Illumination
Chapter Three

Present...

Jack groaned and sat up, rubbing her sore legs until she felt more awake. I fell, she realized with a moan, still a little groggy. Where am I? Through the dim beam of her helmet’s Illuminator, she could see the cliff looming up above her, shrouded in mist with long streaks of icy perspiration clinging to its sides and glistening. She was sitting in a pile of debris that had fallen down with her, bruised, battered, but seemingly okay.

How did I survive that fall? Jack thought, feeling herself all over. The left sleeve of her uniform had been ripped to tatters and…oh no...her radio was gone! It’s got to be around here somewhere, she decided firmly, crawling on her frostbitten hands out from the pile of debris and looking around the wreckage.

It didn’t take her long to replace the radio, crushed underneath a rock and damaged beyond any hope of repair. Jack swore and threw its remains to the ground, her mind racing. Okay, so I have no way of contacting anyone and I’m exposed to the weather. Great. What would Robin do? She looked up one last time, hoping to see a glimpse of her brother looking down, or at least a glimmer of buggy headlights. Nothing.

Suddenly, a growl split the air and sent a shiver down Jack’s spine. What was that? She glanced around nervously, her left hand twitching from the cold, and her Illuminator, a row of bright lights above her visor, caught a glimpse of something moving in the shadows. Something big. Something terrifying. Something with two, shining eyes that were staring out at her from the darkness.

Don’t. Move. Jack took a deep breath and tried to stand perfectly still. Eyelashes fluttering, she watched as the creature retreated out of her vision, only to reappear, a little bit closer than before. Apexes hunt by sound. Don’t...move…

Slowly but surely, the creature emerged into the light of her helmet visor, blinking and drooling white froth onto the icy ground. It hissed, a low rattling sound that sent shivers down Jack’s spine, pressing its face right up against her helmet visor. Its foul breath fogged up the glass until all she could see was its wet, snotty nose pressed up against the visor, and all she could hear was her own, panicked breath in her suit, which suddenly felt three sizes too small for her.

“Ea...ee...” the Apex rumbled in the back of its throat. What’s it doing? Jack wondered, pressing her hands against her side and closing her eyes. “E-eeEE—EAT!!”

Jack’s breath caught in her throat. Her legs began to tremble uncontrollably. I can’t. I can’t. I can’t! Her feet took control of her body and, before she could stop to think, she turned and began to run.

The faster she ran, the easier it was for her to breathe. Jack could hear the sound of semi-lupine footsteps crunching in the ice behind her in a pursuit. Oh my god, I’m really going to die. I’m going to die and be eaten up and no one is going to care and I’ll never see my family or be blackmailed by Bailey or hear Liam’s obnoxious British accent ever again! she panicked. Her headlight swung wildly from side to side, dimly illuminating the dusty path ahead.

Suddenly, the ground disappeared from underneath Jack and she gasped, striking out with one foot for ground. But it didn’t come and she tumbled head over heels down a steep incline, her helmet smashing into the packed snow and her bare arm rubbing against the earth so hard that her skin blistered. Jack heard something snap and she howled in instinctive pain as she rolled to a stop at the foot of the drop.

The silence that followed was more painful than the bruises. The Apex must’ve lost my trail during the drop, she thought to herself, watching her breath fog the air in white curls. Slowly, Jack stood up and dusted off her uniform. The remains of her left sleeve, which had already been in tatters, had been ripped clean off, leaving her arm pink and exposed. Already, black frost was beginning to form on her fingernails and she let out a moan. Somehow her helmet’s visor had remained intact, though a spiderweb of cracks stretched across it and sliced her vision into wedges of fogginess.

I’m doomed. Absolutely doomed, Jack moped. She looked up at the sky, hoping to replace the silhouette of the cliff where she’d come from, but all she could see were tall, icy pillars surrounding her. They were perfectly shaped. Too perfect, she thought, stepping forward into the center of the ring and turning around curiously. She approached one of the pillars and saw that there were strange markings carved into the side. The markings were like little squiggles and came together to form faces. Like writing, Jack noted. What is going on here? Her brain felt like it was buzzing and she shook her head from side to side to clear it.

When in doubt, say it out loud. Jack’s survival teacher’s voice echoed in her ear.

“Um...this looks like a good place to camp for the night,” she whispered to herself aloud. “At least until I can figure out what’s going on.” Somehow, while saying it, she felt calmer and more in control, silliness aside. She shrugged off her pack and leaned it against one of the pillars, sitting down on the ground and rubbing her arm again. Cocking her head to one side, Jack listened to the sounds of the night...or day. She didn’t really know which one it was. Nothing. Guess the Apex really did leave.

She felt all the tension leave her sore muscles as she opened her pack and looked in at its familiar contents. This is just a drill. No need to panic. She pushed aside all the contraband that she’d snuck in and pulled out the one item she’d been looking for—a Radiator. Jack wrapped it around her wrist and sighed with relief as warmth spread throughout her numb arm, restoring the feeling.

“Two hours of guaranteed warmth,” Jack read on the back of the Radiator. She sighed and leaned back against the pillar, clutching at the wristband tightly. It’s gonna be a long, long night…

Indeed it was. Jack rolled over on her side and tried to fall asleep, but the chill and horror of the night wouldn’t let her. Despite the Radiator warming her arm, black spiderwebs of frost still clung to her skin and made it raw to the touch. The darkness encroached on her vision despite the effort of her Illuminator to keep it at bay. Strange sounds echoed in the blackness, growls and mutters that made her paranoid self shiver. Eventually, when the Radiator died and she was left to wrap her arm tight in an emergency blanket, her eyelids grew heavy and she drifted off to sleep.

***

Jack’s breath quickened as the panting of the creature grew louder and louder. She was clinging to the edge of a tall, icy cliff, one hand on the ledge scrabbling for something to hold, the other dangling above a dark pit where something lurked below. Something hairless and slimy and horrible.

“Help!” she tried to scream, but instead, the words she heard come out of her mouth were “don’t come”. She tried again, but the words felt like they were twisting inside her mouth as she said them.

“Hold on, Jack, I’m coming!” Robin called from above. “Catch!” A rope was thrown down and Jack grabbed it with both hands, bracing her feet against the cliffside. “I’m gonna pull you up. Hold on!”

The rope felt strangely slimy in Jack’s hands and she looked down at it, only to scream with fright. She was holding a coil of eyes, all of them wet, sticky, and looking straight at her. She let go and smacked the rope away, just as she felt her feet lose their grip on the mountainside and break away. She plunged into the abyss and landed hard on a warm, mossy surface.

It almost felt comfortable, lying there in the warm fuzziness, cheek pressed against the ground, breathing in time with the rising and falling of the earth. Wait...rising and falling? She looked down and saw that what she’d thought was ground was actually fur. A mysterious, black tuft of fur.

Jack opened her mouth to scream but felt the breath taken from her as the Apex tossed its head, sending her flying into the air. The last thing she saw was a flash of gleaming jaws rising up to tear her apart before her mind flashed to black.