There was depressingly little that the man had on him: a pocket knife, his wallet (which was rifled through, I.D. plucked between Kagome's fingers and hidden in her bra), a heavy duty flashlight (given to Tamaki, who gripped it like a lifeline), and a few hard candies, which were divvied up between the three of them. She took off the dead man's shoes and socks and put them on her own bare feet, having to stuff the toe area of the shoe with wads of cash from the man's wallet.

"No phone or radio," Kagome reported tiredly, looking completely unbothered by looting a body. "But that's good. Means they weren't expecting a call back. No check ins. Do you have his keys?" This was directed to Kyoya, who uncovered his face entirely and handed the keyring to her. "Good. We should head out."

Then, for the first time since they had all been thrown in, they opened the cell door.

The hallway looked to be in much better conditions than their room had been; The ceiling was higher and the floors had opened to tile. Their room had essentially been an old broom closet, modified to contain unwilling parties.

Hand braced against the door, she paused. "We just need to get outside. I'll call my family."

"You've had a phone this entire time?" Kyoya sounded stupid and hopeful to his own ears. "We'll just have to find a signal?"

"Something like that," Kagome agreed, cocking her head. After listening intently, her shoulders dropped. "No one's here," the relief was palpable in her voice. "We need to move on before they return."

She was the first one to peek from behind the door, then slowly slipped out, Kyoya and Tamaki both hot on her trail and clutching their weapons. It seemed almost too good to be true that the building was empty, that no one else had heard their terrible little struggle; But true to Kagome's word, not one human bothered them when they opened their final door, and were met with the deafening buzz of cicadas and the stifling warmth of the night.

Dazed, they stumbled towards the grass, rubbed it between their fingers and dug lightly into the earth. Tamaki sat for a bit, tears rolling down his cheeks as he looked at the clumps of dirt in his hands. Kyoya himself felt the urge to join him, but he noticed Kagome's stiff posture as she observed the distant treeline.

"We should go," Kyoya said. If Kagome was nervous, he was leaving; the woman's instincts had gotten them through most of this ordeal. She flashed him a smile, then the two of them cajoled Tamaki into getting up and started on their way.

A few hundred meters had been conquered- impressive, considering the state of the three of them- before they heard it; the bone chilling howl of a dog that caught a scent.

Kagome ran fast, faster than either of them, the dead man's shirt flying off of her shoulders, the torn tissue of her back twisting in the moonlight, the whites of her eyes streaking, teeth flashing. One of her stolen shoes fell off, but she ran still, leaving behind the two men who had saved her. Kyoya watched her fade into the underbrush ahead of them, feeling betrayed. She had left them to be ripped apart by dogs.

He and Tamaki gave up on running, and instead held onto each other, hearing the dogs closing in on them. Tamaki suddenly cradled Kyoya's face and kissed him, putting into it every sentiment he had left in him. Kyoya, dizzy, kissed him back.

In the distance, they heard Kagome's voice swelling with an unnatural force. At first, Kyoya thought she was screaming- but it soon became apparent that she was howling.

"What is she doing?" Tamaki gasped. "She'll draw their attention."

But she kept wailing, and the woman's voice imitating something as feral as a dog made the hairs on Kyoya's arms rise. The dogs seemed to stop their barking, but Kagome kept going at it until her voice would break.

And then something answered.

A few answering howls were tossed into the night air, not those of the hunting dogs. These were of a stronger and more threatening timbre. They were short, answering barks, and their sources were getting closer. Kyoya felt the sudden urge to hide, and so he ushered Tamaki into surround underbrush, and the two of them held their breath.

A high pitched whining. The sound of a dog yelping in pain, in fear, and then the heaviest footsteps Kyoya had ever heard came padding towards them. The tree branches snapped under the weight of the beasts as they stepped into the clearing, a trio of wolves.

"They're around here somewhere," came Kagome's weak voice. "Please find them, make sure they're alright."

One of the wolves moved straight towards them, its brightly gleaming eyes stark against the dark fur. Tamaki let out a startled cry when its nose parted the foliage and deeply inhaled less than an inch away from him. To the relief of both men, the wolf backed away from them. To their bewilderment, the beast spoke: "They're hiding in here, Kagome."

"C'est quoi, ce merdier?" Tamaki faintly questioned. He had paled with shock.

"Tu dois te calmer," Kyoya answered, unable to think of anything else.

Kyoya and Tamaki peered through their cover of foliage only to see that the wolves had fled, and in their place were three new people; two were men, one was a woman. Kagome was pplaced onto the back of the woman, somehow more muddied and bloodier than when they'd last seen her.

"Come out, please," Kagome requested. "It's safe now. We can go home. My friends are here."

Finally, screamed Kyoya's heart. Finally, finally, finally. He and Tamaki scrambled into the clearing with the newcomers, assessing them carefully. The man in the front had dark hair and a roguish look about him, making the athletic wear he donned look out of place. The man at his flank was young but had grey hair, and the woman holding onto Kagome was a redhead. None of them looked threatening and none looked to be armed, but that meant little to Kyoya's nerves.

"Is she okay?" Tamaki asked, taking a halting step towards them. The leader seemed to favor him for this and nodded.

"She'll be fine once we get her back to the camp, but we have to hurry," said the man. "Hop on, you two have got to be tired."

"'Hop on'?" Kyoya asked, just before blinking and being confronted by the same wolf from before. The pelts of the animals matched the previous people's hair colors. Kagome, still comfortably sprawled across the redhead's back, was watching them. She was covered in fresh bites and looked to be barely consciousness, and that was what spurred them into action.

Tamaki and Kyoya agreed to ride a wolf back to their camp, but demanded further explanation later on. They also refused to be separated, so the biggest wolf- they were guessing it was the leader, for his brown pelt matched the man's long hair- was the one to carry them.

Maybe it was the wolf's steady pace, maybe it was the warmth of Tamaki behind him, maybe it was the knowledge that they were alive, but sometime during the trip, Kyoya fell asleep.