Episode 4

With that, she snatched up her stuff and peeked up over her shelter before she took off. She slithered through the rubble when the crunch of broken concrete pieces caught the attention of one of the hunters. Her mouth slightly open, she instantly shot a glance back to see it coming in her direction.

"Hhhhh, crap," she said under her breath.

She was now making a mad dash through the ruins just like all the inmates. There would be no sneaking now. She darted into a large building that had once been a hotel. Running up the stairs, she came to the second floor where many of the rooms had been left open. She quickly took shelter in one of the abandoned rooms, shutting the door behind her before the machine could make it to the second floor.

Its hum was distinct and could be heard through the doors as it paced through the hall, scanning the rooms. She licked her lips slightly, bitting the bottom one. She knew that it didn't matter that she had shut the door. The hunter could scan the rooms through the walls. She made her way out to the balcony of the room. Most of the balcony was broken off. One side was fully intact, however. Throwing her leg over the insecure railing, she reached for the railing of the balcony next to the one she was on.

Suddenly, the railing underneath her gave out. In the rush, she could not grip the other railing and she flipped over. Her fingers quickly wrapped around the cold metal of the railing that collapsed under her, causing her feet to swing out under her, which caused the metal to snap. The crimson-haired girl plummeted to the ground.

Her knee was the first thing to make contact with the ground, and as it did, she could hear her pants tear and a sharp pain shot into her knee and traveled up to her hip. Picking herself up, she pushed herself up against the wall of the hotel. She didn't even have to look at her knee; she could already feel the warm liquid pulsating from it. Gritting her teeth, she wrapped her hands around her leg just above her knee.

Just then, there came a crashing sound in front of her. Her eyes shot up to see the hunter before her. It had leapt off the second-floor balcony. Her jade green eyes widened as the hunter lunged at her.

With a slight scream, the redhead flung herself to the left. She could hear the wall behind her giving way to the machine as she scrambled to her feet. Her leg throbbed and yet she took off in a dash. She slid down to her knees, grinding her already injured leg into the rubble, and picked up a metal pole. Turning, she wielded the pole as though it were a lance and skewered the hunter as it lunged at her. The machine jolted and twitched until it powered down.

Taking a sigh of relief, she sat back and gave a diligent look about her, her green eyes searching for any more visitors. When she was satisfied that she hadn't drawn the attention of anyone else, she pulled some water from her pack and cleaned the wound as best as she could and bound it.

Giving her surroundings another scan, she stood and began the slow but steady walk through the rubble. She hadn't walked long when it began to rain. The clouds were thick and grey. Her jade eyes lifted to the sky as she gave a sigh. There was nowhere for which she could take cover and she had nothing to shield herself from the rain. So she continued her onward trudge.