Are they still following me?

Begging your trembling limbs to move, you continued to trudge forward in the snow. Straining your ears, you tried to listen for their shouts over the loud howling of the wind.

You had managed to escape the lab. A single lapse in security was all it took and then you were sprinting through the halls of the facility. Dodging the hands that threatened to pull you back onto the operating table, you sprinted towards the outside, bursting into a landscape of white.

When you heard nothing, you allowed yourself a moment to relax. The fear that had gripped your heart so fiercely moments ago, forcing you to move, to get somewhere safe, subsided and soon, you found yourself falling. Landing face first into the snow, the soft powder cradled you, comforting despite its chill and your consciousness dissipated.

Silently exploring the snowy landscape of the mountain, Andrija’s eyes spotted a flash of color in the distance. Raising his rifle, he lined up his scope to the unidentified mound, hoping for a deer. Met instead with a fallen human body, Andrija’s eyes widened in shock. Bringing down his rifle, he carefully made his way closer to you.

Boots crunching on the freshly fallen snow, Andrija sucked in a sharp breath at the sight of the marred body before him. Inhuman, you sported bruises and cuts all over your skin.

“Hey, you alright?”

Kneeling down, he muttered a soft apology before gently turning you over, eyes narrowing in alarm as your frozen skin met his. Taking your wrist, he felt around for your pulse, relaxing when he felt a soft, almost nonexistent, flutter beneath his fingers. Knowing that he might still be able to save you, Andrija maneuvered you onto his back, quickly heading back towards his cabin.

Skinning a deer that he had caught the day before, Andrija paused as he heard movement coming from the bed that he laid you on. Worried about you straining yourself in your current condition, he slowly turned around.