Sungmin is sprinting through the forest, jumping over gnarled roots and dodging plants like he's on fire. He knows that no matter how fast he runs, it probably won't be enough to get him out of this mess. He spots a small ditch under an outcropping and tumbles down into it, scuffling until he's deep in its shadows and dank smell. His harsh breathing is too loud - he holds his breath, even though it burns in his lungs.

Then he hears it.

Footsteps, crunching on dry leaves and snapping sticks.

A shiver wracks through Sungmin's frame. It isn't even trying to hide its approach, it's just closing in on him, slowly but surely. Somehow, that's scarier.

He closes his eyes and swallows the fear clawing up his throat. Just another minute, maybe two, and it'll pass him by. Then he'll get out of here with his kills and never look back.

The sounds stop.

Sungmin holds himself stock still, even though his sore muscles are close to shaking. It's listening for him, and if it hears him, it'll be over. He'll be done.

Wind rustles through the treetops high above them, but other than that, Sungmin can't hear a thing. There are no birds chirping, no bugs buzzing, no woodland creatures pattering around. They're too smart to end up like Sungmin - every single one of them can probably sense it from miles away. Not for the first time, Sungmin wishes he had that ability. It would save him a lot of grief.

There's a creak as it shifts its weight, turning itself around.

Sungmin squeezes his crossbow in his hands, so hard that his knuckles go white, and he prays for it to just give up on chasing him. He knows he has a snowball's chance in hell for any prayer of his to actually work, but he prays anyway.

It sniffs the air a few times, and slowly pads over the underbrush with only the slightest sounds of crinkling giving it away. Right around where Sungmin is hiding.

Sungmin’s never really been prey for a predator out here, not in the wild. He’s always been the hunter, not the hunted. But suddenly he feels like – like there’s an eerie familiarity to this. Like he’s back in that goddamn matchbox of a crawlspace, chary of every heavy breath, smashed bottle, and creaking floorboard.

After what seems like an eternity, it finally stamps at the ground with an angry paw and starts walking back the way it came. Sungmin hears the thud of every step, hardly believing his luck, and waits until it fades away.

He still doesn't dare move.

After another ten minutes or so, he hears the buzz of cicadas slowly rise up out of the silence. Squirrels are chattering in the trees again.

He peeks an eye open. If the other animals are back, it should be safe now.

Carefully, he relaxes his tight grip on his crossbow and rolls forward onto his feet. His legs are numb and his throat is raw, but he shakes it off easily enough. He slings his bow and his kills over his back, presses a hand to the deep, bleeding wound on his shoulder, and gets on the move again.

His breath is coming shallow and fast, and his feet stumble every so often, but he keeps moving. Sungmin knows that if he doesn't get somewhere protected, he'll never make it through another month - and he's far away from anything resembling civilization. Sungmin glances at the horizon. The sun is peeking over the hills and through the thick forest, but it won't be long until it sets. He doesn't know what'll happen to him if he's out here alone at night, not with that thing after him in this forest, and he forces his feet to move faster.

He trips over something and crashes down on one knee.

"," he mutters. The blood loss from his shoulder is starting to make him dizzy and faint, and it takes an embarrassingly long time for him to claw himself up onto his feet again.

He's limping now. Something is wrong with his knee. He grits his teeth and keeps moving. Either he it up and makes it out of this territory before nightfall or he dies. It's a simple choice.

"Get a move on, Lee," he breathes, grabbing at a nearby trunk to support some of his weight as he goes. "You're almost there. 'Nuther mile or so and you're out."

When he finds one of his own markers carved into the dirt, he spurs himself on for another ten minutes headed east before he has to stop to catch his breath. When he stands up again, his vision tunnels. He forces his body past it anyway.

His shoulder has started to hurt. Badly. It’s way beyond stinging; it’s flying right into scorching territory. The wound must be infected by something pretty in' nasty.

"," he slurs. ". That ."

It's getting sparser, with less bushes and plants popping up around him. There's more space. The trunks are young and slender. He must be getting close to the edge of the woods.

His eyes widen as salvation comes into view. There’s an enormous chainlink fence not far away, he can see it from here. Sungmin comes up to one of the gaps and throws himself through it.

He crosses through the boundary just as he hits the ground of the clearing. He feels currents of power pulse through him just as his head thunks into the ground.

"Thank ," Sungmin says, muffled, into the dirt.

-

Sungmin methodically cleans up the blood and cuts, wincing when he dabs at his shoulder. He'll deal with it later. He breaks up a nearby branch with some difficulty and fashions a makeshift wooden crutch to fit under his arm. That done, he sits cross-legged on a soft pile of leaves and eats some of his stash of jerky. He wishes he'd thought to bring more, but he consoles himself with the fact that he never could've predicted this .

It takes him awhile to build up the willpower to carry on, but that's okay. He made it past the fence, so he's got time on his side.

He looks glances back at the forest behind the fence, the last rays of light dying as the sun sets. He can't see any signs of what was chasing him, but that doesn't mean it isn't in there somewhere prowling around for him. He's got to find shelter, defensible shelter, and fast.

The fence is a good sign; he must be nearby something. Why would people put up a fence, an electric fence, no less, if there wasn't?

He treks on and on into the clearing full of high grasses, further and further away from the dark, dangerous forest. The crutch helps a lot, but the tiny marks it leaves in the dirt leave Sungmin feeling uneasy. All those years of tracking have made him uncomfortably aware of the marks movement always leaves behind.

The shadows are growing longer and deeper, and his body is past the point of exhaustion. He shakes his head and squeezes his eyes shut, willing that something will be there in the distance. A box, a shack, anything.

He takes another hundred steps, another two hundred, and there it is - a great white house, rising up into the dark sky like a mountain, more and more enormous as he stumbles closer. Sungmin's eyes are as wide as they can go, staring at it. At the moment, it seems like the biggest thing he's ever seen.

“Climbin’ this is gonna be a ,” he says with a tinge of awe.

It is.

Sungmin finally drags himself up the last of the stairs with his hunting knife, body shaking with the effort, and sprawls out on the back porch step.

After a moment or two to catch his breath, he digs out his knife from the wooden riser. He winces at the deep scar it leaves in the otherwise spotless smooth white paint. No way that’ll go unnoticed.

He creeps up to the doorjamb. The gap is just over an inch high, which is a tight fit for sure. It takes a minute, but thankfully Sungmin does manage to squeeze inside the house.

It's dark inside, even darker than the sky with its setting sun. Sungmin supposes it's either empty or everyone's asleep already. He slinks along the wall's white trim into the kitchen. The fridge, oven, and microwave are all humming, which lets Sungmin relax a bit. Nobody is going to hear him over all that noise.

He looks around for some sort of opening in the walls, but there's nothing in plain sight. Well, if it's not in plain sight, then maybe... Sungmin heaves open a cabinet door and weaves through canned food until he gets to the back panel.

A mouse hole, nibbled right through the wood and plaster.

He steps inside with his knife in front of him, re