"If this is to end in fire,
Then we should all burn together,
Watch the flames climb high into the night,
Calling out for the rope, sent by and we will watch the flames burn on and on the mountain side."

_______

Tommy didn't know what to think anymore. His mind was scrambled with blurry thoughts and questions. He knew something in him was dying, hope? Faith? Whatever it was, he didn't have time to mourn it.

The doctor was hot on his trail. The electricity flowing out of him in small waves. His stick gripped tightly between his fingers. Mouth pried wide open in a disturbing way.

Tommy didn't know what happened to this man, and he was sure he didn't want to find out.

Tommy wished he could just hide away from this world. Feel safe for the first time since arriving. But even he knew wishing wouldn't do him any good. His survival instincts were the only thing keeping him alive at this point.

He didn't believe like the others did. He didn't think there was some hidden way out of this world. That when the moon set over the horizon they would be set free. He thought the only way to get home was to die, but die his own way. Not by the killers hands.

Tommy hadn't seen Ashlie and nick since arriving. He hoped they were fairing better then he was. Hoped they could get a generator done by the time the doctor finally catches up to him.

He was afraid. There was no denying it. He wanted to make it out of there as much as the others. As much as dawn, Uni, cory, jon, adam, Ashlie and nick did.

Tommy was too lost in thought to realize the doctor wasn't on his trail anymore. The unnerving quietness didn't settle well in his stomach. It was pressing on him like a weight. Even his breathes were quiet.

Why would the doctor suddenly stop chasing him now?

Then his face hit the ground.

_______

It took Ashlie awhile to find the first generator.

Looking at the banged up machine sent a little relief coursing through her. She was terrified, but it wasn't a foreign feeling. She's been terrified from the moment she stepped into this world. But something about this killer set Ashlie's brain on fire, he was like nothing they had ever experienced before. And they thought the shape was hard.

Ashlie finished fixing the generator and made a beeline for where she thought she saw another one. She turned a corner only to be meant with a hard chest. She froze in place, her breathing picking up in shallow gulps. Eyes wide as they slowly looked up.

Ashlie quickly covered her mouth as she pushed away from the doctor. His cold dead eyes stared straight into her chocolate brown ones. Ashlie was too terrified to even notice tommy laid across his shoulder like a rag doll. His face scrunched up in agony.

Ashlie turned around and ran as fast as her shaking legs could carry her. The Itching of a scream deep in her throat.

She knew she couldn't leave tommy behind. That she should of figured out someway to make him drop her friend. But she couldn't, she was too scared. She looked away, turned her back before she could even process it.

She was a coward.

Looking away never fixes anything. It never makes the feeling of guilt any better to bear. It only makes it worse.

Yet she turned her back on her friend, who's doom was now banished to the hooks.

And all she could do was run.

_______

Nick should've known there was something wrong. That the balance of his little world tilted too much that it fell.

Seeing tommy being dragged away by the killer was enough to set his entire world ablaze.

He's saved others who have fallen to the hooks before. Though, that never stopped the feeling of pure trepidation. But something about this killer stopped every thought he had about saving Tommy. It made him want to run, to hide. To get as far away from that behemoth.

I'm so stupid, he thinks as he creeps up behind the killer. Anxiety flowing out of him like a waterfall. The doctors back was towards nick as he sticks Tommy's shoulder in the hook, before walking away.

I am so so stupid. Nick could feel the urge tugging at his mind, to run. But he wouldn't let himself give into that temptation. This was his friend, and he'd do anything for his friends.

Making sure to check his surroundings first, nick dashed over to tommy.

"Don't worry buddy, I'm gonna get you down." Nick started to panic. Tommy would surely bleed out if he removed him from the hook, and nick didn't have any bandages or anything on him to stop the bleeding. But it was a risk he was willing to take. If both his and Tommy's life hadn't been on the line he would've thought it through a little more. But the killer could come back any minute and they didn't have the time to waste.

Slowly removing he hook was a hassle, but he managed to get tommy down. Slinging one of Tommy's arms over his shoulder he gripped tommy tightly around he middle and dashed away from the hook.

It was pure luck he also managed to stumble upon a generator.

Nick ripped a piece of his coat off at the bottom and gently started wrapping Tommy's shoulder. It'll have to do for now, nick thought.

He set tommy down behind a curtain and crouched over to the generator. Getting to work in fixing the thing.

_______

Tommy woke to the soft sounds of a generator crackling. His eye sight blurred before settling on the roof above him. Vines seeping through the cracks.

He slowly sat up, his joints and muscles protesting against the movement. His entire body was sore and there was a burning pain in his right shoulder. Looking at it, he noticed he poorly rapped fabric was soaking in blood. His blood. He hadn't even noticed he was bleeding.

Flashes of the doctor chasing him, the weighing silence, his face hitting he floor, and than nothing filled his mind. Looking up, he spotted the generator. Next to it sat nick. Was nick the one who saved him? How? He was sure he was a goner.

"Nick?" Tommy called out. Nick started at the sound of his name being called, looking up at tommy.

"Oh, thank god you're awake. I was worried you'd lost too much blood." Nick quickly finished the generator before running over to tommy and pulling him up. The two heading away from he generator before sitting down behind a hospital bed.

"How are you feeling?" Nick tore off another piece of his coat. Slowly unwrapping the one around tommy shoulder, the blood on it stuck to his skin. Nick wrapped the new piece around his shoulder before leaning back against the bed and sighing in relief.

"Besides my shoulder I feel fine, what happened back there anyway? I blacked out." Tommy leaned back next to nick, taking steady deep breathes in. He was safe, he told himself.

"I don't know, I saw you being dragged off to the hooks by the doctor. Something about that dude sends chills down my spine." Nick rubbed his forehead with the back of his hand. Rattling his mind for any explanation as to why the killer instilled so much fear into him, just from his presence.

"I know right, I've gotten this strange urge to scream from the moment I woke up here."

"Huh, that's weird, so have I." The two looked at each other. Before looking away.

"We should probably find Ashlie, or another generator at least. I've already done two." Nick pokes at a leaf on the ground. His anxiety suddenly spiked and he slapped a hand over his and Tommy's mouth before tommy could even say anything.

The doctor walked right over to the bed. His heart beat sounded heavy in their ears. Before it disappeared as the doctor walked off.

Sighing nick made a gesture to stand and quickly peaked in he direction the killer went, before bending down and helping tommy to his feet.

"You can walk right?"

"I've been walking all my life, I'm ok nick. It's my shoulder that's hurt, not my leg." Nick flared at tommy. "No need to be sassy, I'm just asking. With all the blood you lost I wouldn't be surprised if you'd be too drowsy to walk."

The two bantered quickly as they made their way down the opposite hallway to the killer.

_______

Fixing up another generator, tommy and nick smiled at each other. The bell Indicating the door out was open sounded through the air. Relief heavy in their minds as they snuck through the hallways to find the exit.

Finding the exit was hard. They had managed to run into the killer three more times before finding the exit to the hospital, the metal gates stood in all their terrifying glory. Alleviation flooded their conscious.

All things were looking up before nicks vision wavered, his back erupting into an agonizing pain. Tears freed from his eyes as he face planted into the grass. Taking tommy down with him.

Tommy grunted as his uninjured shoulder met the cold ground. The doctor stood behind them, his blade covered in both dried and fresh blood.

Tommy took one look at nicks back and almost screamed. Blood covered everywhere. Tommy took nick by the shoulders and scooted away from the killer.

"C'mon nick, you're gonna be fine, we're gonna get away." Tommy whispered, thought it was more encouragement for himself.

The killer kept advancing on them. His yellow and rotting teeth snapped together with every step he took.

"Hey dickhead!" Tommy's eyes widened at the voice.

"Ashlie no-"

"Why don't you come over here!" Tommy could see Ashlie visibly trembling from his spot on the ground. But her voice never lost its composure.

"Or are you too chicken!" Ashlie gulped as the killer turned towards her, brandishing his knife. Walking towards her Ashlie closed her eyes. Waiting for the killing strike. Howbeit, it never came.

The soft sound of a hum echoed through the yard. The hypnotizing timbre of the huntress. The doctor looked towards the door to the hospital, slowly walking towards it. The sound luring him in.

It took a few minutes for Ashlie to snap out of the trance and make a dash towards nick and tommy.

"Nick, tommy- oh my god." Ashlie covered a hand over her mouth to conceal a sudden sob. Her brother barely breathing, lain in a pile of his own blood. Tommy quickly pulled her down into a hug, whispering words of encouragement. He pulled back and dragged them both to their feet.

"We need to get out of here, before the doctor snaps out of it." They both grab each of nicks arms and slowly dragged him up. Tommy winced at the pressure he put on his shoulder but pushed through it. Nick was the one in trouble, not him.

The two bounded towards the gate, Ashlie momentarily let go of her brother to pull the lever. Once the door was open the three ran, never once looking back.

_______

For the past couple of years all Ashlie's known was survival. She was stripped from her life and placed in a unfair battle ground. Where the weakest would be killed off. For years she's dealt with the pain of loss and suffering. So many people she considered friends, killed off like it was just a sick game.

Ashlie herself had faced death in the appalling microcosm.

Yet, it's all now lost to a world that no longer exists.

Waking up with her mouth filled with dirt and hair in front of her eyes was not pleasant. She smacked her lips together before lifting her fingers to fix her hair.

That was when she noticed it. The small broken down houses, built next to each other. The birds singing. Not crows, no, birds of different kinds. The best things of all was the sky. What once was a monotonous pool of black, was now a bright blue. Clouds filled it, the sun shined bright above the horizon.

A groan startled her from her amazement. Tommy sat up beside her. His shoulder aches and his mind fuzzy. He looked over at Ashlie, surprised to see a large smile stretched across her face. Tears streamed from her brown eyes.

"W-we made it." Her voice cracked. Her smile somehow getting wider. Tommy's eyes widened, before he started looking around. A grin broke out on his face and before he knew it he was crying too.

Pulling Ashlie into a tight hug, whispering the words we made it over and over again.

All of this ended however when Ashlie pulled away, smile instantly dropped as she looked to the ground beside them. Nick laid on his stomach, back covered in crimson blood. Ink black hair contrasted the light brown dirt under him, The ends covered in dried blood.

"Nick?.." tears continued to stream down Ashlie's face, turned sad as she shook her brother.

"Nick..please.." placing her fingers on the pulse point in his neck and let out a breath of relief and surprise as she felt a pulse, weak, but there.

"We..we need to get to a hospital." Tommy gulped, his throat dry as he nodded. Shakily standing up, Ashlie following.

"You're gonna be ok, nick. We finally made it, you can't die now."

_______

Nick woke in a hospital bed. The strong smell of disinfectant and other chemicals overwhelming him. The bright lights, white painted walls and white sheets were contradicting the darkness he had previously been bathed in.

Ashlie was seated by his bed, gripping his hand tightly as she smiled. Tears already running down her face.

"Hey." Was the first thing she said as she rubbed the back of nicks hand with her thumb.

"You had me worried."

"I...im sorry." Nicks voice was horse, dry and sore from lack of use. Ashlie told him that he had been out for a couple of days, leaving her and tommy in a constant state of panic nick wouldn't make it. Fortunately the surgery to repair nicks spine was successful, he'd have to learned to walk again. But he was alive.

She told him tommy was ok, he was down at the cafe drowning in coffee. The two stayed up all night fretting over the surgery. Tommy's shoulder was healing nicely and he didn't have any infections despite being stuck on a dirty hook. Ashlie was checked for infections and such, and had to stay in the hospital for a few days as well.

He was relieved. They were all ok.

They would probably have to go through years of intense therapy, and now with nick having to learn to walk again. It was going to be a hard journey recovering from all they'd been through. The survivors guilt was going to eat them alive surely.

But at the end of the day, they were home.

They were finally home.

Home, nick reminded himself.

This is home.

And one day, he might just believe it.