Moonlight Flit

The whole situation was ridiculous! He was ridiculous for letting himself get caught in it!

Grant was a bounty hunter, he had little to no care for the sodding bairn crying and begging him. He knew he should have walked away. He had decided a long time ago, that he would grow up to look after no one but himself. As long as Grant had money, he would find a way to survive.

The bairns weren't his responsibility anyway, they were wards of The State. The State with all its infinite power and resources could worry about the people in the Outside. Outside, where the sun burned and the lightning pulverised.

Regardless, this was exactly why he should have walked away when the bairn came up to him with the glittering necklace. Bairns were always trouble.

Always.

But Grant Kelly was one greedy son of a gun. All he could think about was the credits he would get for selling the shiny rock on the necklace. All he could imagine was the comfort he would get in the cool sun-safe bunkers, and water. Real water, not the crap he got from the Outside.

The bairn just wanted him to rescue her brother from some Snatchers too. They were cowards that stole bairns and sold them back to The State as slaves. He'd dealt with them before. The girl even had the location of the Snatcher Hole. All she wanted was for him to walk in there and bring her brother back.

So Grant grabbed his satchel and donned his long thick overcoat and his wide-brimmed masked hat as he walked out of the cool comfort of the sun-safe pod. They were his only protection against the harsh sun in the Outside.

It would have been far too risky to travel at night. Despite the lack of sun, there were other dangers in the dark that he'd rather avoid.

So he braved the malice of the sun and walked out into the dusty, rocky terrains of the Outside. The sun had taught them there was no loitering in the Outside. Everyone would get their task done and return to their caves or—if they could afford it—their sun-safes. So Grant too rushed across the sandy cliffs and down to the earth, into the cave in The Pits. The Pits were apparently once bodies of water, it seemed an impossible dream now.

Grant made his way further into the cave until he reached Snatcher Hole—which was really just a hole in the floor. He poked around his satchel until he found it. A small stone he'd always kept for luck.

"Good luck," he told the pebble as he dropped it down the Snatcher Hole. He heard a screech and a series of snaps as the hole lit up in an orange-red flurry of lights. Booby traps for children. It was a wonder the Snatchers were still alive.

Grant followed the pebble down with a graceful leap into the hole. He looked up at the path ahead, it was sculpted in a labyrinth of underground tunnels spreading out in every direction. There was no light as far as he could see and no sound.

This was supposed to be easy money.

Grant decided to follow his only useful sense, he unclasped the mask from his pale, bristled face and took a long whiff of each opening before setting off. He had one hand on the gun tucked in his waistband and the other on his stun rod. So he wasn't worried.

And then he heard voices.

Grant switched his strides to softer, quieter steps as he followed the echoing of chatter. They didn't sound like they had heard him, this was happy chatter. Were they pre-celebrating their ticket to a night in the sun-safe? Too bad for them. Really. The Outside was no place for humans anymore.

Grant would have liked to stay in the shadows and sneak the child away, but he couldn't wait. He had been here for a while and the sun would set soon. He didn't want to risk climbing back up to the cliff that hoisted the sun-safes at night. There were too many variables and too many threats. So he drew his gun, his long sleek weapon of death, and walked up to the chattering scavengers.