Chapter Text
Five miles out from Anima City, a battered old muscle car growls over a hill, moving ever closer to its destination: the gates of the city... sanctuary from persecution. The car's engine occasionally stutters, casting smoke out from the bullet holes in the hood as it does so. Four figures restlessly grit their teeth through the cracked windshield in dreadful anticipation of the next surprise. “I don’t like this, they followed us all the way from Kochi, and suddenly they just give up?” The driver spoke with a shake in his voice, “If they came this far, why turn back now?” The front seat passenger shook his head, loading a magazine into a pistol. “I agree. However, the city beefed up its security recently, so couldn’t they just be scared of that? It’s punishable by death to hunt beastmen within the limits of the city’s prefecture after all.” The driver nodded his head, yet it was clear he didn’t truly feel any better. The man in the back seat spoke up with great difficulty, coughing, “As if these bastards care about that...” the man was severely bleeding from a bullet wound in his lower abdomen, the woman next to him desperately trying to treat it with basic and makeshift medical supplies. “Stay still, Takeda. If you keep talking, it just makes it harder for me to work...” the concerned woman was trying her best to patch up her friend as the car sped down the highway. “Yuuko, I swear, just fucking sew it shut already...” the wounded man sputtered, grimacing. Sighing, Yuuko took out a sewing kit from her bag of belongings and prepared to use it to close the hole in Takeda’s torso, “Josh, I can do this, but he’s going to need serious medical treatment!” The driver frowned, “Yuuko, I’m going as fast as I can without the engine giving out. We will get there when we get there. Sean, how close are we?” The man beside him looked at his phone, “About 3 miles to the gate. Although I don’t know about hospitals.”
Suddenly several metallic cracks sparked to life along the side of the car. On the crest of a mountain road to the group’s left was a van running parallel to them, its open side door revealing the barrel of a rifle. Josh jerked the wheel, forcing the car to hold closer to the mountainside, cutting off the line of sight, “Son of a bitch, I fucking knew it!” Sean quickly pulled the pistol back out and leaned out of the car through his window, “Josh, I need you to give me line of sight!” Yuuko tried to pull him back in, “Are you nuts?! Don’t get yourself killed!” Sean pushed her away as he tracked what he could see of the van in his sights. Up ahead, the mountain’s incline softened, and the two vehicles would be able to see each other again. This brief moment is what Sean was counting on happening. The second the van came into full view, the man squeezed off four rounds. The hunter dropped his rifle, keeling over out the door and down the mountainside as Sean pulled himself back inside the car. Looking over at his friend, he smirked. However, his expression suddenly dropped as his eyes widened, “JOSH! BRAKE!” But before Josh had time to react, the van had made its way down the softened incline and slammed into the side of the old car, jolting it through the guard rail. The driver tried to control the vehicle in vain as it spun down the rocky cliffside. Then, with a loud metallic crunch, everything went black.
Josh came to with his head pounding. He could smell the gas leaking from the car, and through the sparking electrical parts and the engine’s dying breaths, the sound of muffled Japanese was coming closer. His vision was blurry, yet he could make out a few figures coming down the grassy hillside. Sean groaned next to him as he aimed his gun through the shattered windshield, firing. One of the figures keeled over, falling to the ground as the others hurried into cover. “Josh?” Sean asked as if he was expecting something from his friend, “ Run .” Before he knew it, he was clumsily sprinting around various trees in the direction of Anima City. He felt light, as if he was almost floating. He could hear gunshots distantly cracking through the forest's ambiance, but all he cared about was running. He didn’t even think about Sean, Yuuko, or Takeda... he couldn’t. All he could think about was surviving, and running forward was all he could force himself to do. He had no concept of how long he’d been sprinting when he heard the voice yell stop. He didn’t care; it just made him run harder. He heard it again but just gritted his teeth and kept going until his body ignited like it was on fire, forcing him to lose control as his world went black once more.