Under a starry sky and with the great city of neon behind her, a heavily wounded woman limped towards the Mojave Desert.

With each step, she left behind a trail of blood, big crimson drops marking the long way that she had taken. Despite all of the pain, she keep on keeping on, no matter what.

She avoided the roads, small towns and any sign of civilization that surrounded the city. She wanted to go where nobody else was. After a while she walked far enough to stop hearing the sound of cars and instead began hearing the sound of coyotes and other local fauna. She had crossed the invisible frontier between nature and civilization, but still it wasn't good enough for her. She wanted to be away from everybody, she wanted to be completely alone. 

As the night went on so did the cold, and soon the desert reached near freezing temperatures. Her legs shivered greatly and with each shake she felt a wave of relentless pain. It wasn't the cold what made her shiver thought, she couldn't avoid it, as she was absolutely terrified. Not of the snakes, vultures or scorpions that made these desolate lands their home but of something far worse.  

She wanted to look back, she needed to look back, but fear was a cruel mistress, and forced her to stay with his eyes looking forward at all times. It wasn't until she had dragged herself for hours that she finally felt safe enough to look back. Powered by morbid curiosity she stopped for a second and turned around, and what she witnessed petrified her. The city of lights was nothing but a distant skyline now, on top of its great casinos and hotels a thunderstorm had started to form. Just above her position several tentacle like clouds started to slither and quickly gathered above the city. As if it were a mass of flesh full of swelling tumors the formation of dark gases slowly grew and became bloated with pulsating lighting as it coiled in a terrifying spiral that concentrated over the poor devils of the sinful city.

These clouds had no silver lining. This was a bad omen, a terrible omen.

She turned back into the desert and continued with her self imposed exile. With more terror than ever, she started accelerating and ignoring the ever-present pain to reach an ever-shrinking hopeful future.

In front of her extended the desert, its orange rocks and sands now looking dark blue under the moonlight. It was a beautiful sight, breathtaking even, but it wouldn't last long. As the clouds gathered more and more the stars above her dissapeared, a veil of oscurity quickly covered and surrounded everything, leaving her surrounded by absolute pitch black darkness. Behind her a great storm erupted, the biggest storm that Las Vegas had ever seen, the biggest storm that Las Vegas would ever see.

As the storm raged on, the city of light, became the city of lighting.

She was in absolute pain and she was blind, but even if she couldn't see the path ahead of her she continued walking, simply putting her hands in front of her to detect any possible obstacles. Time went on and soon the minutes became hours and the hours finally gave way to a new dawn. The skies cleared fast and what used to be cold blackness quickly turned into scorching light.

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It was then when her body finally gave up.

Without any strength or will to live left her knees finally succumbed, making her fall on the dusty soil face down. It hurt, of course it did, she felt as if all of her muscles were on fire and all of her bones were splintered, but the pain was secondary. All she could think of is if she had managed to run far enough, if the pain and the darkness had slowed her too much, if her effort, had not been in vain.

There was nothing else she could do. Her body was at her limit. Even breathing became a titanic effort. All she could do now was for the Grim Reaper to take her. She deserved it, she needed it.

Time went on and on. While she crossed the cold desert minutes felt like hours, but now that she was finally waiting for a closure minutes felt like entire lifetimes. Why wasn't she dead? Just...why?

Several minutes passed, and for whatever reason, and against all odds, she continued alive. She screamed her lungs out and what once was fear turned into defeated acceptance. Her efforts had not been good enough. She had failed, and everybody would suffer for it.

More long minutes passed and the sun finally arose completely. As the scorching sun illuminated her blood-soaked skin she started to laugh with a silent voice, her vocal cords too damaged to make any real sound. She felt delirious, perhaps because of dehydration, perhaps because her sacrifice had been for naught. She had wasted her one chance at life, and she would now die completely alone and become prey for the local fauna.

God, she felt truly pathetic right now.

With a titanic effort, she pushed herself to lie face up, her articulations cracked loudly and her wounds opened even more, gushing blood as she exerted herself. If she was going to die she would at least do it as she wanted, looking at the sun one last time.

Away from her the storm continued raging on over the city of Lights, it had been pouring for the entirety of the night and it seemed like it would continue for a long time. The city deserved to be cleansed of sin, but the storm wouldn't be enough, the city would not be pure until the fire cleansed it.

The morning wind brought with it a faint smell of ozone and petrichor. With a weak pained moan she smiled at the scent, it was her favorite thing in the entire world. She was a simple woman, smelling the morning scents were one of her favorite things in the world. This would be the last time she did it, but she was happy of being able to do it one last time before her time came. Ignoring all the pain she smiled, slowly closing her eyes, happy to go with a happy thought.

As her eyelids were about to close something appeared in the sky. Suddenly, on top of her, a dark figure started forming, its black and shifting silhouette heavily contrasting against the clear light blue morning sky. Whatever it was, it was getting closer and closer with each second. Was it the Grim Reaper? Did she finally accept her with her cold embrace?

With a smile on her lips, she closed her eyes and exhaled one last time.