Alexis remained unresponsive and just stared, clearly just seeing right through him. Blaze huffed in annoyance but understood that she wasn't at fault for reacting like this. He said no more as he grabbed her by the wrist, proceeding to pull her away from the growing crowd that was beginning to accumulate around the ill woman.

Her wrist was limp in his hand and she offered no resistance as he dragged her along behind him. He looked over his shoulder at her when they reached an emptier road, and despite the mask covering her face and hiding her emotions, he could see the distant look in her eyes as they stayed focused on the ground.

As they walked down the emptier side street, Blaze looked around discreetly and marvelled at how ignorant of the nearby spectacle everyone here was; the only thing that apparently merited their attention was the rushing face-covered couple walking briskly through their midst. Blaze was glad he noticed and immediately slowed to a walk.

As he realised that Alexis wasn't going to walk without being dragged, he stopped and turned to look at her. "Look, I can't keep dragging you because it looks suspicious. I'll keep a hold of your wrist but you have to walk by yourself."

Alexis said nothing and it seemed as though it took a few seconds for what he had said to sink into her head. Once those few seconds passed, she started walking with her own feet. He fell in stride beside her and they made their way down the street in silence.

After a few minutes of walking, Blaze decided it would probably be enough distance for them to head back onto the main road. He looked down the next street they walked past and spoke to Alexis. "I think it'll be safe for us to head back to the main road this way."

When she didn't respond, he stopped walking, and pulled her to an abrupt stop. He was surprised when she still said nothing, and she followed him in silence as they went down yet another side street. He was glad now that he'd decided to keep her wrist in his grip.

"Blaze..." He heard her say suddenly, and he turned to look at her. "They weren't..." Alexis took a deep breath as she tried to speak. "They weren't meant to cough up blood like that." She raised her eyes to look at him and he could almost feel the sadness that was so evident within them.

"Maybe not the way you did things. They gave your work to the other scientists to work on after you were done, and they must have programmed that into the disease," he said to her, deciding it would be best for her to know the truth.

"I... How do you know that?"

"Did you happen to forget I was one of the highest ranking members of security there? I was told things," he said indignantly, but with a hint of pride in his voice.

"Right... And can you remind me what I'm doing here, with you, again?" she asked in response.

"The fact that I'm probably an ex-head of security now should be answer enough."

"Do you know what else the other scientists changed?" she asked him then, completely disregarding his answer. Her voice was laced with desperation. He sighed.

"I'm afraid I know as little as you in that department. I didn't know they coughed blood until just now, just that coughing was one of the first symptoms." He was being honest with what he said, but he couldn't help but feel a little nervous himself. What else had they changed?

"But how do you know it was the disease rather than another illness the lady had?"

"That's the thing, I don't know – but it doesn't matter what illness she had, because we have to keep you healthy regardless so that we can produce the cure as soon as possible."

"So... In your own way, you do care," she said smugly.

"Yes, I care about having to drag your half-dead ill carcass across half of England."

She groaned. "Not that again..." A small smile graced his lips as he realised she was starting to get back to her usual self; luckily for him, she couldn't see it because of the mask. The last thing he wanted was to have her ask more questions now, and he wasn't even entirely sure why he smiled at that.

This time it was Blaze who was jerked back suddenly as Alexis stopped walking. "Did you hear me?" she asked him.

"No, sorry, what?" Blaze said, caught off guard for a moment.

She nodded her head to the left. "We're meant to go this way now. You were about to walk into the road." Looking down at the ground in front of him, he realised she was right.

"I'm surprised you didn't just let me walk into the traffic," he responded, honest surprise evident in his voice.

He heard her snort from behind him. "Kind of hard when you're holding onto me like that. Can we just agree to both return to the real world and you can let go of me now?"

He dropped her hand instantly, almost as if it had burned him and she lifted her eyebrows in surprise. "Thank you," she said. He nodded. "So, shall we go?" He nodded again and they both proceeded to walk down the street together, side by side this time.

"Do you think she'll be on the news? That woman?" Alexis asked after a minute, the old lady clearly still on her mind even if she had perked up a bit now.

"Maybe," Blaze responded. "But not for a few days. She'll be taken to the hospital first and then tests will be done before they realise it's an unknown disease. If it even was the disease."

Alexis sighed beside him and he glanced quickly at her. "I guess you're right. Being ill isn't fun in the first place, let alone in a situation like this."

"Did I just hear you correctly? Did you say I'm right?"

Alexis gaze him a sarcastic look. "Don't push your luck. Now let's get out of here and have lunch. This backpack is much heavier than I thought it would be."

"Your wish is my command."

It wasn't long before they left the built up area of the town and returned to the fields of the countryside, but they knew they couldn't stop at the side of the ride; heading further into the fields, they only sat down when the road was out of sight. Alexis moaned in relief when she set the bag down.

Blaze looked at her in amusement as he also set his bag down. "Surely it can't be that heavy?"

"Well, you try coming straight out of a prison where they value you for your smarts than rather than your strength and then having a heavy bag dumped on your shoulders straight when you get out," she said, rolling her shoulders to try and ease their pain a bit.

"Uh huh," Blaze said in response. "Would you like me to massage your shoulders for you?"

She gave him a perplexed stare. "No, I'm good. Thank you. Let's just get to eating." Blaze shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly and did as she said.

As they both sat on the grass, Blaze happened to have his eyes land on her as she removed the mask from her face and he saw her face clearly for the first time in the natural light, and had almost forgotten how beautiful she was.

"Can you stop watching me eat? It's creeping me out," she mumbled.

"Ah. Right," he said, unaware that he had been looking at her for so long. As he dug into his own sandwich he couldn't help but wonder if his question about giving her a massage had been as much of a joke as he intended it to be. He shook his head in annoyance. She was the only girl around, so of course he would start questioning himself. He just had to remember how infuriating she was.

"It's hard to believe that the world as we know it is coming to an end when you listen to all the birds singing around us," Alexis said, breaking Blaze out of his thoughts. He listened for a moment to the sounds of life around them.

"The world isn't ending. It's just in a rough patch right now. But we'll fix it – or you will. I'll just be the sidekick."

"Sidekick, eh? I like the sound of that. So am I the superhero?" Alexis asked.

"Villains can also have sidekicks, and right now you're more of the villain – but we'll work to fix that."

As a look of guilt crossed Alexis' face, Blaze was quickly going to correct himself, but Alexis didn't leave him room to. "Don't. You're right. I might not have had much of a choice, but I could have still said no. They might have killed me, but it's better than the rest of the world dying."

"Alexis... It's natural to want to save yourself. Besides, you saying no would have only postponed the inevitable. They would have gotten to it one way or another," he tried to reassure her, and from the look on her face it seemed to be working. "Look, we're going to get you somewhere where you can work on the cure, and then rather than being the girl who killed the earth you'll be the girl who saved it. How does that sound?"

She smiled a small smile in response to what he said, which also caused a smile to appear on Blaze's face. "So, as one of the heads of security, how much did they tell you Blaze?"

Blaze took a bite from his sandwich as he gave her a questioning stare. "I guess it depended on the type of information. I wasn't really let in on much other than the security."

"So do you know what the disease is called? Or what I called it?"

"No?" He responded, though it was more of a question. "Does that matter?"

She didn't answer his question, and instead expanded on her own. "I called it Crilo. It's an anagram for the symptoms to make it easier to remember. Coughing, runny nose, itchy skin, loose bowels and organ failure. Working on it also made me cry a lot, so there's that too."

"Did it really make you cry?" he asked, surprised.

She grinned at him. "No. I just thought I'd say it because it fits so well. Not funny?"

He shook his head at her silliness but was amazed, because in its own way, it was clever. "And why are you telling me this?"

"Because," she said, looking at him intently over her half-eaten sandwich. "If they've not just changed each of my symptoms a bit, but included completely new ones, then we're in much bigger trouble than we thought."

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Really enjoying writing this! Next chapter is causing me a bit of a headache though :/ Maaan, I'll probably have to end up rewriting large parts of this. But ah well – that's a worry for the future!

Anyway, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it! Remember to vote if you liked it, and, as usual, I appreciate any feedback :D