She discovered that she wasn't as fast as she used to be in this new place. In no way was she anywhere near as slow as a normal human kid her age but her ridiculous supernatural speed was gone.
Brianna had woken up on an open stretch of sand right beside the open ocean. Everything around her was darker than normal but she could make out the waves that rushed against the sand and almost hit her naked feet. Her red trainers had vanished but she was still wearing her bright orange top and her dark purple body warmer with her white shorts. Her hairbands were gone and her hair fell down around her shoulders, some of it falling down in front of her eyes. The sand under her felt rough but warm against her bare skin and the salty sea air filled her nose when she took a breath in. As she sat up, the sand clutched to her hair but mostly it fell down off of her shoulders back onto the ground or onto her lap.
She waited a moment, settled on the ground with sand occasionally dropping down beside of her from her hair. Slowly she brushed a hand through her hair like someone who had just woken from a coma and wasn't really sure where they were. Brianna glanced around but she had no idea where she was and she was having trouble remembering what had happened.
Then it all came back to her. Slowly over time as she sat squinting out to the ocean she remembered her name, her family, her old life at home before her step father came.
It came like an old movie in her mind. She forgot it until she saw it and then she wondered how she could possibly not remember that but still she couldn't recall what came next until she saw it in her mind.
The twins came and her step father convinced her mother to send her off to Coates for her grades... She irritated a few teachers but some of her maths improved thanks to the punishments if you didn't get a certain mark on your tests... She made a few friends that she hung around with but wasn't especially close because they were all rather nasty deep down... She and her friends had an argument where they pinned her down and drew on her face for... For something... For not agreeing with them! It was an argument about one of the teachers and Brianna had argued. She had no friends at Coates after that but it was okay because she was convincing her mother to let her come home. Some time around then Brianna started to become faster than everyone slowly until it was inhuman. Caine had noticed and tried to be her friend but Brianna didn't like Diana or Drake and so only pretended...
She remembered Caine, Drake and Diana and felt an intense hatred building as everything came back to her.
Her mother got back to her and she was finally going to stand up to her husband and allow Brianna to come home! But then the FAYZ happened... Brianna remembered her hands being cemented... She remembered acting like a dog while she was prisoner... Being saved by Sam... Living in Perdido Beach... Training herself... Fighting humans, mutants, bugs and coyotes alike... The big fights... Gaia...
Her death came as a cold memory and Brianna stayed where she was, sitting and staring at the ocean. It was peaceful but some part of the ocean felt like a torment. She remembered her death very well.
When Brianna had gotten up onto her feet and began to explore she could make out a large set of rocks on the other side of the sand that acted almost like a set of steps to the large cliff like hill. She stumbled over and placed her hands on the hill but it was soft mud and it fell apart in her hands. There was no way she would be able to climb that. Instead she stumbled over to the rocks and began to try to climb up on top of them, wanting to get as high as she could so she might be able to look around and see exactly where she was. The rocks were damp but they were rough and she was able to climb up on them.
The beach wasn't the same one from Perdido Beach. She could tell that just by what was around it. The sky seemed to be constantly dark and when she did manage to get up on the rocks she saw that on the hill was a stretch of muddy grass and a single line of pavement that led straight down. In the far off view she saw a few more hills as well as what she guessed was a large forest area full of thick trees. This was definitely no longer the FAYZ.
Brianna had taken a seat on the rocks at that moment and remembered everything in between the foggy thoughts in such detail like her entire life had just happened all in one day yesterday. Including every detail of her death by the hands of Gaia. It was painful, she remembered that, but it was also quick and the next thing she knew she was waking up here. This had to be death. It had to be heaven but... Why was it so dark? Unless it was hell. Unless the Bible was true and for every sin that Brianna had done, like not loving the Lord, or not praying or whatever it said that she hadn't done, had sent her down to Hell.
That was a scary thought. But it could have been worse. Whenever Brianna thought of hell she imagined it a fire pit. She imagined a forever burning torment of horror and monster demon images that tormented her, this was just like a dark version of the normal world.
Brianna wondered what she should do next... She pushed herself back into a ball on the middle rock and ran a hand through her hair to push it out of her face, wishing she had her hairbands again. She hated her hair being down because then it got all in her face. Especially when she was running it practically blinded her and whipped at the back of her neck and face almost painfully. Maybe there might be a hairband somewhere here... or something she could use for a hairband.
Then she realized that she wasn't cold despite the chilly looking air while she dressed in summer clothes. There didn't seem to be a sun yet the air was warm and the sand had been hot. Brianna hesitated and tried to think of how she felt. She felt normal but... Her hunger was gone. She wasn't hungry anymore even though seconds before her death she had been starving. Brianna knew she was dead but it was still a surprise not to feel hungry. She wondered what else she wouldn't feel any longer. Would she need to use the bathroom? Would she need to drink?
Brianna climbed down off of the rock and began to search through the sand after a moment of inspiration. After a while she found a short thin stick and climbed back onto the rock, taking a seat beside of the cliff and began to dig into the soft mud and carefully write down all the things she needed to do that she might not need to do any more now that she was in heaven or hell or wherever. There wasn't much but it kept her busy for a while. After that she began to write down ideas of different things she could do now that she was in this new place. Could she call it a new world? What did that matter? Brianna wanted to focus on what she was supposed to do next. She could head towards the hills which would give her an even bigger view of where she was, or she could go to the forest but there wasn't much reason for that.
"Hills it is, I guess." Brianna mumbled. "Maybe I'll run into someone else. I wonder if Duck's here... Or maybe Orsay..." She wasn't particular friends with them but she liked them both well enough. She knew there were other people who died and could be here but for some reason no names came to her. They probably would eventually. For now all she could think of was Duck and Orsay. Especially Orsay. She had been manipulated by the darkness and for a while Brianna had considered she might be the prophetess. It would be nice to meet up with somebody while she was here. Unless they were somewhere else.
Brianna didn't like the idea of being alone in an open world. She'd much prefer a heaven or even a hell if there were other people there with her.
"The hills!" Brianna said, beaming as she jumped onto her feet. It should take her no time at all with her speed... She assumed she would still have it. It was her heaven after all so maybe she had even more than just speed. It would be nice to have strength as well as speed or maybe Sam's Light power. Climbing up the rest of the hill onto the soft muddy grass, Brianna braced herself and set off on a run.
She knew immediately she no longer had her speed. She tired almost instantly and barely ran at all with her feet slipping on the mud almost knocking her off her feet. She was slow and clumsy and after only a few seconds of running towards the hill did she came to a stop and glare at herself. So... No speed? And the hills were definitely a long way off from here. Brianna wondered if she would slowly get hungry over time like her body had reset itself or if she would be fine to walk straight down to the hills without needing any sort of break. She assumed if she didn't need to eat then she wouldn't need to sleep.
Brianna decided to get walking. She found the pavement which was cold and damp like everything else here and began to walk slowly, earning her breath back from running slowly and keeping her head held high. If Brianna was anything it was optimistic. Yeah, she was annoyed that she was dead. She wasn't even going to kid herself about maybe being a dream, she knew she had died, and she was upset about it. If she thought about it for too long then she did feel like crying but mostly she pushed those thoughts from her mind. Right now she wanted to focus on one thing at a time.
She could cry about her life later. First get a lay of the land, maybe find out if there were any people about beside her that she might be able to get in contact with. If there were more people they could make a little civilization here. They would start a whole new world. There were trees so they could make little make shift houses, of course they would need to look and find something sharp to cut the trees down with but there had to be a way... If not then they could just live like in the old days! Find a cave and hide away.
Brianna found herself looking forward to working out how to survive. In the FAYZ it had been scary because she feared death. But now she was dead, what else was there for her to fear? Unless there was no one else here... Then she feared loneliness.
Brianna kept walking down the long pathway heading for the hills that gradually grew bigger the close she came to them. After what felt like hours of walking Brianna sat down and came to a rest, rubbing her feet and stretching her limps. Her body didn't exactly ache but her feet kind of did. She lay back and stretched on the ground, glancing around of her. It seemed like it would take her days before she would reach those hills, they seemed much farther off now that she realized she would be walking at the incredibly slow pace of walking rather than her speed.
"Maybe I should have stayed by the beach." Brianna sighed, shutting her eyes.
It turned out that she did need sleep because while lying on the ground she drifted off. She didn't dream but she was woken not too long later, though it was impossible tell how long exactly because there didn't seem to be any change to the atmosphere around her. She was woken but for a moment she lay on the ground, staring up at the dark grey clouded sky, wondering what it was that woke her.
Then she heard that sound that was slicing through the air... It was the sound of howling animals. Brianna blinked and sat up, rubbing the rest of the sleep from her eyes with the balls of her hands. She stood up, stretching and taking a deep breath, wanting to yawn but for some reason unable to do so, before she looked around, trying to find the source of the howling.
She found it a minute later. It was coming from the right, somewhere from the cliff that led down to the beach, there were at least a dozen great shapes that were moving towards her, very quickly. It didn't take much for Brianna to identify them as dogs. They were definitely dogs, big, obviously but they had sharp ears and a long snout nose. They were quite far off and heading straight for her. Brianna had a cold feeling in her stomach but she stood, watching the dogs as they came closer. They all looked the same, large, wide shoulders, and they seemed to have black fur completely, even darker than anything else in the world which was what made them stand out. They moved fast, faster than Brianna now but if she had her speed she could have out ran them easier than a toddler.
"Run." Brianna spoke, talking to herself. She took a step back but didn't do as told, stuck watching the dogs closing in. She knew she had to move but for some reason a part of her just wouldn't listen. She could feel the danger like when she saw the Bugs but her body was just so shocked to find dogs in the dead world, wondering why they were here that she wouldn't listen. "Run!" Brianna shouted, commanding herself to move.
Finally she listened, turned and ran. She was tired quickly but she pushed every ounce of strength she had into her legs with the dogs dangerous close. She ran with any power she might have, her legs beating and her feet slapping against the hard concrete under her and the sound seemed to echo. She pumped her arms along beside of her, her hair being thrown back out of her way. Brianna glanced back and saw the dogs incredible close now, she could make out a strange tinge of silver coming from them but then she was facing forward again before she could focus on the details. Keeping her eyes locked on the hills ahead, Brianna ran and ran, breathing quick short bursts as she forced herself on and on.
It took her a while before she took notice of everything around her moving in a blur passed her face. She was moving fast. Nowhere near as fast as in the FAYZ but still not the same as a normal non-mutated human. Brianna felt a slight thrill but refused to allow this happy thought to slow her down. If anything it was that thought that pushed her on, that got her to move faster until her limbs slowly began to strain and ache for the first time she was here.
So she could feel pain. That wasn't a comforting thought.
Brianna ran, squinting at the hills ahead and kept running. She refused to glance back over her shoulder in case it slowed her down. Brianna found it hard to breath but forced herself to and kept running despite the clenching in her chest. Her feet hurt the most but that didn't stop her. If anything the pain motivated her. She could feel pain meaning those dogs could hurt her and the pain in her feet and all along her limbs would be nothing compared to if those dogs got their teeth into her.
Finally the hill were much closer than before and Brianna risked on look back. The dogs were back off in the distance again. Brianna allowed herself to slow down, stopping and sitting down hard onto the ground. She took quick breaths, staring off at the dogs as they continued to bound her way. She rubbed her sore limbs and looked at her feet. They were bright red, painful to the touch and tingling sensitively. Brianna glanced up but the dogs were still a long way off. She spent the time sitting on the ground and catching her breath, gently rubbing her feet to ease some of the pain. She waited until she could make out the number of dogs, three in total, before she stood up, turned and stared off at the hill.
They were still quite a way away. She would run herself dead if she kept going that way. But the forest was just as far and there was nothing that she could see that was any closer. She needed somewhere that she could find now to hide and get away from those dogs but all around her was just an open stretch of land. Brianna glanced back and the dogs were closing in on her once again. She needed to move.
Brianna started to run again. Once more her feet ache and her limbs screamed at her for making them move so much, practically the minute she started to move they shouted in protest. She moved every part of her body, gasping for breath until her throat and mouth dried out but once again everything around her turned into a blur as she began to move fast.
And so she went on. Brianna ran for an hour, counting it in her head before she came to a stop, checking over her shoulder and resting. She repeated this three times, each time growing more and more weary. Her feet grew more and more sore, small scraps and cuts beginning to build and the soles of her feet were such a dark red now they were almost brown, but then that could just be the dirt. Sometimes she lost count but if so then she just started again and kept running, sometimes for more than an hour if she lost count too much but to her it was important to do no less.
Brianna's arms, legs and feet were now aching more than when they ever had in the FAYZ, she had a stitch in her side and she was suddenly incredibly need for a drink, not because she was especially thirsty but her mouth and throat were definitely dry. She glanced over her shoulders but the dogs were still following her for three hours. They couldn't be normal dogs. Normal dogs would have given up by now and ran off for something else. Brianna had a moment where she wanted to pause to watch them and see what they really were like but she knew they would hardly pause for her so she could study them.
For a total of five hours Brianna repeated this process. She ran, counting in her head, paused, had a moment of rest and ran again. Brianna was getting weaker and weary, she wanted to take another nap but she didn't dare in case she slept too long and allowed the dogs to catch up with her. Brianna would never allow the dogs to get much closer to her. The minute she could clearly count how many were after her she had to start running for the hills again.
But finally when the five hours were up Brianna looked back and saw they were gone. Brianna stopped sharply, skidding slightly and scratching a thin layer of skin from her feet and looked around but they seemed to have vanished. She turned in a complete circle but all that was left was an open stretch of space again with no other things there but the trees and the hills.
"Finally." Brianna gasped, only a small part of her wondered what had happened to the dogs. They just vanished but this was a dead strange world.
Brianna collapsed to the ground, once again lying down and rubbing at he sore feet gently to ease some of the pain on the now scratched surface. Brianna brushed sweat from her face and brushed her hair from her eyes. She scraped it back like she might pull it to a pony tail and twisted it around on itself tucking it down the back of her top. That was the best she could do for now to keep it out of her face.
She looked up but the hill was still quite far away only now the cliff was just as far away. Brianna wondered if she would be able to really make it to the hills. What if this was day? What did that mean night was going to be like? That was another scary thought. Brianna looked straight at the hills, took a deep breath and stood as she began to slowly walk towards the hills once more. This time she could take her time, catching her breath and calm down but she couldn't help but repeatedly look over her shoulder in case the dogs would appear again.
Let me know what you think! Also, if you have favourite names for minor OC's then let us know, or I'll even use your own name!
Next Chapter: Orc and Orsay