Her palm pressed hard against her lips and under her nose, trying to obstruct her laboured breathing from being heard. Her back melded uncomfortably against the tree’s bark, hidden by the shadow it projected in the already dark forest. She felt like an idiot for being easily isolated. She would have stood a higher chance in an open field than in the condense forest she now found herself in. She should have just gone back to her dorm like the other girls.

The crunching of branches echoed from behind her, the forest falling silent once again in its wake. She needed to calm herself, because with the way her heart was hammering she wouldn’t be surprised if they could hear just how chaotic it was beating too. She needed to round back the way she came if she ever wanted to leave the thick surrounding of trees and get back to campus grounds. Just how she would be able to achieve that without being caught, and thereafter met with a horrible fate, eluded her when the sound of broken branches and leaves skulked closer to her.

Panic was beginning to take over her rational side, the fight for survival becoming more apparent. The thought of making a run for it always crept back up, only for it to be scrapped to the side. Running wasn’t her forte, so the idea of outrunning someone was way out of question. But she couldn’t just stand here waiting for death to sneak up on her.

She cursed ever brushing off what the Academy had been recently warning everyone about, thinking it impossible to bring one of them down so easily. She thought they were just conjuring up tales, like a scary story for children, in hopes of keeping them obedient.

Oh, how wrong she was.

When the sound of branches breaking got too close for comfort, she threw caution to the wind. Today was not her day, and she’d rather die fighting than standing here kicking herself over how foolish she was.

Making a hasty dash to the right, she ran blindly for a few seconds before heading right again, back towards where she had initially came from. Her breathing was already short, and she cursed herself for always ditching the morning runs her friends tried to force her on. If she thought she could outrun her assailant then she thought horribly wrong.

They were hot on her tail, and catching up fast.

She prevailed through the burning of her calves and lungs, screaming in her head that oxygen wasn’t as important as escaping right this instance. Her surrounding was just too condensed for her liking, and she knew better not to let fear get the better of her. That was day one of training and she knew everything would spiral down to hell if she let fear eat her up.

Trying to shake them off her trail, she zigzagged between the trees, keeping her turns sharp and unpredictable. She knew she couldn’t do anything in her immediate area, so if she could just find a better clearing then maybe she could stand a fighting chance. When the more she ran and noticed that nothing was letting up, she knew she couldn’t do anything with her surroundings, so there was only one way: up.

If she couldn’t fight then she may as well call for help. She just needed them off her tail long enough.

Shifting her view from in front of her to above her, she tried to make out if there wasn’t any crowding of tree crowns. When she could barely breathe, burning up with every breath she took, she took a quick glance behind her to see how she was doing on losing them.

When no one was immediately behind her, and she’d need to run at least another 3 miles to make it out of the forest and on campus grounds, she took the opportunity to come to a quick stop. Inhaling as much oxygen as she could, she took off again with her chest puffed from the large breath.

Shooting her right arm up, she exhaled, feeling a stream of warmth travelling up her arm. She knew it would give away her position, but desperate times calls for desperate measures. And besides, she had good reasoning of use off of campus.

A surge of flames left her stretched out palm, soaring into the sky as she ran. It illuminated the path for her. The flow was diminishing as she ran out of the large breath she initially took in, coming out as spurts with every wheeze she inhaled. Her energy was depleting, but she knew this was her last chance.

Someone had to see her flames.

Her position was compromised, as she suspected. Air whipped by her neck, the object sent flying her way missed her by a hair’s breadth. The close call pushed what little energy she had left in her. Now gasping for air, she continued her call for help, pushing as much energy as she could afford through her arm.

Someone had to notice her cry for help.

Her hair was matted, sticking to her forehead and temple, at being so close to her flames. The next hit she wasn’t so lucky. It hit her forearm, making a clean exit and causing her right arm to fall in pain, clutched against her chest as she screamed out.

Through tears and ragged breathing, she continued her run, albeit staggered and slow. Her left arm wasn’t as strong as her right. She had trained it, trying to bring it to the same strength as her right but had always fallen short of matching it. The professor had pushed her to continue her exercises to become more ambidextrous, but she found no reason to if her right arm was powerful enough. Now in pain, depleted of energy and unable to breathe normally, she didn’t know if it was even worth venturing the idea.

Less than one mile left, that’s all she needed.

They already knew where she was, so no need in keeping quiet anymore. She began wailing for help, hoping someone would hear her. If they couldn’t see her flames then hopefully they could hear her. When she could almost taste safety, the lights of the campus breaking through the thick forest in sight, was when the last blow hit her square in her left thigh and lower back.

She dropped like a sack of hammers. Her pleas for help now a whisper as she sobbed, the wind knocked out of her. Her left hand clawed at the soil beneath her, dragging her exhausted body towards her salvation. The snaps of branches and leaves came back now, stalking upon her from behind.

“No, no, please God, no,” she begged.

A foot pushed her down, pressure set between her shoulder blades to keep her in place. But she tried, damn did she try to continue to crawl. This isn’t how she was going to go out.

The possibility of survival ended when a hard object met the back of her head. Her face fell against a bed of dead leaves with a thump, a ringing in her head disorienting her. The foot left her back, kicking at her shoulder to roll her limp body over.

She couldn’t make out who was standing above her through the darkness and her now blurry vision. She felt something rest against her chest, and a sob of defeat left her when she knew that this was her demise. With a swift pull of the trigger everything was over. She heard a distinct shatter before all of the warmth drained from her body.

The barrel of the gun moved to the top of the t-shirt’s neckline, pulling it down to confirm that the job was complete. Cleaning the dirty barrel off on the t-shirt’s now bloodied Academy logo, eyes stared down at the deceased body with utter disgust.

 “All you Supers are alike. Anything but heroes.”