As she slept her body rolled and stretched into a more comfortable position on the hard smooth stone floor.

“Subject 343 has awoken. Disengaging support.” The disembodied voice woke her from her slumber.

She knew that line! It was the first thing she’d heard in this world. That meant he had to be waking up.

She pulled herself up with the legs of his box. On the top she could see the only thing on the box was the red flashing word “Disengaging”. She moved to his side, and through the window she could see his eyelids blinking open to show his green-blue eyes.

“Subject 343 is disengaged. Releasing Subject 343. Reminder, please monitor for nerve connection issues and weakness.” The voice announced and she pulled her hands back as the lid to the box lifted from a hinge at the feet.

He kept blinking, and then lifted his hands to rub his eyes. Then his hands lifted toward her. “Amelia?” he whispered in disbelief.

A gigantic grin lit her face and she lowered her head to meet his hands. “I’m here,” her voice trembled and tears slipped out of her eyes.

“Why are you crying?” He asked as he wiped at her tears.

She rubbed her cheek against his hand, “I’m happy. I thought I would never hear your voice again. I feared you would empty and your box would become quiet.”

He smiled brightly at her, “I feel better than I have since the emptying began. It was quite a strange feeling. I was sitting there wishing I hadn’t sent you away so that I could see you one last time, and then quite suddenly it became easier for me to breathe and I knew I had to go to the river. I simply stood up, walked to the river, and stepped in. Its cool waters didn’t feel as fast or furious as they looked. They lapped gently against me, and I just laid down and feel asleep in the river. Then I woke up here with you answering my dream.” He looked around his box; probably unable to see more than the sides and the ceiling. His hand slowly dropped away and he looked confused again, “wherever here is.”

She reached into his box and pulled the weird tube things away from him as he started struggling to sit up.

“Where is here? Why is it so hard to sit up?” His voice was speeding up as he spoke and his breathing was getting a little rough.

She put her hand behind his back and helped him sit up. “Here is – I don’t know. I think it is whatever is beyond the boundary. I found a note that called this the “Waking World”, so that is what I’ve been thinking of it as. Everyone is here. All the empty vessels and all the people still in the village are here.” She helped shift him back to lean against the back of his box and shifted his mass of hair to the side so he wouldn’t pull on it.

He looked around the room, and the foot of the box where the lid was still connected even its raised position. He lifted up his curly mess of hair that she’d pulled slightly out from underneath him and then reached out and gently grabbed a lock of her hair pulling it toward him in wonder. “Our hair has never been this long.”

She laughed with her whole body leaning slightly on his box causing him to chuckled nervously as it rocked a little.

After she stopped, he asked, “What is so funny about the hair?”

She shook her head and chuckled. “It’s just this place. Everything is wrong and different. Here we are in dark little boxes with this insane beeping all around, Source gone, and you first comment about the weirdness of this place is our hair being ankle length. It's all just so absurd.”

He gently ran his hand down the lock of hair he was holding even as his eyes unfocused and closed. She could tell he was searching for Source. After a coupled seconds his eyes opened wide, “Source! Where is it? We have to fix it. Isn’t this supposed to be the origin of Source?”

She shook her head and hugged him, holding him close. “There is no source here. I haven’t found any way to turn it back on or fix it. I think the fix is simply to leave the old dying world.”

As she pulled away, he noticed her wrist where his bracelet had been. “Is everything we created with Source gone then?”

She nodded and looked down at the ground. She didn’t like it either and wished that this new world had Source as well. Without Source how did one make the things needed to farm, the clothing for their bodies, or the buildings they lived in.

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He looked around the room again. “How did you get out of this box? What happened after you left for the boundary?”

She smiled and told him her story up to that point. How her own box was currently still partially under his. At the end of her story, he reached forward and hugged her. She leaned forward and returned the hug.

“Thank you. Thank you for braving all of this alone and rescuing me. Whatever crazy place this is, we will face it together now.” He tightened his hug just slightly, and then let go. She released her hug as well and straightened up.

He looked at the side of the box again and ran his hand along it. “How do I get out of this box?” he muttered.

She shrugged, “I tipped it over and tumbled out, but that hurts. I think I still have some bruises from that. Our best choice might be to have me try to lift you out, but I’m not sure I have the strength for that. I can barely support myself right now.”

He lifted his hand up toward his mouth and rested his jaw on his hand, “Hmm. You mentioned there were other buttons at the head of the box. There has to be a way to lower the sides or something.”

She gripped his hand, “What if something goes wrong and it tries to close the lid on you or something else. We have no idea what these things are or why we were sleeping in them.”

He put his other hand on top of hers. “If that happens, be prepared to pull me out and knock this stupid thing over. Do whatever it takes to drag me free of this box and I will do my best to help you. I can already move my feet a little.” He shifted his legs slightly to show her.

She looked doubtful, but took a deep breath and nodded. “I’m not sure about this. I really don’t like the idea of pressing more random buttons, but it does seem like the best option.”

“There are many other easy options on getting out of this thing,” he ran his thumb gently over her hand. “I trust you, Amelia. I believe we will get out of this.”

She looked into his blue-green eyes, and took comfort from his confident gaze. “If you say so,” she whispered as she pulled her hand away and moved to the head of the box where the buttons were. She wrapped one arm around his waist, and with the other she pressed the button next to the big button.

“Subject 343 is not connected,” the disembodied voice proclaimed and nothing else happened.

“One down four more to try,” she whispered and he put his arms on top of the arm wrapped around her waist.

She took a breath and pressed the next one.

“Subject 343 is not connected,” the voice stated again.

Another one down. She pressed the next button.

“Subject 343 is not connected,” it stated.

Would all of these buttons cause the box to say the same thing? That would be better than them taking him away from her. She pressed the next one.

“Subject 343 is not connected,” it said a fourth time.

Would none of the buttons work? There was only one button left to push. If this didn’t work, the drag Evan out of the box while letting it fall over might be their best option, but it wasn’t the greatest option if they had to do this for everyone from the village. She ran her hand over the final button; if this button did nothing, or if it did something either could be troublesome.

Evan gently ran his hand over the hand she had wrapped around his waist. “Just press it,” he whispered as if anyone would care how loud they were.

She braced herself to pull, and pressed the button.

It started to move and she started pulling.

“It’s fine Amelia, I think it’s working!” he shouted, stopping her panicked start.

The sides on his left and right swung free while the back and front stayed in their locked upright position. The voice said nothing.

“It actually worked!” he exclaimed as he laughed. “I can’t believe that actually worked!” His laugh was contagious and soon she was also laughing with relief.

First button in the row was the one to press to release people. They would need to remember that.

She moved back to his side and helped steady him and the box as he swung his legs over the edge.

“Now I just need to stand. Simple, right?” He smiled at her as he said this.

She grimaced. Standing in this place was not simple.

“Just hold my arms as I stand and steady me. I think it should be fine,” he told her as he looked down at the floor his feet just barely touched from the side of the platform.

She held out her hands to him, and he gripped them as he shifted off the box. His feet were fully touching the floor, and the box seemed to be leaning toward them, but it wasn’t falling. He leaned hard on her arms as he pushed up off the floor and stumbled into her, almost knocking both of them over, but she just barely managed to hold them up.

“I can’t hold you up forever,” she chided as he held her in a death grip and his quick breaths were close up against her cheek.

“I wasn’t quite prepared for my legs to be this shaky.” He gave a shaky laugh, still holding onto her, and she could feel the shaking from him. “Can you help me sit back down?”

“Simple aye?” She asked as she helped lower him back onto the now bed-like platform. She was impressed she was still standing with how weak her muscles felt.

He laughed and scratched his head, “Maybe in a little bit I’ll be able to stand. Can I have some of the food and water you mentioned?”

She smiled, “sure.” She grabbed the impromptu cup she had made for water and handed it to him, and then went to the supply room to grab him a food cylinder.