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She only meant to shoot him in the shoulder. Allegedly.
It burns. It burns.
Dan inhaled deeply, his body shuddered violently as he did so. It panged with a burning ache that ate away at him. He was aware he was stuck… somewhere. Dan leaned forward to get his bearings, only to fling himself back into place once his head began to spin.
A pounding throbbed throughout his skull.
Focus. He needed to focus.
Dan’s head fell back, rough and rugged material dug into him. Another, shakier breath. Broken, cragged shapes amassed around him. Twisted and spiraling.
He tried to close his eyes. Wait for the chaos to fade, for his body to be sturdy enough to get up without falling over. Dan grimaced, his fingers dug into the hard material that surrounded him. A piercing pain stabbed through his head, a faint ringing took over his train of thought.
Dan groaned softly. Smoldering pain surged down the side of his body. The ringing pain ran to the forefront of his mind, clouding any coherence he had left.
Out. He needed to get out. Away from… his thoughts. Too muddled, barely strung together. Missing.
Dan heaved himself out of his spot, his body hunched over. His arm dangled awkwardly with a bright green liquid gushing down. A concurrent of agony and numbness weighed him down, a sickening warmth sunk into him. Sweat disgustingly stuck to his face.
Slowly, Dan began to walk forwards. His hand held his shoulder as to not aggravate it with his motions. His feet shuffled along the dusty ground, kicking up small clouds. He was faintly aware of the green liquid dripping off of his hand. He could… smell it.
A dull light streaked above him, highlighting the silhouettes of huge… piles of debris? His muddled mind struggled to find a thought, a blank, static image played out before his eyes. Something… important. Dan had no idea what it was.
It was the same everywhere he looked. A flattened landscape that was ‘here’, there was no ‘where’ as far as Dan could see. Nothing of familiarity came to mind. He had apparently been buried within the wreckage. Quiet, sturdy breaths blew out of his mouth. Discomfort dug into him.
His head throbbed the more he tried to think about it. Seemingly reprimanding him for thinking about it too much.
A hot flash lit up his insides. Dan grunted in effort to swallow down the sick feeling, his limbs wavered. Through the cloudiness and the sweat, he managed to ease his form against a sturdy structure, and leaned back in relief. Warm breaths of relief escaped him, never mind his injured shoulder that ached in retaliation. The ache pulsed through him, it almost brought Dan to a lull.
Dan wasn’t sure how long he spent in that position. Exhausted to the point of sickness, finding relief hiding in the ruins. Hiding like some…
Animal.
The word stuck out to him. It… did seem to apply to him, in a way.
Dan closed his eyes to rest his mind a bit. His eyes were sore from trying to take everything in, make sense of where he was. His head continued to pound, albeit more dully.
Before he knew it, he sensed… someone in front of him. A wariness that set him on edge. His eyes snapped open.
An unfamiliar woman stood before him, decked out in a red suit. He didn’t see much else, the details blurred together.
Dull red eyes stared in confusion.
Dan found himself staring down the barrel of a gun.