“.. and so that’s what made the Akane matchup so hard even though when you played at a low level it was considered pretty easy, once people got better they could abuse the way her hitbox fit into your coverage to create really bullshit mixups in her aggro that made it suffocating to play into.” Chris finished, his eyes alight with the only passion he had ever known.

Ray smiled the patient smile of someone who had no idea what the fuck was being said, “But you always won right?”

“I mean yeah, but that’s because no one in NA can play Akane. They’re all garbage. All flash no fundamentals.” The pair were crouched back in the hollow they had made their temporary home. A fire at the front seemed to dissuade any curious wildlife while they slept and they hadn’t found anywhere better during the day they’d had after drinking their fill.

Feeling far more awake than he had the last few days, Chris sat close to the fire to peer out at the forest beyond through the thin white smoke. His posture was horrible, back boughed and elbows digging into his knees. He could just barely make out the canopy above. And beyond the shadowy leaves was the tiniest glimpse of starlight.

On a physical level Chris felt the worst he ever had. But right now, in this moment, none of it mattered. He had talked more today than he had in years prior, and it didn’t matter that Ray barely understood. In fact it mattered more that he didn’t. Chris finally had a friend, and all it took was the world ending to make it happen.

The sun would rise tomorrow, and for the first time in his entire life Chris didn’t dread the notion. Life wouldn’t get any easier. It had every chance of doing the exact opposite. But he wasn’t alone.

“So do we have a plan?” Chris turned slowly and asked.

“We need to find other people first and foremost. God willing some kind of doctor.” Ray took off his hat and thoughtfully rubbed the wispy strands of hair upon his head. “And if that doesn't work… well…”

“Well what?”

“Well I don’t know what,” Ray sighed. “We’re both in a bad way kid. And whatever voodoo magic was saving that arm of yours, it’s wearing off.”

Chris looked at the ‘bandages’ wrapping the mark of his mother’s love. Blood was starting to seep through the edges of the cloth. It wasn’t a lot, but it hadn’t bled at all yesterday. Breathing became harder as the implications hit him. This could kill him. He’d seen the wound right after he’d killed his mother and when Ray had bandaged it. It was down to the bone. Panic began drawing horrid realities of his future. Was this some kind of cruel joke? To have lived through the wolves and their master, and the monkeys. Only to die to his mother anyway?

Something warm and soft landed on his head. Capped his greasy hair and wrung the panic out. A wide-brim hat with a feather in its crown, and an old smile just above. “Don’t give up hope. Things are grim, but you’re not alone.”

“And I’ve got a cool hat.” Chris spoke softly as he laid back, his body undulating as it spread across the dirt floor.

“Ya sure do.”

Ray fell into a fitful sleep, more worried than he wanted to let on. Chris couldn’t even get that much. A few hours of laying still as the fire crackled gently was all he could manage before his restless mind and heart demanded he move.

He clambered out of their hidey hole and stood in the brisk night air. It was bright, much brighter than any night that Chris had seen on earth. The air painted in lines of silver starlight and dark navy blue beneath the black leaves that blocked the sky. The storm of thoughts in his head didn’t quiet with the peace of the air but his breath came easier. And he was content to simply stew until his eyes grew heavy.

He had made no progress when the soft clink of metal tapping metal began to ring through the silent trees. His eyes snapped to the source as he froze. The Raksha drifted between spotlights of starlight in their blood red dress. Her movement of the roots was far too smooth, as if they floated forward and her dress only served to further the illusion as it brushed perfectly along the ground. But it was not their movement that caught Chris’ eyes, it was the bundle they held in their right hand. Human heads held by their hair or by bits of metal twisted through the skin of their cheeks.

Then he saw the wolves, and the deer. They walked with precision unknown to mindless beasts. Each one of them walked it’s own path, neatly spaced from the others. And as he looked the starlight grew unsteady as the branches above were moved.

Chris sat paralyzed for a crucial second, and then two. His mind screamed at him to move, to run. Then the moment ended and he scrambled down the hole, kicking his foot through the flames in his haste blessedly killing the light. He shook Ray with his heavy hands whispering “Ray wake up we need to move we need to go now.”

Ray sat up groggily, but when he saw the panic on Chris’ face didn’t pause to ask questions. He grabbed his gun and stepped carefully out into the night air, Chris breathing down his neck. The Raksha’s thralls had noticed the commotion, but their instincts were dulled by her control and they were in no rush to investigate. The pair slinked off into the night like mice before owls.

Try as they might to keep silent Chris heavy footfalls resounded like hammer blows into the tranquil night, but they still managed to build a healthy lead on the marching horde. And then the wolves found their den and the scent of man. A howl shook the night as the wolves alerted their master to fresh prey. The Raksha’s free gauntleted hand wove an intricate, hypnotic pattern into the air and the horde surged forward with a howling and screeching that shook the ground beneath their pounding feet.

Chris didn’t want to die. There was not a single thought in his mind of giving up, and he willed himself forward. But will can only do so much. His legs felt like tar and his arm felt like it had been dipped in it. The ground was rough and uneven, and he tried to focus simply on staying on his feet, but Ray began to pull away from him. Being left alone felt even worse than death would. So he focused himself on speed, on simply being as fast as he could, but his feet caught and he stumbled. He did not fall, or he would have truly been lost. The gap between him and Ray widened.

He moved forward, but now fear began to set in with the pain, and the tiredness. In that moment fear showed him his future, it would be one of the wolves that got him. He knew this with horrid certainty. Jagged teeth would find his calf, and the beasts would tear him apart, piece by screaming piece. Until he was nothing but a head, swinging from the Raksha’s hand.

Fear can draw strength from people that they didn’t know they had. Unfortunately Chris had already been afraid for days, he had run and fought for far, far longer than he should have been able to. Chris had run out of everything he had to give.