Meg would never admit it to her sister, but there was a time when she'd actually enjoyed exploring the Pit.

She'd been younger then. Still a child, actually. And because there were so few things to do in Everton outside of going to school or getting some kind of job, she'd had a strong sense of adventure. She'd spent hours digging through debris in the Pit, climbing beams and scaling metal cliffs without a care in the world.

Then her parents had died, and Ash had become her sole responsibility. She'd seen herself in her sister, and she'd never wanted to discourage that, but as she approached the ruins with Verkiir, she couldn't help but wonder if she should have been more strict.

She wasn't Ash's mother and she never would be. But maybe if she'd been more firm, they wouldn't need to go out and look for two wayward teenagers.

"What do you know of this place?" Verkiir asked.

Aside from the initial fight over her accompanying him--because apparently he wanted to play the role of macho hero and save the day without any feminine influence--Verkiir had been surprisingly helpful. His presence alone put her at ease, and he wasn't blaming her for Drann's disappearance, which was a nice change of pace from her own thoughts.

"It's an old city," she said. "What's left of it, anyway. This whole area used to be industrialized."

"In-duz--"

A small smile touched her lips. "There were lots of factories and manufacturing plants. What we call the Pit was just a warehouse once, until the foundation rotted out of it."

And she sincerely hoped the Pit was as far as they'd have to go. Ash knew better than to venture further. But then, Meg had hoped she would know better than to do this in the first place.

"Why is it like this?" he asked.

She blinked at him. She'd... never answered that question before. Even children were taught about the Fallout. "You know about what happened on Earth, don't you?"

"Humans destroyed each other," he said.

"Well, yeah. That's history in a nutshell," she muttered. "In this case, though, the humans that survived had to live underground. There was no one to maintain the buildings or anything else."

"That is why you need the implant."

Meg fought back the urge to snap at him. There was just enough arrogance in his tone that she almost couldn't manage it, but for the fact that he was right. If the Karuvar hadn't struck a bargain with Earth, they would still be living underground. If they were living at all.

So she kept her mouth shut, and walked with him to the edge of the Pit. The "rim" of it--what had once been ground level--was overgrown with wildflowers, and the scent that hung in the air was surprisingly sweet, considering they were standing on a wasteland. She looked down into the old, decrepit warehouse, finding some beauty even in that. Steel beams were covered in red rust. Vines and other plants wrapped around the remnants of machinery, binding it to the earth. A small lake had even been carved out in the middle of it, years of rain water creating a natural reservoir.

Despite all of that beauty, though, Meg could look upon it with nothing less than anxiety, because she didn't see Ashley anywhere.

"It doesn't look like they're on the top level, but maybe they went a little deeper in," she said, trying to sound optimistic when all she wanted to do was give into panic.

"I do not sense Drann," Verkiir said simply.

So much for optimism. She still made her way to the "stairs"--a series of metal supports scavengers had arranged near the top of the Pit to make excavation easier. Those too were in need of repair, though, and she felt one of the steps give way, rusted-out metal crunching beneath her shoe.

Verkiir was there almost instantly, his powerful arms coming around her as he pulled her to him. Meg's heart was pounding, and her skin flushed with a pleasant warmth at the sudden contact. Her eyes met his, she saw his pupils expand, and for a moment she thought she was going to find herself very, very occupied.

But Verkiir released her, helping her down to the ground. It was stupid to feel disappointed that he was actually recognizing the gravity of this situation, but Meg could admit her feelings hadn't exactly been logical since meeting him.

"Thanks," she said softly.

As she walked along what had once been the upper floor of the warehouse, Meg realized it had deteriorated dramatically from when she'd explored it so many years ago. The floor felt like it might give way beneath her at any moment, and there were so many holes already that she had no idea how it was still standing.

"Ashley!" she called.

She held up a hand to stop Verkiir and just listened, but the only sound she could pick up was the scurrying of some small creature below. Her gut twisted as she realized Verkiir was most likely right, but she wasn't willing to accept that without seeing it for herself.

Meg started toward one of the holes that had actually been put there by man, not by nature. The staircase that existed there was made of concrete, but even that was splitting as weeds grew stubbornly in the cracks.

The ground floor--if one could even call it that anymore--was a tangle of vines and metal. Scavengers had already harvested useful parts, and so there were just carved out metal husks as far as the eye could see. It was haunting, and Meg felt a chill overtake her.

She called for her sister again, trying so hard not to succumb to the rising sense of panic. But there was no answer, and while Ash might be a little headstrong, she wasn't that reckless.

"They are not here," Verkiir noted.

"Thanks, Captain Obvious," she said. Before he could inevitably point out that his rank wasn't "captain," she added, "Sorry. I'm just... trying not to freak out right now and failing."

"I should have gone," he said firmly, those piercing gold eyes fixed on her.

And maybe he should have, but she knew that wouldn't have stopped the feeling of helplessness gnawing at her right now.

"You don't know where to look. If Ash went past the Pit, she was searching for something specific."

Bold statement. It almost implied she knew what the hell her sister was after in anything more than a vague sense. But it placated Verkiir for the time being, and that would hopefully give her enough time to narrow down the field.

As they climbed back out of the Pit, she considered all the things her sister had brought home. Most were mechanical in nature. Little devices that seemed to be responsible for mild conveniences--or inconveniences--like that timer she'd brought home. Very few of them were ever working, but Ash was a bit of a genius when it came to fixing old things.

So as they stared out over the landscape of broken factories and collapsed industrial buildings, Meg tried to think about where she would have gone if she were Ashley.

She used that strategy as they wandered through abandoned streets, passing boarded-up buildings that were deemed even more unsafe than everything else out here. Probably because of radiation, if Meg had to hazard a guess. The place was teeming with it.

What it wasn't teeming with were answers to the question she asked herself over and over again: Which way would Ash have gone? Verkiir helped, noting tracks in the ground and keeping note of landmarks so they could find their way back, but they wandered for hours, daylight slipping away bit by bit.

That was when the fear truly crept in. There were plenty of hazards during the day. Radiation poisoning, cave-ins, long falls. Bandits had even made their home in a section of these ruins once. But the dangers grew exponentially after the sun set, and Meg grew frantic to find her sister before nightfall.

"What is wrong?" Verkiir finally asked her, reaching for her arm to stop her from her desperate bid to squeeze through a clump of debris.

"The animals here aren't like the ones in Everton. And once it gets dark, they'll come looking for food."

Food that could possibly be Ashley.

"I will protect you," he assured her.

He kept assuring her of that, and of the fact that Drann would protect Ash. Eventually he was able to convince her that they needed to make camp. She'd watched as he started a fire and felt fatigue creep in, the stress of the day finally catching up to her.

She tried to rest, but the moment she heard a baying in the distance, she knew it would be impossible. All she could think about was her baby sister, trapped and scared somewhere. Maybe somewhere nearby. As the night wore on, Meg grew more and more convinced of that. She could feel it somewhere deep in her bones.

So she waited until Verkiir was asleep, because she knew he would hate the idea. Her plan was to check the surrounding buildings, hopefully find Ash and Drann, and bring them back to the camp Verkiir had set up for the night. That way they could all be together, and they could set out that way in the morning.

She planned to head back if she didn't find her sister. She'd deal with whatever little fit Verkiir wanted to have if it came to that. She just couldn't imagine trying to rest without exhausting every single option. Ash wasn't just her responsibility, she was all Meg had. It wasn't something Verkiir would understand, no matter how much he professed of needing his "mate" to complete him.

Two buildings down, though, and Meg was no closer to finding her sister. But when she entered the third, she could feel... something. It wasn't empty. There was something in the darkness. Maybe her sister. Maybe Drann. She had to know.

"Ash?" she called quietly. "Are you in here?"

But she wasn't answered by her sister's voice. She wasn't flooded by a sense of relief, or overcome by happy, grateful tears at their reunion. Instead, her blood chilled in her veins as she heard the savage rattle of a growl and saw the glow of several pairs of hungry, murderous eyes.