Exsanguination:
--Method the first.--
"Go."
Her voice echoed starkly in the tunnel.
"Run away."
Somewhere in the distance, a light hummed and flickered.
Kirika crouched in a small alcove, peering into the darkness and holding the gun close to her body.
"Get out of here. Now."
She didn't even look round, just stared down the length of the tunnel as if she could see something, anything, at its end.
Then the shadows next to her moved and a hand grasped her by the shoulder.
"What are you waiting for? Get out of here!"
Kirika let out a long, long breath, and gripped her gun as if it were the only thing she had in the world.
"Can you stand?"
Slumped against the wall next to her, Mirielle's lips twitched and she let out something that might have been a laugh.
"It's a little late….for that."
"We'll wait here."
"I'm telling you, it's too—"
The hand on Kirika's shoulder convulsed suddenly, and Mirielle fell silent.
Something dripped to the ground.
"We'll wait."
The light flickered again.
"Kirika…."
Finally, the girl turned to her companion, who looked up at her through an eye almost swollen shut.
"Mirielle." She murmured.
"You're…an idiot."
"Am I?"
The woman sighed, a smile twitching on her bloodied lips.
"You always were." She whispered.
And there they sat, waiting for the hunters to find them.
They weren't long.
It began with that dream.