“Why did you fail?” Veer asked as they climbed out of a hole in the ground one morning. 

“Are you really asking me why I failed? As if I had any control in it?” Eli scoffed. “I don’t know. Sometimes people fail, it’s rare.” 

“And when you… reproduce. Do you choose who with?” 

Eli shook his head, adjusting his goggles to the night sky. Three weeks had passed and he wasn’t sure he fully remembered the light. “We don’t know the other member. Only the scientists involved do.” 

Veer turned Eli, his face perplexed. “How can you not know?” 

Eli shrugged. “I never met her. We’re in separate rooms. They take my… sample and then place it in her.” 

Veer made a face and shook his head. “You wall dwellers are psychotic, aren’t you.” 

“Well how do you all reproduce?” 

Veer actually laughed, a broken staccato sound that lost itself to the void. “You’re joking, right? We reproduce the way humans are meant to.” 

“You mean… sex?” Eli felt his stomach churn and his pulse race at the thought of it. Sex was unheard of and illegal. 

“Yes.” Veer said. “Why go through all the extra work of insemination at all?” 

Eli thought for a while before shaking his head, no answer he could come up with really made sense. “I guess to ensure the population grows at a steady pace.” 

“Sounds like a good way to control people.” Veer said. Eli couldn’t disagree.

“When we get into your village, will I meet with the leader?” Eli asked as they sat in a large cavern. He took a bite of his tube of tartan, he almost wished for something different now. It was all they had eaten for four weeks. 

“Yes.” Veer said, leaning against the wall next to Eli. About a week ago Veer had starting sitting closer, sharing the warmth of his cloak with Eli. 

“Will you be there?” 

“If I’m allowed. I’ll give my reasonings for keeping you alive, whether or not Sayer wants me there afterwards isn’t really up to me.” Veer said, nestling against the wall and Eli as he pulled his mask up and closed his eyes. “You should sleep. Tomorrow is going to be hard for you.” 

Eli’s dreams had never changed much in his life. Always the cold dark world that laid just beyond their borders, but for the first time in his life, Eli’s dream was different. There was gas surrounding him, and Veer. No one had ever joined him in his dreams before, but Veer was there looking at him, waiting for him to do something. He was mouthing something, but Eli couldn’t hear it, all he could feel was gas in his lungs and the roaring of something electric in his ears. He screamed, but no sound came out, his voice was lost. Veer mouthed something else, a word that Eli would know no matter what language it came from. Ghost. 

“Eli!” Veer was shaking him. “Wake up!” 

Eli gasped, his eyes shooting open. They were still in the cavern, the small light illuminating their shadows on the ice wall. 

“What happened?” Eli whispered as Veer let go of his cloak, dropping his gloved hand to the side. 

“You were having a nightmare.” Veer said slowly. 

“A what?” 

“A nightmare… a bad dream.” Veer said again. 

“All I have are bad dreams.” Eli said quietly. 

Veer sighed and stood. “We need to get moving anyways. I’m sure the hunters have told Sayer you’re coming.” 

They climbed out of the ice cavern and into the darkness, Eli adjusted his goggles, the mountain was before them. 

“Give me your broken wrist.” Veer commanded pulling his gloves off with ice white teeth. 

Eli obeyed, handing the other boy his wrapped hand. Veer began unwrapping his wrist carefully, ensuring the bones were held in place. He pulled a pen type mechanism from his seemingly endless pockets and jabbed one side into Eli’s wrist. 

Eli hissed, but didn’t remove his hand. “What is that?” 

“It will numb your wrist for the time being. Come on, we don’t have long.” Veer wrapped his wrist tighter than before before pulling his gloves back on. “Follow my exact steps.” 

Eli did as they stepped closer to the mountain. Veer looked up for a moment before reaching his hands up and pulling himself up onto the icy rock. 

“We’re climbing it?” Eli asked reaching his hands to where Veer’s just were. 

“How else are we supposed to get to the city?” Veer grunted, lifting himself further up. 

Eli was small, and climbing was easy for him, but the slickness of the ice and the chill of the wind as they climbed higher and higher was almost unbearable. He pressed himself against the rock, holding on and trying to protect himself from the wind chill. 

“Don’t stop, it makes it harder to continue. And don’t look down. We’re almost to the halfway point, it’s easier from there.” Veer said from above him. 

Eli took a breath and continued climbing, trying to follow Veer’s exact movements, his feet slipping every now and again. 

Veer reached a point and disappeared over the top for a moment before his head popped out again. “Right there.” He pointed to a rock ledge. Eli raised his foot, trying to catch the ledge before he slipped and smashed against the ice. 

“Shit.” Veer reached down. “Can you reach me?” 

Eli tried reaching for the other boy, his fingers barely missing. 

“Okay, don’t panic.” Veer said. “Can you reach this rock?” 

Eli did, grabbing it as tightly as he could. He glanced down, bad idea. They were very high up now. 

“Don’t look down. Don’t look down.” Veer said. “Okay, put your foot on that little ledge there.” 

“I…” Eli tried, his foot slipping against it. “I can’t. My shoes are iced over.” 

“Hold on.” Veer disappeared for a moment before he started climbing down from the side. He got himself positioned below Eli and reached one hand over, his gloved fingers covering Eli’s. “Let go.” 

“You can’t be serious?” Eli said. 

“I am. Let go.” Veer said. “I’m going to pull your hand where it needs to go. My arms reach further.” 

Eli took a breath and released his hand, he’d expected to fall, but he stayed sturdy in the other boys grip. Veer reached his hand higher, his muscles ached at the pull, but his fingers gripped tightly to the icy rock. 

“Good. Now pull yourself up and lift your leg to there.” Veer said, his hand now pressed against Eli’s back, fisting the fabric of his cloak to prevent him from falling. Eli did as he was told and pulled himself up. 

“That’s good. Stay there.” Veer began climbing again, finding his footing easily. He disappeared onto the ledge again before a hand reached down for him. Eli grabbed the hand and was pulled up by the other boy. He fell onto the ledge and turned onto his back, gasping for air. 

“Thanks for that.” Eli said. 

Veer was laying next to him, his own breaths coming in heavy sharp bursts. “Don’t thank me yet. I’m pretty sure I  re-broke your wrist.” 

Eli looked down at his wrist, he felt nothing. Whatever drugs Veer had put in him really had worked. Veer stood and offered his hand to Eli. He hauled him up and they stood, on a deep ice flat, protected by the wind. 

“The worst part is over.” Veer said walking towards the inside of the cave. Eli followed him looking at the little light orbs illuminating the whole thing. It really was incredible, the technology they had created out here from nothing. 

Veer pulled his glove off again, blowing hot air against his fingers before reaching out and touching the ice wall. A hissing sound came from behind the ice as a door slid open for them, nothing but darkness inside. 

“We have to step in at the same time. It will only open for one at a time.” Veer said. 

“What is this?” Eli breathed. 

“It’s the tunnel. Come on.” Veer pulled Eli next to him and they both stepped into the black tunnel. The door slid shut again and they were in complete darkness. 

Veer took a step and suddenly lights illuminated all around them. A long tunnel slowly ascending up into the side of the mountain was before them. 

“I don’t believe it.” Eli whispered. “How did you do all of this?” 

“How did you build your wall and your bridges? Time and technology.” Veer said stepping forward. 

“How long have you all been her?” Eli asked, following closely behind the other boy. 

“As long as humans have populated the planet I think.” Veer said. “From what we know, the world was populated in two sections. At one point, we all flourished together, but then something happened, and half the world was shrouded in darkness. My ancestors were lost to the frozen night, it took them hundreds of years to find the others, but by then a wall had been put up surrounding the light side of the planet.” 

“The ice asteroid.” Eli said. “I read about it, but its all just theorized, isn’t it?”

“I can’t say I know for certain. All of our records were recorded by the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of those first settlers on Thill. History told verbally is subject to change over the hundreds of years.” Veer said as they climbed higher and higher. 

“So you’ve always been out here. No one ever knew.” Eli said. 

Veer stopped and looked at Eli. “People know we’re here, Eli. Your government has many secrets it doesn’t want it’s people knowing.” 

Eli said nothing, how could he argue that. He had never had any reason not to trust his government until very recently, when they betrayed him. Perhaps they really had known about the ice dwellers and had been trying to keep them a secret, but why?

“Why not start the tunnel from the base of the mountain?” Eli asked after some time. 

“To protects us. This mountain is almost impossible to climb if you haven’t been taught how. And the tunnel only allows access if your biometrics have been put in.” 

They reached the end of the tunnel, another ice wall in their way. Veer removed his glove again and pressed his hand to the wall. It opened and Eli had to squint at the sudden bright light. He removed his goggles as he stepped out into a new ledge. 

It was incredible, the most beautiful city he’d ever seen in his life. There was no steel or walls or boarders. Only ice, huge building created by ice built right out of the inside of the mountain. There were massive ice bridge moving this way and that and people. Hundreds of people all moving this way and that through the ice. It took Eli’s breath away, he’d never dreamed such a wonderful place could exist in such a deadly darkness. 

“Welcome to Moonmire.” Veer said.