It's close. Really close.

My eyes widen as the raspy breathing gets louder, and my injured hand aches from how tightly I clench the bedpost. Beside me, Dani trembles, one hand over her mouth to stop herself from making a noise, and one grasping my good hand as we duck under the window.

I will never get used to the sight of a Banshee, it's dark leathery skin stretched unnaturally over its head, making any features besides its mouth indistinguishable. The skin on its face is so tight that the creature's mouth, lined with razor-sharp jagged pointed teeth, can never close properly, contorted into a permanent snarl. Where its eyes used to be is instead smooth flesh, either because the eyes had popped out during mutation, or some other horrid factor.

Currently, the creature is gripping the outside wall with long, bloody bone-like claws that jut from ragged hands and hooked feet. It's hard to believe that at one point, this thing used to be a person, especially as it leans an eyeless head towards the open window, exposing a large hole that I can only imagine is its ear so it can hear us better. As Dani and I peek over the bed, attempting not to scream, the Banshee slowly slinks into the room, contorting its unnaturally long limbs with a symphony of cracks and creaks from its multiple joints.

Dani slowly urges us to stand, though it's impossible to do so silently, and the creature's pointed jagged mouth salivates as it faces us. The Banshee's corrupted breath is rancid and hot, almost enough to make me gag, and I lift a hand to cover my mouth and nose as Dani does the same, slowly backing us toward the door to the bedroom.

A clatter of medical supplies disrupts our getaway as Dani's boot collides with the discarded medkit, and she yanks me towards the door as the Banshee lunges towards us, its jaws snapping a hair away from where my face was moments ago.

"Van!" Dani shouts, snatching my bow by the door as we clumsily bolt out, the both of us slamming into the wall opposite my room before we take off down the hall and jump most of the stairs. "Van, van, van, get to the fucking van!"

A symphony of crashes, banging, and slamming, followed by irritated and hungry screeching signals the approach of the Banshee, and from the sound of it, it's hot on our heels. Felix and Octavia's panicked eyes meet mine as Dani and I jump the last of the stairs just as the Banshee throws itself down the steps, landing in a heap of tangled limbs and writhing sharp claws.

"Get to the fucking van!" I scream at them, grabbing Octavia's bat by the front door and tossing it to her as Felix hefts his crowbar.

Dani yanks me into the kitchen as the Banshee once again attempts to lunge at us, this time colliding with the support column holding up the loft and cracking it nearly in two as Octavia screams, Felix dragging her to the back door.

"Go!" Dani orders, gesturing for the back door. "Get to the van, I'll distract it!"

"But-"

"Get out of here!" She bolts up, grabs her shotgun off the counter, and shoots at the monster at point blank as she circles around the island. "Over here, ya ugly fuck!"

The Banshee grabs the ceiling with its claws and crawls with surprising speed towards Dani, who deftly dodges a swipe that would have taken off her head if she was even a second slower. As she stands, she messes with the dials on the stove, the clicking noise of the burner attempting to light getting the Banshee's attention. Felix quickly bolts back into the house once Octavia is out, looking frantic.

"Cassy, there are Feral's out here too!" He shouts, a blood splattering across his sweaty face. "We have to get to the van, now!" Felix grabs hold of me and starts to drag me away as Dani once again dodges a swipe from the Banshee.

"I'm not leaving without Dani!" I demand, attempting to shoulder him out of the way, but since Felix is nearly twice my size, it does little to dissuade him as he picks me up and hauls me out of the back door, kicking the whole way out.

Outside, a whole horde of Ferals spill forth from the barn, as though the gates of Hell had opened up to release the demons to torment us further. Josh and Sparrow do their best to hold off several of them from the van as carefully Octavia makes her way toward them, cracking several of the Ferals over the head with her bat as she goes. The strangest thing about the Ferals is the fact that most of them are wearing the tattered remains of black jumpsuits with familiar white logos on the collars.

It figures that an Atlas bunker would be full of infected wearing the Atlas logo, though there's no time to process the ramifications and implications now.

"Let me go, Felix!" I demand. "I have to help her!"

"Dani can hold her own right now, she's-"

CRA-BANG!

The sound of a shotgun bullet connecting with a power line heralds a wave of intense heat and force that knocks me out of the back door of the house and into the snow with my brother.

Behind me, the back half of the farmhouse is engulfed in flames, and the agonizing wail of the Banshee does little to drown out my own agonizing scream for Dani. The waves of heat are suffocating even from this distance, and the snow on the ground does little to ease the pain of the flames. Felix's protest for me to get to the van falls on deaf ears as I suddenly find myself staring at the burning warehouse Uncle Tommy disappeared into.

My chest is tight, either from breathing in the smoke or from the fear, it doesn't matter anymore. Felix attempts to lift me from the ground, but I stumble, my legs refusing to work as the only thing my brain can focus on are the flames and what's inside them.

I can't lose her. I won't lose her. Not like this. I refuse.

Before he can get a grip on me, I slip from Felix's grasp with my bow tossed into the snow, conscious enough to know it would do me no good inside. The heat is unbearable, but with adrenaline coursing through my veins, it hardly matters as I spy the Banshee writhing in the flames, half on fire and blindly trying to find a way out before it burns to death.

I can't see Dani anywhere in the house, but with the Banshee as damaged and confused as it is now, I know exactly how to take care of it. Unsheathing my hunting knife, I leap over the flaming couch and plunge it deep into the base of its neck, and it wails in agony, desperately trying to grab me as I attempt to wrap myself around its hard leathery back and rip my knife from the wound to go in for another shot. Its twisting and writhing body flings me from its back, however, and tosses me over the kitchen island where I collapse onto the floor, coughing from the smoke.

The cracking of wood and symphony of destruction sounds as the pillar the Banshee had run into gives way and half the upstairs loft collapses, blocking off the front door. I quickly begin to realize that I didn't think this through as the smoke from the fire begins to fill my lungs and blur my vision. 

Forcing myself to stand, I duck as the kitchen window shatters from the heat, and the Banshee rakes its claws towards me, ripping through my leather jacket like wet tissue paper and slicing the flesh under it.

Yelping in pain, I dive to the side as the Banshee rears back to bite my head off, but it bites only the kitchen island. As it howls in pain, I take my chance to once again leap onto its back and plunge my knife between the shoulder blades of the creature, but this time, it seems ready for me. It takes me for a ride as it bolts out of the back door of the farmhouse with me on its back, and it rolls, squashing me into the snow and forcing me to let go of both it and my knife as it skitters away.

I roll to my feet just as it does and it gives a roar, charging once more in my direction. Defiant and fueled by rage, I roar back at it, rolling out of the way and towards my bow, though its long arm catches me in the leg and I fumble into the snow. My limbs frantically flail for a grip, to stand, to crawl, to get away, but the frost works against me as the Banshee grabs hold of my leg and starts to drag me towards its gaping toothy maw. This time, I can hear Felix crying out for me as the Banshee picks me up by the leg, preparing to slam me into the ground. I send a silent apology to him, for having to witness my death, and one to Octavia for having to pick up my slack.

CRA-BANG!

For a split-second, I'm weightless before I crack my head on the frozen ground, grunting in pain as I do so and scrambling to get away as the Banshee collapses into the snow, its head cracked open like a watermelon and staining the pure snow black with it's tainted blood. Standing behind it, splattered with blood and a ripped-up jacket is Dani, her shotgun smoking from the discharge and her relieved expression almost calming, though with the Banshee dead, we now have dozens of Feral's to contend with.

"I told you to get to the van, you idiot!" She chastises me as she helps haul me to my feet.

"And I told you I wasn't going to leave you behind!" I return, scooping up my bow and yanking my knife out of the Banshee's back as we sprint towards the van.

We're stopped short as we notice just how many Ferals there are now. Easily over three dozen are scattering around the property now, with at least a dozen of them harassing Felix, Josh, Octavia, and Sparrow at the van. Sparrow and Felix do their best to fend off the ones attempting to crawl into the back of the van while Josh is getting the engine going and Octavia is throwing what few stranded supplies into the back.

"They won't make it," I tell Dani, fear lacing my voice. "Not without help."

"Distraction?" Dani asks, her body tense as we survey the situation.

"We have to."

Dani nods grimly, racking a shotgun shell into the chamber of her gun as she silently comes up with a plan. "I only have four rounds left," she says.

"I've got about a dozen arrows," I reply, "Maybe less."

She nods again as we make eye contact with Josh, who frantically waves for us to join him, but I shake my head at him.

Over the cacophony of noise, Josh shouts, "Come on, hurry up!"

"You won't make it out of there without help!" I shout back. "The hoard is too dense, Dani and I are going to thin it out!"

His protest is drowned out by the fire in the house and the roaring of the Ferals in the area, but judging from his expression, he is not a fan of the idea. Truth be told, neither am I, but if we want all of us to make it out of this alive and uninfected, Dani and I will have to work a miracle.

"Head for the highway!" Dani exclaims. "We'll meet you in Dawnsonville!"

Several of the Ferals in the area are now beginning to take note of me and Dani standing in the snow and start after us. Dani blasts one of them away while I plant an arrow between the eyes of another, but we're forced to run without getting confirmation on whether the others heard us.