Chapter 20
Her world consisted of nothing more than pain. The pain of sadness and loss.
First Chloe and now Juliet. Everybody she used to love was now dead. Both times shot. Although with Juliet it was even worse. Because, in her case, it hadn't been an ugly psycho, named Nathan Prescott, yet her best friend, Kate who took her love's life.
Kate used to be her best friend, but now? Right at the moment, Max just wished that nobody had stopped her from killing this little, insane, backstabbing bitch. Or did she?
'What the hell am I thinking?! I...I don't want Katie dead. Yeah, I hate her for what she'd done, but…'
In a blink of an eye, the veil that had surrounded her vanished and Max realized that she was standing in the middle of the forest, all alone and nobody around.
'Shit!' she thought, already feeling uneasy and taking a few steps back. The brunette teenager wasn't stupid. She knew what dangers were possibly lurking around every corner...or in this case behind every tree trunk. 'I should head back before…'
She hadn't even finished her thought as something tackled her to the ground and as she felt the hot pain that was running along her entire abdomen, she cried out her pain. And it got answered by an inhuman scream, which immediately caused her body to go into overdrive by releasing a giant load of adrenaline.
The pain was gone for the moment and she jumped up to face the Lurker that had attacked her. The creature just stood there, hunched over and probably planning its next assault while Max tried to draw her pistol. But it wasn't there.
"Fuck!" she hissed, shifting her gaze to her empty holster. But what she also realized was her ripped grey hoodie and the blood that was seeping out of four big scratches. Now being in shock upon seeing her injuries, Max entirely lost her focus on the monster ahead, which used this distraction to launch the next attack. Luckily, Max barely managed to dodge and then used the opportunity to run. But sadly, she had lost her orientation entirely and so she kept on running, the Lurker right on her heels. She knew that she couldn't outrun it, but at least she would try. Or would she? Because from every direction even more Screamers attacked who probably had heard their fellow comrade's call.
'It's over!' That was all Max could think about, though she wondered why she was still running. But then, a bunch of buildings that she could see between the trees caught her attention and she saw a glimpse of hope to find some shelter. So, she changed directions, avoided some other creatures and kept on going.
Joy was filling her body as she had almost reached what soon turned out to be a Trailer park. But then, something rammed her with such a force that she stumbled and hit a close-by trailer with her head. The world started to spin and swiped away under her feet while dark spots were dancing in her sight, where she witnessed how a doe got chased down and eventually caught by the Screamers. The doe's dying screams were the last thing she heard before her world went entirely dark.
'Jules, I'm coming!'