Waiting to Die

*Vanessa withdraws the gasoline with trembling hands, doing her best to only pour a tiny amount on the collected branches, with debatable success. Lilith begins scraping the back ends of her knives together, frantically trying to create a spark.*

*Neither Eve nor Tirea have anything to make a spark with, so they watch with baited breath*

Astarte squatted uneasily down by the attempted fire, trembling all over and moaning softly with her head bowed down to her chest.

*Eventually, a spark manages to catch & the fire roars weakly to life. Lilith & Vanessa put their backpacks in the snow, sit on them, & huddle to the fire, holding their hands out to it. Lilith stares hard into the blaze, clenching her jaw as if choking something down, while as Vanessa begins to warm she casts furtive glances over her shoulder into the woods surrounding them. Eve has a more difficult time warming up, but is starting to feel a throbbing pain in her leg.*

Astarte slowly began to act less as though she was in her death throes.

*Eve gingerly straightens her leg, inspecting the wound. Tirea sits beside her*

*Lilith digs the first aid kit out of her bag & tosses it to Eve, looking disinterested. The gash is deep & seems to ooze blood slowly whenever she moves too much. Other than that, it's all gross & crusted, with pine needles, threads, & dirt sticking to it.*

V"Does--does anyone know the way back out?"

L"We're not that far from the road. We'll probably be able to see it by day. Listen closely & you can even still hear the river."

*Thirsty as Hell, she starts shoveling snow into her mouth like a hobo.*

"...You should melt that first," Astarte spoke to Lilith after watching her for a few moments. "Do we have anything to melt it inside of? You'll freeze if you keep eating it like that."

Eve:<Th-thanks. Astarte's right, eating snow will just dry your mouth out.>

*Eve looks through the first aid kit for supplies to clean her wound*

Tirea:<I'll get you some clean snow to help you wash that.>

*She does that*

*This has predictable results.*

L"Shut up, Astarte! No one asked your opinion!"

*It is likely she would throw snow or a rock in Astarte's face if she didn't have bigger problems. As it stands, she just digs a can of uncooked Lima beans out of her backpack & starts working at it with that hunting knife, trying to keep it steady enough so she doesn't stab herself. The first aid kit has the usual stuff, gauze, those little cotton balls, some alcohol, some saline, neosporin, etc.*

"...Not an opinion," Astarte mumbled while settling into an upright nap position.

*Eve gets out two plastic bags, tossing one in Lilth's direction, then holding out the other for Tirea's gathered snow*

Eve:<Here, you can use this to hold snow until it melts.>

*Eve then holds the bag near the fire (but not close enough to hurt the bag) until the snow melts. Then she proceeds to clean her wound of leaves/dirt*

*Lilith chooses to pop the lid on the can & hold it over the fire instead of pointing out that they have fire. Vanessa still keeps craning to see behind her.*

V"I don't know what would be worse. The monsters sneaking up on us or freezing after surviving all of that."

L"Hopefully we're hidden well enough that we can at least last out the night."

V"Hmph. And then what?"

L"Ira, the Shadow, the scavenger, & the beast. Two down, two to go. At least as long as they can't decontaminate the dead ones."

Astarte passed out.

*Once all the dirt and leaves are cleared away, Eve starts to clean and bandage her wound*

Tirea:<You're saying we should head back there?>

L"They'll find us eventually. The only way to be rid of them is to kill Ira & burn his master 'til there's nothing left."

Tirea:<Yeah, but you heard the professor. Ira's got the mayor and the police force on his side. We'll be fighting on their terf.>

"Could we..." Astarte stirred and peeked up. "Lure them? Somehow..."

L"There's nothing we can do about the cops, but Ira & his monster must be dealt with. As long as we can evade the patrols, we can worry about the rest later."

Tirea:<What's your plan then?>

Astarte waited for suggestions.

L"The radiology labs are our best chance at destroying it. But Ira must be dealt with first."

"How?"

Tirea:<As I said, what's your plan?>

L"If only we knew where he was...."

*She places the can in the snow. Her hand hovers near her waist as she creases her brow in thought, then reaches into her pocket to pull out her phone.*

L"I suppose we could just...give him a call. Tell him to come into the mountains alone. He'd have no way of knowing exactly where we are. But he'd still have another host body out there."