Amy Cross - Persona

“What are you doing?” she stammers, her eyes wide with shock. “Iris, please—”

Before she can finish, I headbutt her as hard as possible, knocking her out cold. Again I feel a jolt of pain, but the ropes are even looser now. I twist and wriggle some more, and suddenly my shoulder manages to slip free. After turning and pulling a little harder, I’m finally able to get out, dropping down onto the mud and then crawling over to the hut’s far wall. Looking back at the women who are still tied together, I see that three of them are unconscious now while the other two don’t seem to have noticed that they can get free.

I’ll come back for them, but right now I need to move fast.

Making my way to the hut’s doorway, I look out and see that the scene has begun to calm down. Most of the Steadfall residents have been captured and tied in the other huts, although there are several dead bodies in the mud. Voices are shouting in the distance, and after a moment I realize that I can hear Harold and his two friends trying to catch one final person who seems to have escaped. Seizing my chance, I hurry out of the hut and slip around the side, before dropping to the ground and waiting. I don’t know exactly where everyone is right now, so I need to be careful. Desperately short of breath, I wait for a few more seconds and finally I spot a figure running through the darkness toward the trees, followed by Harold and Ben. Energy blasts race through the air, but the dark figure keeps going. Whoever it is, he seems to be giving them the slip.

I check both ways, to make sure that no-one is nearby, and then I start making my way toward the next hut, figuring that I can start freeing people and—

“Going somewhere?”

Something slams into the back of my head, sending me thudding face-first into the mud. Before I can react, I’m pulled back up and twisted around, and then I’m sent crashing into the side of the hut. When I turn, I see Leanne standing above me with a gun aimed at my face. Her eyes are filled with hatred, as the light from nearby fires dances across her face.

In the distance, voices are still shouting in the forest.

“You’re lucky,” Leanne sneers. “For some reason, Harold really wants to deal with you himself. I told him, it’s better to just—”

Lunging at her, I let out a gurgled cry as I slam into her waist and knock her back. Her gun fires, filling the air with a blast of energy, but I manage to land on top of her and slam my elbow into her face with enough force to knock several teeth from her mouth. She tries to push back, but I start slamming my fists against the side of her head. When she reaches out to grab the gun, which she dropped when she fell, I pull her arm away. I try to get the gun for myself, but she pushes me back against the mud and lands on me, pressing me down harder.

“You’ve pissed me off now!” she hisses, as blood runs from her mouth. She punches me hard on the jaw, almost knocking me out, and then she turns to reach out for the gun. “Harold can’t complain if I kill you in self-defense!”

Grabbing her by the collar, I pull her back and shove her to the ground, and this time she lets out a cry of pain as I hear a faint snapping sound. Looking down, I see that I’ve managed to break her arm, but I know I still need to finish her off so I climb onto her chest. The gun is too far away to reach and I don’t have a knife, so I reach down and wrap my hands around her neck.

“You’re scum!” she hisses, spitting out teeth from her bloodied mouth. “You’re just island scum and—”

She gasps as I squeeze tighter, and at the same time I push down with all my strength. She tries to reach up and force me away, but I focus every last ounce of energy on the task of crushing her throat. Gripping my wrists, she tries to push me back, but I know she’ll kill me as soon as she gets the chance. Her eyes are wide now, staring up at me with a growing sense of fear. For a moment, she seems to stop fighting back, but then suddenly she starts panicking, desperately clawing at my wrists, digging her nails into my flesh as if she’s realized that I’m not going to stop. Her whole body is shaking now, and she twists her hips in an attempt to push me off, but I squeeze my legs tighter around her waist in order to make sure that I can’t be knocked away. My hands, meanwhile, are pushing harder and harder against her throat, and after a moment she starts letting out a series of choked gasps.

Even when she finally falls still, I don’t stop squeezing. I need to be sure that she’s dead, so I continue to squeeze until I’m sure that I’ve throttled the life out of her. Her dead, bloodshot eyes are staring up at me, and I swear they seem to be bulging out of their sockets just a little. When I slowly start to let go of her throat, I feel a flash of pain in my hands, as if I almost broke my fingers while I was strangling her.

In the distance, there’s a flash of light as more gunshots blast through the forest, and a moment later I hear a loud, agonized scream. Whoever Harold and Ben were after, they clearly caught up to him.

Scrambling to my feet, I hurry around Leanne’s lifeless body and start heading toward the fence. Stopping suddenly, however, I realize that instead of running away and coming up with a plan, I have to take this opportunity to free as many people as possible from the huts. Turning, I make my way past the inferno at the center of the clearing and I head to the first hut. When I reach the doorway, I see several screaming people tied together on the floor. I want to tell them that everything will be okay, but as I take a step forward I see that they’re staring at me with fear in their eyes.

“Behind you!” one of them shouts suddenly.

“Impressive,” I hear Harold’s voice say.

Turning, I see him smiling at me. Before I can react, his gun lights up and an energy blast slams into my chest.

“No, wait!” Deckard shouts, grabbing my arm and pulling me back as I make my way through the dark forest. “Asher, think about it for a moment! You can’t just go storming in there!”

Up ahead, screams are still rising from the burning town. Flames are filling the night sky, casting vast, constantly-shifting shadows through the forest. Staring in horror at what’s left of Steadfall, I can’t even imagine what must be happening there right now, but I know I have to help.

“Asher, I’m serious,” Deckard continues breathlessly. “You have to be smart! You have to do this the right way!”

“People are dying,” I stammer, with tears in my eyes as I watch the flames up ahead, lighting the darkness beyond the tree-line. “ Steadfall’s dying…”

“Throwing your life away won’t change anything,” he points out, still holding my arm tight. “The fact that they’re screaming means they’re still alive, which at least gives us hope. Asher, we can help them, but not by running straight into Harold’s open arms. Don’t sacrifice yourself needlessly! We need a plan!”

Still watching the flames, I suddenly realize that I’ve been in a situation like this before. Long-buried memories are bubbling to the surface, and I start to remember a burning forest with the sound of vast, heavy machinery in the distance. There were soldiers all around and… No, I was one of the soldiers, and we were moving through the darkness, firing at the enemy. Up ahead, waiting for us, there were…

I almost remember who we were fighting in the war. In my mind’s eye, I see figures darting between the trees, heading this way.

“Asher!”

Turning, I’m startled as Deckard slaps the side of my face hard.

“By God,” he sneers, “you will keep your head together, do you understand?”