It was a week since the catastrophe. She'd spent it learning to Mcgyver her way through the house, ignoring the painful truth. Neridia’s water ran out within the first few days and she’d learned to focus her way past the pain but solving that smaller problem didn’t change the facts. It had been a week with no credit gain and it wasn't looking like she'd be jumping around anytime soon. The impossible was calling and it said if she wanted to live, she'd have to find a way to get back out there, broken leg or no broken leg. So, she thought it through. When done right, her hunting was always with slow, easy movements. Arrows took down all her prey at a distance. Sure, that last week had been all up close but it was an exception. If she stayed careful and didn't let the pain overwhelm her, she could do this. She kept going over it, talking it up in her head till she truly thought, 'Maybe this would work out.' She looked down at her dogs, their eyes shining up at her. This had to work out.

Since the accident, she’d crafted a sturdy cast and she’d been learning to keep the pain to the back of her thoughts as she maneuvered through the house. Though she couldn’t keep the crutches on the hunt. They’d just get in the way.

…Well one crutch, maybe? She imagined drawing her bow and pulling back the string with a crutch under her opposite arm. It might work?

She could always abandon it if it didn’t. Provided there was an after for her to work with. There was one good thing at least. She’d already raised her Resilience to 5 and she was only just getting started. She hobbled out the door, bow on back, dogs at her side, and stood in the grass with a body rending ache splitting from her leg to her skull. She closed her eyes. Listened to the dogs, their breathing. All was still. The world dropped away. The pain left with a meager fight. She could do this. She dropped the crutch and took a step. 2 weeks to go.

This would be great practice for her empty space. She imagined if her Stillness was not stuck at 5 it would be growing in leaps and bounds. She had to remember to keep her eyes on her feet though, every few steps was a rock or a stick, threatening to trip her up. She had to be careful; it was all too easy to fall out of the peaceful calm and back into pain. Every time she did it seemed the pain had grown more and more intense until it hit a level where it could climb no further and ate up all her thoughts. She began dry-retching when it came to this. Sugarbear stayed at her side where she needed her canine friend. The calm and steady breathing gave her a focus to find that empty space, letting all that pain fall away. Stay steady. Keep calm.

They were making decent progress, given she could barely move. It had taken a half hour to make a 5 minute walk and for the first time she was hoping the monsters would be close to the house. She kept falling in and out of the Stillness, in and out of the pain, wondering again why this was an Attribute and not a Skill. Ack! Ok, no thinking, no wondering. Just peace and…

She sighted a deer. It was well within range. Her dogs froze at the sight. She didn’t even have to tell them what to do. As she pulled out her bow they moved forward on silent paws. They knew the pattern. She pulled up her bow and sighted. Breath in. The world stilled. Her fingers released. Breath out. The arrow glanced of the towering monster’s ribcage. With a rasp that she decided was its growl, the thing turned to come at her but Koda and Sugarbear were attacking it from either side. It was stuck trying to defend on two fronts, twisting and turning to get away from them. Her next arrow was already drawn. She felt the arrow twist in her fingers. Breath in. She loosed a Boring Needle. Breath out. No rib stopped it this time as it drove itself straight into the deer’s heart. Koda jumped away as the corpse fell toward his side. She felt the pain rise, black dots spreading across her vision, and had to steady herself. Focus on the breathing, on the beating of her heart. Bit by bit, the pain subsided and she was in the calm empty again.

There was no moving corpses today. If she were lucky they would just draw more predators near her house. A thought she had never liked before. She needed those credits though. There was a lot of catching up to do after one week’s convalescents and she’d never make it if she had to walk the distances she used to walk. With that, she set out again, mincing her way down the forest trail.

A lucky day brought her two boars and another deer, nothing below 6 credits. All of which were left to draw the predators in. But a full day on her leg was like crushing it under a rock. Even the Stillness couldn’t save her through the last hunt. She gritted her teeth as she drew back that arrow and there was a slight shake to her hands as the pain even overrode her Skill: Steady Hands. It flew true despite all the trial and she knocked her prey dead in one hit. Koda and Sugarbear running back to her in celebration.

The walk home was unbearable. It took two hours and there was no ignoring the overwhelming pain. Her vision was red as she stared at the trail ahead of her. She’d long since stopped things like thinking and wondering. Her life had come down to just that one step before her. If they’d run into any predators it was unlikely she would have made it.

But they made it home and she had a new set of daunting tasks before her. She’d stopped biting her lips bloody but her teeth ached from the constant pressure as she grit them. She had enough water for today and tomorrow; managing to set the kettle to boil just as she eyed the dogs' bowl to make sure they had enough. Taking a moment to repress the sickening urge to vomit from pain, she then swiveled on her good leg to open the fridge and toss her dogs their dinner. She needed to eat for her own strength but she doubted she could keep anything down. She just sipped on her willow’s bark tea and rode the waves of pain till the tea ran out. Neridia’s water was long since used up.

With what she decided was a herculean effort, she bent down to pick up her remaining crutch. Just now remembering she’d stupidly dropped the other outside. She might as well give it up for good. There was no way she’d be able to hobble back to it now. Once she’d relaxed her body from hunting it had turned into an irrevocable mess. She had no idea how she’d get it moving for tomorrow. Let alone keep it moving.

Steeling herself for the final part of her day, she staggered herself over to the stairs. She’d managed to push her mattress down them earlier that week but refused to find any better place to move it. She lay her crutch against the wall and maneuvered herself into the center of the bed before dropping with a cry. Her dogs may have grown use to this sound by now but they still let out a few anxious whimpers as she fell, before coming over to nozzle in alongside her.

They never noticed the tears running down her face but they couldn't mistake the tension that held her body rigid as a board. With soft licks and quiet whines, they lulled themselves to sleep even as she stayed awake, eyes glued to ceiling, seeing something else entirely.

She never did sleep that night, or the next. But she never failed to rise.

The area around her house was filling with a staggering number of corpses and they were getting uncomfortably close despite her new impairment. Yet as the days went on, the animals dwindled. Even with a broken leg and no sleep she was wrecking catastrophe on the local ecosystem. Her hand had gotten steadier and she could walk in that Stillness all day. The broken leg only worked to slow her down, until she got home and woke up to the pain. Then there was nothing but agony. She’d been forcing herself to eat but had no drugs to force herself to sleep. It had been 7 days, but she refused to slow down. She could sleep when she was dead, until then she had to hunt. As the prey grew scarce and her place in the Stillness grew stronger, she ventured farther and farther each day. Growing her hunting grounds and finding every last predator she could. Not even prey animals escaped this time. If it had credits, she took it down.

At some point there’d been that voice, but it never broke through her focus. Just another step. Just another arrow. Just another body.

Her definitions were beginning to change too. A close call now meant something entirely different. When a deer charged her and she fell to the side, bow draw to shoot it when she landed. That was just another hunt. However, when two boars were rushing her simultaneously, her dogs only managing to slow one. That’s when things got too dangerous for comfort. She’d actually swung her cast up by the hip to hit the one her dogs missed on the head like an idiot. When she dropped writhing from the pain, the boars tusk missed goring her by centimeters. By this point she was so conditioned by brutality, she had her dagger in its throat before she could even see past the pain. Only then did she sit up and take down the second boar with what became an increasingly easy shot through the eye.

She might have marveled, had she any space to think between the hunts and the agony, at the growth that had taken place. Not just the growth in her Skills, taking riskier and riskier shots, but her ability to walk through the pain and not let it slow her down. The amounts she was travelling by the next week were staggering when compared to that first day. A testament to human adaptability true, but even training didn’t grow you that fast. Credits or no credits.

One thing was true however. She was running out of time. With the prey running out, she was losing the credits she needed to save her dogs. Even if she hit all five's she knew she'd never make it without her Companions.