Author's Note:

Well that only took me *looks at watch* 7 months, I would say excuse the exposition but you wouldn't be here if you weren't interested hehe. No appearance from our dastardly duo in this chapter as it got so long I had to split it in two, you'll be hearing from them very soon though I promise.

Wanna chat with me about this fic or other Little Nightmares-related topics, you can join The Pantheon discord server my friends and I run! The link is in my bio!

Warnings: gun use, open wound/injury, swearing, general little nightmares-based horror?

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With only four days until The Maw bears down on The Pale City's East Coast, we meet Maddie Teller in the heart of the place she calls home.

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There are four days until The Maw makes its yearly stop, four days until the march of The Guests will be heard from well within city limits as they make their way to The Ferryman for safe passage across choppy, freezing waters. A promise of a banquet, a never-ending feast on the flesh of children and adults alike. Well, never-ending until The Lady stakes her claim on the gluttonous freaks who dare board her ship, their souls used for God knows what and their bodies put in chillers to continue the cycle next year.

I think our rescue committee would leave The Maw be if it was just the greedy aristocrats that were disappearing, good riddance to them. But, with the knowledge that children were also caught up in the mix of those who found themselves on The Maw it felt wrong to leave the vessel to its own devices, not when there was something we could do. If The Lady and her staff weren't so far gone I think we'd make an effort to compromise but there was no reasoning with them, Halle, the leader of our rescue committee had tried once before and almost paid for it with his life.

Halle grew up in The Pale City, and he was living there with his family before The Signal Tower took up residence in the middle of town. Halle and his family were some of the lucky few able to seek refuge across the ocean, others either weren't as fortunate or were determined to wait the transmission out in their homes. Those left behind were exposed to it, losing control of their minds and bodies as they gave themselves up to The Tower in the name of escapism. It isn't hard to understand, living in that city the way that it is gives one a good enough reason to need an escape, but that's what The Tower is banking on and so another endless cycle continues.

When Halle's family found normality they made it a point to be as kind and giving to others as they had been to them, which is how the The Pale City Search and Rescue Committee was founded. Over the years the search aspect of the job was dropped, as unidentifiable beings known as The Viewers became more and more prevalent around the city, the committee soon found that these monsters were the remnants of the people left over, there was no cure other than putting them out of their misery.

They put out word that the committee would shift its focus from search and rescue to just rescue soon after, looking instead for the children left behind as the adults were beyond saving.

I was one of those children lucky enough to be found, although I fought tooth and nail to not be caught. Adults were trouble, big trouble, and being caught by a large group of them meant certain death. I had been hiding in a roof alcove, trying to stop from freezing to death when a group of adults had picked me up, saving me from a Viewer that had caught on to my whereabouts.

I hadn't been particularly thankful at first, trying to bolt as soon as I was out of The Viewer's grasp but being caught again, I thought it would be the end for me but upon my departure from The Pale City is when I loosened up, that little boat was heaven sent, full of dry blankets and food. Real food, not just what we could scrounge up ourselves.

And now I'm a part of the same committee, doing what I can to rescue the kids who have been left behind and inexplicably keep appearing. And today doing what I can means helping two of our older kids clean up the dishes while Halle interrupts me to talk shop.

I flicked suds at Pit, the kid closest to me, watching her with a laugh as she batted soap bubbles out of her braids with a dramatic scowl. Herb bit his lip to conceal a laugh, she'd already hit him upside the head once and he wasn't keen on her doing it again.

"So, where are we going again?" I turned to Halle, wiping my hands on the towel I'd been using and dismissing Pit and Herb with a wave, Halle chuckled as they ran past him, clearing his throat.

"The Maw is meant to be docking on the east coast of the Pale City this year. We're gonna try and get down there a few days early to see if we can intercept any shipments. The group we got last year was pretty substantial." He readjusted his lean against the counter, arms crossed over his chest. I fiddled with the damp tea towel, thinking of the time I'd spent in our medical wing last year.

"It's a shame so many of them died." There was a silence between us, I hadn't meant for it to sound so bitter.

"I try not to dwell on that, they passed on well looked after, warm and safe. Which is better than at the hand of something on that ship."

"No, I know. I just wish there was more we could do."

Halle placed a comforting hand on my shoulder, thumb rubbing circles into my shirt. "Try not to blame yourself, yeah? We do what we can but we aren't miracle workers, it's all triage."

I stayed silent, with a long drawn out sigh Halle returned to his position against the counter before clearing his throat awkwardly.

"I'll go down to the armoury later and make sure all our weapons are good to go. Are there any major buildings or areas we're passing through?" I asked, putting my hands back in the murky sink water, barely any bubbles left.

"Not to my knowledge, we'll be well clear of the school and hospital. I don't think we'll have to go through the nursery but we should still be careful in that area regardless, we don't know what'll be hanging around."

"That's where Jas said those teenagers were hanging out right?" I asked, Halle nodded. "What did he say was guarding the nursery again?"

"They'd called it The Mother. Horrifying creature, God only knows how awful her transformation would've been. For her and her children."

Jas and a small team had gone out a few weeks back for a scavenging mission, trying to see if they could find anything useful and had come across an old nursery. There was a small group of teenagers hanging around in the area, wearing monster masks and riding around on rusty old bikes. Jas had gotten a pretty quick look into one of the Nursery windows, inside was a woman, holding a lifeless child close to her chest.

Jas had come back rather shaken despite only seeing her through the window, begging the group to stay clear of the area.

"Well, I don't plan on putting anyone in unnecessary danger, so there's no reason to go poking around in a wasp's nest so to speak," I muttered,

"That's fine by me, at worst we want the same number in and out."

Halle opened his mouth to speak again when Nin poked his head around the archway, he peeked up at Halle and I before hiding back around the corner. I threw the towel over my shoulder and rounded the counter, Nin coming into view as he shifted his gaze to the ground, white-blond hair falling in front of his face as he pulled his teddy bear closer to his chest.

Nin was the youngest of last year's rescue, only four-years-old and found in a cage, both he and his teddy holding on by a thread when they were found. The cage was stuffed to the brim, it wasn't clear how many of them were actually alive at first glance. At least with the sealed crates going to the Maw there was space for the kids, but in all fairness that isn't a better fate by any means.

Pulled from a cage, hungry and bruised, unable to hold their heads up, many of the children on the bottom having suffocated, being buried in nameless graves. And the ones on top weren't faring much better. Sick and cold, many sporting infections from open wounds and despite our best efforts still not making it. Nin was one of those rare cases where we were sure he wouldn't make it, getting so much worse so quickly before Arthur, our senior medic, walked into the medical bay one morning and there he was, sitting upright in his bed, asking for a drink of water like he hadn't been dying of disease just twelve hours earlier. Despite Halle's repeated line of us not being miracle workers, miracles are what we call kids like Nin.

"Hey buddy, what can I do for you?" I asked, squatting down to his level.

"Bad dream..." came his hushed response, he sniffled quietly as he looked up at me, eyes wide and scared.

He reached for me, a hiccup on his breath as I smothered him against my chest, pulling him up off the floor. I stroked his hair and shushed his crying gently, Halle looked on, a smug smile pulling at his lips, I rolled my eyes back at him.

"Hey Nin, why don't you go back to your bed and I'll come and tuck you in, yeah? How does that sound?" He gave a grumble of protest before nodding his head and wiggling his legs in order to get down from my hold.

I put him down and he wandered to the door, giving a final look back at Halle and I. Halle spoke up when Nin was out of earshot.

"For someone who stays outta the way of the kids to, quote unquote, "not get attached" you sure do manage to get pretty soft and mushy with 'em."

I pulled the towel off of my shoulder, balling the damp material up in my fists. Halle always smiled at me like he knew something I didn't and it frustrated me endlessly, it was so ridiculously parental.

"Which is exactly why I try not to get attached, you think you hate me now? Just wait until I bond with one of these little shits," I laughed, Halle's face softened in a way that only a father's could,

"Madeleine, no one hates you. You do good work here, and we all care about you."

"Not all of you."

"Okay, you and Georgia have had your moments. Hell, you and I have had our moments but I don't hate you. And I don't think she hates you either."

"Halle, she said, verbatim, 'I hate you, I wish we hadn't taken you in' just 20 minutes ago." I sneered, imitating her annoying, high pitched cadence.

"Oh, well. I'll have to have a word with her about that."

"Don't bother," I huffed, "not everyone is going to like me, that's fine. And she's not going to start liking me just 'cause you told her off."

"I can't have infighting,"

"Well you'll be happy to know then that I am not fighting, it takes two to argue and I'm not rising to it." I put the towel down on the metal countertop, my back to the older man. "I'm gonna go tuck Nin in and then I'll check the guns."

"I'll finish up here." He took my place in front of the sink, while I moved out of the room.

Despite all the things Halle did that drove me up the wall, he's been incredibly good to me, most notably when I really wasn't giving him a reason to. I'd grown up in the Pale City and was there when everything came crashing down. A lot of the horror I'd witnessed was lost to me, buried in my subconscious so deep it only ever came back in flashes of nightmares that I could never remember once I woke up.

Halle took me in as a troubled kid along with Cameron, who became my assigned caregiver, they saw potential in me, a position for me in the business, so I was given a space in Cameron's apartment in the courtyard of our headquarters and grew up in his care but if I was being honest with myself he didn't raise me. Halle taught me how to cook and look after myself, how to empathise with others and how to lead with compassion. Cameron taught me how to use a double-barrelled shotgun.

When I turned sixteen Cameron left, just up and disappeared. He never left a note, didn't say where he was going or why he needed to leave, I just woke up in our apartment one morning and he was gone. I was terrified but the adults didn't reflect that same energy, something I didn't understand at the time, which only served to upset me further.

Halle and I fought like cats and dogs over it. Cameron and Halle didn't often see eye-to-eye, especially when it came to me, so I had no doubt in my mind that Cameron had left because of the near constant fighting. Halle denied it, obviously, and believed that Cameron's absence was a good thing for me, safe to say I didn't agree. We spent years hating each other's guts for things we had said when the wound of Cameron leaving was still fresh, despite their differences, losing someone so close was tough on Halle, we never really found a replacement for his position and eventually we didn't need to as I stepped up to the plate.

When I turned twenty-one last year I offered to take on a more serious leadership role, Halle said he'd consider my application if we talked everything through like adults, and when we did we realised how much of the blame wasn't on either of us, that Cameron had pitted us against each other one final time, like a sick joke. He had a habit of making us fight over nothing, the bastard. Things are still rough, we both said things that we can't take back and it's going to take time to patch up what's left of our relationship but not talking to Halle at all was one of the worst things I've ever done, and I'm glad that it's over now.

I could see Nin's room once I was up the third flight of stairs, he shared the space with five other boys, each of their names on laminated placards blu-tacked to the door. Very soon two of them would be replaced with new names, with Simon and Link set to move in with their new foster families in a couple of weeks time. I traced Nin's placard, a doodle of what he said was a dog decorated the left edge along with other lines and scribbles that he'd smattered the piece of paper with.

I opened the door, careful to not let the light from the hallway seep in too far. Nin was sitting up in his bed, his teddy resting in his lap.

"How are you holding up kiddo?" I ask with a sigh, Nin shrugs his shoulders. "What was your bad dream about, do you remember?"

"The cage. I was stuck, couldn't breathe." I scooted closer, opening up my arms for him. He scrambled forward, pressing hard into my stomach.

I pulled him closer, shushing him gently and running my fingers through his hair. I could feel my shirt start to get damp as Nin's tiny frame shook with hiccups and sobs, frantic and panicked.

"You're okay, you're safe. We wouldn't let anything happen to you. No one is ever going to hurt you like that again."

I repeated myself, like a mantra, waiting patiently for Nin to calm down. It was incredibly hard not to get attached to these kids, and Nin had carved out a little space in my heart. Not that anyone was going to know as much.

"Deep breaths buddy, you're okay."

I took a deep breath for Nin to follow, framing his face with my hands and wiping his tears away with my thumbs. He followed along, hiccups breaking up some of his breaths but eventually coming back to centre.

"There we go, you've got it," I whispered with a smile, "crying is good, good stress reliever."

I watched Nin's eyelids start to droop, the crying having taken what was left of his energy. I scooped him up, pulling back his sheets and setting him back down against his bed.

"Is Nin okay?" Came a tiny, tired whisper from the bed next to us, Simon rubbed the sleep from his eyes, worry set in his brow.

"Yeah, he's alright. Just had a nightmare, that's all." I pulled Nin's duvet over him, tucking him back in. "Go back to sleep, Simon."

I reached out to ruffle the older boy's messy black hair, he smiled at me before turning over and snuggling back into his own covers. I set my attention back on Nin, reaching for his bear and wiggling the floppy limbed toy with a chuckle. He pulled his arm from under the duvet and reached for his bear, cuddling him close.

"Stay?" Nin asked meekly. "Just 'til I fall asleep?"

"Of course buddy."

I ran my fingers through his hair again, using my nails to scratch gently against his scalp and the skin above his ears. He sighed, looking up at me with soft eyes.

"Everything is okay now," I whispered,

"Promise?"

"I promise," I smiled, Nin continued to relax back into his bed, until he was soundly asleep. I stayed at his side for a few more minutes, until I was sure that he was really asleep.

It was time to prepare for a rescue.

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I'd headed down to the armoury and started my checks, making sure the weapons we would be taking were ready to go. I was halfway through counting out shotgun shells when I heard Jas call for me outside the door.

"Just a second." I placed the box down and crossed the room to unlock the door. "Yeah?"

"How long 'til you finish up here?" He wrung his hands, eyes darting around the armoury as he stood in the doorway.

"Probably another fifteen minutes, why?"

"Halle needs you out in the field now," Jas stressed hurriedly, this piqued my interest.

We weren't often sent off on our own, especially this close to The Maw docking. I narrowed my eyes at him, Jas wasn't a liar and he definitely wouldn't lie to me about something this serious.

"Did he say why?" I asked, brow raised.

"We need someone to scout out the docks before we go in a larger group, I wasn't told much else. Halle says he trusts that you can do the job on your own."

I nodded, quietly pleased that Halle was putting this much trust in me. I'd done singular scouting missions before but not this far out. Waving Jas into the room, I gestured to my map, red circles and x's littered the creased and ageing paper.

"Where's our rendezvous?"

Jas traced his finger across our decided upon route and then stopped, tapping twice on a small courtyard surrounded by buildings, the street cutting through the courtyard led to the waterfront a little ways down from the docks.

"Here," he looked at me, "I think it's an apartment complex or something."

I nodded, circling the space in red pen and folding the map up. "How far behind me will you guys be?" I asked, packing my bag. I'd come back for my gun.

"No more than half a day."

"I need to get changed, but I'll be on my way out as soon as I can. Let Halle and the others know that I've left, okay?"

"Okay, yeah. Good luck."

I usher him out, locking the door behind us. He made his way back to Headquarters while I made my way across the green to the small apartment I called home.

Chips, my tabby cat who was more air than brain, greeted me enthusiastically at the door. I reached down to stroke him quickly before dumping my bag on the kitchen bench and rifling under my sink to find my first aid kit. It was a quick once over to make sure it had enough supplies and medicine should anything go wrong before it was stuffed into my bag.

Then I was up the flight of stairs to the second floor, rushing to pull my plain clothes off and replace them with my uniform, I gave myself a once over in the mirror. My hair was messy but up and out of my face, three layers of clothing made up the rescue committee's uniform, consisting of body armour, two civilian clothing layers for the extra heat and protection, gloves and a face mask.

I sat on the bottom step and pulled my boots on, tying the laces while blowing the annoying wisps of hair that had fallen into my eyes away, Chips curled under my bent leg, purring loudly. I smiled at him, smooshing his fluffy face between my hands softly, he didn't seem to mind, wandering off to his food dish when he felt adequately loved on.

I pulled my raincoat off of the coat rack, it was a gift from Arthur's wife, Lisa. The outer vinyl was plain black with a blue, cotton inner-lining. I had mentioned off-handedly to her that blue was my favourite colour when I'd first been taken in, sitting in a bed that swallowed me whole as she checked me over for illness and injury.

Lisa didn't have to remember that detail, but she did, she'd always made me feel welcome. I put the coat on and stomped both of my feet on the floor, a little good luck ritual I'd stolen from Cameron, it was one thing he couldn't take from me.

The walk back to the armoury was punctuated by my racing heart, the nerves starting to set in. I'd only ever done one other scouting mission on my own and it was never as far as I would be going today. I flexed my hands and shook out the jitters, standing tall as I opened the door. I crossed the room to the lockers lining the wall and pulling out my shotgun from its perch.

I placed the empty gun down on the table, and turned back to the locker for my magazine pouch, then over to one of our storage shelves to load the pouch with shells and hooking the garment onto my belt. I double, then triple checked everything I had on me, satisfied but also mildly shitting myself was how I left that shed, flicking the lights off and locking the door.

Deep breaths, no need to panic, you've been doing this long enough. If Halle trusts you then you have every reason to trust yourself.

Except I couldn't convince myself that was the case, the inner city is where most of the trouble is, large hoards of viewers being the main problem. And while I would be well equipped in terms of defence I hoped beyond hope that I wouldn't encounter anything, I can't trust that I won't screw this up.

I walked along the rock wall, following it down to the small pier and shed that housed Martin's boat. Martin worked as a fisherman on the coast before being evacuated, he and Halle had been friends for a very long time, Martin being recruited to transport us to The Pale City and back when the time called for it.

I knocked on the weathered wooden door, I could hear Martin from inside the shed – muttering something under his breath I'm sure – he yanked the door open and his frustration ebbed away to concern as he took me in, kitted up hours before schedule.

"You're early." It wasn't a question.

"Scouting."

"Jesus Christ." Martin shook his head, clicking his tongue and opening the door wide enough for me to step inside.

"Help me with the door, would ya?" Martin asked while donning his raincoat and boots, I nodded and took my place next to the wall, hands braced on the large metal chain that opened one half of the barn style doors, chipped and rusting due to years of weathering.

"You got it this time?" Martin quipped, face breaking into a cheeky smirk. I rolled my eyes at his good natured jab, I was never gonna live down the embarrassment of pulling on a locked chain with every scrap of force and confidence in my body.

"Yeah, yeah old man, I've got it. Pull the pin then the chain." I muttered, grasping the chain in one hand and pulling the iron pin with the other. I threw a look to Martin who nodded.

"On my count. One, two, three."

We both pulled the chains down towards us, the iron-clad doors groaning with effort as they swung open, I reached for the pin and locked it back into place, dusting off my achy hands on my trousers, Martin clapped and motioned for me to get on the boat.

"I'll take ya south-east side, last thing I want to be doin' is getting my teeth kicked in 'cause we're too close to that godforsaken ship." Martin grumbled, undocking the boat from its fixtures and then climbing in. He tossed the gangplank down unceremoniously and let me board.

"Why wasn't she winched?" I prodded.

"Was planning on takin' her out later, get her warmed up for the mission. But it seems the big man has other ideas." Martin groaned, stepping into the helm to get the engine started, I followed after him.

"I know about as much as you do, Jas only told me like twenty minutes ago," I stated flatly, Martin huffed, seeming on edge, "something wrong?"

"Nah, just got a... weird feeling is all."

I shrugged, turning back and seating myself on the deck. With my gun and bag on the ground, I was able to decompress. Martin's behaviour, while not unusual, certainly had me on edge. He was a jumpy man, not having much to say to anyone besides Halle. In meetings he'd lean against the back wall, just listening. I used to be so afraid of him growing up, watching him brood silently in corners and stare through the soul of any kid who tried to step to him, as far as I was concerned he was as frightening as the adult monsters that roamed the city but after being tasked to help him clean up his boat and shed as punishment for 'unsavoury behaviour' when I was a teenager I came to realise that Martin was just a man of very few words, he was actually surprisingly shy.

His freakish sixth sense for trouble aside, I knew I was in good hands with him. Even if I had noticed that something had started to feel off too.

»»————-　　————-««

I thanked Martin as I stepped off the boat, boots colliding heavily with the cracked concrete of the south city limits. I gave Martin's boat one long, last look, pulled up my face mask and slipped into the city. It smelt just as awful as I remembered, despite the fact that Viewer's corpses were always taken by The Tower it still reeked with the stench of them, I pulled my face mask up, shotgun braced diagonally against my front. I was careful not to make any sound, The Pale Citizens had a bad habit of warning you of their presence far too late.

I was lucky for the lack of rain today, it made long-distance visibility so much easier and made the walk, while downright terrifying, relatively easy. I still felt it rather strange that I was entirely alone and with so much spare time on my hands why not dwell on it.

Halle trusted me, maybe not implicitly, but he trusted me. I was a good marksman and I had my wits about me, never one to let my guard down but this still felt wrong somehow, like I was disobeying a direct order to stand down or like I was trying to show off to someone who already knew what I was capable of. The only time I had ever been sent off on my own was for a supply run and I was alone for no more than forty-five minutes, standing in the same spot while I waited for the rest of the group to arrive.

My skin prickled as I heard the hiss of a Viewer, I stopped, gun braced against my shoulder but ultimately unneeded as the sound had come from inside a boarded up building, I shook out the nerves and continued to walk. I think there was a time where Halle might have trusted me implicitly, like when I'd get up early to load the breakfast dining ware into the cafeteria, or when I offered to run small errands so he had more time for proper work.

I was there, always, doing everything I could to prove to Halle that I was worth the effort they'd put in to rescue me and, more importantly, that spending all his free time with me to teach me about being a kind person wasn't wasted.

I remember shortly after arriving overhearing a conversation I shouldn't have, Halle had fought to keep me at Headquarters instead of sending me on to a different facility, he'd said that he saw potential in me, I hadn't known exactly what that meant but it felt good to be wanted somewhere, even if only by one person. Halle was like a father to me once, a father-daughter relationship we had built over half a decade of life lessons, movie nights and hard-won trust in one another brought to ash and cinder in the span of a thirty-minute argument. All because I couldn't keep my mouth shut, all because I refused to listen. If I knew what I did now back then I would've never raised my voice at Halle after his suggestion that Cameron was a bad influence, because at the end of the day he couldn't have been closer to the truth.

But sixteen-year-old me didn't need to hear that, I needed my Dad to assure me everything was going to be okay even if we both knew he was lying, but he didn't. Dad? Woah, haven't called Halle that in a while, maybe I should just bury this train of thought, move on before I upset myself.

Yeah, good idea.

Before long I could make out the shapes of the apartment building in the distance, standing tall and withered against the grey sky. It was a route we'd passed by before but hadn't previously taken, one that was relatively safe and straight-forward, in fact as I came up to the courtyard gate I started to feel uneasy, it was too quiet, I hadn't encountered anything at all. No Viewers, no kids, I hadn't even seen one of those giant rats!

The gate was tall, with barbed wire tangled across the top. Creeping vines were curled around the ornate iron bars and sweeping the concrete, bone dry and shrivelled, there was a shitty-looking lock and chain hidden beneath the dead shrubbery.

It was rusted, leaving the tips of my exposed fingers coated in oxidised metal when I touched it, I could probably pull on it and it would crumble away to nothing. I took a step back and then threw my full weight into the gate, the chain perforated and fell to the ground but it took two more attempts for the gate to swing open.

Groaning and rubbing my now tender upper arm, I scanned the area. I'd made way to much noise opening the gate but the courtyard looked empty, maybe I'd be lucky. The concrete ground was cracked and warped, not unlike the rest of the city, the middle had started to sink, a telltale sign that a chasm was bound to open up here soon enough.

As I walked past the first set of apartment windows, gun held tightly in my hands, I could hear the buzz of TV static coming from a broken set of windows, I realised too late that the room with the TV wasn't empty, a Viewer stood tall inside, its body spasming in small, short bursts, gurgling and hissing to itself. I tried to shuffle backwards planning to make a run for the other courtyard gate when my boot made contact with a shard of glass, crunching loudly under my weight.

I cursed under my breath and ducked down but it made no difference; The Viewer had sensed me. With a distorted yell it launched itself toward me, toppling over the window ledge and hitting the ground with a thud, I put as much distance as I could between myself and the monster, loading the chamber and lining up my shot as it put itself back on its feet.

The Viewer rushed me, screeching loudly. I pulled the trigger, missed. With The Viewer only getting closer, I took too far of a step back, the heel of my boot slipping on uneven ground and my leg catching on an exposed piece of rebar, tearing the skin clean open. I hissed at the white, hot fire that burst through my leg but pushed through in order to still give myself the distance.

The Viewer collapsed forward as it followed me, not expecting the small drop but correcting itself faster than I could reposition my gun, it charged again.

"Shit!" I spit, crossing my gun length ways across my chest to stop it from falling on top of me as it lurched over my body, I put all my upper body strength into pushing against the gun, keeping the creature as far from my head as I could manage. I could feel the air start to sizzle as it prepared to kill me. I pushed until my elbows were straight and put my feet flat on the ground, using the momentum and raw force to push up and over in order to smash the butt of my shotgun as hard as I could against its head.

It fell to the side, disoriented and confused, gargling aggressively. I took the small window of opportunity to put myself on my feet, pumping the gun and then shooting the creature point blank in the face, it slumped over as its discoloured blood splattered the front of my clothes. I breathed heavily, taking a moment before the adrenaline wore off and I was made aware of how fucked up my leg was, I bit down on my bottom lip to avoid yelping as a stabbing pain shot up and down my leg.

"Motherfucker." I couldn't stay here in the open, not if I wasn't sure I could run at a moment's notice.

I could see the dark of the waterfront through the alleyway ahead of me but it was in my best interest to get somewhere safe and wait for help, fuck.

To my left I could see one of the doors to the apartments having been propped open with a piece of wood, wedged between the door and the frame. A telltale sign that kids were using it to either pass through or sleep in, of all the buildings in the courtyard it looked the sturdiest so it was probably my best bet and if Pale City children were using it the chances are that it was relatively safe. And even if that wasn't the case I had access to a weapon, something many kids in the city were not equipped with.

The trek across uneven ground was hell on my calf but I pushed through, if I could just make it inside I could sit down and assess the damage. I tried to ignore the feeling of split skin being pushed and pulled as I limped, breathing a sigh of relief as I made it to the door. I put my hand on the wooden plank before opening the door, I'd already made more than enough noise, no need to pinpoint exactly where I was hiding.

Upon the call of another Viewer in the distance I dislodged the plank, laying it against the outside wall and slipping inside.