Work Text:
Dog Days
2
01/21/2025
Somewhere west of STYX Containment Facility, Nebraska Exclusion Zone
96 hours post escape
Waves of frost fell down, a stream of white flakes and steel ice that further buried the sleeping world beneath a frozen carpet twelve inches thick.
Joints locked up, blood and pus turned solid, and the stars we were using as a guide vanished as the sky became a blank canvas of white.
Still, the march continued, a hundred souls locked in step, forced forwards by invisible chains.
I was near the head of the formation, flanking the massive, pitch-black form of the hound as it steadily carved a path through the snow, enormous head occasionally lifting into the air to take deep breathes of icy wind, sensations and information not my own telling me that the scent trail was starting to near its end.
On the other side, I knew that John marched as well, his own sad, resigned thoughts occasionally echoing in the back of my skull, out of reach but not out of mind.
I suppressed my own agony, something that I was disgusted to find far easier now that the hound was overriding my ability to feel pain.
Indeed, I had stepped in a bear trap a few miles back. Instead of reacting as I should, instead of screaming in agony and falling to my rear, flailing to try and remove the steel jaws latched around my ankle, I had watched as my hands fell down to inspect the object.
Finding it to be no longer anchored down, the chain locking it to a rotten tree long rusted through, my limbs simply kept moving.
It still caught snow, but the fact that the most discomfort I felt from it was added weight and difficulty penetrating the surface of snow drifts was almost worse then the pain I should have been feeling.
A constant reminder to my nature, a constant reminder that human concerns were of no consequence, and never would be again.
Something flickered up ahead, and I halted in my tracks.
The air seemed to still, but that was merely an illusion, the wind whipping my face just as hard as it had been.
With a low growl, the dog shared its own vision with the mass of thralls, and my mind strained as I was suddenly forced to look out eyes twice my height from the ground and three times larger then my own.
It was… a fire.
A sign of structures. Of people.
I struggled, desperately trying to scream, to do anything, the only reply a splitting pain as the chains around my mind dug deeply into my thoughts.
John did as well, and the Hound let us connect momentarily, just long enough to become aware of our shared terror and despair.
We knew what was about to happen.
This was a scary, new, unfamiliar world, outside of the wall. The Hound was a big fish, but a big fish in a small pond.
If the memories ripped from the mind of our jailers were accurate, it was not the only predator of man that now stalked the wastes of former America.
And that made it scared, a tiny, fleeting feeling of doubt, of fear, one that I had drank like wine when the Hound had first learned of this reality, learned that it was by no means the apex of power, supernatural or not.
It had closed the connection immediately, locked away such thoughts from its thralls in half a heartbeat, but that tiny glimpse of doubt in the mind of the beast had caused a smile to split across my pale face.
Now, however, I wished that I never had learned that, that the Hound was as confident in its power here as it was at the mansion.
It howled, a deafening roll of high pitched thunder that shook the sky and snow like an earthquake.
In the distance, another light flickered into existence, followed by another, and another.
Yes, it was vulnerable, yes, it only held a few hundred souls under its paw, but that could change.
That would change.
This town, hobble, whatever it was, it would be the first step in reestablishing security, in ensuring that no one would be capable of stripping its freedom away like dead skin ever again.
And that caused me to cry, or attempt to, no tears falling. Even if the dog would let them squeeze out of decayed ducts, they would turn to ice in an instant, adding yet another layer of frost to my dead face.
My body lurched into motion, a plan formed and disseminated through the branches of the STYX tree with speed and elegance no collection of individual minds could ever hope to match.
It was simple, brutal, effective.
Information began to trickle to my mind, documents, survey data, mail both physical and electronic, the sum total of what STYX Containment knew about this particular settlement.
Population numbers, equipment, those in positions of power, internal factions, disaster response plans, the facility had kept a close eye on all nearby towns indeed.
Word after word, number after number flashed through my vision as the sum total of several dozen pages of documentation was forced into my memories, strangling any attempt to stave off the torrent of knowledge and nightmares.
They…
Control returned to me as I stumbled over, a horrid cough that might have been an attempt at a cry escaping my throat.
They were doomed.
The Hound was no dumb beast, I had known that, I had seen that, but once again its ability to strategize was being put on grim display as my body locked up again.
I knew the task that had been given, a directive that was shared by the entire mob of decaying flesh.
John entered my field of vision, a nervous smile on his frost covered face, a sad sort of knowing in his eyes.
At the very least, we wouldn’t be doing much of the dirty work. No, the Hound valued us too much for that, our job would be… more subtle.
We didn’t need to exchange words, him having received the orders just as firmly as I did, but that didn’t stop him.
My face tried to flush at this sort of charming stupidity.
“Hey, uh, I guess I am with you. Again.”
His voice was soft, haggard, almost immediately drowned out by the wind, but still entirely clear to me, a product of the latent branches that connected us both.
Not enough to share thoughts, not right now, but enough to let me just… know, somehow, what words he was choosing to throw into the howling waves of snow and ice that still picked at my wounds.
They stung, now, only dully, but compared to the previous numbness, the pinpricks of pain shot deep into my mind.
“You really accepting it that easily?”
So had I, something that caused a tinge of shame within me.
“Huh?”
He seemed genuinely confused, face twisting slightly.
“That we are going to…”
Words failed me, his eyes dimming.
“Yeah. I, please, forgi-”
We were cut off as the Hound launched into motion, massive form shaking the ground as it took off into a dead sprint to intercept the lights that slowly began to approach in the distance.
It was a living hurricane of black fur and displaced snow, far, far faster then the tiny human souls it bore down on.
The horde followed it, splitting into two groups.
My limbs twitched.
Control wasn’t ripped from my grasp, but I knew that standing here, doing nothing, would change that fact very quickly.
I glanced to John, seeking some form of guidance before remembering that had been my role. We needed to make a choice.
He shielded his face from another gust of wind, limbs twitching themselves as the Hound once again made its displeasure known.
“I guess… fuck.”
John cursed.
I took a moment to stare, wishing that this moment of freedom, mired by indecision and grim foreboding as it was, could last forever.
Unfortunately, it couldn’t.
A pain split from my head as a wound began to reopen, my body seeming to lose all rigidity as I stumbled, flailed backwards, landing in the snow.
For a moment, I was unable to register the world around me. A moment latter, I realized I had lost all feeling, even dull ones, from below my neck, except for the sliver of flesh that joined my head to my torso.
John let out a gasp of horror and rushed over to the side, staring down at my head.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck, WE ARE GOING! CAN YOU HEAR ME? JUST, FUCK, STOP…”
His voice trailed off as I laughed, or rather, tried to, a strange sort of half breath released as my mouth opened, nothing but air rushing from an esophagus no longer connected to lungs or vocal chords.
I blinked, mouthing at the air, trying to communicate to him.
“I, I can’t hear you! Oh God, please…”
My eyes narrowed, the horror being replaced with a slight annoyance as he locked eyes with me, inflamed ducts failing to produce anything.
His own eyelids shut as he silently sobbed.
Idiot.
My left leg twitched, and I realized that I had regained feeling, control, of my torso, the sinewy ribbons extending from my neck twisting impossibly to “reel” in my head, nerves melding back together, skin stretching to cover raw flesh.
Breath filled my lungs, my voice returning to me.
“John… its okay.”
I tried to keep the bemusement from showing. Either way, his eyes slammed open, shock and relief plastered across his face.
“Remember, I… can’t really die.”
He flushed, stepping back sheepishly.
“Oh, uh. Right.”
Then his gaze hardened.
“But I was still worried. I don’t… I don’t want to see you suffer, even if its temporary.”
My breath stopped. I…
Dull cracks echoed in the distance, gunshots, followed by a horrific roar.
I knew what was happening, knew I didn’t want to see, but was shown it regardless. The twisted remnants of some sort of off road vehicle, smacked aside like a toy, frame crumbled in, bodies strewn around it in pools of crimson.
The assault had begun. My limbs began to twitch.
John’s face fell.
“I…”
I nodded.
It wasn’t our fault, wasn’t my fault, a mantra I had long learned to use, a claim that had become routine by the girl who was once named Haze Borden, the one who walked into the manor a cocky little shit of a creature, entirely unaware of the hell that awaited.
But now… the fact it actually wasn’t our fault was far worse, far more dreadful then coming to terms with the fact I had lied to myself about responsibility for so, so long.
More gunfire, from “our” side, the branches stretching from mind to mind allowing those patterns armed with firearms to perfectly coordinate, perfectly use each other to measure distance, track targets, and keep up a constant hail of fire.
John smiled sadly.
“Duty calls I guess...”
My response was simple.
“We do this. Together.”