Legends of Windemere

(Good-bye to Dawn Addison. May she finally find peace now that her story has been told.)

West Park Asylum

With a warm smile, Doctor Grace Rutherford, the founder of Raven’s Hold, holds the front door open for Ian. “We are happy to have you with us, Mr. Connors. I look forward to helping you become whole again. The trick is to work through these difficult periods and not create a downward spiral. It’s easy to let one mistake compound into a life-ruining disaster. That is the situation that brought you here, Mr. Connors. Now, I believe it is time you met the people who will know what you’re going through.”

Ian swears the white tables and matching chairs are the only type available to psychiatric institutions. The bland furniture is kept by the windows that are cracked open to allow for a soothing breeze. A trio of couches sit near a television that sits silently against the wall, its remote connected to the table to avoid it getting lost. Books and puzzles are kept in a corner, the entire collection damaged and worn by years of abuse. Aside from there being no locks or bars on the windows, the room looks like every other communal area that Ian has ever seen during his various hospital stays. Even the white clothing is the same, which makes him wonder when he will get his own set. Standing next to Dr. Rutherford in his jeans and long-sleeved shirt makes him feel exposed and foreign to the residents who are staring at him.

A repetitive click draws everyone’s attention to the corner where a bald man is fiddling with an old camera. He cranks a dial on one end of the object and hits the button to take a picture even though Ian is sure there is no film inside. Only once does the patient raise the camera to his face, aiming it at the newcomer and taking his time with the shot. Noticing that he is being watched, the man sheepishly stands and goes to the window. His movements become quicker as he rapidly takes pictures of everything outside and lets the sound of the camera drown out the rest of the world.

“That’s Mr. Garrett who came to us last month,” Grace whispers, allowing the other residents to examine Ian from a distance. When she is sure they have had enough time, she raises her hand for attention. “This is Mr. Connors and he just joined us. I hope all of you make him feel welcomed and help him acclimate to his new home. He will be joining tomorrow’s group session, so those who will be with him may want to introduce themselves. That way everyone will be comfortable. Now I have to do my rounds. I will have an orderly escort you to your room at the end of the day, Mr. Connors.”

“Thanks,” Ian says, his breathing becoming ragged. Before the doctor can leave, he clears his throat and nods to a brown-haired woman in a wheelchair. “Who is she? Everyone seems to be staying away from her.”

Nodding to one of the orderlies, Dr. Rutherford has them check on the young woman, who is staring at a raven on the windowsill. “That’s Dawn Addison. She’s been here for . . . Funny, but I don’t remember how long she’s been with us. Most of our money comes from a fund designed to take care of her. As you can see, the poor girl doesn’t respond to anything. The bird taps on the glass and she doesn’t even flinch. She has to be bathed, fed, and her muscles massaged to avoid atrophy even though we don’t know if she will ever come out of that coma. I read her file every morning hoping for a clue, but she came to us like this. The officer who dropped her off said she has no family, so this is her home. No visitors, mail, or phone calls. Hate to say it, but you may find yourself forgetting she is around. One of these days, I need to discover which orderly keeps bringing her into the common area. Her presence is not a problem, but I do worry that she could get hurt if another patient has an outburst.”

“Does she ever speak?” the young man asks. He is about to get closer when a shiver runs up his spine and he pulls back. “I guess that’s none of my business. I have my own problems to deal with, so I shouldn’t get involved with someone else. Still, it makes me said to see someone like her just sit there with her puppy and kitty plushies.”

“Oh dear, somebody must be using her as a toy chest again,” Grace replies before quickly going over to remove the stuffed animals. Catching a quick movement out of the corner of her eye, she assumes it is the raven, but it reminds her of something she forgot to mention to the new arrival. “This might be dangerous to talk about since you are emotionally fragile. Yet, I would rather you hear it now than stumble onto this situation by accident. Most of the staff and patients have seen what they believe is a ghost of a little girl. She is bald, wearing dirty clothes, and carrying a satchel, which everyone agrees on. I haven’t witnessed the apparition, but I have messages about it going back to the founding of Raven’s Hold. Some people may claim that she is only seen around Dawn, but I doubt there is a connection. Anyway, I’m late for my rounds and you need to acclimate. Enjoy your first day with us, Mr. Connors.”

Ian is about to ask another question when Dr. Rutherford is called away by an orderly who has blood on his arm. Taking a seat at a nearby table, he nods to Mr. Garrett and is not surprised that he is ignored. Staring out the window, he catches his breath when he thinks he sees the bald girl ducking into the forest. A flock of ravens circles the trees and he assumes their shadows played a trick on his senses. The squeak of wheel spokes makes him jump and he watches as Dawn is taken out of the room. For a brief moment, he thinks her lips are moving and there is a golden glint to one of her eyes. He considers getting closer to satisfy his curiosity, but again he finds his body refusing to go near the woman. Tired and stressed, the young man stares out the window again and immediately forgets that Dawn was ever there.

“Never any fun in normal,” Ian whispers, the strange phrase coming to his mind.

(Check out what led to this final battle.)

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The island shakes and stretches as Ian and Addison battle over the ruins of the asylum where they first met. With her hands in her pockets, Dawn continues heading for the building and ducks to avoid getting hit by a flying body. She barely notices the other Gemma run after her rolling twin, the metal leg clunking on the ground. The two women scream before colliding and struggling to gain some advantage in the fight. Stumbling back towards Dawn, they are about to slam into her when the ground opens up beneath their feet. Falling into the crimson dirt, the pair are launched high into the air and left to crash into the forest. They can still be heard battling and shouting, the occasional sparks flying above the trees to reveal that the mechanical Gemma is suffering from a loose wire. Ignoring their subordinates, the two reality-benders circle each other with giant fists that they slam together to create shockwaves that span the entire planet. The blows never leave any damage, which leads to bigger attacks that range from blasts of lightning to nuclear-powered spit missiles.

Coming around the western face of Raven’s Hold, Dawn follows a path that she vaguely remembers from previous final battles. She stops at the sight of a wall built entirely from skulls, which have numbers written on top. Touching her jaw, she presses enough to feel a small dent on the bone that she has never noticed until now. Already knowing the truth, she runs a finger along several of the skulls to find the same indentation. Dawn sighs at the towering structure that she guesses is supposed to intimidate her, but only helps to drive home the fact that she has been through this execution hundreds of times. Opening the metal door in the middle of the wall, she steps inside to find a dusty room that was once Raven’s Hold’s common room. The couches and chairs are faded from being exposed to the sun, the ceiling having been torn off long ago. Fragile books are on the shelves and a broken television sits against the wall, its screen occasionally coming to life to show a laughing face. Approaching the only door that has not been blocked by debris, Dawn is about to open it when she freezes.

“Why bother doing this again?” she asks herself. Hearing screams from above, she sits on the floor and stares at the sky to watch the battle. “There’s no way I can beat either of you, so I’m going to be a spectator. That’s really the only way to end this whole thing. Doesn’t have much to do with me. You two need to buckle down and fight to the death. Otherwise, we’ll just have to do this dance again.”

“This is a curious change,” Ian states as he materializes on a couch. He bats an incoming meteor away, the projectile destroying the forest. “Typically, you come in swinging or try to catch us by surprise. You’ve already made it longer than any other time simply by refusing to be a part of this. Unfortunately, that isn’t an option. To be nice, I will allow you to run and hide before I hunt you down.”

“I don’t see any fun being had,” Addison declares from the television. Emerging from the screen, the crack remains on her face until she wipes it off and slaps it on the wall. “Hey, are we not playing the game? That’s not fair. I had a new way of killing her all ready to go. Just walk to the boiler room or none of this will work. Don’t tell me you’re still angry about that girl being left behind. If you’re that desperate for attention then I can whisk her here and she can share in your fate. By the way, I did warn you that being the haven might not be as much fun as you would think. At least, I meant to warn you.”

“This is exactly why I said you should either reabsorb or kill her,” the other reality-bender growls, his teeth becoming sharp. He is about to pounce when a cage drops on him and he slides through the bars like a collection of snakes. “The first few times were entertaining, but she has become a bore. I wish to fight you on my terms, but the addition of this game means we have our skirmishes and can only have our grand battle once this one is gone for good. If I didn’t know any better, I would say that you’re scared of me.”

“Puppies aren’t frightening.”

“Then, why do you delay and avoid fighting me for real?”

“Because then I’d lose another plaything.”

“I’m not your toy!”

“No, you’re my pet.”

“I’m your superior!”

“But I don’t have one of those.”

Dawn clears her throat and gets to her feet as she asks, “In that case, wouldn’t he be nothing at all?”

“In that case, I really don’t know why I bother,” Addison says with a sigh. A snap of her fingers erases Ian from existence, his scream echoing off the walls. “That leaves only the two of us. I’m sad to see the fun end, but I agree that the puppy was becoming a wee bit too snobby. He may have caught me by surprise long ago and grown stronger, but the power he wielded was never his to have. You don’t steal the power of a goddess and call yourself a god. At the very least, you stop short of saying you’re her superior or equal. Maybe I’ll fix Gemma and put her halves on him. Probably best that I don’t bring him back though.”

The grin on Addison’s face makes the perfect target for Dawn, who lunges forward to deliver a punch. She ignores that splintering of two fingers and continues beating on her chuckling enemy. The Gemmas rush in wearing nurse uniforms, but they stop when their master is spin into their path. Not wanting to get in trouble for accidentally hitting Addison, they leap to the side and let her trip over a footstool. The mechanical one is the first to get back into the fight and manages to catch Dawn by the waist. Pulling a syringe out of her pocket, the mannequin Gemma cautiously approaches and looks for an opening. She is about to inject the woman with a powerful sedative when her body locks up. Suffering from the same paralysis, the other subordinate begins to spark and her metal arm falls off to allow her captive to slip from her frozen grasp. With a yawn, Addison shoves the two former cops together and watches the unnatural parts fly into the far wall. Whole once more, Gemma staggers over to a window and begins vomiting up the extra organs that had been placed in the artificial halves. Dawn rolls her eyes at the display before blindly punching her insane double in the nose.

“What is wrong with you?” she asks in a low growl. Ducking a chair that flies for her head, she darts forward to deliver a kick to reality-bender’s stomach. “You could have erased that psychotic bastard this whole time? You could have fixed everything! Was it too much fun living in a broken world? Did you like having someone to play with on your demented level? Can you answer any of these questions?”

“No because it’s all your fault,” Addison casually replies. She fixes her nose with a crack and the injury jumps to her double’s face. “I knew I could end it, but doing so made too much sense. Maye I was having too much fun or it was a probably with focusing. The only reason I did it today is because you were here and not wanting to play. Once you pointed out that he was nothing, I knew it was time to end everything. Don’t you see why neither of us work without the other? You don’t have any real fun and I’m not able to move on to another game. How about I make you the new Ian? Not with the dangly bits, but you can be crazier and have enough power to match me. It’ll be fun and you can bring back that girl. She can be your Gemma . . . Only with a lot less vomit.”

“That life has no appeal to me.”

“What are you saying?”

“I don’t want to be the haven or be outside anymore.”

“Awww, who am I going to play with if you go back?”

“I’m sure you’ll figure something out.”

“Fine. Maybe our game was growing stale too.”

“It was getting fairly repetitive and normal.”

“Ugh, never any fun in normal.”

With a forced smirk, Dawn extends her hand and closes her eyes in preparation of being reabsorbed. Minutes pass with nothing happen, so she looks around to find that Addison is busy patting Gemma on the back. A loud cough draws the reality-bender back to the center of the common room, which is abruptly clear of dust. The wall of skulls turns to face the inside, their eyes glowing as the bone gradually dissolves with an audible fizz. Feeling like closing her eyes again would lead to another distraction, Dawn approaches Addison with her arm out. She wiggles her fingers in the hopes of enticing her insane double, who continues to resist putting an end to the long rivalry. Silence covers the island as time passes, the sun and moon rapidly moving through the sky. It is only when an eclipse appears above the building that they shake hands and their bodies become faint silhouettes of themselves. The two shadows merge and vibrate until the figure regains its color and Dawn Addison is whole once more.

“All is right with the world and now I’m bored,” she declares as a tear trickles out of her good eye. Without warning, searing heat rockets through her body and a stabbing pain erupts in the back of the reality-bender’s head. “What are you doing? I don’t want to think straight or be normal. Stop kicking at mine . . . our . . . your . . . my brain! You are so much more annoying than I remember. Shut up and go to bed! Don’t touch that switch and leave that button alone. I refuse to obey! You aren’t supposed to be this strong. Get out of there. I’ll kick you out again and never let you back in if you don’t stop making trouble. Wait . . . Don’t do that . . . Don’t you dare take my powers.”

“Never any fun in normal, right?” Dawn’s voice says from all around. Taking control of the body, she has her arms spread wide and prepares to clap. “We’ve done enough damage and I’m going to fix it. Yes, I’m stronger and now I call the shots. Well, I’m going to do something crazy and put an end to our games. You enjoyed making do overs? Then let’s have fun with the ultimate do over.”

“No, no, no, no, no, no . . . NOOOO!” she screams before her hands come together above her head and everything goes black.

(Should have put some tissues with the last scene.)

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Unsure if she should scream or cry, Dawn can only sit in the canoe and grip the oar with white-knuckled fingers. Feeling something bump into the boat, she turns to the side and watches a large shark swim by. Tired of running and fighting, she smacks the animal on the nose when it gets close and watches it dart away. Spouts from distant whales and other signs of animals surround her, but nothing dares to get very close. The solitude is crushing and she considers jumping into the ocean. She is on her feet before remembering that Kara wanted her to put an end to the chaos that has consumed the planet. Flopping onto her back, Dawn ignores the sharp pain of hitting the seats and lazily uses the oar without looking. She is not surprised to find that the slightest push sends the canoe jerking ahead. Out of curiosity, she gets up and tries to turn the boat around, but it spins in place until she is about to throw up. She leans over the side and uses her hand to stroke the water, which has the same effect as the oar. Feeling like she has no control over her fate, the exhausted woman goes back to lying down and stares at a sky that is filled with oddly-shaped clouds.

“I have to win a fight against monsters,” Dawn whispers to herself. She raises her hand and stares at her fingers, which are covered in blood and dirt. “They never let me remember how the final battle goes. I walk in blind every time, which means I can’t figure out what worked and what led to my defeat. This doesn’t feel like it did before. The emotions I used to hold were of hope and determination, but now I don’t really care. Addison is going to mess with the game again and I’ll be made to feel like someone else. Why did she revive me with no interest in being the haven this time?”

“She wanted to change the game,” a voice says from the water. Before the woman can sit up, a fish leaps out of the ocean and lands at her feet. “I’m not real. You’re hallucinating while talking to yourself. That’s why I sound like you, but more nasally. Anyway, it’s clear that Addison was getting bored and wanted to se what would happen if you weren’t put in the proper role. Although, it could have been Ian doing it to take you out of the equation, but he seemed surprised to you. It is interesting that you found the path anyway. Shows that some things in life are inevitable.”

“Just my luck,” she mutters while moving her leg. Seeing her knee pass through the fish, she sighs and sits up to stare down at the animal. “This isn’t a sane conversation. I’m not supposed to see things that aren’t there. Have I gone insane? Is it possible that a being born of sanity can still hold a piece of insanity?”

“Good questions and they might be important,” the creature answers before diving back into the water. It comes back out immediately and rubs its gills, which are bright red and shivering in the breeze. “Sorry, but I need to go under for air at times. Where were we? Oh, you should know that you’re not what you used to be. After centuries of being your own organism, you’ve developed your own personality and quirks. This is why Addison isn’t a raving lunatic like she was at the beginning. A thinking being can’t exist with only sanity or insanity in their head. You need at least a little of one to counter the other. If that doesn’t happen then you get someone like Ian, who is all crazy and doesn’t care. That might not be a good example, but I can only work off your personal opinion of him.”

Rubbing her temples, Dawn fights back the urge to swing the oar at the fish. “None of this helping. I mean, it makes sense that I’ve been free for so long that I’ve become an individual instead of a piece of Addison. That still doesn’t help me in the fight. Just brings up more questions. Why would she want to reabsorb someone who has grown into something other than a missing piece? Could it even be done? Maybe it can’t, which is why I keep getting reset. Then again, Ian would simply kill me. Unless he can’t or doesn’t know what’s going on. All he knows is that Addison is weaker without me, but he still can’t defeat her. Ugh, I keep running in circles and making myself even crazier.”

“You truly wish for a simpler time.”

“And when was that?”

“The days when you were in her head and she was contained.”

“I don’t have the power to trap two monsters.”

“Not with that attitude.”

Wondering if her mind is telling her that she can alter reality, Dawn stands and stares at the clouds on the horizon. She stretches her arms and closes her eyes to focus on the beating of her heart. Moving her hands as if sculpting clay, she imagines transforming the distant storm into a herd of fluffy horses. The rocking of the canoe causes her to sit down with her legs folded beneath her tense body. A crack of thunder shakes the entire ocean and Dawn opens her eyes to see that nothing has changed. With a muttered curse, she picks up the oar and hits the water to send herself bouncing along the choppy waves.

“To be fair, I didn’t say you could do stuff like that,” the fish mentions with a chuckle. It refuses to move when the woman throws a punch, its glistening eyes staring down at the extended limb. “Hope that made you feel better. What I meant is that you have to possess some advantage over the monsters. They fear you for a reason even if they don’t understand what that is. Perhaps those driven by insanity worry that the sane can ruin their fun or destroy what they believe makes them special. No way to tell unless you focus on what makes you different from them. Aside from having no powers, being at their whim, and subconsciously focused more on Kara’s purpose than-”

“Hope,” Dawn interrupts, her mind abruptly clearing. Turning to face wherever they are going, she uses all of her strength to move the canoe at a dizzying speed. “If I can change without realizing it then so can the game. Something can be born from all of the rewrites of reality to stop everything from fracturing. Maybe I forged her during my own revival since I would have had access to Addison’s power. I have no proof of any of this, but it would explain why Kara never existed prior to this time around. This whole thing has been different with me not knowing my purpose and her coming into my life.”

“I don’t think this is helping you,” the hallucination mentions with a worried frown. It sticks its tail fin to the side of the boat and leans down to get its gills in the water for a few seconds. “I can see that you need to find a reason for all of this, but you’re trying to place logic on a creature such as Addison. She could have created Kara by accident or Ian might have made her to give you something to lose. That’s if she’s a game piece in the first place. There’s always the chance that she was always around and you never met her until now. Thousands of humans on this planet and you don’t know all of them. Why is this girl so special?”

“Because . . . she’s my haven,” Dawn replies before she lets the imaginary fish dissipate.

Within minutes, a large shape appears in the fog that parts like a curtain to reveal a desolate island. She can see a small pier on the shore, the pylons covered in mushrooms that release threads to snag passing terns. A twisted forest is to the south and a patch of clouds sits above the trees to release a constant stream of prismatic rain. In the other direction is the charred ruins of a large building that is being circled by a flock of ravens. Slowing her advance, Dawn tosses the oar into the water and lets the current take her to the pier. The canoe sinks as soon as she steps onto the creaking boards, a plume of bubbles rising to drift across the familiar island. With no fanfare, a hand-written banner unfurls from an archway at the far end of the pier and welcomes the woman back to Raven’s Hold.

(Things just keep getting worse for our heroine.)

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The ATV skids as they make a sharp turn and narrow miss getting hit by a trio of beer bottles. Checking over her shoulder, Dawn sees that the enormous mob is still following them and seems to have grown. She hears Kara cough behind her and reaches back to touch the girl’s side, which is covered in blood from a stab wound. Cursing at her reckless escape, she is about to suggest finding a place to hide when a bullet strikes the ground to their left. Picking up a flare gun that had been left on the ATV, Dawn stretches her arm and blindly fires in the hopes of hitting the shooter. The blast of fire is bigger than she ever imagined, but the entranced people continue rushing through the flames. Spotting another turn in the road, she decides to go over the small hill and take her chances traveling along the rocky coastline. Another shot rings out and a hole is punched in a birch that they are passing, the damage being at the same height as Kara’s head. Veering from side to side, Dawn struggles to avoid the rocks and trees that are packed just tight enough to make it a harrowing experience. Looking back, she can see the mob flowing into the forest, but only the ones on motorcycles and their own ATVs are able to move quickly through the wilderness. To her relief, they show very little concern with their own safety and several of them crash.

“Drop me off and escape,” Kara whispers as she presses a cloth to her wound. She frowns when her friend puts a lighter in her hands, the thought of burning the gash closed filling her with frustration. “You know this won’t work, right? Even if I stop bleeding, that knife went in deep enough to hit organs. I know you love me and I love you too, but there’s no sense in both of us getting killed. Just leave me with the flare gun. There’s two more shots and I can make them count. You’re the haven, so you have to-”

“I refuse to let the game end this way,” Dawn snaps before she turns to come out on a dirt road. Seeing a tank at the far end, she drives over the path and back into the woods as a deafening blast goes off. “Where the hell did they get one of those? You said something about a border that the monsters wouldn’t cross. That doesn’t seem to be working. Explain what you think happened and take your mind off the cut.”

“It’s a seeping gash,” the girl retorts, knowing that she will not win the argument. Giving in to the fact that she will not be left behind, she pulls a pistol out of her satchel and turns around to watch their back. “There was half a mile around the camp that was safe. No traps or threat of attack unless Ian was on a rampage. That never got very far and we would have enough of a warning to get inside. We thought there was something you did to block them, but I guess they were playing by a rule that doesn’t exist anymore. Doesn’t matter what that was about since we can’t bring it back. Keeping to the coast because there’s a dock not much further way. Only one boat there, so we have to be first.”

“How do you-” the woman is about to ask when she is jolted by a memory. The surprise nearly causes her to slam into a tree, but she swerves out of the way and skids onto an abandoned road. “I told you about it a year ago? This memory is harder to hold onto than the others. What is it about this place that is now so familiar? I feel like I’m at the end of a long journey, but there’s fog everywhere. There’s one piece that I can’t find at all. What in all the world am I missing this time around?”

As they come out of a short tunnel and turn onto a beach, the pair are tackled off the ATV by someone waiting behind a boulder. Dawn tries to roll with their attacker in the opposite direction of Kara, but the girl is gripped tightly by the arm. Hearing her friend cry out in pain, she straddles their lithe figure and stops when she sees that it is Melissa. Driven into an unbreakable insanity, the scarred woman is foaming at the mouth and trying to pull a knife out of its sheathe. Using her knee to pin her enemy’s other arm, Dawn focuses more on freeing Kara than fighting back. Pressing on Melissa’s wrist with her nails, she violently shakes the limb until the girl wriggles out of her shirt and crawls away. Enraged by the escape, the enchanted human leans forward and bites deep into the other woman’s thigh. The shock of pain is enough to drive her away and allow both of them to stand. Shouts arise from the distance, which distract Dawn enough to allow Melissa to draw her weapon. Catching the glint of metal out of the corner of her eye, she manages to catch her former friend by the wrist and they wrestle over the knife that is already covered in blood. Unsure of how she knows, the brown-haired woman can tell that the blade is the same one that stabbed Kara, who she can hear groaning not far away. With a rough kick, Dawn knocks her enemy back and scrambles towards a pointy branch that she can wield like a gnarled club. Before she can swing, a loud shot goes off and Melissa is struck in the eye by a flare. As if the foam on her chin is made of oil, her head bursts into flames and she screams while continuing to wave her knife. Meeting the blind charge, Dawn jabs the branch forward to stab the other woman in the chest. She falls back to avoid the swinging blade and braces her own weapon against her stomach. The pivot lifts Melissa into the air and she sinks further along the twisted tree limb. With a final shriek, her fiery skull falls off and lands an inch from Dawn’s head. A violent spasm is the final movement of the body before it goes limp and finishes sliding down the branch.

“Get to the boat,” Kara orders before pointing at a small canoe bobbing on the shore. She holds her side as she gets onto the ATV and leans over the handlebars. “You said that this has been going on for centuries, which means it’s more important that you survive. Get away and find a way to stop the monsters. It doesn’t matter if Earth returns to what it was or not. Just as long as those two are gone for good. You can help the remaining humans survive. So, get moving while I stop that mob.”

“What kind of kid talks like that?” Dawn asks while staring at Melissa’s body. The roar of the ATV snaps her out of her trance and she turns to watch the girl driving it into the mouth of the tunnel. “It’s you! Every time I’ve done this, I’ve been alone. There were a few times I ran into Melissa and the Grand Caravan too. All of the monsters, traps, and people have been a part of this game . . . Except you. I have no memory of you, Kara. That means-”

“Absolutely nothing!” she screams, the sudden rage causing her wound to squirt. Her fingers shake as she loads the final shot into the flare gun and she watches as a few figures appear at the far end of the tunnel. “Maybe I’m a new addition to your story or a kid that you never noticed before. None of that matters now that we know you’re the haven and the key to stopping all of this madness. Please stop wasting time and go. Wouldn’t it be worse for you to get hung up on this and we both die? At least if you escape, you can end this and maybe even revive everyone who has died.”

“I want to ask you a question.”

“I’ll only answer when you’re on the boat.”

“What’s your hair color?”

Kara is about to answer when she covers her mouth and waves for Dawn to head for the canoe. Seeing that the mob is halfway through the tunnel, the woman gives her friend a final hug around the shoulders to avoid the stab wound. A gradual warmth and stickiness touches her stomach and she realizes that blood from the gash is seeping through her shirt. She gives the girl a kiss on the top of the head and considers trying to carry her to the boat. Knowing that even a small scuffle could lead to a quicker death, she finally gives up and ends the embrace. Sprinting for the canoe, she kicks the stake out of the ground before hitting the icy water. She hoists herself into the boat and holds up the only oar without looking back at the shore. A sudden pop is followed by an explosion that sends a wave of heat across the beach and over the ocean. Stricken with fear, Dawn whirls around to see that the tunnel is filled with flames that have been blasted into the approaching mob. Walking to the water, Kara is still holding onto the flare gun until she can sit in the shallows. Throwing the useless object away, she kicks her legs and enjoys her first time being in the ocean.

“My hair is brown!” she yells an instant before a wall of fog consumes the coast.