:: Rock Bottom ::

"Tell me how did we get here?
And where the fuck do we go now?
First I was floating through the atmosphere
But now I'm looking up at rock bottom, bottom" – grandson

:: ::

Quentin followed the light shining dimly through the trees and hesitated. Maybe this was one of Freddy's tricks? The young man questioned himself.

He had just been in Badham Preschool with Freddy hunting him in his dream. He had located the exit of the dream, an inconsistency leading to a way out. This time it had been a patch of charred lilies surrounded by thriving flowers and shrubbery. Once he kneeled to pick up the harmed flowers, he blinked and had appeared back in the "special room" of the school's basement with Freddy blocking the only path out. The dreamwalker slowly stood up, a feeling of helplessness washing over him. The man laughed and stepped towards him. And then… And then… He was here in this forest. No death, no attack, and no Krueger.

It just doesn't make sense… He pondered. He could've ended it all. This doesn't seem like something he'd do. Quentin attempted to look past the trees ahead of him, seeing a small clearing with a fire burning at the center. When he strained his ears, he thought he could hear voices ahead and it was all he needed to push forward to investigate.

As the dreamwalker made it to the tree line he spotted three people huddled around the campfire, using a fallen tree as a bench and two others laying down in the grass off to the left side of the makeshift bench from where Quentin was. The three on the bench appeared to be a guy and two girls and the guy was holding… Cards? Quentin thought incredulously as the guy held out the cards to the other girls in a fanned motion, like he was preforming a magic trick. Deciding it was semi-safe, Quentin left the tree line and slowly walked to the fire.

"Hey!" a redheaded girl with braided pigtails jumped up. "Hey, are you new?" She jumped up and started jogging towards the newcomer and as she got closer, Quentin started back peddling to the forest. He refused to fully trust his situation or let these people get close in case it was a trap.

"Wait! Hey, hey, hey!" the guy called out, putting the cards down and standing up with his hands up and open to show he wasn't armed. "Meg stop, you'll scare him off!" he called to the redheaded girl and she, Meg, froze.

"Shit! Sorry. I got excited," she put her hands up in the same gesture as the man. "Look, we're not going to hurt you, but we do need to sit down and talk since you're here. There's…" She sighed and rubbed her temple. "There's a lot to discuss in a short amount of time.

"My name is Meg Thomas, you can just call me Meg, never Meghan. The guy behind me is named Ace and the girl sitting there is Feng. We- We're trapped here and if you're here it means you are too now. I don't want you running blind to the dangers around here. Can you come to the fire near us? We can try to explain this the best we can,"

Quentin looked to the left of the log where the two other people were laying and one of them, a guy with dark raven hair, was now sitting up watching them. "Who are the others?" the dreamwalker asked.

Meg looked over her right shoulder and her mouth made a little o. "Sorry I forgot they were right there. They're usually quiet. The guy is Park- I mean Jake. His first name is Jake and the girl next to him is Laurie. Laurie Strode. I don't know if you know her but apparently, she was one of the victims of that crazy stalker-murderer in the 70's. It's really crazy, you'll have to ask her about it," Meg looked like she remembered something and immediately stopped talking. Quentin's head spun. He was so tired, and all this information seemed to go in one ear and out the other. The girl was talking circles around him. "Look, sorry, there's a lot of information. Will you sit down… With us?"

She held out a hand to the newcomer and Quentin thought over the situation. Freddy has used their memories to create dream worlds and people. Although the Strode name sparked some recognition, he didn't know any other these other people, nor had he ever been to a campfire like the one before him. Deciding to see where this would go, he reached out and took Meg's hand. She held his gently and pulled him to the campfire where he sat down with a good space between him and the other two on the tree bench.

"So," Meg started, pacing in front of the fire. "This is going to sound like such bullshit, but we're in a sort of purgatory playing a game of survival for an 'almighty' being called the Entity. It feeds off our fear or something like that. It throws us into these arenas and there are these massive two gates and it gives us seven generators-" Quentin felt himself spacing out as Meg kept trying to explain these 'games'. If they were in the "Talking Olympics", Quentin had no doubt she would be first place.

Slowly, the words became a jumbled mess the dreamwalker couldn't decipher and he felt his mind being dragged under. Ice cold fear and panic crawled up in his throat and Quentin lifted his fist quickly, then brought it down hard to his thigh, grunting at the pain. Yet, he had been too late. He looked up and the people around the campfire were gone.

"M-Meg?" Quentin called out. His nails digging into his thigh as an effort to wake himself up.

"Try again, sweetheart," a gravelly voice rumbled in his ear from behind and the young dreamwalker jumped up off the bench and whirled around coming face to face with the dream demon. "Now don't look too excited to see me," Krueger chuckled and stepped over the log bench. He used his ungloved hand to knock the brim of his hat higher on his head as he made a show of surveying the area. The dreamwalker took advantage of this and began slowly creeping backwards towards the woods. "Never seen this place... Holding back on me, aren't cha Quen?" the man purred, dragging his claw of knives along the wood log bench as he took menacingly slow steps in sync toward his prey, leaving a trail of scarred wood behind.

"I guess you're just full of surprises," Krueger punctuated his thought by lurched forward suddenly, lashing out with his clawed hand across Quentin's shoulder and chest. The dreamwalker stumbled back in shock but was not fast enough. He fell hard on his rear and his head hit the ground roughly. Although, instead of the pain that should have flared where Krueger hit him, all he could feel was the ache of his fall.

"What the fuck?" the man hissed looking from his claw to Quentin. Shocked, the younger stayed still as Freddy reached one finger claw slowly down out to touch Quentin's chest. Miraculously, both males were surprised when the claw went straight through without any harm coming to the dreamwalker. It was as if Freddy or Quentin were an untouchable phantom. "What. The fuck. Did you do?" A bewildered Freddy snarled, taking another slash but still his claws would not make contact.

A sense of satisfaction and relief sent shivers down the spine of the young man as his brain put the pieces together. Freddy couldn't touch him now and the thought made him feel bold. He even dared to smirk at the dream demon.

"It's okay, I'm sure it happens to everyone. I hear it's hard to perform under pressure. Maybe try talking to your doctor about it." Quentin punctuated his remark with a snickerof triumph as he sat up, making Krueger snarl in reply.

"You better be prepared. Once I figure out what ya did, you'll wish you were dead, bitch." With a deep menacing laugh, the man fell backwards into the fire allowing the flames to engulf his body. Quentin's smirk slowly faded as he stared into the flickering flames. He didn't know what was going on but if this meant he could rest easily, he didn't want to wake up. As the minutes ticked by, he felt his eyes droop lower and he shortly fell to darkness.

:: ::

"-y!" Quentin felt an outside force shake his body as he started to register the sounds around him. "'Ey kid! Wake up!" another shake and then murmuring. "-ssed out while… -he be okay?" the dreamwalker felt a hand touch the side of neck and just the feeling snapped him back to consciousness.

"I'm up!" he yelled as he snapped his eyes open and sat upright scrambling backwards. "Please, d-don't touch me," his eyes frantically darting around looking for that damned green and red sweater. A man and a woman were kneeled next to where Quentin had originally been which was behind the log bench from the fire. He must've fallen backwards when he passed out, he deduced.

"'Ey, 'ey," the man soothed as if attempting to calm a frightened animal. "You ought to calm down. It's just friends here. You've got nothing to worry about. Yer safe," Quentin frantically focused his eyes on the woman first who seemed the calmest out of the group of people in front of him. She had dark mocha skin and she offered up a small smile when she caught eyes with Quentin. He then looked towards the man who spoke to him and he didn't recognize him either. He had a slight English accent, from what the dreamwalker could tell, and he was rugged with dark hair, the sides of his head shaved. The man's dark brown eyes were fixed on him with an intensity that reminded the dreamwalker of Nancy.

Oh God, Nancy… Quentin broke the eye contact and looked around. He easily found the semi-familiar faces such as Meg and Ace, but some other faces he never recognized. He didn't have time to process his situation and pulled himself to his feet backing up quickly. He needed to get back to Nancy. After her mom met her end by Krueger, Nancy rarely encountered the dream demon. She would still catch glimpses of him, but it seemed more like he was biding his time. If Quentin couldn't be harmed in his sleep now in this forest, there was no telling what Krueger would do in retaliation. The young male just hoped it didn't involve Nancy. The dreamwalker quickly resolved himself to go see her. He needed to get out of here and tell Nancy about this new place and how Krueger couldn't touch them here.

"I… I've got to go," he apologetically whispered to the gathering in front of him and started backing up towards the edge of the tree line behind him. "I need to go find someone," he turned on his heel and ran for the forest.

"Wait! You can't!" the man yelled after him and started chasing after him. "Stop!" Quentin registered the others calling after them, but he ignored and pushed forward, crashing into the trees and foliage. Moments later he heard others following him, pushing aside the branches to catch up.

"Kid, you're gonna get hurt! Stop!" Quentin couldn't make heads or tails of the warning and decidedly pushed forward until a swirling sensation filled him. The crippling sense of vertigo was met with a face slide on the forest's floor. A groan of pain escaped his lips and he rolled over onto his back. The man and a punk-rock looking girl stopped a few feet or so away and Quentin could see coal black smoke swirling around the man and his limbs started to dissipate into air. He seemed to not notice or if he did, there was no panic.

The feeling of pins and needles began pricking at Quentin's arms and legs and he lifted an arm to his face to see the same exact smoke swirl lazily around him.

"What's happening?" Quentin demanded, panic rising in his chest. "Make it stop!" Quentin looked at the man then the girl pleading them with his eyes to stop what was happening but was only met with a look of pity from the pair.

"We can't stop it… It's not us," the man let out a puff of air and ran a hand through the hair on top of his head all the while looking irritated. "Fuck, man… I just came back from one…"

"F-From what?" Quentin asked

"You better take care of him," the girl scolded, ignoring the dreamwalker's panic, and the man nodded with a grimace.

"We're going into a 'game' Find a corner of the arena and I'll… I'll try to find you." The man told him. With that said, the fog swallowed them both and once more Quentin was dragged under against his will.

:: ::

When Quentin came to, he was standing in the middle of the cornfield. The atmosphere bathing the environment in a yellow hue.

What the hell? Quentin pondered. He thought back to the other man who was surrounded by the black smoke. He had told him to meet him in a corner and wary as he was, the dreamwalker didn't have any other alternatives, so he pushed forward through the corn towards a large house ahead. The foundation appeared majorly cracked and rundown and he decided that it would be one of the last places he'd attempt to look for the other man.

He walked past the building and some haystacks before he saw a long brick wall span out in front of him. To the left he could see a corner just past some log walls and to the right it appeared the wall continued for some length of land. Quentin headed in the direction of the corner he could see and caught sight of a… generator? It looked like the generator had light bulbs at the top of a long pole connected to one of its sides. The mechanical contraption was quiet so the dreamwalker paid no mind to it as he pushed forward and reached the corner. He didn't know the layout of the area, and he hoped that his surroundings didn't have too many corners so that his newfound acquaintance would find him sooner.

A shriek shattered the silence and Quentin froze. He strained to hear what direction it came from before a whooshing sound filled the air. His eyes widened and his heart rattled in fear. He crouched down, throwing his hand over his mouth to stifle the gasp of horror as another shriek filled the air. A floating woman appeared before him who wore a dirtied cloth bag around her head and an early 20th century nurses' gown that was shredded at the hem.

As she stopped, she sagged forward with a painful sigh and then straightened back up. In her hand she carried a rusted bone saw and the dreamwalker could have sworn he saw fresh blood dripping from it. His first thought was Freddy. This must be some sort of illusion from Krueger,right? He pressed his back to the wall and the woman, although close, kept her gaze on the generator Quentin had walked past.

The woman floated sideways back and forth as if trying to peer around the area of the generator. Once she seemed satisfied, or so Quentin assumed, she turned away and raised her unarmed hand. A small orange light glowed in her unarmed palm as if she were holding embers from a fire and as she closed the hand, she shrieked once more then blinked out of view.

When his heartbeat slowed, Quentin slumped to the ground. A cold sweat ran down his back and he squeezed his eyes shut.

This must be a dream. He begged his mind as he put his head in his head in his hands. There was no way this was real right? Freddy had to be behind this somehow.

A hand landed on Quentin's shoulder a few moments later and he jumped, whipping his head up with his mouth open prepared to yell. A hand clapped him hard across his mouth and frantic eyes flew to his assaulter. The dreamwalker found himself staring at a wide-eyed version of the brunet man from earlier. The taller man wearily pulled his hand slowly from Quentin's shoulder and put a finger to his lips signaling to be quiet. The dreamwalker nodded and slowly the hand was taken from over his mouth.

"Listen mate," the man whispered. "This whole situation is a bloody mess, but we need to get one thing straight: whatever you do here affects everyone else stuck here. Meg said she explained it before you passed out, there's four of us. Including you, you understand?"

Quentin nodded and the other mirrored the action in approval.

"Good." The man then pointed in the direction the woman was. "That thing you just saw, the woman, we call 'er the Nurse. Her job is to kill us and our job is to get the fuck out." The man then pointed to the silent generator from earlier. "We need to repair five of those and then we can leave." He then pointed back the way Quentin came. "'There's a door back there," then he jerked a thumb over his shoulder, so that it pointed behind him, "and then there's one back there that I've seen."

The man dropped his hand and fixed the shorter male with a look of what felt like pity and immediately Quentin found himself liking this man less and less. The only silver lining that Quentin could pull from his encounters with Krueger was that he learned more about his own character, and he found that he was a fighter at heart. He was also an active problem solver and never shied away from the danger when it came to doing what he felt was right. Even though he was sure Nancy was the stronger willed of the two of them, that didn't deter him from vowing to never go down without a fight.

Now there was so much new information that Quentin's head was spinning but he knew whatever twists Freddy was throwing at him, he could take it in stride and push himself to persevere. But where he was now, Quentin felt ridiculed when he was almost certain this other man couldn't even begin to understand what the dreamwalker had survived through until this point. It was as if the other man felt what Quentin experienced now would be the hardest thing to ever happen to him. If that is what the older man thought, then he had another thing coming, because this insomniac wasn't a weak kid in need of protection or pity. In his core, Quentin felt his resolve settle in place and a strange calm washed over him. He was going to survive this, just as he had always done, just to prove this man wrong.

"Okay so what do you need me to do now?" he asked the mysterious male coldly. The other male's eyes narrowed, and the corner of his mouth twitched.

"Gen over there needs to be worked on. Let's go," the stranger stood and began jogging to the generator that the "Nurse" had checked just previously. He could still hear the shrieks from a distance, so he wasn't sure how safe it was but with the feeling of confidence and a new resolve to survive, the dreamwalker followed suit.

When he reached the generator, the man showed him how to work on the "gens". The insomniac watched the man deftly pull cables, cross wires, and mess with the gears of the machine where he saw necessary. Deciding it didn't seem too difficult, he joined in on the other side of the gen and tried imitating the mechanic skills he had just witnessed. The back pistons of the gen began slowly moving before rapidly picking up speed and then as they maintained the same speed, the next set began to move in the same slow manner. It looked like there were four sets and Quentin deduced that this was how they could tell which gens were almost done.

Suddenly there was a creaking sound and from the gears he had been working, it looked like there were two cog wheels stuck. The dreamwalker hesitated unsure what to do but then decidedly reached for the jam. He must have been too slow as once his hand was near, the gears ground against each other roughly and sparked back to life. The surge of built up power as they righted themselves was directed in a small explosion toward Quentin. Pain flared on his fingertips as he ripped his hands away from the generator to shield his face.

"Fuckin' A," Quentin grumbled as the sparks settled. He looked up at the other man to meet a sympathetic gaze.

"'That'll happen for a bit when you're learnin'." He looked away over his shoulder and then back to the dreamwalker. "When you mess up the gen, the killer that's roaming hears that something is going on over here. We should probably get mo-"

A whoosh cut the Englishman off and suddenly with a shriek the floating woman was directly behind the taller man. She pulled him right off the gen with one arm and threw him over her shoulder like he weighed nothing.

"Ya bloody…" The man growled and began to struggle. The woman paid no mind and turned, appearing to have a purpose with the captured man. "Go!" he hissed, seeing the frozen look of shock on the younger man. Quentin scrambled up and after them, he wasn't sure where they were headed but disagreed with letting the other man pay for what was the dreamwalker's mistake.

"Hey!" he yelled as he chased after them. "Leave him alone!"

"Oi! Get the bloody hell out of here!" David yelled at him but was ignored.

"You better drop him!" Quentin yelled and reached to grab the back of the woman's dress to try to stop her. As he touched the rough dirtied white fabric, a sense of dread and… wrongness… washed over him, but he pushed forward anyway. He fisted the fabric and yanked hard digging his feet into the ground and the woman jerked to a slow. She spun hard with the Englishman, making Quentin let go, and she lashed out with her blade. The bone saw caught his left shoulder and ran across his upper chest to the middle of his torso. The bite of the blade made him hiss but he could not register the full force of the pain yet, this was fight or flight now.

"Oi, fuckin' stop!" the Englishman roared, continuing his struggle. "I'll be okay! Just go! Make some distance, you fuckin' arse!" The young man hesitated at the words, watching the woman float backwards keeping her field of view on Quentin. She cocked her head to the side as if trying to make sense of the dreamwalker's actions and ultimately, he cursed inwardly and ran back the way he had come. He didn't know much about this strange world so the best he could do was take the other's advice.

He found his way back to the generator they had been working on and attempted to work on it the best he could. It was frustrating to realize that there wasn't anything he could do to make it go faster. Moments later he began hearing the shrieks again in the distance and the insomniac hoped the other man was okay. As the last set of pistons were picking up speed, he felt a hand lightly grab his shoulder and he flinched, almost crossing the wrong wires.

"Hey, sorry just me," a familiar voice said as he turned around.

The brunet recognized Meg immediately and he offered up a small smile. It was surprisingly nice to see her again, regardless of the circumstances.

"You seem like you're picking it up quickly," she observed the gen with a smile and took up place next to him right where the other man had been previously.

"Y-yeah. That English guy helped me out."

"Oh, you mean David? Where is he now?"

David… the dreamwalker let the name sit on the tip of his tongue. He had been so focused with the current task and getting back to Nancy that he never offered up his own name or asked the other man for his.

"The um… Nurse grabbed him. I tried to stop her, but it only resulted in me getting hit."

"Hit?" Meg asked incredulously. "You seem pretty calm for being hit." She peered at him around the corner of the gen and finally laid eyes on the red wet slash across his chest. "Oh no. No, no, no. We're going to take care of that first. Once we finish this gen she'll know right where we are. I can't have you bleeding out on your first run."

"First?" Quentin asked but was left unanswered. The girl smacked his hands away from the generator and began to observe the cut. It began to sting when she shifted his torn jacket and shirt to reveal the angry sliced skin underneath. She pulled out a thread and a needle and Quentin's eyebrows rose. "No, Meg, there's really no need for that. I-I'm fine. It isn't that bad." The girl only narrowed her eyes at him and continued to prep the needle, struggling to get the thread through the hole.

"You make it sound like it's no big deal. My first time here was hell. I couldn't wrap my head around the idea of getting cut up and murdered. That stuff happens in movies and books, but you never expect it to happen to you." Quentin's lips pursed at the irony. That was exactly what his life has entailed since Krueger had come for him and his friends. Not providing a response, Quentin gingerly touched her wrist.

"Really, I'm okay. It doesn't hurt that bad. Save that for someone who needs it," Quentin reassured and even with the obvious doubt on her face, she huffed and returned the needle to her side. He leaned over and saw her stuff it back into a small plastic medical kit she had placed in the dirt. With one more disapproving look shot his way, she reached up and crossed another cable for the generator to spring to life.

"Time to go!" Meg called as she whipped around to run the way she had come. "Try not to die, Mr. Stubborn!" Quentin pondered the light heartedness of her tone but found himself distracted as he focused on moving in the same direction as the girl. They ran between the small log walls and past some wheels of hay before meeting the open corn field once more.

He very quickly lost sight of Meg and as he ran through the crops, he heard heavy footsteps from his left. Seconds later Quentin saw a running David and began to call out before that dreadful shriek cut him off. Instantly the insomniac came face to face with the Nurse and she swung her blade without hesitation. The sudden pain across his arms and chest caught him off guard. He yelped as he tripped and crumpled to a halt on the ground.

Without a word the floating evil reached down and plucked him from the dirt by the back of the shirt before throwing his weight over her shoulder. Immediately, Quentin began struggling and attempted to displace his weight to break free from her grasp. He faintly heard someone call out but couldn't make out what was said in his panicked state.

Quentin had begun to feel her grip loosen before she pivoted around a corner and stopped. She half lifted, half shrugged, him off her shoulder and a soul searing pain sent a flare of fire throughout his body, stemming out from his left shoulder. He heard screaming and blinking through the pain-induced tears, he realized the source was from himself yelling out at the sudden pain. He tried to relax the best he could to take inventory of his situation, but his mind could only conjure a red fog to cloud his tear blurred eyes he was able to realize he was on a meat-hook looking device that impaled his left shoulder.

In desperation, he reached up, grabbed hold of the rusted metal, and attempted to lift himself off the hook. His hands slipped as he pulled himself up just barely. The pain of his weight tugging on his shoulder caused him to cry out with the reignited pain.

"Stop moving!" A voice hissed from around a log wall. Quentin turned his head to try to see the owner of the voice and meet the glaring eyes of a black-haired girl. She was peeking around the corner of a log wall nearby. She scanned the area before running over to him and pulling him off the hook. Her strength floored him as she placed him on the ground and began going over his wounds quickly. After a few moments, the pain in his chest and shoulder felt slight relief as she tried wrapping him in makeshift bandages.

"Last I checked we have a few gens done," She began while assisting him. "If I've been counting correctly, we should have about thr-". A loud mechanical clunk broke her hushed words. "Make that two gens left."

"Is that how you can tell how many have been done?" The dreamwalker asked and the girl nodded in reply.

"You'll also see the lights of it in the distance usually." She tugged on the sleeve of his jacket and started walking towards the corn stalks. "There should be another gen over here somewhere. I don't think she's coming back. If she wanted one of us, I'm sure she'd been back by now,"

Quentin didn't argue as he let the girl lead him. Meanwhile, the Nurse's screams never let up and he heard other voices scream occasionally. He knew they had to be Meg and David, and felt queasy but he kept his composure, following his new companion's lead.

"What's your name?" He finally asked, not wanting to be rude like he felt he had been with David.

"It's Feng." She replied curtly. He felt awkward at the silence that followed so he focused on trying not to miss the signs of a mini explosion on the gen. Eventually she broke the silence, "The gen should almost be done. After this, we should need just one more. I'm gonna try to finish this, but you go ahead and find another one to do. I'll try to help those other two out of any messes in the meanwhile. You just be careful. I think the gen in the house hasn't been touched yet." Her demanding tone left no room for questions or objections.

Quentin grimaced at the thought but still nodded.

"Sure thing." And with that he was off.

:: ::

The farmhouse creaked with every step on the rickety floorboards, and the insomniac, although weary of the foundation and stability, made his way to the top. He heard the loud clunk of his gen with Feng go off and he felt relief that she hadn't encountered trouble yet. He made his way to a balcony and found that David was already on the mentioned gen, his back to Quentin

"Hey, need a hand?" The dreamwalker asked as he approached. He could see the man bleeding heavily from his arm and winced. "Do you want me to take a look at your arm?" a few seconds ticked by before the man dropped his hands from the gen and turned to face him.

"Sure, yeah. That'd be great," David's eyes fell to the bandages and his jaw clenched. "It's not so fun being hooked, right?" He asked softly, almost sympathetically as Quentin gingerly grabbed his arm.

"Hell no. That sucked but I'm sure I've had worse," The comment was made casually while he reached down and began attempting to rip a strip of his jacket hem off for a makeshift bandage. It took him a few moments for the fabric to finally begin tearing and as he finished, he looked back up at his new companion. He found that David was studying his face intensely. Quentin couldn't help but feel his face flush under the scrutiny and quickly dropped his gaze as he began wrapping the fabric around the wicked looking cut. After reviewing the tightness and coverage of his work, he finally tied it off and wiped he hands on his jeans.

"That should be good enough for now. If I had more supplies I could be of more help, but that should do," refusing to make eye contact in case the other man was still studying him, he turned to the gen and started going back to crossing the wires and fumbling with the cogs. David wasn't long behind him as Quentin heard him getting to work. He finally decided to peak over and saw the man's brows furrowed but focused on the gen. The dreamwalker could still hear the Nurse screaming occasionally, as he worked, and he hoped the other girls were okay.

"Hold on," David hissed out. "I've got a bad feeling. Come with me!" He grabbed the insomniac's wrist and pulled him stealthily to the edge of the balcony, where it wrapped around a wall. It looked like a chest of some sort was sitting at the dead end of the balcony and David pushed him towards it and crouched down. He has positioned himself between the direction of the gen and Quentin as if protecting him.

"If she comes, I'll try to take her attention. You just worry about not being seen and getting that gen done," There was nothing but silence as the seconds ticked by.

"How do you know she's-" Quentin started but was cut off as that thing, Nurse, blinked close with a scream, followed by that painfilled sigh once more. He hunched down low and listened. He heard her smack the machinery and the gen's power surge. His heart was racing as they waited in silence.

David looked like a competitive runner in his dark tank top and track pants. He could see the man's muscles tighten on his back as if he was preparing to run out at any second. Quentin grabbed a fist full of the tank and only gave a small tug, hoping to silently convey to the man to stay put. The English man just reached behind him without looking and grabbed Quentin's wrist. He didn't pull the insomniac off and instead just held on gingerly. The younger man wasn't sure what the other meant, but they crouched there for seconds that felt like eternity, holding onto each other before there was a scream and a whoosh! Then silence.

"I think she's gone," The dreamwalker finally said, breaking their silence. He let go of the fabric and after a moment's hesitation, the taller man let his wrist go.

"We're almost there… You're… You're doing great for your first run," David commended him awkwardly without a glance before standing up and jogging back over to the gen.

Quentin flushed at the sudden comment and dumbfoundedly got up and moved back to the gen. The rest of the work went by without a word and then that sound of the machine clunking to life filled the air.

"We gotta get going," David said, standing up and turning away to head back into the building. Quentin had a strange feeling that the man was now uncomfortable. Annoyance flooded his body.

What the hell is his problem?

"Did I say something wrong?" He asked as he grabbed the other man's wrist and yanked, forgetting it was the man's injured arm. David grunted in pain as he turned to face the insomniac, his eyes refusing to meet his.

"No? We gotta keep going, kid. She might be heading back any second here…"

"I'm not a fucking kid!" Quentin angrily hissed. "Why are you acting so weird all of a sudden?"

"Look, this isn't the time right now. Let's talk later, Nea will kill me if I don't get you out,"

A scream.

Quentin's blood ran cold. It sounded close.

"We have to go right now!" David bellowed and bolted for the stairs. "Let's go!"

Quentin wasted no time in following the man's lead. They ran through the front of the house, into the corn, frantically shoving the stalks out of their way as they made their way towards an exit door. The woman's screams became louder and he could hear the whooshing getting closer and closer with every blink of hers. They neared a door and Quentin could see Feng holding a lever down on the side of it. The lights lit up as the mechanism began blaring a horn like sound continuously. A few seconds later the metal gate shuddered open with a squeal of metal. They were close to the end, right?

Feng ran ahead of them as they reached the door and Quentin had just about made it to the stone pillars before that terrible scream came once more. In a blink of an eye, the dreamwalker went from running behind David, to crumpling forward to the ground on the hard stone. Quentin cried out as a paralyzing pain racked his body.

"No!" The English man yelled out desperately.

"We have to go! She has NO-ED!" Feng yelled over the chaos and Quentin could just barely process the sight of her tugging on David's arm to pull him away.

"No! We can still get him!" David snarled, fighting against her pull, slowly moving closer to the dreamwalker.

A phantom force lifted him suddenly and threw him on his back suddenly.

"NO! Please don't!" David roared and pleaded.

At that instant, the woman lunged at Quentin. Her hands wrapped around his neck and he flailed, trying to pull her hands off his neck to get air. His eyes brimmed with tears from the fight and increasing lack of oxygen. She slammed his head back into the stone and as stars filled his vision all he could think about was how he failed. He failed Nancy. He failed himself. So this is how it ends huh? He thought bitterly, his brain unable to even keep up with the excruciating pain filling him. He raised his tear-filled eyes up to look up behind him. David's pained face stared back. Quentin reached a hand out to him, pleading for some sort of aid or relief from the brutal attack, yet the man turned his back on him, leaving the insomniac behind. Abandoned. Dying.

Coward. Was the only word across his mind before he heard a loud pop and then there was nothing but the darkness.

:: ::

A/N: I'm semi back from Hiatus. I decided to try my hand at DBD stuff this time. For those following my Resident Evil story, I'm going to try to work on it again. I ended up projecting some feelings on a character and it feels weird to go back. I promise I'll be sure to write for it until the end. Sorry, loves.

Alternatively if anyone plays DbD on Steam, I would love to play with everyone. Name currently: MoriMeGhostFace - Xayah and Rakan picture