Chapter Three: Dwight

Dwight's only comfort at being back in these spooky woods was the fact he knew Claudette was with him somewhere.

It almost made up for Feng, who had given him an evil little smirk and said, "told you so, noob," when she appeared by the campfire. Dwight knew she wouldn't be sticking her neck out for him. He tried not to take that personally and told himself she was just really scrappy and abrasive in general.

Dwight kept to the shadows, staying well clear of the two story building in the center of the forest. It didn't seem safe and he wasn't about to chance it. He didn't want Claudette (or anyone else, even Feng) to get hurt because of him.

Dwight knew what to expect now and he told himself he would be better at this.

That was until he crept over to his first generator and it exploded under his touch. Claudette warned him about this but it was something else to have it happen to him.

Dwight fell on his butt before scrambling to his feet and running away. If that didn't alert the killer to his presence, he didn't know what would. He slumped down into the grass behind a tree when he felt he'd run far enough and tried to catch his breath. It took a minute. Dwight looked around in the meantime to make sure the killer wasn't sneaking up on him. He didn't see anything and there was no loud heartbeat so he judged things safe enough to review what happened.

After some thought, Dwight determined that the grey and blue wire combination was probably a bad idea. Now he just needed to get back to the generator to test his theory.

It was easier than Dwight thought to creep through the tall grass and trees to the machine. He ran the last couple of feet, reached out for the generator, and screamed as the trap snapped shut on his leg. Dwight felt the metal teeth pierce his flesh, felt them scrape against his very bones.

He all but fell forward, limp and in agony. Which only put more pressure on his injured leg. Dwight's hands fluttered uselessly at the metal. He cried out again, he couldn't help it. Panic and his own slick blood made his fingers slow and clumsy but he tried to get the trap open anyway. And tried again. And again.

Dwight's heart pounded in his chest but he knew now that that wasn't what he was hearing. He closed his eyes, gritted his teeth, and tried once more.

The trap unsnapped and for a second he felt a relief so palpable that it froze him. Then his sense of self-preservation kicked in and he was on his feet. Dwight's injured leg felt like one big throbbing nerve and he couldn't help the little noises of pain that escaped his lips as he limped away.

The heartbeat was louder now and, worse, he could hear it breathing. Dwight turned and saw the familiar face of the first monster to kill him. It was closing in fast. He found a small burst of energy and surged ahead for a little while, but it only left him feeling more exhausted and in pain. Dwight tried to lose the thing behind trees and around crates but it didn't matter. The blow came hard from behind and he collapsed to the ground right next to the pallet that would have saved him.

The pain was incredible. Worse, in some ways, than being on the hook. All Dwight could do was lay there and moan. He felt sure he would have already bled out under normal conditions. He couldn't even resist when the creature picked him up. He was doomed. He was-

On his feet again? Dwight heard a loud bang and the monster groaning before it dropped him. This startled him and he might have just stood there if he didn't hear Claudette screaming, "run!"

Run, Dwight did. Harder and faster than he ever had in his life. Because he knew he'd gotten lucky, that Claudette had put her life at risk for his again, and he wasn't about to let her sacrifice go to waste.

It seemed to go on and on, the fear, his pounding footsteps, but eventually Dwight realized he wasn't being chased. He slumped to his knees in the grass, blood still pooling around him. His limbs were shaking. Dwight lost track of time, of anything but the cadence of his heartbeat.

When next his eyes lifted, he saw the latest stranger from the campfire. This was an older man with what seemed to be a perpetual grin plastered on his face. Probably too much to hope that he would be a decent human being. Dwight cast his eyes down again. The guy approached anyway and began working on his shoulder and then his leg when that was done.

"Why?" Dwight felt upended, his world tilted sideways. It wasn't a bad thing.

"Eh," the guy said, and laughed. "You seemed worth the risk. Now c'mon and follow me."

Dwight's pants were dry and blood free, he noticed. Something to puzzle over later. He crept after the stranger while watching the ground for traps. Dwight never wanted to experience that particular torment again.

The older man led him to a generator and he motioned for Dwight to join him in fixing it. Dwight got the wire combination right this time and felt a little better about himself. Unlike what most people said, he wasn't hopeless. He knew that. Sometimes it was just hard to remember his strengths with all the negativity constantly directed at him.

"Whoa, hey," the guy said, after a minute. "This's going quick. Are you some kind of expert?"

Dwight wanted to laugh at that but actually the repairs did seem to be clipping along. Hope rose like adrenaline in him and he smiled. "Nah, we just make a good team."

Even when Dwight did receive compliments, he always felt uncomfortable accepting them.

The guy grinned and stuck out his hand. Dwight carefully pulled away from the generator and took it.

"My name's Ace. Ace Visconti. It's good to meet you."

"Yeah, the circumstances could be better though," Dwight said, his eyebrows raised. He gave Ace his name too, of course.

Ace laughed. "You got me there."

The guy had a certain kind of charm plus confidence in spades. Dwight decided he liked him too.

Across the field, he saw first one generator and then another burst to life.

"How many?"

"We're almost done with this one, so…" Ace looked up, then down. "One."

Dwight's eyebrows raised again. "You sure about that?"

"Yeah," Ace said, as he wiped his sweating forehead with his cap. "Feng's great on a genny."

Dwight's mood soured a little bit at the name. He was glad, though, and decided Feng probably got one up and running during his ordeal with the killer.

A few more twists of the wrench and both he and Ace were running away from their own repaired generator. Just in time, too. Dwight saw The Trapper, as Ace called it, heading toward the machine. It whacked the generator with its rusty blade, but nothing happened.

They crouched down behind some wooden slats and held their collective breath. The creature looked hard for them, but they kept obstacles between it and them. Eventually, Dwight heard it putting down a trap. Then it left.

He noticed they were right next to a door, but knew that wouldn't open until someone fixed the last generator.

"Should we-"

"Nah," Ace said, anticipating his question. "We're all getting out of here this time, I can feel it. Besides, I know Feng's almost done with the last one by now."

Dwight nodded and kept a lookout for either The Trapper or the last generator. It was quiet enough that he could hear the strange howling noises that sometimes echoed in from beyond the perimeter walls. Dwight shuddered.

"How long have you been here?" Anything to distract from the terrible ambiance. Plus, Claudette had all but told him to gather information wherever he could. He wasn't sure exactly what she wanted but he had to start somewhere.

"Tough to say. About three to four hundred of these, maybe? I'm losing track." Ace gave him a crooked smile tinged with bitterness. It was the first really serious emotion Dwight detected from him. He would have to think about that later because right now he was all but hyperventilating.

"Three to four hundred?" Dwight's stomach tied itself in knots and he felt all the blood drain from his face.

Ace smacked him on the back and he coughed in surprise.

"Hey, chin up. It isn't the end of the world."

Except it was, it was and he didn't know how Ace could stay so positive about it when he'd already been through so much.

"Lady luck is on my side, you know." At that moment the last generator fired up across the map and Dwight could almost believe him.

Ace ran to open the handle, then stopped short. He gave Dwight that shit-eating grin and reached down to disarm a trap. Dwight hadn't even seen it. His eyes bugged out as it snapped shut on empty air. Then Ace pulled the handle down and the door began its excruciatingly slow power up.

"Hey," Ace said, after a few seconds. "He's coming this way. Can you stand behind me and take a hit?"

Dwight swallowed hard before nodding. It seemed like a terrible idea but Ace and his stupid bloody shirt was probably right. He'd been around a lot longer than Dwight and he, like Claudette, had saved Dwight's life.

Dwight stood behind Ace and steeled himself.

The seconds ticked by and there was still nothing but Dwight remained tense.

Then Ace laughed. "Just kidding. But, no, seriously, you'd have done great, Dwight."

He glared. Ace couldn't know how close that one hit to home.

"Thanks a lot." Dwight's voice was full of sarcasm, which was more than he would have allowed himself normally. But he wasn't the same person anymore. This place had already changed him for the better, given him a backbone. He supposed he ought to be grateful for that, at least. And he would be. When he escaped for real. Dwight was so done with people treating him like crap. He'd make a new start. New friends, fresh life. The thought perked him up a little bit.

Ace clapped him on the back again after he finished opening the door.

"Sorry. I kid around too much. It's just, we've all got to find ways to stay positive, you know? This place, it takes a lot out of a man." Ace even had the grace to look sheepish. Some of the tension left Dwight's shoulders and he rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, well that was a horrible joke," Dwight said, as they headed through the opening. "But I guess I can let you make it up to me by answering a few questions."

He and Ace stopped by the edge of the wall. "Shoot," he said, giving a little bow.

Claudette stepped out of the shadows and both Dwight and Ace started.

"One of these days you're going to give this old man a heart attack," Ace said, his hand on his chest.

Claudette didn't say anything but Dwight saw a small smile on her face as she hugged the wall. "It's coming," she whispered.

"Right." Ace looked around. "Where's Feng?"

Dwight thought she was probably opening the other exit for the thrill of it if nothing else.

"The hatch." Claudette's expression was neutral, as usual.

"Heh, what the heck." Ace waved them on. "I swear, that girl likes a challenge." Dwight heard the praise in his tone and sucked in a breath, his lips forming a tight line across his face. He didn't say anything though.

All three ended up back at the same campfire.

"See? What did I tell you. We all made it." Ace sat down on a log and swung one long leg over the other. "Piece of cake."

"Maybe for you," Dwight said, but there was no real venom in his tone.

"Ah, buddy, don't worry. We've all been there." You'll get better was left unsaid, but Dwight could feel it hanging in the air. He smiled a little, feeling grateful that his first impression of Ace hadn't been wrong.

"So, questions," Dwight said, instead of dwelling on that. It was too soon to trust, but he could always hope.

It was easier since Claudette was there to help him lead the conversation where he thought she wanted it to go. Ace told them all about his experiences and from the look on Claudette's face she was committing his words to memory. She seemed especially interested in The Nurse for reasons that soon became clear.

"Her ability...teleporting…" Claudette said, haltingly.

Dwight caught on and saved her from having to say the rest. "You think that could be our ticket out of here?"

Claudette nodded.

"Well, I'll be." Even Ace looked impressed. "I never even thought of it like that." Dwight caught a hint of a Spanish accent in the man's voice but then it was gone.

"How would we go about something like that?"

Claudette seemed to go through some kind of internal struggle based on her twitching mouth, but then she very quietly produced a sheaf of paper from inside her jacket. She pulled out several pages from the middle and smoothed them out.

"Her name is Sally."

"You think she's still in there somewhere, don't you?" Dwight said, after a pause.

Claudette nodded. She handed the crude papers over to him.

"Hold on." Ace pulled out a pair of sunglasses and fingered them, snapping the shades open and closed. "This is the first I've heard about something like this. So, you're saying that these monsters used to be human?" He brought the sunglasses to his mouth and sucked on one of the arms after tapping it on his lips a few times. "You know, that actually makes sense. There've been a few times I wondered how they outsmarted me..."

Dwight was hardly listening. He read over the detailed information Claudette had on The Nur-on Sally, feeling like something was lodged in his chest.

It was an achingly familiar story.

Dwight resisted the urge to crumple the papers and instead returned them to Claudette when he was done.

"How do you know? How can you be so sure?" Claudette took very good notes but it still didn't make sense, or rather, it was too shocking a proposition to comprehend.

"Ten-thousand rounds." Her words were so quiet and soft that it took a second for them to sink in. Dwight blanched when they did.

"Holy-" Ace's expletive was cut off by their final teammate appearing out of the flames.

Dwight had time to think, here we go again, before he was alone on the top floor of someone's house. Both the transition and Claudette's revelation had him shaking. It felt like a long time before he was able to move.

Dwight peered out the window at this newest arena. It looked like any peaceful suburb outside except for the cop car. Dwight wondered if it was too much to hope for that the vehicle worked and decided he wasn't that lucky. Maybe Ace, but not him.

Still, it was worth a shot.

Dwight scoped out the street for a minute longer but didn't see any sign of the killer. He crept downstairs and out the back of the house. It wouldn't do to be too direct, after all. The walls were closer here than in the other places he'd been and both this and the creepy howling noises dispelled the illusion of normalcy. Whatever The Entity was, it certainly didn't get everything right. Not even close.

Dwight kept to the shadows and hugged the wall. He'd learned by now not to mess with the local wildlife. Every time he saw a bird, he crouched down and creeped past, hoping he didn't startle it. This usually worked. Not always, but most of the time. Thankfully, the same was true now and Dwight made it to the other end of the arena without incident.

He still hadn't seen any sign of the killer but he didn't think it was The Trapper because he didn't see any of its-his, Dwight supposed-equipment around. Thank God. Dwight still kept an eye on his feet though, and would until he was absolutely sure.

He peered around some hedges and into the eerily silent street. So far, so good, Dwight told himself as he crept toward the flashing lights. He checked the door of the vehicle when he made it over. It was unlocked.

Dwight opened the door and winced as it squeaked. He slipped inside and shut it, letting out a shaky breath. The keys were in the ignition. Dwight wiped his sweaty palms on his pants.

Then it occurred to him that even if it did turn over there was nowhere to go. And even if he did somehow manage to plow through the closed gate, what then?

Dwight felt really stupid. He let out a short bark of a laugh, thinking of his coworkers and how they'd ridicule him for this if they only knew.

The face in the rearview mirror distracted him from these bleak thoughts. Dwight opened his mouth to say something that would probably end up being trite, but closed it a second later. There was something weird about the man's features.

That's when the knife stabbed through the driver's seat and impaled Dwight.

He stuttered out a gasp, his eyes widening in shock. The pain hit him a second later with the first warm spurt of his blood down the front of his shirt. He dipped the tips of his fingers in it and stared. Then with a harsh jerk the monster in the backseat pulled the blade out of him.

Dwight would have screamed but he'd been through so much already. Instead, he fumbled with bloody hands for the door handle and fell onto the asphalt in an ungainly heap. Dwight heard the back door opening as he scrambled to his feet. He didn't bother to look back as he took off running, one hand wrapped protectively around his middle. Harsh gasps fell from his lips as he dashed into the house.

Dwight could hear the distinct noise of generators being lit up across the arena, but no heartbeat. There hadn't been any real warning, and that was the thing. He felt completely off balance with the knowledge of how much he'd come to rely upon The Entity to inform him of something important like that. It was ridiculous. He was ridiculous.

Dwight wrapped a bloody hand around the bannister and used this to propel himself up the stairs. He looked behind him not knowing what to expect. The monster wasn't there, but that didn't mean anything anymore.

Dwight thundered up the stairs but he knew, he knew that wouldn't be good enough to lose the thing. He ran through the upstairs and out onto an odd sort of balcony, breath heaving in his throat. Dwight saw the creature mounting the stairs behind him and did the only thing he could.

He jumped.

The impact jarred him for precious seconds before he was running again. Dwight dashed around a hedge and into another house where he stopped and then crept back out a window.

Dwight headed across the street. The police car was there with flashing lights, only now it made him ill to look at it and remember his mistake. Still, he used it as cover, biting down on his hand to keep from groaning with the pain. Adrenaline kept him alert but he could already feel the cramp in his calf. His stomach was tight and he felt lightheaded.

The mockery of a man emerged from the second house and looked down the street each way before zeroing in on him.

Dwight didn't realize he was made at first. The thing was just staring at him. That was it. But there was an eager creepiness to its body language and this was what set him off running again. Dwight didn't like those eyes on him and he did everything he could to put obstacles in between him and the monster.

Another generator went up and Dwight knew there had to be only one or two left now, but the creature didn't seem to care. It kept following him, and now, Dwight realized, it had a little bit of a heartbeat.

He didn't like that, either.

Dwight repeated his tactic of running upstairs and this time hid beside the open door, hoping against all hope that the monster would pass him by.

It did, walked right off the balcony without so much as a glance in his direction.

Dwight didn't know why that worked. He didn't care at the moment. Right now, his only concern lay in the knowledge it would return once it realized it had been tricked. Dwight didn't want to be there when that happened.

He bolted down the stairs and out the front door. He crossed the street and kept going until he ended up in a garage. There he allowed himself to collapse against another not-car and catch his breath.

Dwight's chest ached something fierce now that the adrenaline was ebbing. His limbs felt shaky and the cramp in his calf was back full force.

It was things like this that defeated most people, he thought. But he was different. Or trying to be.

Dwight got to his feet and headed for the back wall. He knew it wasn't safe but then again nothing was ever safe here.

It didn't take him long to find the gate. He crouched in the grass, holding his bleeding chest tight, and sending a silent prayer of supplication to whoever was listening that somebody would finish the last generator soon.

They did, right nearby.

Dwight went for the handle anyway. He thought he could sense eyes on him but didn't hear or see anything. That was until he heard the rough breathing coming from behind a nearby tree.

The lights above the handle indicated the gate was almost ready to open. Dwight kept his hand on it while staring the monster down as some weird, defiant spark within dictated he do.

The gate squealed open just as the monster raised its knife.

Dwight jerked to the side, hearing the blade hit the metal of the switch.

He ran.

It was cowardly not to wait for the others, he knew. But he didn't care. This was a different sort of creature than he had faced before and he didn't want to spend a second longer around it.

Dwight collapsed back at the campfire despite being fully healed. He stared at his clean hands and-

Sobbed.

Dwight didn't know how much time passed before he heard the campfire flare, felt Claudette's hesitant yet still comforting hand on his back.

"I'm sorry," she said, like all of this was her fault.

He shook his head, wiping a hand under his glasses to get rid of the last of his tears. "It's just…" Dwight didn't know how to explain that it wasn't only this moment, or situation they were in, that it was his whole life that was wrong. That his failure here had been the final straw in the cascading mountain of his fears and anxieties. That he'd had enough of himself.

The fact it had taken such a surreal situation to wake Dwight up to all the awfulness in his life was pathetic too. He'd been coasting along in his own little dreamworld for far too long, he knew. His awakening started with Sally, with how terrible her life had been and now, her fate that was worse than death. She had become nothing more than an instrument of destruction. A slave to The Entity. He didn't want that, didn't want to be-

"Can I see your notes again?" He was quieting now, the sheer, raw, despair he felt fading around the edges. "Please."

There was far too much empathy in Claudette's eyes as she handed them over.

Dwight swallowed his pain and sat down to read.