A distance away, a heavy boot finds an invisible alien’s head upon the floor of Zain’s past cell. All is slick with extraterrestrial essence, and the creature’s psychic screams are resonating in uncaring minds. The guard shoots one of its eyes out, then its brains.

Jordan was alone, now, save for the moose a few trees ahead. Jocelyn’d had the beast in her sights, but the moment her finger contacted the pistol’s trigger, Jordan heard a whistling sound– and the girl fell. A pine needle, likely from a tree just behind him, had pricked into her hand.

He couldn’t tell whether the moose was looking at him. Some animals had to have the side of their faces towards you, some didn’t– the thing was chewing fast through Rudy’s glove.

Jordan felt no urgency, however– he felt spent and numb. Now, he really might be passing out from the cold. Back upon the mountain-top, he’d somehow warmed himself– but whatever that was had been lost to him.

His eyes wandered dreamily. A ways ahead and to the right, past the moose and half-hidden behind a tree, laid a guard from that foundation.

He wasn’t moving. His thick coat had been torn through in many places– those which his armor didn’t cover– and the open flesh underneath was long past bleeding. The deagle in the guard’s hand had slipped limp. 

This one was probably dead, but were they seriously looking out this far? Was he going to be on the run forever?

Shaking Jocelyn was having no effect. The girl’s sleep was becoming fitful– her eyes had clenched tighter and she’d begun to mumble. She turned over, and something spilled from her coat pocket.

More photos, each of them animated with snowfall. She’d taken these on the way for some reason. Jordan saw some black shapes waving within their glossy frames.

Tons of the fuckers in riot gear were trudging through the snow. There had to be– twenty? Thirty? Thirty-five of them. They likely weren’t going the right way yet– Jocelyn had been snapping their path behind them, and those thronging masses of kevlar and firepower were walking perpendicular to it.

Jordan couldn’t quite make out where along their trek this shot was from– but they weren’t anywhere near that town a ways back. They were expanding their search, and at this rate he and the two sewerdwellers would be found and killed– or just caught.

That might be better, in fact. He’d had the idea to fire some thin streams of Scorcho Sauce at them, just enough to wake them up, but– therein lay the problem.

Whatever this thing attached to him was, it only destroyed. It’d woken him up by melting a part of his finger– by hitting him with some damn intense pain. Pain that those guards, from before in the facility, had fucking died drowning in. Like acid, but worse somehow.

Maybe it’d be better if he was contained, or killed. Either would be preferable to life as it was being right now, especially with the new headaches Carnivorous Moose and The Sleep Trees touring his ass. Made more sense, too.

At least he wasn’t the only one hurting, here. The moose had some huge gash across its lower lip, exposing its teeth. It seemed fresh, but the creature licked up all the gush that didn’t soak into its fur. The wound gave it a monstrous look, from the right angle.

The thing was about to bite into Rudy’s wrist, and Jordan couldn’t handle it. 

A spectral digit rose from his own as he finger-gunned at Rudy’s outer ear. Scorched ‘El fired a thin, pressurized streak of red-orange, falling dead on target. Rudy spasmed in his chair, making that sound that only a startled old man can make.

The moose reared, cantering a spot back.

As Rudy whipped at his hair, Jordan reached over and pinched Jocelyn’s thumb. Sliding but a drop of the acidic sauce onto its tip was more than enough to wake her up. 

———————————————————————————————————————

Rudy was pale, and his voice had grown softer. “It’s happened every time we’ve moved forward. And that moose is following us.”

The creature was still where it had reared aback to, eyeing them all silently as its large nostrils would allow.

“And it’ll happen when we try and hurt the moose, I think.” Jocelyn was rubbing at her hands and face, trying to get either warm.

Jordan watched the trees all around them with tired dread. “And, uh, those guys with the guns are going to be on us soon. Look at your photos.”

She had them out already. Jocelyn had laid out everything she took from the guard a ways back in her lap. A knife, a pistol and a flare gun. Her camera, too.

“We need to think of something, now.” Jocelyn said in a pained hiss.

———————————————————————————————————————

Despite his body being numb, and the old man’s stumps likely being the same, Jordan felt comically uncomfortable laying in Rudy’s lap.

Rudy seemed fine with the arrangement, shifting so as to balance his human cargo better.

His tired eyes shifted to Jocelyn, who was standing a sight away, legs apart and with her back to them. 

“Remember, just one shot, and in it’s leg or something. We want it alive to do its part,” he toned over.

Rudy raised an arm, holding three fingers to the sky. Then two, then one, and when he held only a fist Jocelyn sprunt away and into the forest.

When there stood about eight pines between them, the needles started to fire. 

As they neared Jocelyn’s form, though, they each froze, dipped and fell. The shining spirit that Jordan had seen first by his side, then by Rudy’s, was now following closely behind Jocelyn.

Rudy’s spirit, My Hero, could drain momentum from a thing as long as Rudy could see it. And, though still they were surrounded, the forest was sparse and the snow bright enough for him to keep his eye on her for quite a distance.

It would still be tough, though, given he’d be looking over his shoulder.

Once he’d seen that Jocelyn was now under pine-fire, Rudy had turned and started to wheel himself in the opposite direction. Jordan was to be his eyes, ensure that they didn’t run into any trunks.

“Come on, come on–” the old man huffed. Rudy prayed that whatever this was could only focus on one moving target at a time. That it was like My Hero, and was tied to a user— the moose that he now saw chasing through the forest towards the girl. A long shot.

Given his frostbitten passenger, he was moving even slower than before– but was hauling all the same. 

Jocelyn stopped; this distance would be enough. The moose clopped to a stop. The tide of green needles hadn’t once stopped since she had hit a certain distance; even now as she stood still it persisted. The gleaming sentry above her persisted, though; he could still see her.

With this in mind, she hoped the bang would alert Rudy enough not to stop this. Jocelyn drew her pistol, aimed for the moose’s bulbous knee-joint and fired. This time, her finger pressed fully on the trigger, and not a moment after she saw the creature’s knee explode into gore.

Her wrist felt like it had gone in a similar manner– the gun fell from her hand. The creature was braying loud and hoarsely in obvious pain as it toppled.

That would immobilize it, well enough. 

Next, just in case the shot-sound hadn’t alerted them, Jocelyn brought out the flare-gun and fired straight into the sky. The moment she did, she began running back. Rudy and Jordan would have made some headway by now, surely.

She turned just to see the red load burst. That would draw the men for sure, and to that exact spot.

The moose and it’s weird trees, the men and their guns– they were each others’ problem now.

Her wrist ached as if it had shattered, and she was further bleeding from bite wounds and the fallout of painful dreams, but despite it all– Jocelyn smiled.