, you’re really Edaniel Materas’s daughter?”
Penelope looked down at the floor, sighing. “Yeah. He disappeared, though, a few months ago, and things around here have been going down the toilet ever since then. But from what you said, he’s got a habit of jumping ship, right?”
“I think so,” I said. “Everyone back home thinks he’s dead, but it looks like he just came here. He must have escaped the same way we did. In that audio log we found, he mentioned you and someone named Julie… that was your mom, right? He must have found you and brought you along…” I looked at Penelope’s face. She suddenly looked pained, almost about to cry. “What is it?” I asked.
“I’d… rather not talk about it.” She fell silent, and lay down on her seat, staring out the window. I noticed that it had grown much quieter than usual, and soon I realized why.
“Anemonae?” I looked over to her. She stared at the floor of the train, unmoving. “What’s up? Why are you so quiet?”
“It’s none of your concern, Weiss,” she said flatly.
There was an awkward silence as the train flew forwards along its track. Manfred, almost predictably, took the time to break the silence. “Women, huh?” he said, almost painfully loud, as he wrapped an arm around my shoulder. “Look, kid, you’re young. Soon you’ll learn they almost never want to tell you what’s going on in those heads of theirs…” Under the disapproving glares of Anemonae and Penelope, Manfred went on a random rant about anything he could think of, right up until the end of the line.
As we gradually slid to a stop, a voice sounded over the train’s PA system. “This is the end of the line: City Limit Station. Please mind the gap between the train and the station. Thank you for riding Materas Lines.”
“Here we are,” said Penelope, leading us out of the train. She pointed to a door a few yards away, on the huge barrier that marked the city limits. “See that? We’ve got to get through that door. There’s a retinal scanner lock on it, but it’ll only accept the highest priority people around here…”
“W-wait,” I stammered. “You want us to go out there? Into that smoke, or whatever you called it?”
She smiled. “That’s Smog, Weiss, and don’t worry. There’s a Shelter just on the other side, for the people who can’t get access into the city. You’ll just need to hold your breaths for a while, that’s all. Now, I can hack the lock on this door, but it’ll take me a few minutes. You can take a look around, but don’t wander too far off, okay?”
Anemonae silently drifted towards some graffiti painted on the wall of the station. It was the eye symbol, sloppily sprayed onto the wall.
“My God…” she muttered, looking in horror at the symbol. “It’s true… Has it really been here this whole time?”
“What’s true?” I asked as I joined her. The symbol didn’t seem very intimidating to me, especially with how sloppy the painting was.
“I’m almost sure of it now,” she whispered. “The Evil Eye… We really saw it, earlier. And… I think it’s here.”
“Anemonae? What’s wrong? Whenever you mention this Eye thing, you… change.” She seemed more sad than afraid of this creature.
She sighed. “Oh, Weiss… it’s really hard to explain. You see, a very long time ago, I had… an encounter with the Evil Eye, and it hurt some friends of mine, and-“
A tremendous crash interrupted her. I looked behind me to see that the station had collapsed, and one of the Worms had emerged from its center. A glass capsule was mounted on its back, and as the Worm snarled at us, the capsule opened up and a gray-haired man climbed out from it.
“Penelope!” he shouted. “Are you trying to escape again?” He chuckled, in the voice of a crazed villain if I’d ever heard one. “You know Father doesn’t like it when you try to escape…”
The girl turned around, a look of despair on her face. “Father doesn’t care,” she yelled defiantly. “He’s gone!”
The old man clucked his tongue. “Keep talking to me like that, Penelope, and you’ll be assigned to another of Father’s… special tasks. Or, you can come with me and turn in your friends here, and things will be back to normal. Do we have an agreement?”
She spat at him. “No. Never.”
“Defiance is always punished, my dear… Now, my pet,” he said, stroking the charcoal skin of the Worm, “Take this naughty girl home.” He crawled back into the capsule as it sealed around him, and the Worm reared back to attack.
Right then, the very last thing I would ever expect to happen… happened. Manfred dashed towards Penelope, who was frozen in place in fear. As he pushed her out of the way of the Worm, who crashed into the wall just above the door, I thought I heard him say “He does care.” He helped the girl back to her feet, and ran to the door, putting his face to the scanner. The door opened, and we ran through, away from the Worm that growled from the other side.
“Over there!” Penelope yelled as she pointed to a ditch. “Don’t breathe the Smog!”
We ran to the ditch, trying not to breathe. We stumbled into it, and Penelope pounded on the large, reinforced door. “Hey! It’s me!” she screamed. “Let me in, I’ve got some people who aren’t immune!” The door slid open, and we were pulled into the darkness of the Shelter.

Description
The train ride took us through the city, weaving between the ruined buildings, rushing underneath the yellow-tinged sky. This was similar to the city I called home, but there were subtle differences, like the tall walls along the city’s edge. Seeing my home town in ruin was disturbing, but even more so was the graffiti that was spray-painted in red on nearly every surface. There were only two varieties of it: the words Edaniel Materas, as well as an eye. They both ranged from quickly scrawled to elaborately painted, yet always painted with a bright red that provided an unsettling contrast to the colorless scenery.
We all gaped at the ruined city, yet this new girl was totally unfazed by it, humming softly to herself. “Hey,” she said after a few minutes, “Where did you guys come from? I’ve never seen you in the city before…” Her eyes widened in amazement. “You didn’t come from outside, did you?”
“Uh, you could say that.” I gave her a quick rundown of our story: how we were searching for the Scythe of Life, how we barely escaped from Samaiel, and how we used P.ENE.LO.P.E. to escape from the Materas Laboratories. She listened carefully and intently, staring at me as I told the story.
“Cool…” she murmured when I finished. “Man… I’d do anything to get out of this place. We’ve looked into using P.ENE.LO.P.E. to get out of here and into another world, but Dad fixed that instability problem ages ago. Now it’s the most efficient source of energy ever created…” She laughed with a tinge of sarcasm. “Like we need it. Most of the city doesn’t get power in the first place, and even less of it has any working electronics. The only good P.ENE.LO.P.E. does is to power the Labs.”
“So, you’re really Edaniel Materas’s daughter?”
Penelope looked down at the floor, sighing. “Yeah. He disappeared, though, a few months ago, and things around here have been going down the toilet ever since then. But from what you said, he’s got a habit of jumping ship, right?”
“I think so,” I said. “Everyone back home thinks he’s dead, but it looks like he just came here. He must have escaped the same way we did. In that audio log we found, he mentioned you and someone named Julie… that was your mom, right? He must have found you and brought you along…” I looked at Penelope’s face. She suddenly looked pained, almost about to cry. “What is it?” I asked.
“I’d… rather not talk about it.” She fell silent, and lay down on her seat, staring out the window. I noticed that it had grown much quieter than usual, and soon I realized why.
“Anemonae?” I looked over to her. She stared at the floor of the train, unmoving. “What’s up? Why are you so quiet?”
“It’s none of your concern, Weiss,” she said flatly.
There was an awkward silence as the train flew forwards along its track. Manfred, almost predictably, took the time to break the silence. “Women, huh?” he said, almost painfully loud, as he wrapped an arm around my shoulder. “Look, kid, you’re young. Soon you’ll learn they almost never want to tell you what’s going on in those heads of theirs…” Under the disapproving glares of Anemonae and Penelope, Manfred went on a random rant about anything he could think of, right up until the end of the line.
As we gradually slid to a stop, a voice sounded over the train’s PA system. “This is the end of the line: City Limit Station. Please mind the gap between the train and the station. Thank you for riding Materas Lines.”
“Here we are,” said Penelope, leading us out of the train. She pointed to a door a few yards away, on the huge barrier that marked the city limits. “See that? We’ve got to get through that door. There’s a retinal scanner lock on it, but it’ll only accept the highest priority people around here…”
“W-wait,” I stammered. “You want us to go out there? Into that smoke, or whatever you called it?”
She smiled. “That’s Smog, Weiss, and don’t worry. There’s a Shelter just on the other side, for the people who can’t get access into the city. You’ll just need to hold your breaths for a while, that’s all. Now, I can hack the lock on this door, but it’ll take me a few minutes. You can take a look around, but don’t wander too far off, okay?”
Anemonae silently drifted towards some graffiti painted on the wall of the station. It was the eye symbol, sloppily sprayed onto the wall.
“My God…” she muttered, looking in horror at the symbol. “It’s true… Has it really been here this whole time?”
“What’s true?” I asked as I joined her. The symbol didn’t seem very intimidating to me, especially with how sloppy the painting was.
“I’m almost sure of it now,” she whispered. “The Evil Eye… We really saw it, earlier. And… I think it’s here.”
“Anemonae? What’s wrong? Whenever you mention this Eye thing, you… change.” She seemed more sad than afraid of this creature.
She sighed. “Oh, Weiss… it’s really hard to explain. You see, a very long time ago, I had… an encounter with the Evil Eye, and it hurt some friends of mine, and-“
A tremendous crash interrupted her. I looked behind me to see that the station had collapsed, and one of the Worms had emerged from its center. A glass capsule was mounted on its back, and as the Worm snarled at us, the capsule opened up and a gray-haired man climbed out from it.
“Penelope!” he shouted. “Are you trying to escape again?” He chuckled, in the voice of a crazed villain if I’d ever heard one. “You know Father doesn’t like it when you try to escape…”
The girl turned around, a look of despair on her face. “Father doesn’t care,” she yelled defiantly. “He’s gone!”
The old man clucked his tongue. “Keep talking to me like that, Penelope, and you’ll be assigned to another of Father’s… special tasks. Or, you can come with me and turn in your friends here, and things will be back to normal. Do we have an agreement?”
She spat at him. “No. Never.”
“Defiance is always punished, my dear… Now, my pet,” he said, stroking the charcoal skin of the Worm, “Take this naughty girl home.” He crawled back into the capsule as it sealed around him, and the Worm reared back to attack.
Right then, the very last thing I would ever expect to happen… happened. Manfred dashed towards Penelope, who was frozen in place in fear. As he pushed her out of the way of the Worm, who crashed into the wall just above the door, I thought I heard him say “He does care.” He helped the girl back to her feet, and ran to the door, putting his face to the scanner. The door opened, and we ran through, away from the Worm that growled from the other side.
“Over there!” Penelope yelled as she pointed to a ditch. “Don’t breathe the Smog!”
We ran to the ditch, trying not to breathe. We stumbled into it, and Penelope pounded on the large, reinforced door. “Hey! It’s me!” she screamed. “Let me in, I’ve got some people who aren’t immune!” The door slid open, and we were pulled into the darkness of the Shelter.