By the last day, Max has pushed her investigation of what the noise could be a little further. She'd figured that once she was outside she'd be able to narrow in on where it came from, but she'd been wrong; it sounds like its coming from everywhere and she can't see any figures that could be causing it, and the more she tries to pinpoint a location by focusing her vision or hearing, the more it hurts. Her head feels painful and sick; she knows she's pushing herself, knows that it's dangerous, but it's the third day of this and she just wants it to stop.
She's further out than she usually ventures once the sun goes down, in the middle of where the houses are located, not that she's anywhere near them. She's a little ways into the woods by now, looking around warily and thinking back to when she'd been in the woods like this as a child training at Manticore, when she'd been in them with Ben. She knows there's no way helicopters are flying overhead in Mathias but for a second she swears she could hear them over the scratching.
That's when the creature starts to close in.
The sounds that have been plaguing everyone the past few days suddenly get way too close, and Max whirls around to try and see what it is, but all she can see are shadows. She dodges quickly to pick up a rock and throw it towards the thing's head, but it doesn't strike anything and she can hear it growl and she knows when a fight is lost. She turns to run.
She doesn't look back, moving through the woods as fast as her legs can move, dodging branches and icicles as she moves. Her mind flashes back to Manticore again, of when she'd escaped as a child, and the memory becomes too real when her foot catches on a patch of ice, and she falls, landing hard on her back, a rock striking the back of her neck.
She feels intense, sickening pain and then - nothing.
She can't move anymore.
And the thing is still coming.
She can see it in silhouette, hovering above her, a mass of black in the dark, and she can hear her flesh tearing open but she can't feel it and that's even scarier than whatever's tearing into her, that it's doing it and she can't feel it. She can't feel anything except the cold, can't see anything except the black...
day 35 (cw: mentions of military training, murder, hallucinations, neck breaking and evisceration)
She's further out than she usually ventures once the sun goes down, in the middle of where the houses are located, not that she's anywhere near them. She's a little ways into the woods by now, looking around warily and thinking back to when she'd been in the woods like this as a child training at Manticore, when she'd been in them with Ben. She knows there's no way helicopters are flying overhead in Mathias but for a second she swears she could hear them over the scratching.
That's when the creature starts to close in.
The sounds that have been plaguing everyone the past few days suddenly get way too close, and Max whirls around to try and see what it is, but all she can see are shadows. She dodges quickly to pick up a rock and throw it towards the thing's head, but it doesn't strike anything and she can hear it growl and she knows when a fight is lost. She turns to run.
She doesn't look back, moving through the woods as fast as her legs can move, dodging branches and icicles as she moves. Her mind flashes back to Manticore again, of when she'd escaped as a child, and the memory becomes too real when her foot catches on a patch of ice, and she falls, landing hard on her back, a rock striking the back of her neck.
She feels intense, sickening pain and then - nothing.
She can't move anymore.
And the thing is still coming.
She can see it in silhouette, hovering above her, a mass of black in the dark, and she can hear her flesh tearing open but she can't feel it and that's even scarier than whatever's tearing into her, that it's doing it and she can't feel it. She can't feel anything except the cold, can't see anything except the black...
...and then there's nothing at all.