Chapter One: Dwight

It was the pounding headache that woke Dwight some interminable time after his abandonment and subsequent panicked hike towards what he hoped was a road out of here. He'd managed to find water, but not enough to cure what had become a roiling hangover. Dwight settled down for what he intended to be a brief respite but which actually turned into a full blown nap.

It was now nighttime. And his head still hurt.

Dwight vowed to himself that he'd never touch alcohol again. Of course, that wouldn't matter if he didn't find a way out of here. Not that he was going to attempt that in the dark-especially not with this ominous fog rolling in out of nowhere.

Dwight'd had a bad feeling since he woke up alone. He tried to blame it on the situation he found himself in, but as the day progressed Dwight realized it was more than that. It was sheer exhaustion that had made him stop again. Boy, did he regret that now.

There was something wrong with this place. Dwight couldn't quite put his finger on it. He just knew, somehow, that all was not as it should be. The fog only made him more suspicious.

With his mind changed, Dwight got to his feet and fumbled his glasses onto his face. They misted over almost instantly and he rubbed them with quick motions on his shirt before putting them back on. Dwight's heart thundered in his chest but he forced himself to take deep breaths and calm down.

"Focus," he said, into the thick, moist air. It ate his voice and left him in suffocating silence once more.

Dwight shivered. He rubbed his arms as he turned in a circle while trying to get his bearings. A faint bubbling noise penetrated the mist and it occurred to him that the brook he managed to find earlier must still be close by. Dwight headed in that direction. He thanked whatever god was looking out for him that there was a full moon. Dwight kept his steps careful and light and his eyes sharp for animals and tripping hazards. He found the brook and followed it, remembering some half-baked movie idea that water always lead to safety. It was his yellow brick road and he wasn't giving up on it.

Except this wasn't a movie at all and after a while the brook faded away to a quietly trickling nothing.

Almost any other person would have panicked. Instead, Dwight resolved to wait out the night and climb a tree at first light. He scoped out a tall one and settled at its base to wait.

Dwight tried to remain vigilant. He had several more sips of water. He tried pacing when he got tired again but that made him feel even more lost and nervous. Eventually the lure of sleep claimed him and he slipped into fretful dreams.

A flickering behind his eyelids woke him this time. He smiled at the dawn but opened his eyes to find not that but a campfire instead.

"You're new," a voice said.

Dwight sat bolt upright and gaped. It was all he could do with the shock of seeing a woman covered from head to toe in blood.

Dwight scrambled backwards until his back hit a tree. He used this to help him stand.

"What-" he managed. She was covered in blood and yet completely calm, sitting on a log with one leg swinging over the other. He registered her expression as bored and that was enough for him. The surreality of the situation aside, there was no way-

Dwight bolted, explanation be damned. This wasn't going to end well. She was probably a murderer and he her next victim. He thought he heard footsteps behind him, and some kind of clicking noise. Probably a gun, his mind supplied. He ran faster.

Dwight looked behind himself just long enough to smack into something very solid.

He woke up in the clearing again, his head throbbing like it had been all day except now-

Dwight leaped to his feet and almost fell over again at the sight of the same woman. Short black hair in a bun, neon green clothes under all the blood-

He might have run away again but he suspected she would stop him again. He didn't know why she hadn't killed him already, but that thought was of little comfort.

"What do you want?" Dwight already suspected the answer. His hands balled into fists. He would never hit a woman but he wasn't about to lay down and die either.

"For you to chill out," came the flat answer. He noticed that her eyes seemed glassy in the firelight.

"What-"

"Seriously. Chill the hell out or I will leave you on that hook. Which, you know, you're going to end up on. So." He thought he heard her mumble "noob," under her breath.

Dwight licked his lips. "What do you-"

"Just stay out of my way, okay?" As if that explained everything. But Dwight didn't have time to ask another question. The fire roared and he jumped back on instinct. When it died down there was someone else. A burly guy with close-cropped hair.

Also covered in blood.

The guy gave him a once over and scowled, his lip curling. Then he noticed the woman.

"Feng. Thank God. Might've opened my bloody stomach myself if I had to deal with a whole team of 'em this time."

A cold smile crept across Feng's face. "Yeah. Noobs."

"Okay," Dwight said, the word he definitely heard this time unfreezing his tongue. "What the hell is going on here?"

"Got a name, fresh meat?" Burly guy asked, instead of answering.

"Oh, no. No. First thing's first-"

"Forget it, David," Feng said, "As soon as we get a fourth we're going in and this guy's toast." She jerked a thumb at him.

"Yeah, you're right."

The fire blazed again but this time Dwight was ready for it. He saw, materializing out of nowhere, the shape of a third person outlined in embers. She quickly solidified into reality and that was when Dwight knew he was either dreaming or up the creek without a paddle.

He was voting for the latter.

The ambient clicking noises Dwight just realized were a thing increased in volume and he swiveled his head to look up at the sky and caught a glimpse of something nightmarish.

It was gone. He, they, everything was gone before he could finish screaming, and suddenly he was alone in some kind of-

Dwight backed into a gurney and sent it rolling with a crash into the wall. Inexplicably nearby, a crow erupted into agitated flight. All this happened within the space of the second it took Dwight to land on his butt.

He sat there, dazed, his heart pounding. At least, he thought it was his heart. But why was it so loud and-

Dwight heard something, some kind of rough breathing nearby, and that was enough for him. He did the first thing that came to mind and jumped into the locker standing in front of him. The squeak it made was loud and Dwight screwed his eyes shut in the darkness. He could still hear his loud heartbeat and the breathing, it was coming closer.

It wasn't good. This wasn't good. But the breathing was passing by and he almost, almost felt safe for a second.

Until he wasn't.

The door slammed open and there was this thing, this monstrosity, and it grabbed him by the throat.

Dwight couldn't breathe. The thing lifted him off his feet with one arm. It slung him over its shoulder and Dwight flopped against its back, winded. Then his mind began to work again and whatever this was, he didn't have to be told to struggle.

It was harder than it seemed. The thing breathed heavy into its mask as it walked. Dwight was repulsed by the metal sticking out of its flesh but he didn't let that stop him. He grabbed it to try to get some kind of leverage and the creature stiffened.

Dwight felt relieved up until the moment it lifted him.

Pain, unlike anything he had ever experienced before, exploded through his shoulder, as the meat hook pierced him from behind.

He screamed, spit blood on the white mask in front of him, and went limp with shock.

Dimly, Dwight remembered Feng's dire proclamation.

With his world narrowed to the agony in his shoulder, it was hard to tell how much time passed. But gradually Dwight became aware of some changes occurring around him. There was something growing around him and it looked awfully familiar. It was this, more than anything else, that made him clench his teeth against the pain and try to get himself off the hook.

It didn't work.

Dwight tried again, facing the uncomfortable, creeping thought that the changes seemed to be accelerating around him.

When Dwight failed once more, he found himself under attack. His hands flew up as the nightmarish spider leg slash tree limb aimed for his heart. It was rough under his hands, and strong. Too strong. And he was badly injured and it hurt. Dwight knew he wouldn't be able to keep this up for long.

As he was struggling against the thing, he noticed he could see other people. But in a weird way. It wasn't like he was really seeing them but maybe their auras. Hope flared like a bright spark in his chest and he fought harder, even managed to push the branch thing a little further from his chest.

But then Dwight noticed that, whatever they were doing, nobody was coming for him. Hope turned to ash on his tongue. His hands slipped for a moment and he heard more than felt the sickening crunch of his own flesh and bones as the monstrous limbs impaled him.

For a second everything shone brighter than he thought possible. He heard whispers. Something slithered in his chest and ripped away a little piece of him. After that, there was only darkness and pain. Endless pain.

And, Dwight realized, the campfire.

He spun in a circle. Alone. His hands fumbled down his chest. No blood. No gaping holes. Dwight remembered how to breathe. He sank down to his knees.

Had it all been a dream? It felt so real but, it couldn't be. Could it?

Dwight's fingers curled in the dirt. This was real. Solid.

What was that thing?

Some intuition, he'd call it a chill down his spine, made him look up.

And there it was again, the stuff of nightmares barely glimpsed. But real. And that meant-

Dwight was dead. Or he had died, maybe even before coming to the campfire in the first place.

He looked away from the leviathan above him.

Dwight didn't suffer panic attacks. He was made of tougher stuff than that. But this was really...something else.

He closed his eyes and shoved his glasses up, pressing the heels of his palms into his eyes.

"Think."

"About what?" came the almost instantaneous reply.

Dwight's head jerked up. He caught sight of a raggedy looking guy with longish shaggy hair standing by the campfire. They regarded each other in silence for a few moments, Dwight speaking only when he realized the other man wasn't going to break it.

"What is this place?"

Raggedy guy stepped away from the fire and was doing a pretty good job of blending into the shadows so it was hard to tell, but Dwight thought he was sizing him up.

"The woods," he said, simply. Dwight was about to open his mouth to ask if everyone here was this impossible before the guy went on. "With a few…" He waved his hand around. "...extras."

"Yeah, I-" Dwight swallowed and looked up before averting his eyes again. "noticed."

Silence descended once more while Dwight tried to think of what to ask next since this guy was clearly not going to elaborate.

"What is that thing?" he said, finally.

"It doesn't have a name," raggedy guy replied. And that was totally not what Dwight asked, but he filed the information away anyway. "We call it The Entity."

"The Entity?"

Silence.

"Is it what's keeping us from-"

"Leaving? Yeah."

Dwight sighed. He hadn't tried to run away again and now he was glad for it.

"Has anyone, ever…"

"No."

"Right." Dwight found a log and sat down on it to think. He could hear The Entity making its strange noises high above him and wished he couldn't. The only other sound was the crackling of the fire. He felt the other man's eyes on him, too.

"Do you have a name?" he said, at length.

"Jake."

Dwight thought Jake's voice sounded rough and he wondered if he was accustomed to using it. He introduced himself but Jake didn't say anything else. It turned out there wasn't time as first one and then two human shapes materialized out of the fire and-this time-Dwight felt a little jerk behind his navel before he was alone again.

Dwight stood still as his mind struggled to accept the fact he was now in the middle of a corn field. He whooshed out a breath and crouched down in between the plants. He didn't know what was going on, still, or if this would be the same or different as last time.

Dwight shuddered at the memory. He cast his gaze wide and caught sight of a house in the distance. He wondered if it was too much to hope they were friendly. With a working phone.

It seemed unlikely.

Think, he told himself.

And just when he almost had an idea of what to do next, he saw and felt some kind of electrical current zinging up his legs.

Dwight screamed.

He didn't mean to. He just-

His heartbeat was growing louder and he thought he knew what that meant now.

Dwight bolted towards the house, screaming periodically on the way. He passed by a locker but knew better this time than to jump in it. As he rounded the steps, he caught sight of a new and different horror following him. It didn't have a mask on but Dwight almost wished it did. The face was hideous, with its eyelids peeled back, and it was carrying an electric baton or something equally bad.

Dwight kept running. Electricity zapped him again and he screamed. This time he heard the creature behind him laughing.

There was no time to look for a phone. Besides, the downstairs looked pretty shabby and empty. He kept going through the house and out the other side where he hid by the stairs.

Maybe, just maybe the thing would pass him by. Then he could go back inside and-

Dwight slammed into the side of the house as the heavy blow connected with his back. His mouth opened in a silent scream and he felt the hot spray of his own blood against the side of his face. For a stunned second he stood still until both fear and adrenaline spurred him forward. He grabbed his shoulder and ran through a gap in the ragged fence.

Dwight didn't turn around but he could all but feel the madman's hot breath on his neck. He twisted at the next juncture and slammed a pallet down behind him before bolting back into the corn.

Dwight ran through the field until he found trees and by then the adrenaline was wearing off and the pain setting more firmly in. He hid behind a tree and slumped against it, teeth ground together against the pain. Images of the monstrous man plagued him as well as the sensation of static aftershock. He hunched over, trying to get a grip on himself.

That was when he noticed the unfamiliar woman crouched in the grass near him. He opened his mouth to scream but she clapped a hand against it.

"Shh," she said, simply. "Quiet."

Dwight nodded that he understood and she motioned for him to follow. He let her lead him behind some kind of ridiculous piece of broken building that seemed completely out of place on a farm.

"Kneel down," she said, and there was an impatient edge to her voice that brooked no disagreement. Dwight and his heavily protesting shoulder obeyed. He was soon glad, for her cool hands roved over his wounded flesh, packing it with something that felt soothing and then twisting bandages around his still limp arm. He felt revitalized somehow, as if it had never happened. Dwight stood and flexed his arm. There was no pain. It shouldn't have been possible, but he was learning not to question everything.

"Thank you," he said, but she was already gone. Dwight looked around for her, but given how easily she blended into the shadows before, he wasn't entirely disappointed not to find her. Dwight glanced down at his own clothes and sighed at his white shirt. Well, off-white, but that wasn't much better. He felt exposed, suddenly. Naked. Dwight shivered. He didn't want to move from his position between walls, but something told him things would only get worse if he lingered.

Dwight skulked back over to the group of trees and crouched down in the grass. He needed a plan, but before he could begin to think of one things suddenly got a whole lot brighter. Dwight saw, shining like an impossible beacon, the image of some kind of machinery on the other side of the house. He blinked twice, rubbed his eyes, but it was still there.

Dwight waffled on whether he should approach before having his mind decided for him by the horrible, electric noises coming from that direction. He suppressed a shudder and took off the opposite way. While running, he saw another apparition out of the corner of his eye. Another bright spot, and then one more, appeared. Impossibly, he could make out every working part of what he assumed was a generator in each case.

Dwight shied away from them all. He headed back into the corn, following the sounds of something being repaired, and almost ran into the woman from before. She had her hands buried in the mechanical guts of another generator. The woman spared him a glance and gestured for him to watch. He crouched down behind her and observed the way she reconnected wires and replaced broken or missing nuts and bolts.

"One more," she said, and Dwight thought he understood. Then, "get ready to run."

The words were barely out of her mouth before the generator gave a cough and hummed to life. Their shadowy little corner was suddenly full of light. Dwight would have frozen without her instruction but instead he caught a glimpse of her retreating back and followed it.

His heartbeat was louder now, and Dwight thought he knew what that meant, too. He'd caught up to the woman, though, and she held open a locker door for him and beckoned. Dwight didn't think it was a good idea, but she seemed to know what she was doing and she had saved his life before.

It was the static jumping around his feet that made his mind up for him. He got in and she shut the door. Which somehow helped against the electricity.

Dwight heard the sound of running feet, followed by screaming and laughter that was altogether too familiar. He slowed his breathing and clutched at his healed shoulder. Then, suddenly, he heard a very different sort of scream and knew the woman had been wounded. But the sounds were all receding so it was impossible to tell for sure.

Dwight peeked his head out of the locker. The first thing he saw was the blood on the ground. It trailed back into the corn. He felt sick. She had gotten hurt because of him. He needed to help her, but how? He had no idea where they were and only a vague notion of what to do if he found her.

He took a step forward but something very odd stopped him. Another generator lit up and he heard a different noise, too. Dwight looked behind him and found that there was some kind of gate in the wall with an illuminated lever beside it.

Dwight didn't have to be told to pull it. However, he was surprised at how much noise it made and how long it took to open. Dwight looked through the open door in question and saw the campfire in the distance. Safety, then. But he couldn't leave the person who had helped him. Not just yet. He didn't know if she was still in trouble or how to save her but was spared by her sudden reappearance. She crept out of the shadows, completely whole, and Dwight wondered if he had imagined her screams.

The briefest flicker of a smile passed over her features and Dwight felt something clench in his chest. He smiled back just as swiftly. Then she beckoned him and they both crept toward the campfire.

She stopped him at a certain point, though.

"Wait." It seemed to be a struggle for her to get that one word out. She didn't meet his eyes. "We have a minute and...you're new."

Dwight's eyes widened at the unspoken question and the implications it presented.

Finally, he thought, finally.

If possible, he liked her even more.

"Yeah, I'm- My name is Dwight and...I think I died, at least once."

She nodded her head, but still didn't meet his eyes. He wondered if she ever would, or if she was shy, or what exactly her deal was. He wasn't going to pry though, not after all she had done for him.

"I'm Claudette," she said, finally.

Claudette told him everything he needed to know in few words and the halting language he was coming to associate with her: that there was no real escape, only an endless cycle of pain and death perpetuated by people who had once been just like them. That there were no reprieves save for moments like this and that they would be sent in again in a matter of minutes, an hour at most. That they were all losing their souls, bit by bit, and eventually would become that which they feared most.

It was a lot to take in and she seemed to know it.

"I'm sorry," Claudette said, and this time she did meet his eyes if only briefly. Her gaze was haunted, but he caught determination and compassion in there too. So different from the others he had met thus far.

"No, it's-" Not your fault. Dimly, he registered the fact that she was also covered in blood and wondered why he hadn't noticed before. Then came the sound of the heartbeat but this time Dwight wasn't afraid so he knew it wasn't his. The monster-The Doctor, Claudette informed him-appeared at the entrance but didn't come any closer. Just stared.

Then The Doctor raised its fist and-

Dwight grabbed Claudette's hand and bolted, dragging her behind him despite her words of protest.

He had never really fit in anywhere and always been ridiculed for his differences. He'd always had to endure. It was this quality he called on now. Dwight never considered himself a leader but he wanted to be one now. For her. For all of them. Because someone needed to get them out of this nightmare and while he didn't know much right now he was certain there had to be a way.

Dwight made a vow to find it or-more likely, he acknowledged-lose his soul trying. He could already feel the weight of the impossible odds but he knew he wouldn't give up either. It wasn't in his nature.

Dwight was, and had always been, a survivor.