The night air was cold atop the plateau. Neither Jake nor Alice was quite sure when the sun had set fully, both had drifted off to sleep sometime during the middle of the day. Clouds had rolled in while they talked obscuring the sky above, giving them some hope for the promise of rain, yet all these clouds proved to do was block their view of the sky, leaving them in a shaded haze.


    Alice was the first to wake up. Jolted from her dreams she was surprised to find them rather tame compared to the night before. She could hardly remember them as she sat hunched over, beads of sweat falling heavy from her brow. Perhaps her nap had simply not been long enough to allow her mind time to torture her. Perhaps her frame of mind had simply been more relaxed as she drifted off to sleep this time, lulled into a sense of complacency.


    Whatever the case she found herself conflicted. A slight frown on her face she realized she missed the phantom visage of her sister that came to call as she slept, came to haunt her with the glimmers of her ghost. Perhaps that was why she was gone from her dreams now. Perhaps she’d removed herself completely, removed herself once again so Alice could feel the pain of her complete absence anew.


    Sighing slightly, Alice shook the dreams from her head and reached beside her. The bundled bit of meat sat nearby still uneaten. She and Jake had fallen into a rapport as the day drew on, talking and joking about such pointless things. It seemed both were eager to avoid any serious subjects for the time being as neither would dwell for long on anything important, only discussing the little intricacies and details of life.


    The last time they’d spoken, before settling down to drift off to sleep, Jake had been struggling to describe video games to her. She grasped the wider concept immediately after his first explanation, moving pictures or stories you could control remotely, but kept pushing him for details as he struggled more and more to explain himself. It was funny to see him sweat like that, see him struggle to describe something he thought so easy to understand. He treated her like an idiot sometimes when talking about his home, like a child. Asking questions like one till he was stuttering over himself unable to answer anything seemed fair enough payback.


    Chuckling to herself, she popped a bit of meat randomly grabbed from the bundle into her mouth only to seconds later spit it out as she bent over gagging. The meat had clearly rotted. When exactly she couldn’t say, but as soon as her teeth sunk into its flesh and allowed the rotted taste to wash over her tongue she could tell instantly. She’d eaten rotten food before; moldy and stale crumbs tossed her way. Hell, it wasn’t even her first time trying rotted meat. It was the surprise that took her more than anything, she hadn''t been expecting the rot. That’s what threw her off.


    The next thing that caught her attention was the pain. Her sudden lunge forward as she spit the rotted bit of meat out had aggravated her arm. Flailing back as burning shots of pain coursed through her body, she could feel the strings within constrict in response to the sudden aggravation. Falling back screams of pain escaped her, all the while the rotted taste of the meat remained on her tongue. The meat''s juices were stuck fast to the inside of her mouth.


    During the day, the duo had taken to wandering around the flat top of the plateau while they talked. Relatively certain they wouldn’t get lost or lose their supplies due to how consistently smooth the ground around them was they explored the cracks and crevices of their terrain searching for anything they might find useful. Chief among them both on the scale of what they might find useful was water, as they were particularly thirsty at the time.


    They weren’t really expecting to find any, just sort of killing time with a distraction, so both were shocked to discover some. A puddle, still and unmoving buried in a particular crack in the plateau’s surface. It was likely leftover from the rain, condensed and not yet dried or drained down the side of the cliff. They’d had a short debate over the puddle, whether it would be safe to drink from it or not but ultimately had decided against trying to. That was largely due to how filthy it looked, coated in a fine layer of dust and sediment, it was no longer clear but an odd brownish color.


    They’d left the puddle behind and left their waterskin empty. Now though, as Alice rolled around intermittently screaming out in pain and struggling to force the taste of rot from her mouth she thought back to this puddle. Wondered if the water, filthy as it was, could possibly taste as bad as what was currently coursing through her mouth. It must have been even worse; she decided this quickly to keep her sanity.


    Jake, woken now but the sounds of her struggle to wrestle the taste free from her tongue while controlling the pain in her arm, watched her with a bleary look of confusion. Unsure exactly what she was doing, he watched as she slowly stopped flailing about her head covered by her hand and her makeshift sling in disarray across her chest.


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    “You doing ok there?”


    “Don’t… don’t eat those…” She said rather weakly, tongue still recoiling from the bit of rot that remained in her mouth, refusing to leave no matter how much she spat it away. Rising to his feet, Jake retrieved the bundle of meat chunks Alice had weakly pointed to and gave them a light sniff. Recoiling back, he tossed the bundle far away before adding,


    “Oh yeah, that’s gone off.”


    “You think?” Alice asked, annoyance clear in her voice as she adjusted herself so her injured arm rested more naturally across her frame. “We have anything else to eat? Or Drink? Anything at all?”


    She was desperate to get the remaining bit of rot free from her tongue. There was an art to eating rotted food. One must be truly hungry, truly desperate. So desperately they either didn’t notice the taste, or prepared ways to numb the tongue and better swallow the meat down. She was neither so desperate that the taste was lost to her nor prepared enough to ignore its flavor. All she was left with was the rot, washing over her and causing her eyes to water.


    “Unfortunately, no. Should be sunup soon though…” Jake said as he laid back a bit glancing toward the sky. It was still the middle of the night. The constellations high up above, totally new and alien to them both, twinkled clear and uninterrupted. The clouds had long moved away leaving their view of the sky totally exposed. A sigh Alice as she accepted her fate, laying back to nestle into the warmth of her battered cloak.


    The chill of the night air was not so extreme one required a fire or extreme amounts of padding but still, it was noticeably present. The two layered in their battered bits of rundown cloth and fabric were dressed perfectly to enjoy the night sky above. As they lay back gazing at the glittering patchwork of stars above a noticeable silence grew between the pair. Still, though, it felt different from the silence earlier that day.


    That had felt awkward, a nearly unapproachable wall that seemed to swallow any thought they had of talking, any thought of sharing. An awkward thing, an uncomfortable thing. This was different, it felt comforting. They didn’t feel the need to punctuate the silence with idle talk anymore, both seemed content to just lay and gaze up above. Both felt content in understanding that.


    How long he gazed at the stars above Jake couldn’t say. The night sky here was truly wonderful. He could swear the stars were almost shifting as his eyes played tricks on him, forcing him to see patterns and constellations everywhere he looked. Hidden amongst the stars he could see the faint outline of the moon, a black outline hidden in shadow. A black abyss of void where nothing seemed to live, nestled within the shining sky up above. Yet even this had a strange sense of beauty. Gazing up at the shifting stars above, awash under their twinkle his thoughts escaped him without his notice.


    “It’s so strange…”


    “What is?” Alice asked, turning her gaze away from the night sky above to glance at his reclined form.


    “What? Oh, it’s just…” He stuttered a bit, not realizing he’d been speaking aloud. “Back home, I never paid much attention to nature like this. Never really thought of gazing at the sky or the trees or the rocks or anything really. Hell, where I grew up, you couldn’t even see the stars!”


    “Couldn’t see the stars,” Alice repeated sounding unconvinced. What the hell was he talking about? Even nestled in the dingy confines of the district she’d been able to see the stars. They nestled high above her head, higher than any Broken or Unbroken. Perched in the sky, truly free. They’d always comforted her as a child. A slight smile crossed her face at the memory.


    “There was too much smog, too many electric lights. They were always on twenty-four-seven till you couldn’t see the stars at all anymore. Sure, I saw the stars in movies or TV or in pictures but really, it was rare to see them shining in person. Certainly not like this!” He raised his hands above him and gestured toward the sprawling sky above.


    “Forests too. Most trees I saw were carefully maintained and groomed. If I ever saw a forest growing wild it was while I was driving past it. It was just scenery, something in the background fading past that I didn’t give a second thought. Not like now. I was just thinking it was strange… I’d never really paid much attention to these things till this journey started. Never really cared. Now though…” He trailed off as his gaze returned to the sky above.


    He’d been about to say if he ever found his way home things would be different. They’d have to be. After seeing so much, he doubted he’d be able to just ignore the world around him now, and go back to how his life used to be. This sentence died on his tongue. He wouldn’t let himself give thought to the hope of going back home. Not anymore.


    Beside him, Alice’s gaze returned to the shimmering sea of stars up above. His thoughts were so strange. What an odd story. She couldn’t begin to imagine it. What must his life have been like to be surrounded by so much plenty and splendor and just… ignore it? Go about his days locked away ignoring the beauty around him. She’d pined for the forests for so long. For the wide plains of grass. The mountains. The rushing creeks. For the freedom they offered her.


    Seeing them all now, each and every one was so different, so beautiful. Every reality visited was unique in some small way. She couldn’t imagine just choosing to ignore it all. Still though, with a slight chuckle, she realized something.


    “Guess we’re the same, huh?” She asked Jake not really caring about his lack of answer. All this time she thought she was the odd one out experiencing all this beauty for the first time. It was sort of comforting to know they were the same, tied together by these shared experiences.