Kate hissed audibly. Even though the wounds would be gone within a few hours, the cuts, impalements, stabs, shanks, burns and everything in-between lasted for those hours, and even if the marks were gone, the pain lasted longer. It was a reminder of their failure, and the cruel game the Entity played with them.

"What happened?!"

"I don't-"

"What wen't wrong?!"

"I don't-"

"Where's Hope?!"

"I don't know!" Kate finally snapped, looking up with tears of pain and regret in her eyes. "I don't know, okay!? I don't know what happened to Hope!"

This was one of the issues with 'dying' in a trial. Sometimes, you'd show up mere seconds post-mortem at the campfire, sometimes it'd be hours. The longest record had been nearly a day and a half, before Dwight had returned after falling prey to the Pig's twisted head-traps. Unfortunately, he couldn't say a thing about what had happened during that time, only that he had both felt excruciating pain, and felt nothing at the same time. Add to this that Kate was probably one of the kindest, sweetest people you'd ever meet, both inside and outside the Trials, and she had last seen Hope dangerously close to the Wraith, and both Feng and Felix had yet to return (dead or alive), and David had died first when the Wraith had used some sort of offering to wound him faster, so all they had to go on was that not only was Hope, A BABY, in a trial, but the killers now knew about her too.

There was an uneasy air around the campfire, as most of the survivors felt sick beyond words. They didn't know what had happened, they didn't know where she was, and no one had any way of making sure Hope would be okay… the only, ONLY upside to all of this was the killer they were forced to face. The Wraith always seemed… hesitant, about killing them. And according to Kate, he had simply picked up Hope, but hadn't harmed her. Yet.

Still, for now, all they could do was wait and see what happened. Ace and Kate were down for the count, and already back at the campfire (the former having went down first, but still) and now they were waiting on Feng and Felix. And Hope.

"Ow… ow… ow… ow… ow… ow…"

Shambling like a weak zombie, Feng slowly made her way into the campfire arena. Everyone winced slightly at the state she was in. Her body slashed, her face somewhat mangled. Once again, they could meet gruesome ends, but they'd always be back to normal in just a few hours.

"Feng?" Cheryl blinked, slowly. "Where… where's…"

"I don't know." Feng struggled to get out. "Felix, Wraith and I all saw her. I attacked that freak and gave Felix a chance to get her out of there… I don't know what happened after that."

Claudette felt sick. She felt worse than when she was first thrown into this nightmare, and she didn't know why. It seemed like everything was crashing down around her, and she didn't understand it. Why was she so attached to Hope? Yes, she was an innocent baby, but she wasn't her's… and from what they had found, there was no way out. Maybe that was it, the lack of any hope of survival was pushing her towards a sense of determination to keep Hope safe.

"Ugghh… I think that hook went through my lung…" A new voice groaned as Felix stumbled back into the campfire area, all heads turning to greet him.

"Felix! Did you make it out!?" Élodie exclaimed, but had a feeling she already knew the answer. It wasn't hard to guess, considering the massive chest wound and blood he was coated in.

"No, I died too…" Felix coughed, wincing in pain as he began bandaging his wounds. "None of us aside from Hope got out. I got the hatch open and got her through it, but the Wraith had other ideas."

"But, where-" Someone began, only for audible crying to cut through the fog. Claudette snapped to attention and looked around in a panic.

"HOPE!" Claudette screamed as she ran off, looking through the thick fog for a minute before finally finding and grabbing the small girl, wrapping her up tightly in her arms. No one really knew why the Botanist seemed to have developed such a maternal side all of a sudden, but no one was going to question this either. There were enough problems as it was, better to leave this be.

"Thank you…" Was all Claudette and a few others could manage to get out, now feeling a massive wave of relief wash over them, that at least for now, Hope hadn't been subjected to the nefarious nightmares they were accustomed to. Like the problem that Hope was crying and nothing seemed to be able to calm her down. To a number of the survivors, this would normally be extremely annoying, but in this situation? They were willing to let that go. It was clear Hope was probably traumatized and didn't know how to cope with what she had just witnessed. No one really knew if she saw someone get impaled on a hook, or killed by the Wraith, and they couldn't exactly ask her, either, now could they? While she didn't want too, Claudette noticed Kate asking to hold Hope and she slowly handed the girl over. Kate wrapped up Hope in her blanket with her stuffed raccoon and held her close to her chest, smiling warmly down at her.

"Another show's off and runnin', dance with me, cuz there's a storm a commin'." Kate sang gently, sitting near the fire, rocking Hope in her arms. "Follow my boots, try to keep up, dance with me, until sun up."

Thankfully, but slowly, Hope calmed down. The crying seemed to slowly cease, until she was merely whimpering in the southern survivors' arms. Kate hummed a gentle tune, and eventually Hope seemed to lose her struggle with staying awake, clutching to Kate's shirt as she slept soundly. Kate sighed, wiping a tear from her eye as she held the baby close, unsure what else she could do aside from just try and be a comforting presence to the little girl.

"This is so wrong." Dwight sighed, shaking his head. "Sure, it's bad enough we're thrown into these trials, but this thing is throwing a baby in there as well?! What if it was the Trapper, and she fell onto one of his traps?! Or what if it was that weird metal-headed dude with the big knife?!"

"Dwight…" Meg began to say the obvious 'you're-not-helping', but noticed something… new, about Dwight. Something that always happened whenever a new Survivor appeared. A renewed sense of determination, of leadership. The issue was, it usually died rather quickly, like a spark failing to catch, but this time? It seemed stronger.

"If we're at the farm, maybe we could hide her in hay… or if we're in the meat packing place… ugh… I hate thinkin' about that, but maybe we could hide her under some meat…"

"Yo, Fairfield! What you up to?" Ash called, getting Dwight's attention. Once again, Meg saw that spark, and it seemed… stronger. Still very faint, but there at least.

"Okay… I don't like thinking or talking about this, but it needs to be said." Dwight sighed, setting the stick he had been drawing with down. "If Hope is gonna be in these trials with us, we need a plan. We need a hiding place for her. Somewhere where she can whether out the trials, and we can get her when the gates open."

"The lockers are a no-go." Adam shook his head. "How many times have we been caught in there? Heck, don't some of those killers use them to restock or something?"

"Exactly. We need to think smarter." Dwight nodded in agreement. "Look, the locations we end up at change from time to time, but they're the same layout usually. We need to find something Hope can hide in, beside or under."

"I like where you're going, but there's two big issues I don't think you've considered." Jake spoke up, and Dwight looked to him. Knowing if anyone should listened to in this situation, it was Jake. "She needs to breathe, and if she starts crying, it'll be a dead giveaway. Most likely we need multiple hiding spots, and every time we fix a gen, someone moves her."

"Yeah, yeah! Exactly!" Dwight nodded. "We keep moving her quickly, the killers get caught off-guard, and she's safe!"

"Okay. What if we all die?" Yui spoke up, having been quiet most of the time thus far. "If we're all gone, what happens when the world collapses?" Her question seemed to deflate Dwight, but just for a moment, as he narrowed his eyes and finally spoke.

"Well, then we'll have to live with knowing a baby died because we failed." He said, deadly serious. His tone was so… uncharacteristic, that everyone looked to him in genuine surprise. "This isn't about us anymore, it's about saving a baby. And… and I'm sorry, but if you aren't with me on that, we've got a bigger problem to deal with."

"There is a baby, now." the Wraith spoke without moving his mouth, signing with his hands.

"Fer' real? Evan wasn't jokin'?" Caleb asked, still beyond skeptical about this. He leaned back in his chair, casting a glance up to the eternal night he was trapped in.

"Yes." The Wraith signed. "There is a little girl, less than a year old, now among the survivors. I saw her myself."

"And what exactly did you do to her?" The Deathslinger asked, narrowing his eyes. Contrary to what many may believe, and often how he acted, Caleb Quinn, much like Philip Ojomo, wasn't as depraved or sinister as some of the other killers. If anything, it was kinda why Ojomo had sought him out instead of pretty much any of the other killers. Now, yes. Unlike him, Quinn took sadistic satisfaction in doing the Entity's bidding, but even he seemed to have some level of morality remaining, as little as it may be.

"Nothing! Nothing! I swear!" Phillip quickly signed, a little annoyed at the unspoken accusation. "I took her to a safe location and left her there. She somehow got away, and the Survivors got her out through the hatch-thing."

"Hrgh… what's it up too?" The old bounty hunter muttered, scratching his chin. He seemed to debate some things, then asked a question he just thought of. "Who else knows about this?"

"You, me, Max, Evan, Sally and possibly Jeffrey. I know the last two were told, but haven't seen her yet."

"Al'right, here's what yer gon' do." The Deathslinger nodded, leaning forward. "Max is simple, I'll deal with him. Evan barely talk's t'anyone anyways… But you need to make sure that Jeffrey and Sally don't go blabbin' about this t'everyone. I doubt most of us would hesitate to add her to the hooks."

"You're saying you wouldn't sacrifice her?"

"If the Entity hasn't said we need to, then no." Caleb shrugged. "She's a baby, there has t'be a reason she's here beyond sacrificing her. But y'can't let the others find out just yet."

"And what if the Entity chooses one of them for the next Trial, and the girl is in it? We cannot volunteer for a trial!" Phillip raised a fair point, and the old outlaw groaned in annoyance. The Deathslinger looked up, his hollowed, old eyes filled with what may have been frustration as he finally seemed to throw subtly to the wind.

"Fine, y'want the truth? Here it is Wraith." Caleb grumbled. "That girl is good as dead. Some of us may not wanna hurt her, but some will. So, if we can give her all the time t'not die over and over, I say we give it t'her." His words were… upsetting, but the Wraith knew them to be true, and he nodded. The old gunslinger left, going to find something to drink, leaving Phillip alone with his thoughts.

"Who among us would hurt someone so small?" He thought to himself, turning invisible so he could be alone. "Max may hurt her by mistake, Sally most likely wouldn't… but then there's Kruger… and that idiot with the ridiculous ghost mask. Not to mention Jeffrey may harm her for his own amusement, and what about the tall silent one with the white mask? That monstrous Oni may hurt her involuntarily, and Carter probably would hurt her for fun…"

Unbeknown to both men, one killer in particular had already taken an interest to the newest 'Survivor' and had been using their training to remain hidden and practically invisible mere feet away from their conversation. The killer tilted their head and whispered something.

"Скоро ты будешь в безопасности. Маленький…"

So, a few things;

One, I know about the new characters. Nemesis, Jill, Leon and Pinhead will all be in this story in some capacity.

2.) Steve, Nancy and Snuffles the Demogorgon (that's his name, don't fight me on this) aren't leaving.

III.) I don't know if the Wraith can talk, but I've seen other stories say he can communicate through sign langauge, so I'm going with that.

4our.) I'm a Deathslinger main in DBD (Yeah, I said it, come at me!) so Caleb may have a little more focus than other killers in some scenes, but often those scenes are what you could call a 'morality moment' and it makes sense for him to be focused on… and I think they're gonna be fun! We've already had one here, and the story is just gonna get more interesting as we go!