I N V A D E R S **also being trashed and rewritten soon**

||Chapter 13 - Survival||

  "Heard ten thousand whispering and nobody listening. Heard one person starve, I heard many people laughing. Heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter." ~ Bob Dylan  

  ☽☓☾  

My eyelids creaked open with the weight of a thousand pounds of sand. There was an aching throb on my left bicep and an equal pain on the back of my head. My vision was still blurry, but I was aware of the cool damp air surrounding me and the scratchy grass that cradled my body on the ground. Was I outside? If so, how did I get there?

"Winston?" I croaked, vision still gradually clearing.

"Here." He answered from my right.

I blinked a few times until an orange glow from the fire pierced my vision. Winston was sitting on the ground, flipping the flaming logs with a long stick.

I sat up quickly, but then immediately laid back down from the wave of pain and nausea that hit me. I groaned. "What the hell happened?"

He got up off the ground, and went over to me. "Well basically," He began as he sat beside me, "I took care of that...cat, dragged you through maze and an assortment of other things, and now we're here." 

I pressed the palm of my hand to my aching forehead, "How long was I out?"

"About three hours."

"What?!" I tried sitting up again, but in vain. Winston gently pushed me back down again.

"It's fine. The speaker said if we make it through this last challenge, we'll get out early."

"What's the challenge?" 

"Well from what I can see, outdoor survival."

Looking around, I could see we were in a small clearing. It appeared we were in a forest, but I could not hear or smell any animals that would usually be in the woods at night. Above me, there was no sky. It was a black oblivion, with no stars or moon to break up the darkness. It was crushing, how dark it was, suffocating almost. 

I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to build up my defenses against another wave of pain. "What did that thing do to me? Damn, it hurts."

"You have a pretty nasty bite on your arm... and your head is bleeding." 

I raised my left arm to inspect it, finding thick bandaging over my bicep. I hissed in pain as I set it back on the ground. Why wasn't I healing? I slid my right hand through the hair on the back of my head, searching for the other source of my pain. My prodding fingers found a damp spot on the crest of my skull, and pulling my hand away from my tangled hair, I discovered sticky blood on my fingertips. The cold coils in my chest tightened, and anger flared.

Perfect. I thought to myself.

"Help me up." I grunted.

"I'm not so sure you should..."

"Just do it."

He carefully took my right hand and pulled me off the ground. I set my jaw to the pain in my head, vision clouding for an instant before it cleared. 

"You good?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

I took a few deep breaths as I tried to focus. What had happened? Blurry memories returned gradually, but nothing of value. I remembered the giant cat creature's teeth, and bits and pieces of glowing blue lights from the maze.... and... water?

I clenched the corner of my shirt in my fist. It was definitely damp. We had been submerged at some point, in inky black water from what I recalled. The