I manage to drag my body into the nearest building which happened to be some sort of corner diner or café that was close to the Fence. The polished timber floors are scratched and marked, covered in dust and broken glass. I was on the floor and somehow managed to roll onto my back, just inside of the broken down front door, the tiny bell was near my feet, the middle rusted out. The ceiling was a dull greyish white with a ceiling fan still firmly affixed to it. The blades are wooden and I wonder if they’re rotting.

I feel like a train decided to run over me and breathing brought on a so much agony that at first I tried holding my breath but when I gasped it hurt so much more. The rain’s gotten pretty heavy all of a sudden too. I just made it in time, it seems. Now…I’ll just have to wait and pray that the hordes don’t find me. I press a hand to my stomach, there was a large gash that had cut right through the fabric of my clothes and bit into my skin. I’m too scared to see just how deep it is. But my intestines aren’t hanging out so it shouldn’t be that deep at least.

The ringing in my ear had quietened a little from before, but breathing brought on a headache that pounded behind the eyes. I’m probably going to die in a café, next to the Fence. Hah.

I almost laugh but it came out as a cross between a cough and a sob. Ah shit it hurts. I’m hoping to pass out pretty soon. Lightning illuminates the café for a moment and darkness returns the thunder’s call. Not long now the hordes will spill forth and I’ll end up as chow if they find my corpse. I wonder if they will manage to break through the Fence and destroy everything inside.

My eyes sting and shutting them made something spill from them. Huh? Ah my eyes are leaking tears. They were burning hot as they slide down. I raise my other hand to cover my face. Fuck, just hurry up and let me die or something. I’ve lost Markus. Cody and Anne were taken away and now… Now I’m left here by myself to rot away. And it was frustrating as fuck. And lonely. I bite back a sob. Shit.

Another shot of lightning brightens the room with the trembling roar vibrating underneath. A million and one roars soon fill me ears and my dread almost makes me flinch. It’s begun. The Miasma will consume this place in no time. And with it, the night parade of demons had begun.

It wasn’t like I was particularly afraid of it now that I’m in the middle of it. And losing so much blood that I was probably delirious enough to think of everything so calmly while wanting to cry my heart out at the same time, probably helped. I had seen a Miasma storm from a distance before. It calls all sorts of monsters and then they take over whatever the storm had landed on. Sometimes a thick blood mist would envelop the area but other times you see it. Thousands of monsters running through the night like a black swarming locust plague. I had watched them take over a city once. The city was somewhere to the west and the horde rained down upon it like insects to a carcass. And picked it clean to the bone. The thought made me shudder. There was a small community, much like Deadside and they were consumed utterly and completely. Hopefully it might take out the armies while it’s here.

I hear something shift and the clinking sound of broken glass being disturbed. I open my eyes and turn my head in its direction. There was a hulking dark mass standing in the doorway which must have been another entrance. My eyes widen as it steps closer. Ah shit. Swallowing my spit which tasted metallic, I see that it had blue-green stripes that were soft glowing, all over its body. Bioluminescence…I think it’s called. It resembled a tiger’s stripes. As it gets closer to me, I realise it was a flipping tiger. Though black like midnight, so I would have mistaken it for a panther or something if not for the glowing stripes. The neck was too short for a panther and has those fluffy tuffs of fur on either sides of its face. It’s fucking huge. I mean tigers are big but this…its mouth could probably wrap around my body without much effort. I was bite-size. Three chomps and I would disappear into its belly. Great. I was monkey chow a few weeks ago, now tinned cat food. Oh well, at least it sounds better to be eaten by a tiger instead of a monkey.

Its head comes close to my chest its lip twitches, revealing its sabre white teeth but it doesn’t go in for the kill, instead it presses its nose to my stomach. Before I realise it, my hand’s moving. What the hell am I doing? My hand lands on the bridge of its nose as its amber black eyes stare back at me. The fur was fine and soft, just like a cat’s. In my mind I could feel something like an unsettling pulse that was overrun by fear and confusion but as I weakly stroke its fur, the feeling becomes softer and almost satisfied. A feeling of complete relief.

My eyes finally close as the heaviness of sleep finally caught up with me.

I wake with sunlight stinging my eyes. I blink, trying to understand where the hell I am. Why is it so hard to breathe? Then a crushing weight on my chest became apparent, the air squeezing from my ribcage makes me gasp. My eyes try to focus on what’s in front of me only to see a big furry face lazily staring back at me. The tiger converted me into his personal pillow. What the hell am I supposed to do with this? It’s stuffy and I can’t breathe.

As if catching onto my thoughts, the tiger lifts its head and shifted so that it was facing me properly. I feel my body cry out in pain. I hurt everywhere. How am I still alive? I was bleeding all over the place and it’s not like I wasn’t alone here either. This man-eating tiger with glowing stripes looks pretty hungry to me.

The morning sun had filtered in through the broken windows and from the door, making the reality of the night more apparent outside. I struggle to sit up, my bones creaking in the process and my sore battered body screams at me in protest. I pull myself up to lean my back against the cashier counter. I’m heavily breathing and exhausted after the ordeal of sitting up.

Outside was, if it were possible, more desolate than I remembered. There were now gaps of nothing between and behind the broken bodies of the old buildings that were still barely standing, all around. Large black crystal pillars skewered a number of them, jutting out at all different angles like black teeth with food still stuck between them. The ground was also given the same sort of treatment and from here, I could tell that these were only the small ones. The huge obelisk like structures only got worse closer to the centre of the Miasma’s storm eye.

Putting a sore hand to my gut, flinching at the stinging pain it leaves but still apply force. How I managed to survive is beyond me. Looking up at the ceiling I had to wonder; did the wall survive? I couldn’t see properly from here. Can I even stand?

I put force into my legs and slide up the counter, my other hand reaches the dusty top of the counter, trying to take some of the weight. Just…barely. Holy shit, this…it hurts like fuck. But I need to see. The tiger was watching me the entire time and stood up to come over to me, pushing its head into my stomach. Oh god. It standing, I could see its proper height, its shoulder blade came right up to my eye line.

I freeze as it rumbles at me, my hand that I used to support my stomach moves out the way as the tiger presses gently further into me, almost making my collapse on top of it, my hand supporting me on the bench top reaches out to its head to support myself before I completely fall over myself. The tiger rumbles at me again as if to approve of my actions.

I have a strange feeling overtake my senses in my brain; it was feral but also quiet like a calm after the storm on an ocean and that strange content I felt last night. I stare down at the pair of amber eyes. That’s…you?

An emotion of approval surfaces above the tide.

Holy shit. I have a tiger in my head.

Disagreement, like a frown. And yet not so. Agreement.

“I’m in your head?” I ask out loud, my voice my voice raspy and cracking in whispered fits.

It simply blinks at me, its ears twitching at the sound of my voice. Doesn’t understand human speech. I then tried thinking, I am in the tiger’s head.

Disagreement. And yet not so. Agreement.

Erm. Ok so we’re in each other’s heads. Apparently. …Let’s roll with that then…Will you eat me? How is this supposed to work?

Confusion. Knowing. Dreams quiet. Bright and soothing. Warm. Relief. Dreamer no more? Fading light. Cold. Sadness. Dreams no more. Darkness. Despair returns.

I’ll take that as a ‘no’. I frown, trying to comprehend the mixture of colours, sensations and emotions flooding my brain.

Swallowing, I cling onto its fur near the shoulder blade as the tiger in turn moves so that it was now facing sideways.

Desire?

The emotion question comes into my mind. I think it was asking me what I was wanting. To be honest I want to collapse onto the floor but I need to go outside. …I need to see.

Disapprove but acknowledge.

“You’re as bad as Anne,” I mutter.

The tiger’s ear’s twitch again at my voice.

“Never mind.”