I lay at the base of the tree, barely able to move. "Is my back broken?" I thought about laying there wet and cold from the rain. It hit me so hard that I dented the tree when I hit it. I felt every bit of the pain that shot through my body. "I couldn't move my arms or could I turn my head!!" I thought again as I could only look in the direction Diane and the beast had taken off in.

I coughed as blood spilled out of my mouth, mixing with the water inches from my face. The water was piling up around me fast and I panicked. It would only be a short while before the water was high enough to drown me. My eyes shot in every direction as I tried to figure out what I could do. Despite the effort, there was nothing but forest around me. Even if there was something I could do, I couldn't move at all. I was a sitting duck if that creature came back.

My fears came true when a sound came from behind the tree I was lying beneath. Fear ran through my entire body. I heard the heavy footsteps of something coming around the tree and within seconds two large animal feet stepped in front of me. The next thing I knew, I was being picked up.

As the creature pulled me up in front of it, I realized this was a different beast, then the one that had stricken me. It had dark brown hair instead of black with those same yellowish eyes. It opened its mouth, revealing a long tongue that licked me across my face.

"Fuck!! This thing is going to fucking eat me right here, just like in the fucking horror movies! I'm definitely dead," I thought as I cried.

It just held me there with one of its hands that held me tightly in its grip. Another far off sound in the forest brought the beast's attention away from me as it turned, running, still holding me in its grasp.

The speed at which this beast moved was incredible, and at times I could have smashed into a tree. It moved through the forest with ease and hopped from the ground to thick tree branches like it was its normal mode of travel. I threw up several times from the motion sickness I was developing from being handled like a child's doll.

My exoskeleton was still in working order, but I just couldn't move a muscle in my body. I hit that tree with such force it should have killed me on impact, yet I was still alive. Another shrieked through the air, closer than before. I knew this creature was taking me towards where Diane was, and its brethren were.

I could barely feel my arms and legs, but that was a good thing. It meant I had not broken my spine, but my body was in shock from the force of the hit.

"I have to get control over my body. Mind over matter! I have too much of my body to move. Just like the Doctors told me when I first started rehab," I closed my eyes.

"Just focus on moving my arms first!"

I put all my efforts into moving my fingers as much as possible. The creature had my arms clamped in between its hands so I could only move my fingers. If I could do that, then I knew I was making progress.

"Just think of this like sleep paralysis. I can do this. I just have to move my finger!" I yelled at myself.

My finger shuddered a little, shooting pain shot up my arm. After a few more moments, I tried again, and I felt my finger wiggle.

"Yes, now for my legs. If I can move my fingers, I can move my legs. My exoskeleton will do the rest," I thought excitedly.

A loud crack echoed through the heavy raining, alerting me that time was running out.

"How far did Diane run? This creature was fast, yet did that mean Diane was faster? I kept up with her, but I didn't know if she was running this fast. Was I as fast as her?" I thought as I focused on kicking my leg.

Within moments, I could move my legs again. I didn't move them too much in fear that the creature holding me decided I needed to have another date with a tree.

All I could do now was wait till we reached Diane, then something could happen. I didn't know what it would be, but I was working on it. Another sound broke my concentration, informing me it was just ahead of us. Time was up and whatever was going to happen was about too.

The creature holding me leaped into the air, landing on a branch before launching itself into the air. We emerged into a large opening in the forest. Ahead I saw Diane, which was a surprise that she wasn't running anymore. She was standing a distance from not one but several creatures. They had formed a half circle around her as they were moving closer to her. They were herding her to the edge of a cliff.

It felt like the world had slowed down. As I fell with the monstrous creature gripping my midsection, the ground approached rapidly as I witnessed the look of terror on Diane's face. Moments later, the creature slammed into the ground. It looked skyward, loudly howling. It threw me over the other creatures, and I hit the ground just feet in front of Diane.

"Kristen!" Diane yelled as she came to my side but before she reached me the creature that brought me here howled again louder than before.

"I'm okay," I weakly said.

I looked up and twenty or more of these creatures surrounded us. Their eyes glowing a hot, yellowish color in the low light of the day. It was raining harder than it had before and the clouds were a mixture of dark grey and black. Lightning cracked throughout the sky as far as the eye could see. The ground was muddy and slippery from the downpour of rain. The softness of the ground cushioned the blow when the creature threw me.

I struggled to lift myself up on shaky arms. Diane tried to help, but the creature growled loudly at her.

"It's okay I can stand on my own," I stated.

"How? You didn't see how hard you hit that tree," she yelled.

"I just dented it a little," I replied.

"Kristen, you didn't just dent it. You left a crater in that tree. Do you know the amount of force it takes to do that to a tree like that? You are not okay!" She said, kneeling down a few feet from me.

She had a look on her face I had never seen before. She was angry and for a moment she looked like my sister did when she hit the wall in our apartment in Resident One.

"You should be dead from that impact!" She added.

"And you shouldn't have been able to get as far as you did," I said as I attempted to stand up only to fall back down.

Now I could tell the damage done to my exoskeleton. It was making it hard to stand, let alone if it was functioning properly.

"Kristen, stay down. You can't do anything," she ordered.

"And what can you do? You're outnumbered and these monsters are stronger than us. They are going to rip us apart, then eat us like Sunday breakfast," I shot back.

"We have to do something. We have gone too far to die now," she said, looking down to the ground.

I tried again to stand up and again Diane tried to help, only to be stopped by the creatures.

"They won't attack until I get up. When I do, run towards the cliff and you jump. I will be right behind you," I said looking back at her.

"You can't. Your exoskeleton won't allow you to be in its condition," she replied through tears.

"Don't worry about that. Just do it as soon as I can. You're faster than they are," I replied.

She slowly nodded and stood back up as she backed away from me. The creatures moved forward with each step she took. I looked towards the enormous creatures in front of me. They wouldn't attack unless I was standing up.

"Animals don't do this? They wouldn't wait for their prey to stand up,"

"This was something else!"

I knew I wouldn't be fast enough to escape with the damage to my exoskeleton, but I remembered I moved twenty-five yards when I first used it. I went that far in the blink of an eye and if I could do that again I could make it to the edge. I closed my eyes as I thought back to the moment, I realized I had finished the last stretch of that awful test.

"I felt the warmness flowing through my body like water. It came from inside me, spreading to every inch of my body, filling it up. It gave me the strength that I didn't know I had," I thought as my breathing slowed down and my heartbeat slowed.

I heard howl's shrieking through the area all around me, but I didn't let that break my concentration. I pulled on that strength deep within me and I felt the explosion of warmth feel up every fiber of my being. The cold spine-chilling rain no longer felt cold to me. I opened my eyes to notice a lime green glow emitting from around me. I looked down at my hands and the light was coming from me. The rain hit my arms and steam came off my skin like the rain had hit something hot.

The creatures were growling with anger, now they all focused on me. I looked at the creature that hit me in the eye. I stood up with an ease that I had not felt since I was able to walk on my own.

"Run!!" I yelled at Diane, and she sprinted to the edge of the cliff, jumping into the dark sky.