I saw Diane kneeling over me as heavy rain fell all around us. The sky was still dark, but at least there was a sky. I tried to set up, but every muscle refused to follow my commands.

"Don't move. Your body is badly damaged. You need to rest once I find us some shelter," Diane stated.

"I can't feel my legs!" I whispered.

"Your body is in shock. You probably won't feel them for several days. I don't know for sure," She replied, shaking her head.

"I have to go find somewhere to get us out of the rain. I'm going to pull you under a tree or something. It's going to hurt badly. Are you ready?" She explained, looking down at me.

"Yeah, I'm ready," I replied weakly.

Diane put her hands under my shoulders as pain shot through my body. She pulled me as fast as she could to a nearby tree. It had an indention in the base of its trunk, but it wouldn't keep me entirely out of the rain.

"I will be back as soon as I can. Don't fall asleep, Kristen. Stay awake for me and, more importantly, your sister," Diane warned as she stood up.

I nodded, letting her know I understood what she was saying. She checked over me again before running off into the dark forest. I leaned against the tree and looked at the river I had fallen into. The waterfall was loud, covering up the sound of the rain. 'Diane left me here because the sound of the waterfall would help hide my presence. Whatever those creatures were, it would be hard to hear me over the waterfall,' I thought as I looked down at my legs.

My exoskeleton was beat up, but it didn't look like I damaged it too badly. There were some bent parts and dents, but overall, it was fine. The upper body part was a different story. One of the arm attachments had fallen off. It was just a display that showed the power level of the suit. I had turned it off after escaping the facility, so it wasn't a big deal. I couldn't assess the back of the exoskeleton unless I took it off. I couldn't do that independently, as it was like a metal harness or jacket. It wasn't too bulky, and I could probably wear a jacket or shirt over the whole thing. This suit wasn't like the larger ones available to the public. It was more like the military ones that were form-fitting. Except this one was more ergonomic and slenderer than anything I had ever seen. It was lighter than anything I had ever used, but its weight could still bog me down in the water. The heaviest part was the ankle area, which weighed me down like iron weights in the water.

Other than the damage I could visibly see, it surprised me it wasn't worse. Nothing sold to the public or even the military would function right now. This had to be something DNA Labs was using me to test. Whatever the reason, I was glad I had it instead of a wheelchair.

Staying awake proved more difficult than I had thought it would be. Without any pain medicine, I was hurting all over, and bruises were forming where I had been hit. I tried raising my shirt up, but my arms just lay beside me, unable to move. My injuries were severe, and I couldn't even turn my head if I needed to. All I could do was stare out towards the waterfall. It was unlike any waterfall I had ever seen on the holo-T.V. The terrain looked familiar, but nothing was recognizable. I couldn't tell what part of the world we were in.

So far, all we had seen was miles and miles of forest in all directions. There were no roads and nothing that indicated human life was out here. Besides DNA Labs, we really were in the middle of nowhere. After a long while, the rain lightened up as the clouds grew lighter. I could see more of the area in front of me and through some trees on the far side of the bank.

My heart skipped a beat when I noticed two bright yellowish orbs staring back at me through the darkest part of the trees. I hadn't seen them before, but I did now. Fear swelled up inside of me as the eyes began moving towards me. The creature came to the lighter part of the woods in a few moments. It was scraping at the trees as it meandered towards me. It must have found a different way to come down to our area. Diane was somewhere in the woods behind me, and there was no way she would hear my screams as this creature ripped me to pieces, turning me into bite-size Kristen steaks.

I struggled to move my body as the menacing creature stopped at the bank of the river, hunching on all fours. It was like a massive version of some man, wolf, or bear. It glared its teeth at me, and even from this distance, they were big. 'I have to get up or I'm going to be the dinner,' I thought frantically, trying to figure out what to do.

'I have to use that strength I used earlier. I have to make the lime green light come back or I'm dead,' I thought, closing my eyes.

For the fifth time today, I was in danger of dying if you count the dark abyss I was in or whatever that place was. 'Maybe the fifth time's a charm, and this will be the last time something dark and scary wants to make me into a Kristen sandwich. I have to move my body somehow,' I debated.

I repeated what I had done before, and I could feel the warmth build up inside me, but not as fast as before. As the heat grew, I could feel my arms and legs now. The pain melted away as I opened my eyes, and my heart sank.

The creature was leaning over me, looking me straight in the eyes, and I could swear it was smiling at me. It grabbed my throat with its huge, oversized hand, choking me as it brought me up into the air. It raised its free hand, and before I knew it, the creature slashed me across my stomach. Blood and guts flowed out of my stomach as I coughed blood up.

I tried holding my spilled guts from falling out, but the creature began running through the forest with me in its hand. My blood was flying everywhere, and my guts were dangling every which way but where they should have been.

'Fifth time isn't a charm,' I thought as I passed out for the third time today.

I woke up in a dark place for the second time today. The smell was so disgusting I wanted to puke my guts out, only to remember my guts were already out. I tried sitting up, but the pain in my stomach was so intense I almost passed out again. Moving my hand to my stomach, I felt what felt like grass or something similar.

I couldn't see anything, but I could feel the air coming from behind me. 'There was no rain falling on me, so must I be inside? I have to be. This must be some kinda cave,' I thought as I felt around the floor.

My hands came to something warm and soft. I wanted to find out who or what it was when my hand came to clothing. 'That feels like the clothes I'm wearing. Is that Diane? Was she captured by these wolf-men too?' I debated whether I should call out to her, deciding to take the chance.

"Diane, can you hear me?" I announced in a somewhat loud voice.

I heard a moan coming from the person I was touching.

"Kristen?" she replied.

"Yeah, it's me!" I answered.

"How did I get here?" she asked weakly.

"I don't know, but I think whatever found me found you. What do you remember?" I questioned.

"I was looking at a cave entrance when something hit me from behind," she replied.

"What happened to you, Kristen," Diane questioned.

"The one that hit me the first time cut me up badly. I thought I had died, but I woke up. I can't move because my stomach is hanging open badly," I explained.

"You should be dead if that happened as you say," Diane answered.

"You said they hit you across the back, right?" I questioned.

"Yeah, but I hit my head or something," Diane replied.

"How do you know it didn't slash you on the back?" I asked.

"I don't know. I am on my stomach face down, but I can't move at all," Diane explained in a low voice.

"I will check if I can reach your back," I replied.

"Okay," Diane answered.

I tried crawling to her, but the pain was too great. The best I could do was reach the side of her back. I could already tell what happened to me had happened to her. I felt the edge of a deep gash in her back. The more I felt, the more gashes I felt as I traced my hand over the edges of five in total. She winced as I moved my hand over each of them.

"You're cut up bad from what I can tell, but you're not bleeding anymore," I explained.

"I couldn't feel anything until you touched my back," Diane answered.

"Some escape attempt this turned out to be, right?" I jokingly said.

"Yeah, some escape. I just hope Kristonia and Rachel will fare better than we did," Diane said through sniffles.

"How long do you think we were out?" I asked.

"No way to know without being outside to check the weather. We could have been out for hours or days for all we know. I do know we should have bled out before ever waking up with these wounds," Diane explained.

"You said it yourself; we are different. Maybe the Doctors have been doing something to us we aren't aware of," I countered.

"I don't know of any medicine that could change the human body to this degree," Diane replied.

"Yeah, before today, we didn't know fifteen-foot wolfmen existed either. There has to be something going on that they are keeping from us. You saw how things had changed when we left Resident One. How long do you think those kinda changes could take? There was other new construction. Also, do you remember Resident One being as extensive as it was when you first came here? Nothing is adding up," I explained.

"I see what you mean. I just don't see how that's possible. We couldn't have been here that long. It would take several years to do that kind of new construction and your right, Resident One was not how I remembered. I saw the schematics for Resident One when I first came here. I don't remember there being labs below Resident One or it being as big as it was," Diane added.

"What does it all mean then? We have a lot of missing time here. At most, I thought we had been here a few months, but now it looks like it's been years. If time has passed the way we thought, then why was everything so different?" I explained further.

"There is nothing we can do about that now. We have to get out of here. That's what we have to focus on. If we can move, then we have a chance. Save your strength because when they come for us, we have to be ready," Diane stated thoughtfully.

"I understand!" I said as I closed my eyes.

'Despite being gravely injured, she wasn't giving up,' I thought. Diane was tough. Seeing her thinking of a way out of this inspired me to save my energy.

We both lay there for what seemed like hours, only talking when we had to. The dark hole we were in must have been a cave or part of a cave system. I checked on my wounds ever so often, and I checked on Diane's as well. It shocked me to notice that both of our wounds were getting better. I don't know how, but my insides were healing up, and I could smell the dead flesh that had fallen out. Even with that, I could feel my wound closing up, and my stomach was hot to the touch.

'Are my intestines healing on their own? How is that possible? Diane's wounds are healing, too, but from the deep gashes, I felt her spine should have broken in multiple places. She would have been a quadriplegic with the wounds she received if she had survived, but I could tell her wounds were closing up,' I thought as I ran my fingers across the part of her back, I could reach.

I decided I needed to get some sleep and focused on falling asleep. If my body was healing itself, the more time passed, the better off I would be. The only other way to pass the time quickly was to sleep away the hours. I did my best to scoot myself over to Diane as best I could. I was lying on my back, and she was lying on her stomach, so it was awkward when our heads touched. She could barely move her fingers, let alone her arms, because of her injuries. The odd fact that she could merely move them inevitably meant her battered body was healing itself just as fast as mine. Maybe she wouldn't end up like me, and I could only thank DNA Labs for whatever they had done to us. We would escape once we healed up, but we had to be ready whenever those wolf men showed back up.