CORPORATE HATE MEETING DISGUISED AS WEDDING FOILED BY CAPTAIN ASKARIS. 

I throw a phone at the news. The wall covering screen cracks, straight in the eyes of the Captain. 

Askaris. 

It has a face but I cannot comprehend it. They chose to make it appear this way. 

The teenage boy who’s phone I threw is shouting slurs at me. I look at him. I see him and her. I move him aside. He loses his breath at the sight of my arm and pulls out his second phone to record me. 

I feel as though I can see myself in third person. I can see my blackened face, smeared by soot of the inner workings of the Elevator. The stumble of a zombie. 

No blood. Only burn. 

I must run. I must always run. 

But the laserfire that caught my pant leg, it tore a chunk from my calf as well. 

I do run. It’s a lurch. Dragging that dead limb behind me. The other one dangling at my side.

Where do I run? 

Where do we run, Tauren? 

I can still see you. 

How can I reach you? 

I want to save you. 

It’s not Malyko who saves you, its me. 

I’m coming. 

` There’s more than one person recording me now. My diseased running must do. I move between houses, reaching a fence. My arm pulls us up and over. I land like a body bag. 

Houses? 

The sector I’m in is too rich. Where did the Elevator spit me out? 

I move through the backyard. Suddenly there is a pool beneath me. And then, I am inside the pool. Then across it and over the next fence. I move through this suburb, scaring my way through children and biting my way through adults. 

When I reach the next road with a tram line, I carry knife wound and the head trauma of an airfryer impact. I force my way through the line, stumbling onto the carriage and collapsing on a seat. Three seats, actually. 

My head whirls, vision lagging behind my cognition. I try to look for the map above the window of the tram carriage. Where can I go? Where is safe? 

Where are you Tauren? 

I sink deeper into the seats. 

I can’t even scream. 

Soon, I am swallowed by inky black darkness. It is so warm. 

Here. 

Here I am safe. 

And there, is the Hungry Dark Deity. 

I see its jaws, looming in the darkness. 

Hello, friend.

How shall we dance this time? 

I watch it’s teeth. Doves in the darkness. 

It is so warm. 

Are you ready? 

Of course, but I am not. 

I will miss you. 

And I, you. 

There is now tapping on my shoulder.

And my cheek. 

“Wake up, scarecrow. C’mon, don’t be dead yet.” 

The hand jostles my jaw. It’s too close to where the side of my hair burnt off, jolting me. My eyes open, rolling. 

“There ya go,” the police officer says. 

I groan. 

“You remember me, kid?” he asks. 

I do. 

Heller Tash. The one who tortured me with the deputy. The one who left spots in my vision. 

“Yeah, you remember me. Alright he’s cognizant, pack him up and get him cleaned. He’ll be spending a long time in a white box, can’t have him dying of the plague.” 

I feel them carry me, but I can’t move. 

I must run. 

Hungry Dark Deity, I should have stayed. I will miss you. 

Tauren, I should have stayed. I will miss you.