Dawn Chorus (Proxies x Reader)

Deadline

"Sorry for the face," he says. "I'm more adept with bludgeoning. And you were so close when he was about to shout."

Rage boils inside me. It localizes to my jaw, taking itself out on my poor teeth. The pain shoots all the way up to my temples, but it does nothing to break the blinding red filling my vision. He's chuckling. He is smug about it. I want to fight. I need to run.

"I'm so sorry, Mason," I whisper.

Then I turn and run like a coward. Not avenging my friend, not even making sure that monster does nothing to his body so we have something to burry. I can hear the crackle of the walkie-talkie back there, growing faint. I race towards the fires' glow. Mason's blood cakes on my hands, sticky and crackling as it dries unevenly. My clothes are heavy and damp where my frantic searching brought the cloth too close to Mason's blood. I'm not following trails. I'm taking the shortest path, leaping over brush and sliding under half-fallen trees. I could have been good at track if I tried a little harder, alternatively adrenaline is magic.

Orange and yellow flicker through the forest. Warmth hits me in the face like a wall, the air hitting my back still like ice. The trees thin rapidly and the brush grows incredibly dense. Thorns snag and vines tangle around me throwing me toward the ground. My clothes tear, small cuts sting my skin. I crash into the clearing and nearly hit the ground. The pyres have broken their edges. Tents are adding swirls of smoke to the previously cleaned fires making uncomfortable warmth turn into a hellish heat.

Burning flesh and hair does not smell as terrible as I thought. The charred body placed so gently at the edge of flames just to be seen. Its isn't Sadie. It can't be Sadie. I take my last deep breath of fresh, sweltering air, then yank my shirt over my nose and rush in. There are still distinct paths between the flames carefully cleared and dug fire lines to protect the forest. I hop around them, avoiding swift shifts of the wind, leaping flames and the thickets of the black smoke. The burning plastic is sour and acrid, worse than the skin and hair. Warnings blare in my brain.

"Sadie!" I scream over the roar of the fire. "Sadie!"

I can see a body moving between the flames. An outline against the brightness. The smoke burns my throat and eyes as if I wasn't already squinting against the brightness. Water wells up and fills the space between my eyelids further blurring the surroundings.

"(Y/n)!" Sadie's voice screeches.

It's shrill and desperate. There is a wheeze and scratch to it. I follow her voice, the hacking and wheezing that follows. I can see her, her outline through the flames, hunched and shivering. The lanky one is behind her. I can see him twirling his remaining hatchet.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck," I mutter, raising my arm to shield my face.

A bad choice. A dumb choice. I leap through the flames, fire whipping around me. The heat is a flash and it's gone as I hit the ground a little too hard. My limited is pushed out of my body. I rolled and pushed myself up. The lanky man is more terrifying in the light. The orange goggle glow with the fire and the mask on the lower part of his face looks like a cheshire grin, the shadow of his real mouth underneath only looks more haunting. But he also looks like a child, maybe barely an adult.

Sadie's arm is wrapped in the bloodied and tattered cloth of her shirt, leaving her in a tank top. A deep gash leaks from her leg and she is ash covered.

"Run!" She screeches at me.

And I do. Not the way she wants. I sprint and crash into the young man, leaping over Sadie. It's like hitting a wall. The slimness of him compared to his companions feels deceptive. But I manage to make him lose his balance enough that the hatchet slams into the dirt rather than Sadie.

"W-woah," he laughs. "Th-th-th-throwing yourse-self a-at me. I'm n-not the o-one who wil sh-sho-sh-show you me-me-m-me...." He grunts and jerks his head scrunching his face. "Mercy!" He snarls the word that refused to escape, then his smile is back. "I gu-guess the others won't either."

He snickers like he is making a joke and not threats, really finding himself funny. I'm already turning, yanking Sadie off the ground. She grunts in pain but leans her weight hard into me, hopping on her one good leg to aid in our run.

"Get to base camp." I wheeze sharply. Both of us are hacking between words now. "Don't worry about anyone else, don't help anyone, just get out."

"Both of us," Sadie snaps; her throat sounds raw.

I shake my head. "No, no I have to get Camilla. They....they made me a deal. They caught me and let me go to get you guys out by dawn."

"What?" Sadie is giving me a harsh side eye. "Why?"

"I don't know," I say between gritted teeth, "but I have to get you all out."

Sadie is breathing heavily, gulping like a fish. "And you?"

"Me too," I tell her and know instantly it's a lie. "All of us."

I think of all the bodies I passed, of Mason dead, of Camilla out there still. Just adding the lies. But Sadie seems barely conscious, barely moving. Determination crinkles her face. Her skin is red, and she's stopped sweating. Behind us the charred ground crunches and crackles under the goggled man's boots. Even he can't be silent in this mess. He is running. Sadie can barely hop along and my head is starting to spin. She can't run. Her running pace may not be fast enough even if she could. I gently push her ahead. She whips around to look at me, eyes wide. The blood has crusted on her face. It dried a while ago. She's been running on injured for a while.

"Get out," I whisper-yell. "I will distract him. Get out, coordinated help getting to base camp, a search party for the injured when the morning breaks, get everyone there now cared for and safe. You still have a job to do."

Her face tightens in anger than softens in fear and care. She shakes her head, but she turns and hobbles off. The footsteps are getting closer. I have to buy time. I turn to face the fire, the figure who has slowed to a walk strutting through it. He passes through the flames slowly. His clothes singed and skin lightly burned in places. The metal on his mask is glowing slightly from the heat. He rolls the hatchet a few times. His shoulder snaps and pops, and it sounds like he is muttering to himself even over the roar of the fire. He points the hatchet at me.

"T-t-t-two hours le-le..." His neck crackles and pops with another violent jolt. He grinds his teeth, jaw tightening and neck shifting back and forth like he is fighting his own jaw. "Two hours."

I can't follow his eyes, can't see if he is looking towards Sadie. I wait long, too long, not long enough. We just stare at each other, chests heaving. My throat and lungs burn and boil. My head feels light and empty. I'm overheating, and I can feel my lips begin to crack.

"You sh-should g-go," he says, seeming to have calmed down. "It's less fu-f-fun if the fire s-sl-s-slowly takes you out."

I take half a step back from him, then another. He makes no move to follow or stop me, doesn't even lift the hatchet hanging limply at his side. I glance behind me, and Sadie is gone, not even a speck between the thin trees that make up the last short distance from the forest. I glance back to find the young man gone. My stomach clenches. Two hours, less than that now. I have to find Camilla. I take back off, running as fast as I dare after the strain of the fire.