She could hear the humans behind her, trying to be as quiet as they could. She could hear the Tank grumbling to himself a few feet away. She could hear the cough of a Smoker. But she still wept bitterly, her cries piercing the night. The humans only heard the cough.
"Watch out," one whispered, grating against her fragile nerves. "There's a Smoker around."
That little whisper set the Tank off immediately, roaring and tearing a chunk of concrete from the ground twice as big as her. She looked up, growling at first but screaming when she saw the huge object flying straight at her. Almost immediately, something attached itself to her body, curling around her and giving a good yank out of the way of the incoming concrete. She screamed again, trying to release herself as the humans dealt with the Tank, only to find that her efforts were useless. She gave up halfway across the street, starting to cry again and letting the thing drag her over the rough ground.
All at once, the movement stopped and she found herself looking up into the face of a Smoker who was carefully disentangling his tongue from around her. A sudden urge to hurt him overcame her and she slashed without aiming, managing to get even more tied up. The smoker laughed then, a wheezing hack that disintegrated into a cough, and carefully settled down beside the flailing Witch. A minute or more passed until she exhausted herself and allowed the Smoker to regain his tongue.
Outside of the dark building, the Tank roared his last and the humans continued onward past them. The Smoker got up with a cough and turned to her, patting her head as if to say try not to get into any more trouble, and left the same way they came in. She rose, curious, and peered out the window, watching her saviour climb unsteadily to the roof and follow after the humans.
She heard gunfire a few minutes later, accompanied by a small explosion of smoke she could see from her position. She heard voices rising above the guns, screaming at each other to move on. After that, she heard bitter silence.
Sinking back to her knees, she wept.