One-thread story, aiming for multiple updates a day, as fast as I can manage until we finish.
Good? Good.
*****
Let there be life.
Agonizingly, astonishingly alive.
Your first breath rattles for eternity; heart seizing in a tight ball of agony - then you cough it out as it catches and runs.
Your breath, that is, not your heart - scarce though the difference feels. Your body is one cold cramp; dead flesh frozen through the marrow. Sluggish blood churns through stiff veins; pins and needles of painful heat penetrating your limbs.
Your second breath leaves as a whimper, and the third, a wail - too weak to reach help. Tears leak down your cheeks as your body strains for existence. You move without meaning to and pain pierces you clean through, punching a hole in your mind that your meager thoughts swirl down into. Only the echoing scream remains, one shrill shrieking note you've not the breath to voice.
And then it fades, leaving you curled in a ball in the dirt; heart hurting, head hammering, ankle aching and your dry tongue bleeding into your mouth. Rasping hoarsely, you pry open weeping eyes to see -
- nothing.
Blinking away the blur of tears reveals a world of looming shadows; soft silver light filtering through bare skeletal branches clutching 'cross the sky. The wind stirs in the trees and slices thinly through you, sending fresh shivers through your aching limbs. You swallow a mouthful of blood around your swollen tongue and stagger upright, hands slipping up the moss-slick bark of a nearby tree for support. You spread your feet for better stance - and feel the sharp, blinding agony in your left ankle as weight lands on it. Slumping against the tree, you almost shriek - but strangle it to a miserable sob. Your laboring heart leaps and stutters at even that sound. Clinging to the tree, grinding your teeth together, you strain for -
- safety.
Safety in the silence.
That solitary thought chimes sweetly in your mind, a dulcet tone that raises a complementary, cascading cacophony - like a wind chime singing in the breeze. You cling to the solid, rough bark of your tree as the individual notes float upward to pop into your mind.
Safety in numbers.
That number is five.
Tyger, tyger burning bright
in the forests of the night
That last one sounds sour despite the rhyme - in your gut, a sympathetic queasiness you loathe. But now it's there and it's there to stay, Tyger Tyger Burning Bright, here in the forest of the night.
Now you turn to lean against the tree, scanning the dark, and it is ever so dark and deep - but not lovely and no miles to go with no promises to keep, just that slick hot fear you feel melting your muscles as you scan and scan and scan, studying shadows - the craggy blobs of bushes, the crooked climbing lines of saplings - seeking the sleek, sharp silhouette of danger.
The fearful symmetry.
[ ] Light. The flashlight. You just can't see in the dark no matter how you try - you need that light. And a flare would draw attention from miles awa-
[ ] Flare...? A flare, you - you have a flare. Yes. That'll light everything without pinpointing you. It won't last, but you only need to check. For bearings.
[ ] Nothing can see far in a dark forest - not even tigers. Injured as you are, you've got to make what distance you can under cover of darkness. Distance towards... towards anything. But mostly away from here.
No. 190540
[ ] Nothing can see far in a dark forest - not even tigers. Injured as you are, you've got to make what distance you can under cover of darkness. Distance towards... towards anything. But mostly away from here. |
No. 190542
[X] Nothing can see far in a dark forest - not even tigers. Injured as you are, you've got to make what distance you can under cover of darkness. Distance towards... towards anything. But mostly away from here |
No. 190544
[X] Nothing can see far in a dark forest - not even tigers. Injured as you are, you've got to make what distance you can under cover of darkness. Distance towards... towards anything. But mostly away from here. |
No. 190546
[X] Nothing can see far in a dark forest - not even tigers. Injured as you are, you've got to make what distance you can under cover of darkness. Distance towards... towards anything. But mostly away from here. |
No. 190547
[X] Nothing can see far in a dark forest - not even tigers. Injured as you are, you've got to make what distance you can under cover of darkness. Distance towards... towards anything. But mostly away from here. |
No. 190548
[X] Nothing can see far in a dark forest - not even tigers. Injured as you are, you've got to make what distance you can under cover of darkness. Distance towards... towards anything. But mostly away from here. |
No. 190549
Are we a tiger or a human? |
No. 190552
[x] Flare |
No. 190556
File 146869959218.jpg- (91.18KB , 1366x768 , 43448-alone-in-the-dark-forest-1366x768-digital-ar.jpg ) [iqdb] ![]() You are lost. |
No. 190557
[X] The Jeep, the JOAT, the Joe Louis. Perfectly balanced power, never caught out insufficient or out of place; always ready to counter with a cross to the jaw. You maneuver like the wind and fall upon the enemy like a thunderbolt. |
No. 190558
[x] The seeker, the scout, the swift-runner. Speed is your watchword; but your wrath lacks naught - drive like a car and hit like a truck. |
No. 190559
[X] The seeker, the scout, the swift-runner. Speed is your watchword; but your wrath lacks naught - drive like a car and hit like a truck. |
No. 190561
[x] The Jeep, the JOAT, the Joe Louis. Perfectly balanced power, never caught out insufficient or out of place; always ready to counter with a cross to the jaw. You maneuver like the wind and fall upon the enemy like a thunderbolt. |
No. 190563
[X] The Jeep, the JOAT, the Joe Louis. Perfectly balanced power, never caught out insufficient or out of place; always ready to counter with a cross to the jaw. You maneuver like the wind and fall upon the enemy like a thunderbolt. |
No. 190564
[X] The seeker, the scout, the swift-runner. Speed is your watchword; but your wrath lacks naught - drive like a car and hit like a truck. |
No. 190565
>>190556 |
No. 190568
[x] The Jeep, the JOAT, the Joe Louis. Perfectly balanced power, never caught out insufficient or out of place; always ready to counter with a cross to the jaw. You maneuver like the wind and fall upon the enemy like a thunderbolt. |
No. 190569
[X] The Jeep, the JOAT, the Joe Louis. Perfectly balanced power, never caught out insufficient or out of place; always ready to counter with a cross to the jaw. You maneuver like the wind and fall upon the enemy like a thunderbolt. |
No. 190570
File 146873351415.jpg- (276.67KB , 1600x1087 , easy-rider.jpg ) [iqdb] ![]() I see our tie is broken! |
No. 190571
[x] The bastion, the boar, the battering ram. First in, and last out. The indomitable body and unstoppable will that strides where weaker dare not tread. The definition of unstoppable force on attack and immovable object on defense. |
No. 190584
File 146879284262.jpg- (298.05KB , 1920x1200 , firefly-forest-tree-night.jpg ) [iqdb] ![]() And then thank God it happens. |
No. 190585
[X] Woe now rules you - you, lost in the dark in a place familiar in general but alien in particulars, you, not knowing your assailant, your circumstances... or even your name. |
No. 190588
>>190584 |
No. 190589
[X] Anger now rules you - you, wounded, abandoned, offering no offense and receiving violence without even the courtesy of formal challenge. |
No. 190599
[X] Woe now rules you - you, lost in the dark in a place familiar in general but alien in particulars, you, not knowing your assailant, your circumstances... or even your name. |
No. 190610
>tie |
No. 190617
[X] Woe now rules you - you, lost in the dark in a place familiar in general but alien in particulars, you, not knowing your assailant, your circumstances... or even your name. |
No. 190647
File 14689770774.jpg- (414.31KB , 568x800 , c0da0bf9433ceb0b6d17453001997d9f.jpg ) [iqdb] ![]() As the swirling mass of ephemeral locusts begins advancing down the dry wash, you finally find time to wonder what brought this beast down upon you. What offense fostered such hatred? Why does it harry you to ground only to sniff you out like a hound? Slithering back on your belly, you press yourself behind a slight rise in the earth, shivering as the cold ground leeches your body heat. With shaking fingers you fumble a fresh shell from your bandoleer strap and slide it slowly home, easing the lever up to close the breech block without a click. Bedding down behind it, you cinch the stock tight to your shoulder and touch the trigger gently, taking up the short travel to tremble on the precipice of breaking. You let yourself fall through the dark circle of the sights, waiting for another glimpse of the swirling cape; a brief silhouette. As the swarm swells and swells in your sights, your heart's wild hammering louder and louder in your skull, it occurs to you that nobody will know your name. |
No. 190650
[X] Drag yourself down this dry wash - it's a direction at least, and it'll shield you from prying eyes. |
No. 190656
[ ] Drag yourself down this dry wash - it's a direction at least, and it'll shield you from prying eyes. |
No. 190659
[x] Drag yourself down this dry wash - it's a direction at least, and it'll shield you from prying eyes. |
No. 190693
File 146913908387.jpg- (40.63KB , 467x626 , hot-fire-in-the-dark-1_2567969.jpg ) [iqdb] ![]() *** |
No. 190694
File 146913914070.jpg- (487.76KB , 1023x724 , a17a226e25167f6ff4c131321d4a63c9.jpg ) [iqdb] ![]() A splash summons you back. |
No. 190698
[X] - slink back in shame. |
No. 190701
[X] - keep staring. |
No. 190705
>>190694 |
No. 190998
File 147017644745.png- (1.69MB , 1672x900 , c582bf75f3de971928db72c5c1d38630.png ) [iqdb] ![]() - keep staring. |
No. 191002
[X] I'm something horrible and horror is all I know, I'll hurt you, I'll hurt you so don't -! |
No. 191008
>>190998 |
No. 191010
[x] It hurts. It hurts so damn much, it hurts- |
No. 191021
File 147027219418.jpg- (39.21KB , 804x404 , 1324856960675.jpg ) [iqdb] ![]() >>191008 |
No. 191023
I know who you are. |
No. 191024
File 147027740939.png- (175.38KB , 286x395 , 31121.png ) [iqdb] ![]() >>191008 |
No. 191025
>>191024 |
No. 191047
[X] ... I know my name. |
No. 191148
File 147094810868.jpg- (97.26KB , 1024x1370 , 13680225_688182434662054_4015032972934780559_o.jpg ) [iqdb] ![]() >>190998 |