She hid when the sun rose up in a bush that flowed outward but left a space near its center that was free of branches or leaves. There was almost no traffic on the road and the few trucks she saw was military trucks. She was worried that someone would find the car accident then search the woods but her fears were unfounded. By the time the sun started setting for the night she didn’t spot any searchers.

Once it was dark enough she started down the road again. This time she knew she was headed roughly west because of the sun’s position as it rose that morning. Not long after she started her treck again it started snowing. The wind picked up a bit blowing snow around. It must have been cold enough because the snow stuck to the ground and started to build up. It did cause her some concern because she was now leaving tracks. She did drag a tree limb behind her to smooth out her footprints but it still left tracks if anyone was looking not long after she passed by.

She spotted a dead naked man hanging from his neck near midnight. He had a wooden sign written in Hangeul, the Korean pictographic written language around his neck. The sign said ‘traitor’. Emily kept walking.

Not that far away Emily passed six burned out tanks. They all had the South Korean flag painted on them. In the last one there was a burnt corpse sticking halfway out of the top of the tank. The tanks were slowly being buried in snow.

A couple of miles down the road from the tanks there was a bunch of bullet-ridden civilian looking cars. Almost all the cars still had their occupants in them. Emily tried not to look too closely after she spotted a very small bloodstained bundle near the back of a city bus on the ground near a woman who was lying face down in the dirt her arms outstretched towards the bundle. The woman had large dark red/brownish holes on her nice pink sweater.

As Emily walked further down the road she spotted more car here and there with the same gruesome occupants in them. It was towards the end of the night that she came to a crossroads. The road dead-ended into a highway. The highway was completely empty and she was not sure if it was because of how early it was or because of someone not allowing any traffic on the road. She did not recognize the highway from any map that she could remember. The highway ran in a north/south direction. Remembering the signs of battle she guessed she was somewhere in the northern part of South Korea. She turned and headed south.

It didn’t take her long to stumble into a small city. The city was completely dark so that even the street lights were off. She almost ran into a roadblock on the road because it was so dark but she was able to stop before they saw her and she doubled back the way she came. She found some train tracks that were not guarded and she followed them into the city. When she found a roadside sign that had the cities name on it she sighed in disappointment. She didn’t recognize the city’s name.

She jogged through the darkened city not wanting to be caught inside during the daylight. She spotted several patrols roaming around in the snowstorm. They weren’t really paying attention to their surroundings and she was able to avoid them. Near the cities edge, she stopped as she heard a loud soul-crushing cry that sounded like a woman screaming into the night. Emily looked around but didn’t know where the cry had come from. After a few minutes, she turned away and continued on her journey.

On the outskirts of the city near sunrise, a truck nearly snuck on Emily. The snowstorm had just stopped when she heard the truck behind her. She dove into the open-air sewer and hid under an old rushed grate. She got really unlucky when the truck stopped across the street from where she hid. She hid in the gross sewer water for the entire morning while the truck sat idling. Just after noon, the truck left but she was still stuck as there were too many people walking around for her to come out of her hiding place. Late in the afternoon, a tank drove so closed to her hiding place that she feared that the tank would crush the metal grate and drive over her. It was so close that the exhausted from the tank washed over her.

Close to sunset the traffic thinned out until there was no one on the street. She still stayed in the sewer until the sun had set before she climbed out. She quickly and gladly left the city behind. She found a small pond and dove in fully clothed to wash herself. Soaking wet she made her way south again.

She nearly passed by a town but hunger drove to try to find food. She snuck passed the few roadblocks that she saw and found herself outside a tiny hole in the wall restaurant. The restaurant was closed but it had thrown out food in the back. Emily picked through the trash and found some bread that had some fungus growing on it. She ripped the spoiled part off and forced herself to eat the rest. There was also some stale rice that was hard as a rock. She peeled it apart and swallowed it instead of trying to bite into it. It tasted awful and she didn’t want it in her mouth near her tongue any longer than it had too.

Emily figured it must have been really cold that night because she was covered in frost by the time she found a place to rest for the day. The good news was that it helped hide her during the day. She buried herself into a snowbank and waited in the woods for the night. She was never more glad of her superpowers when she rose that night. As she started to head south again she found a squire dead on the forest floor. It was frozen solid.

That night she finally found out where she was. She was in the middle of South Korean nearly halfway from the DMZ and the southern edge of Korea. It made her think of what the northern part of the country looked like if the middle of the country looked as bad as it did. She knew roughly what direction to go now but without a map, she was worried that she would pass by the forest where the bunker was located. She had tried the GPS in an abandoned car. While that GPS turned on it couldn’t find its own location. The GPS signal was jammed.

She had snuck into another town window shopping looking for a map but no matter where she looked no one sold maps. She thought about breaking into a gas station to look for a map but in the end, she decided that she wanted to remain hidden more than she wanted a map. She had no plans on being captured again.

Four days later her fear of passing the forest came true. She found a sign of a city that was south of the forest. She cursed as she realized that she somehow missed an entire forest. She turned around and headed back the way she came hoping to find some clue on where she went wrong. She decided that she had traveled too far west so she found a highway heading east and hoped she was right.

That night she had to spot because another snowstorm blew in. The storm was much worse than the previous storm and Emily finally had to give in and stop from the night when she lost the road she was following for the fourth or fifth time. She walked deepening into the woods and buried herself in the snow to wait out the storm

Emily was deep asleep for the first time since the prison when she was woken up by a loud noise. Jerking her head out of the snowbank that she had created in surprise she looked around. At first, she thought she was just imagining things but there came a second report of gunfire. The loud noise echoed in the woods and Emily had a hard time trying to figure out where it was coming from until the third report of gunfire sounded to her left. This time instead of a single shot this sounded like semi-automatic gunfire.

She remained where she was for a few seconds until she recognized the different types of guns being fired. She cursed jumped up from the snowbank. She ran towards the gunfight cautiously. Some of the weapons fire sounded what the United States military used but that didn’t mean it was them fighting. She was still not sure until she crested a small hill. She took the battle in seconds.

In front of her G was standing before a super with a sword who was dressed in North Korean Army special forces uniform. Just past her was Kyo who was shooting at five more supers with swords who were ignoring her gunfire and walking towards her. Behind the sword-wielding supers were about a platoon of regular North Korean army soldiers who were advancing towards a small group of soldiers who were laying in the snow firing back.

Emily cursed and ran towards G who raised her rifle to stop the enemy super’s sword from cutting her in half. Emily raced towards the enemy super. As she ran, she heard her close combat instructor's advice about fighting more than one opponent.

“The best thing to do when fighting more than one person is don’t. Numbers are force multipliers. If you have to then come at the with all the violence you can. If you can surprise them do it. There is no such thing as a fair fight only a fight you survive.” He had told her so long ago.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

She watched as the super slice through G’s gun. She watched as G. stumbled backward into the snow. She watched as the enemy super raise his sword for a killing stroke as G raised her hands defenseless. Then Emily was there. She didn’t even slow down as she swung Righteous in a sideways arc. She felt it hit the super but she didn’t stop to look. Kyo was in trouble.

She raised Righteous over her head with both hands and did what her close combat instructor told her never to do. She threw her weapon at the super who was standing over Kyo about to plunge his sword into her. She knew as soon as she let Righteous go that she screwed her throw up. The tomahawk spun awkwardly in the air. Emily never stopped running even as the enemy super started plunging his sword downward. Then Righteous hit the super. It was a bad hit though. The butt end of the handle hit the enemy super in the chest.

Even though it didn’t kill him it did its job any away as the super stopped in mid-strike to look at Emily stupidly. Emily pulled her little black knife from her waistband and sprang in the air tackling the super knocking them both to the ground. As soon as they hit the ground she started stabbing the enemy super in the chest over and over again several times.

Somewhere around the fourth or fifth time she stabbed the downed super she stopped and jumped to her feet. The other supers had overcome their surprise and started running at her. Emily switched her little black knife to her left hand and picked Righteous up with right hand then started charging at the five supers.

“If you are going to be in a fight with more than one person…” She remembered her close combat instructor tell her. “... take the initiative. Attack first. Use their numbers against them. Move so that you don’t have to fight them all at once. Use their own people to block their approach towards you. You don’t have time to mess around. Put them down hard and fast.”

She did what he had told all those years ago. She moved to let so that the first person was blocking the three behind him. It also put the right hand of the fifth super's hand closer to the super in the lead which would make him have to step away so that he had room to use his sword.

The first swordsman swung his sword in anticipation of Emily’s charge but Emily stopped right before him and spun around swinging Righteous around in a vicious arc that passed right through the swordsman’s neck. Emily didn’t stop her spin though. In fact, she spun faster bringing Righteous around a second time. The second super raised his sword in a desperate attempt to block Emily’s tomahawk. RIghteou shattered the sword and kept right on going burying itself where the supers neck met his shoulder.

Emily stopped her momentum and redirected herself to spin in the opposite direction. She avoided the third swordsman’s sword thrust and when she completed her spin she swung Righteous in an upward swing cutting the swordsman chest open and knocking him backwards into the fourth swordsman who was swinging his sword downward at Emily’s head. The sword missed Emily completely as she spun away only to return less than a second later swinging her tomahawk sideways burying it into the man’s cheek.

That’s when everything went wrong for Emily. The strike stopped her momentum cold for only a half-second but that was too long. The last swordsman used that slight pause in Emily’s attack to thrust his sword forward. Emily gasped as she felt his sword slide into her chest. It felt like cold lighting as it slid into her chest. She blinked and looked at the swordsman's face stunned as the pain started to explode into her conscious mind.

Then the swordsman smirked at her. Everything that happened in the past week came crashing back to her. She saw the pile of dead soldiers all laying down in the same direction. The small bloody bundle on the ground. The lady with the pretty pink sweater with the red/brownish holes in it. Everything came crashing back.

With a cry of rage, Emily dropped Righteous and grabbed the supers shirt so he couldn’t get away. She saw his eyes widen in surprise as she slashed downward with her little black knife. It was her non-dominant hand and the knife was not long enough to completely amputate both hands. It was a good enough cut that it did take the swordsman’s left completely off and partially sever his right. She watched the pain register in his eyes before she started stabbing him wildly in his side.

She followed him to the ground stabbing him the entire way. She dropped to her knees holding him up with her right hand while she kept stabbing him with her left. She stopped a few seconds later as he stared off sightlessly into the distance. She released his shirt and he dropped bonelessly to the ground.

She found it hard to breathe now she wasn’t stabbing him. Her chest was full of excruciating pain. If it wasn’t for one of the soldiers she would have fallen to the ground unable to get up again but when she felt the bullet strike her head she looked up. In the distance, she saw the regular army soldiers aim and fire at her.

She felt the bullets hit her and it ignited her fury once more. She reached down unthinkingly and grasped the sword’s handle and tried to pull the sword out but it was too long so she let the handle go and grabbed the blade with her naked hands. She felt the sword bit into her hand as she struggled to pull the sword out of her chest but she didn’t care. With a scream of rage and pain, she pulled the last bit of the sword out of her chest and tossed it to the ground. Black spots appeared at the edges of her vision. She felt so very dizzy but she was not done yet. She reached down and picked Righteous up and looked downwards for a second before she climbed unsteadily to her feet only to stumble a couple of steps backward. Once she got her balance she took a deep breath and looked up.

The enemy soldiers were standing frozen in front of her. It was only after she took a drunken step forward did they remember to shoot their rifles. Emily ignored gunfire and walked towards them each step sending agony, unlike anything she had felt before through her body. Then Kyo was walking beside her shooting her gun. Unlike the special forces supers, these were either low-level supers or regular soldiers. They began to fall. Someone else stepped up beside Emily and started firing at the now retreating North Koreans.

“Kill them all. They can’t know that I’m alive.” Emily shouted in a voice she didn’t recognize. It sounded growly, like rocks dropped into a blender, and full of pain. Emily felt embarrassed as she heard her voice. To her, it sounded like she was crying.

“Never, stop! We got this!” G said as she suddenly appeared beside the stumbling Emily. “Medic!”

Emily watched as South Koreans soldiers race past her running towards the fleeing soldiers. It was then that she realized that she was not going to be able to catch up to the fleeing soldiers. She dropped to her knees gratefully as the pain started to overwhelm her again. She lowered her head as she tried to catch her breath. Some odd part of her was angry at the fact that she could not breathe right.

“I can hold my breath for over an hour. Why can’t I catch my breath.” She wondered to herself

“Dammit Never, why did you pull that friggin sword out of your chest?” G asked as she pulled a battle dressing out of her uniform pocket and put it over Emily’s chest.

Feeling stupid Emily smiled at G. “It seemed like a good idea at the time.” She joked. She was glad to see her friend. She reached out with her left hand and pulled G towards her. “I’m so glad you're alive.” She told her friend suddenly realizing that she never thought about anyone else and if they were still alive or not. She started to cry as she realized how selfish she had been.

“We got you Never. I need you to stay awake. Can you do that for me?” G asked Emily as she tied the battle dressing off around Emily’s chest. Emily nodded her head in answer, so very glad her friend was still alive.

“I got them all Never. They’re all dead. I got them.” Kyo’s said from in front of Emily. Emily looked up at the young woman and smiled.

“We need to go. I need stretcher-bearers here!” G said turning away from Emily.

“No, I’m too heavy. I got this.” Emily said as she struggled to stand.

“Jesus, Never. You got stabbed in the chest. It’s ok, let us take care of you.” G said turning back to watch Emily as she struggled to stand up.

“I”m too heavy. I’ll slow everyone down. I can walk. Let’s do this.” Emily said as she finally made it to her feet. She nearly fell over but Kyo helped steady her.

“Never, you’re hardcore. I can’t believe you’re standing right now. That guy just stabbed you in the friggin heart.” G said amazed.

“I’m cool like that,” Emily said trying not to fall down.

“Come on. Police up your crap. Grab the dead. We can’t leave any evidence.” G said to the rest of the soldiers. Soon everyone but Emily was carrying at least one dead body. Kyo and G were carrying two.

Emily’s world narrowed down to just her feet. She was so very tired. It was an old feeling and one that she hadn’t felt in a long time. Sure she got mentally tired sometimes but not physical. She tiredly wondered if she was dying. Time seemed to skip. She would suddenly be there looking at her feet as someone help guide her in the right direction then she was further along in the march with no memory on how she got there. She knew that she walked there but there was no memory of doing it. It was a very odd feeling. If she wasn’t so tired she would have liked to explore the time skip. She absently wondered if it was a new superpower she had developed.

A long-time later Emily was brought back to the present by a bunch of people shouting. Someone was holding onto her arm. She looked over to see who it was and saw it was Kyo. Emily wanted to ask why she wasn’t carrying any dead bodies but she was just too tired. She turned away and her head dropped down so that all she could see were her feet. They looked very far away though. It was like they were a thousand miles away. Emilly would have laughed at the thought but she was just too tired.

One second she was walking and the next she found herself floating through the air. It was an amazing feeling. She landed on her back but she didn’t feel what she landed on. It was like she was laying on clouds. She closed her eyes and knew nothing anymore.