Seth’s legs burned.

Nicole outstripped him by a good twenty feet. Dressed in all black, he could only just make her out in the dark as they sprinted through the sparse woods of the countryside. The pulse in his heart and head made all the injuries feel that much worse, but the promised terror of the gunmen behind them kept him going.

BANG! CRACK!

A gunshot rang out and wood splintered nearby as a round embedded itself in a tree trunk. Seth kept running. He hazarded a glance over his shoulder and paid, half-crashing into a trunk and bouncing off. It took him a second to right himself and when he did, he couldn’t see Nicole. Seth sank to a crouch and ducked behind the nearest tree, searching this way and that in the darkness for Nicole or their pursuers.

BANG! CRACK!

The wood right above Seth’s head splintered, sending a shower of bark everywhere. Seth ducked back behind and pushed himself up to standing. The tree covered his whole back. Good. Seth sprinted in the direction he thought they had been running.

BANG!

No crack followed, only searing pain as Seth’s right foot blew out from under him, the bullet crashing through his shinbone, blasting it in half, and exiting out the other side. Seth screamed in pain, tumbling hard to the ground and rolling, crashing into the base of a tree. He pushed himself up on his good leg, his nerves yelling at him from down his leg as his gaze darted around, looking for the gunmen.

BANG!

Every bit of air left Seth’s lungs, and blackness closed on his vision. Not the blackness of the forest, no. This was the beginning of death’s embrace, as a round buried itself deep in his stomach.

BANG!

Seth’s collarbone shattered as the third round impacted between his neck and shoulder and tumbled its way through his chest cavity, ripping through the top of his lungs. Instinct pushed a hand to the wound as blood sprayed out from it. He found himself thinking in a detached manner that they had hit an artery. Seth slumped, slack-jawed, pain overwhelming as two gunmen emerged from the forest and stood over him, handguns leveled at his head.

“Is this the one?”

“Negative. She’s long gone. This is just one of her unfortunates.”

“Should we put him out of his misery, or you think he knows something?”

“Can you not see that spurt? You hit an artery. He has maybe thirty seconds left.”

“Hey. Maybe he’s one of the five.”

“Doubt.”

Seth looked up at them as his vision faded. Their faces were concealed like all the others as they argued in front of him. Seth just wanted the pain to go away. Blood squirted into his palm and leaked between his fingers. He couldn’t stop the bleeding. Neither could they, probably. He forced himself back to a seated position to look at them.

“Oh, shit. He’s still got fight.”

“Maybe he is one of the five.”

A barrel pressed against Seth’s skull. Seth didn’t bother flinching.

“Well?”

“Forget it.”

“Call out to her.”

“Are you crazy? You saw what she did to Team Three.”

“She got the drop on them. We know how to fight her.”

“Yeah, like the dark woods-”

Seth couldn’t hear anything else as he began to slump forward again, pressing his head further against the barrel. This was it. He saw no light at the end of the tunnel, no angels from heaven, no Valkyries descending. He just felt… cold and alone. He was the only one really here, and now he tumbled headfirst into that swirling, numb void in his chest. Down, down, down. There was no bottom, no end. Only void.

And the void raged.

Seth’s vision snapped back into clear focus, and adrenaline he didn’t know he had left coursed through his body, electric fire in his limbs. His right hand gripped the gun barrel and yanked, his left hand surging forward in an open hand strike to the gunman’s kneecap with more force than he knew he had. A sickening crunch filled the forest. The gunman went down, cursing and shouting, as Seth sprang up and forward to the second one, fist hauled back for a decisive strike, his legs somehow stable beneath him.

Three rounds fired off, but the gunman’s own fear sent them astray. Seth fell on him with a vicious flurry of blows, then stepped through a vicious hip throw, driving the gunman into the ground and falling on top of him where he rained strike upon strike into his face, feeling bone give way to stronger bone. The other gunman was sitting upright, aiming his gun. Seth dove for him, arms outstretched, fingers finding flesh on the face and twisting hard.

The gunman screamed as a chunk of flesh separated from his check. Seth grabbed his trachea and squeezed with every bit of strength in his hands; he felt the Adam’s Apple crushed in his grip. The gunman fell silent and Seth became still.

Seth heaved, emptying the meager contents of his stomach all over the forest floor and the bodies of the two dead gunmen. He was slick with blood, and faint. So very faint.

The world went black and Seth fell once again.